Friday, September 28, 2007
Settling Into Aru
Greetings from Aru!
I hope you are enjoying changing colors and falling leaves. You are in my thoughts and prayers.
Good news! All six boxes of books have arrived! I am delighted and somewhat surprised that they all made it here. From the postal tags, I can see that they had been sitting in Kampala since the beginning of June. In any case, I am glad that they're here! I'm still expecting a couple of boxes of educational magazines to show up eventually. Thank you again to all who helped with this project!
Sr. Daniella and I have been discussing the idea of beginning a library/reading room to give people access to books and to keep the books safe at the same time. There is some space available in an existing building where we could house the books and start a pilot project. If the people's response shows us that such a library fills a need, we may work to build a new structure to serve as a library. The lack of availability of reading materials here is striking. It seems that most houses and classrooms contain no books, magazines or newspapers.
I am adjusting to life here day by day. Most of the time I live in the fog of partial understanding due to language and cultural issues, new jobs, etc. There are plenty of opportunities to learn.
A typical day begins for me at 5:30 when I get up about the same time as the sun, tie up the mosquito net, take a cold sponge bath and prepare for the day. Mass in Lingala begins at 6:30 at the big parish church next to the mission. At 7:00, the sisters and I eat bread buns with jam and drink tea with milk for breakfast. By 7:30 most of us are on our way to the apostolate/work. For me, that means teaching English at the high school, teaching music and English at the nursery school or working on the VOICA projects.
At 1:00 we have lunch prepared by Papa Joseph on the wood stove. We eat rice, potatoes, beans, cabbage, squash, eggplant, polenta, pasta, and sometimes meat or fish. The conversation is mostly French and Italian with some Lingala and English mixed in. We have passion fruit, bananas, avocados and mandarin oranges for dessert. Try mixing lemon juice with mashed avocado, banana and sugar. You'll find it a bit like ice cream☺
After lunch, some of us take a short break before starting our afternoon work. For me the afternoons usually consist of preparing lessons, developing curriculum or working on VOICA projects. At about 6:00 it gets dark and the sisters have prayer. Sometimes I join them. At 7:15 we have soup, plus food similar to what we had for lunch, for dinner. We do the dishes and enjoy the electricity produced by the big generator by using our computers, watching satellite TV in French or videos in Italian. Sometimes, I get some guitar or flute playing in instead. The electricity goes out about 9:30 and it's time to let down the mosquito net and crawl under the covers.
Apparently, I have some learning to do as far as avoiding mosquitos goes. A week ago, I tested positive for malaria and started the treatment for it. My symptoms have been very mild, a bit of fever and headache. I'm glad we caught it early and hope that the treatment does the trick.
Last Saturday, September 15, the Aru community celebrated fifty years of Canossian missions in Congo. It was quite a party despite the pouring rain. Mass began at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 12:00 noon, but we just stayed in the church and sang and danced until 1:00p.m. to avoid getting soaked. It seems that singing and dancing are some of the highlights of Congolese culture. Drums are used a lot and the people often break into three and four-part harmony even at daily Mass. The high school students sing the Congolese national anthem in harmony, too. It's delightful.
I've had a couple of adventure-filled treks across the African countryside lately. In many places, the scenery is marvelously picturesque with green fields of rice, sweet potatoes, peanuts, corn and manioc, palm and banana trees, thatched-roof huts, goats, chickens . The roads range from well-graded and drained dirt roads (on the way to the gold mine) to slippery, pot-holed, flooded roads (on the way to the mission in Ariwara) to single track and grass cover "roads" (on the way to where to cows graze). I really admire our chauffeur. Everyone consistently prays together at the beginning of each journey. I think this is reflective of both the condition of the roads and the people's faith in God.
The internet connection at the convent has been down for about three weeks. I have been able to connect at the internet center across town. I'll try to check my e-mail about once a week.I have tried sending some text messages without much luck. I'll keep trying.
Thank you all for your prayers. I know that they have helped me be at peace as I begin my life here.
You remain in my prayers.
Tricia
I hope you are enjoying changing colors and falling leaves. You are in my thoughts and prayers.
Good news! All six boxes of books have arrived! I am delighted and somewhat surprised that they all made it here. From the postal tags, I can see that they had been sitting in Kampala since the beginning of June. In any case, I am glad that they're here! I'm still expecting a couple of boxes of educational magazines to show up eventually. Thank you again to all who helped with this project!
Sr. Daniella and I have been discussing the idea of beginning a library/reading room to give people access to books and to keep the books safe at the same time. There is some space available in an existing building where we could house the books and start a pilot project. If the people's response shows us that such a library fills a need, we may work to build a new structure to serve as a library. The lack of availability of reading materials here is striking. It seems that most houses and classrooms contain no books, magazines or newspapers.
I am adjusting to life here day by day. Most of the time I live in the fog of partial understanding due to language and cultural issues, new jobs, etc. There are plenty of opportunities to learn.
A typical day begins for me at 5:30 when I get up about the same time as the sun, tie up the mosquito net, take a cold sponge bath and prepare for the day. Mass in Lingala begins at 6:30 at the big parish church next to the mission. At 7:00, the sisters and I eat bread buns with jam and drink tea with milk for breakfast. By 7:30 most of us are on our way to the apostolate/work. For me, that means teaching English at the high school, teaching music and English at the nursery school or working on the VOICA projects.
At 1:00 we have lunch prepared by Papa Joseph on the wood stove. We eat rice, potatoes, beans, cabbage, squash, eggplant, polenta, pasta, and sometimes meat or fish. The conversation is mostly French and Italian with some Lingala and English mixed in. We have passion fruit, bananas, avocados and mandarin oranges for dessert. Try mixing lemon juice with mashed avocado, banana and sugar. You'll find it a bit like ice cream☺
After lunch, some of us take a short break before starting our afternoon work. For me the afternoons usually consist of preparing lessons, developing curriculum or working on VOICA projects. At about 6:00 it gets dark and the sisters have prayer. Sometimes I join them. At 7:15 we have soup, plus food similar to what we had for lunch, for dinner. We do the dishes and enjoy the electricity produced by the big generator by using our computers, watching satellite TV in French or videos in Italian. Sometimes, I get some guitar or flute playing in instead. The electricity goes out about 9:30 and it's time to let down the mosquito net and crawl under the covers.
Apparently, I have some learning to do as far as avoiding mosquitos goes. A week ago, I tested positive for malaria and started the treatment for it. My symptoms have been very mild, a bit of fever and headache. I'm glad we caught it early and hope that the treatment does the trick.
Last Saturday, September 15, the Aru community celebrated fifty years of Canossian missions in Congo. It was quite a party despite the pouring rain. Mass began at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 12:00 noon, but we just stayed in the church and sang and danced until 1:00p.m. to avoid getting soaked. It seems that singing and dancing are some of the highlights of Congolese culture. Drums are used a lot and the people often break into three and four-part harmony even at daily Mass. The high school students sing the Congolese national anthem in harmony, too. It's delightful.
I've had a couple of adventure-filled treks across the African countryside lately. In many places, the scenery is marvelously picturesque with green fields of rice, sweet potatoes, peanuts, corn and manioc, palm and banana trees, thatched-roof huts, goats, chickens . The roads range from well-graded and drained dirt roads (on the way to the gold mine) to slippery, pot-holed, flooded roads (on the way to the mission in Ariwara) to single track and grass cover "roads" (on the way to where to cows graze). I really admire our chauffeur. Everyone consistently prays together at the beginning of each journey. I think this is reflective of both the condition of the roads and the people's faith in God.
The internet connection at the convent has been down for about three weeks. I have been able to connect at the internet center across town. I'll try to check my e-mail about once a week.I have tried sending some text messages without much luck. I'll keep trying.
Thank you all for your prayers. I know that they have helped me be at peace as I begin my life here.
You remain in my prayers.
Tricia
Saturday, September 8, 2007
More from Congo
Mbote Everyone!
You are in my thoughts and prayers.
One of the boxes of books I sent in May has arrived! We are hopeful that the others will show up soon. Many thanks to everyone who has helped with that project. Since the students don’t have text books or reference books for classes, it seems to be common practice for the teachers here to copy extracts of texts from tattered, often outdated books onto the board for the students to copy in their notebooks, thereby creating their own “textbooks”. Books are treasured here. Merci beaucoup!
I am beginning to settle in to my new surroundings, new relationships and new routines. The weather has been cool and wet. The scenery is hilly, lush and beautiful. Fruit trees and thatched-roof huts dot the landscape. When the night is clear, the stars are brilliant. The Sisters are taking good care of me, and I’ve started to meet some of the local people.
I started teaching on Wednesday. This school year I will be teaching fourth, fifth and sixth year English at the girls’ “lycee” for humanities and pedagogy. (This is the roughly the equivalent of Sophomore, Junior and Senior years of high school in the U.S.). I will probably have about forty students in fourth year and twenty each in fifth and sixth year. I am delighted at the “small” class sizes and by the students who are eager to learn. I will also probably spend some time doing music and a bit of English instruction at the preschool. Maybe I can send pictures of that. The three, four and five year olds there are precious!
We’ve decided to keep my teaching load light at the lycee, twelve class hours per week, so that I can assist in the development of some VOICA projects including the completion of construction and the furnishing of the volunteer house, establishing the bakery and coordinating plans for starting the “cyber café”. Another VOICA project in progress is a “modern” farm for the production of milk and eggs. We also hope to be able to build a library in conjunction with the computer center. I don’t think that I’ll be bored during my time here.
I will do my best to keep in touch with you via our slow, but existent internet connection during the hours we have electrical current from the big generator (6:00-9:30 p.m.). For now, I can read your e-mail, but can’t respond because pop up are blocked on the convent’s computer, and the computer sees my e-mail response window as a pop up. Sorry! I will respond when I’m able. I do appreciate your e-mails.
I also have a cell phone. The number is supposed to be (from the States): 011-243-081-7477103. I don’t have a voice mailbox, so the phone needs to be on for me to receive messages. For this next week or so I will try to leave my phone on from 6:00 to 9:00 in the evening here, which is 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Colorado time. If you’d like to send a message, you could try then. We’ll see if it works. I think text messages are about 20 cents. I don’t know about calls from the States to Congo/Uganda. From me to you, it costs about 50 cents a minute. I will also give you the convent numbers, just in case you ever need them. Convent cell: 011-243-812006925 Convent fax: 011-871-762838949.
Some of you have asked for the mailing address. The Sisters mail goes to Arua, Uganda, and they pick it up there. Here’s the address:
Patricia Pipkin
c/o Canossian Sisters
P.O. Box 218
Arua, Uganda
They tell me the mail usually gets through eventually
Oh, another practical note: Since the internet connection is slow, please don’t send photo files for now. As much as I would like to see them, photos might take an eternity to download. I also would like to post some pictures here, but for now my words will have to suffice.
Thank you for all of your prayers and support!
Love,
Tricia
You are in my thoughts and prayers.
One of the boxes of books I sent in May has arrived! We are hopeful that the others will show up soon. Many thanks to everyone who has helped with that project. Since the students don’t have text books or reference books for classes, it seems to be common practice for the teachers here to copy extracts of texts from tattered, often outdated books onto the board for the students to copy in their notebooks, thereby creating their own “textbooks”. Books are treasured here. Merci beaucoup!
I am beginning to settle in to my new surroundings, new relationships and new routines. The weather has been cool and wet. The scenery is hilly, lush and beautiful. Fruit trees and thatched-roof huts dot the landscape. When the night is clear, the stars are brilliant. The Sisters are taking good care of me, and I’ve started to meet some of the local people.
I started teaching on Wednesday. This school year I will be teaching fourth, fifth and sixth year English at the girls’ “lycee” for humanities and pedagogy. (This is the roughly the equivalent of Sophomore, Junior and Senior years of high school in the U.S.). I will probably have about forty students in fourth year and twenty each in fifth and sixth year. I am delighted at the “small” class sizes and by the students who are eager to learn. I will also probably spend some time doing music and a bit of English instruction at the preschool. Maybe I can send pictures of that. The three, four and five year olds there are precious!
We’ve decided to keep my teaching load light at the lycee, twelve class hours per week, so that I can assist in the development of some VOICA projects including the completion of construction and the furnishing of the volunteer house, establishing the bakery and coordinating plans for starting the “cyber café”. Another VOICA project in progress is a “modern” farm for the production of milk and eggs. We also hope to be able to build a library in conjunction with the computer center. I don’t think that I’ll be bored during my time here.
I will do my best to keep in touch with you via our slow, but existent internet connection during the hours we have electrical current from the big generator (6:00-9:30 p.m.). For now, I can read your e-mail, but can’t respond because pop up are blocked on the convent’s computer, and the computer sees my e-mail response window as a pop up. Sorry! I will respond when I’m able. I do appreciate your e-mails.
I also have a cell phone. The number is supposed to be (from the States): 011-243-081-7477103. I don’t have a voice mailbox, so the phone needs to be on for me to receive messages. For this next week or so I will try to leave my phone on from 6:00 to 9:00 in the evening here, which is 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Colorado time. If you’d like to send a message, you could try then. We’ll see if it works. I think text messages are about 20 cents. I don’t know about calls from the States to Congo/Uganda. From me to you, it costs about 50 cents a minute. I will also give you the convent numbers, just in case you ever need them. Convent cell: 011-243-812006925 Convent fax: 011-871-762838949.
Some of you have asked for the mailing address. The Sisters mail goes to Arua, Uganda, and they pick it up there. Here’s the address:
Patricia Pipkin
c/o Canossian Sisters
P.O. Box 218
Arua, Uganda
They tell me the mail usually gets through eventually
Oh, another practical note: Since the internet connection is slow, please don’t send photo files for now. As much as I would like to see them, photos might take an eternity to download. I also would like to post some pictures here, but for now my words will have to suffice.
Thank you for all of your prayers and support!
Love,
Tricia
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Africa at Last
Bon Jour from Aru, Congo!
I hope that you are all well. I arrived in Aru on Saturday after a smooth, but very long trip from Rome via Nairobi and Kampala. I received a warm welcome including singing and drumming. The sisters have been very kind. Aru is very rural, immediately this side of the Congo-Uganda border. It is green and beautiful. The weather has been cool and wet.
On Sunday, I had the opportunity to go to the Ariwara for the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Canossian Community their. They had a grand party after a Mass filled with singing and dancing.
I will start teaching English tomorrow at the girls high school. I will also be helping with the volunteer house and other projects. It is dinner time, so I must go. I try to send more information soon.
Thank you for your prayers.
Tricia
I hope that you are all well. I arrived in Aru on Saturday after a smooth, but very long trip from Rome via Nairobi and Kampala. I received a warm welcome including singing and drumming. The sisters have been very kind. Aru is very rural, immediately this side of the Congo-Uganda border. It is green and beautiful. The weather has been cool and wet.
On Sunday, I had the opportunity to go to the Ariwara for the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Canossian Community their. They had a grand party after a Mass filled with singing and dancing.
I will start teaching English tomorrow at the girls high school. I will also be helping with the volunteer house and other projects. It is dinner time, so I must go. I try to send more information soon.
Thank you for your prayers.
Tricia
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Two-Day Delay
Hi again, everybody!
Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. I wanted to let you know that I'll be in Rome for two more days. After leaving for the airport at 4:30 this morning, we returned at 6:30 because our flight was indefinitely delayed and we would have missed our connection in Brussels. We thought it would be better to wait in Rome than in Brussels. The next flight to Kampala is on Friday, same time. Anyway, my bags are packed and I'm ready to go. I get to go to an audience with the Pope this morning.
Tricia
Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. I wanted to let you know that I'll be in Rome for two more days. After leaving for the airport at 4:30 this morning, we returned at 6:30 because our flight was indefinitely delayed and we would have missed our connection in Brussels. We thought it would be better to wait in Rome than in Brussels. The next flight to Kampala is on Friday, same time. Anyway, my bags are packed and I'm ready to go. I get to go to an audience with the Pope this morning.
Tricia
Off to Africa
Our Favorite Ice Cream Place
The Street Market in Trastevere
Sending Off Mass
Sending Off Mass
Goodbye Rome!
Hello Everybody!
I hope that you are all well, looking forward to the Fall, the new school year and other new adventures.
This will be my last posting before I depart for Africa early tomorrow morning. We volunteers have been wrapping up formation in the last couple of weeks and making final preparations for our departures. Last night we had a “sending off” Mass with the Sisters followed by a celebration. We read our prayer of commitment (posted below), lead the music and receive our mission crosses from the Mother General of the Canossians. It was a meaningful way to bring closure to our summer of formation.
On Wednesday, Sr. Salomé and I will take the 6:30 flight from Rome to Brussels, and then fly from Brussels to Kampala, Uganda. We should arrive at 10:00 p.m. and be met by some Canossian Sister there who will host us for the night. The following day, or maybe the day after, we will fly to Arua, Uganda, by light plane where some Sisters from Aru will pick us up to cross the border into Congo by car. Madre Tina the provincial head will not be traveling with Salome and me as she had planned, but will arrive a couple of weeks after we do.
I will do my best to post a blog update soon after my arrival in Congo. There is internet/e-mail access at the mission site albeit intermittent and unreliable. I will also have a cell phone. The plan is to buy an African SIM card in Kampala. Then I can post the number on my blog. Former volunteers have told me that calling from Africa to the States is expensive, calling from the States to Africa is less so, and text messaging is relatively cheap. I’ll have to experiment a little bit when I get there. I will also post a mailing address on my blog after discussing with the Sisters the logistics and reliability of the mailing system.
The Canossians will celebrate fifty years of missionary service in Congo this September 15. I hear we’re in for a big party. Hopefully, I can post pictures.
Thank you all for you accompanying me in this journey of mission, for your encouragement and your prayers.
Hasta Africa,
Tricia
Our Lord God, with great gratitude for your abundant gifts to us, we offer ourselves to You as we go to mission:
We promise to remain in You, through prayer, meditation and constant openness to your loving Presence in our lives.
Prayer of Promise
We promise to allow You to form us through reflection on Scripture, through spiritual direction and through reflecting on experiences in mission with spiritual eyes.
We promise to love one another in our communities, living out our vision for mission together, in simplicity and solidarity with the local people.
We promise to faithfully serve others following the example of St. Magdalene of Canossa and St. Josephine Bakhita using all the gifts of mind, body and spirit that You have given us.
We promise to be your friends by doing what you have commanded us to do.
That we may have the strength, courage, wisdom and faithfulness to fulfill these promises,
St. Magdalene of Canossia, pray for us.
St. Josephine Bakhita, pray for us.
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
St. Anthony, pray for us.
St. Therese of the Little Flower, pray for us.
Our Mother at the Foot of the Cross, pray for us.
All Saints in heaven, pray for us.
And we ask all of you here present to pray for us today and throughout our time in mission.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
August Update
Harvesting Figs
Our Afternoon at Lake Albano
Mary and Ilaria Making Pesto
Ordering Food at the "Rustic" restaurant
Hello, Everybody!
I hope that you are enjoying these last days of summer. You are often in my thoughts and prayers.
August has brought a somewhat more relaxed formation schedule. The volunteers had a four-day break at the end of July/beginning of August. Mary and I took advantage of the time to go to Loreto and Ancona (on the Adriatic Coast). It was a delightful get away. Loreto, especially impressed me as a peaceful, spirit-filled place. This is where the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary was brought from Nazareth, by angels, as legend has it.
After our break, we restarted formation sessions with just the four VOICA volunteers and Sr. Pat. We have been focusing on spirituality, community living and some of the nitty gritty details of living at the mission sites. Sr. Pat usually leads the sessions, but the volunteers also make presentations to the group on mission-related topics of their own choice. I did one on promoting understanding in multi-lingual settings, and this week I will do another on leading singing in a group. Mary and Lucy have given presentations on first aid and how to stay healthy in mission.
Some VOICA volunteers have spent a few days with us this month as they return from mission, or just come to visit. It is good to talk with them about their experiences, joys and trials.
Last weekend Sr. Pat and the volunteer community took an afternoon trip to Lake Albano just outside Rome. This is where the Pope spends some of his summer. We spent some time at the lakeside and then went out to dinner at a restaurant that serves “rustic” Italian cuisine: fresh bread, smoked ham, salami, cheese, dried tomatoes, artichokes and olives. You order at the counter and then put everything in the middle of the table and dig in.
I’ve been savoring my last month in Italy by doing some especially Italian things. Ilaria has shown me how to properly cook pasta. (She couldn’t bear to see the way I had been mistreating it:-).) She also taught Mary and me how to make fresh pesto from the basil from the Sisters’ garden, pine nuts from the trees on our grounds and parmesan cheese from the cheese seller at the market. We also harvested figs from the trees on our grounds. Fresh figs are delicious! I don’t think I had ever had them before (just dried figs and fig newtons). And, of course, I have been relishing the fresh made gelato while I can.
If all goes as planned, I will be in Africa in ten days. I am eager to go in many ways, curious to know what awaits me and ready to begin my work. Sometimes I am nervous about how I will adjust to the new culture, languages, people and work. God knows. The other three volunteers leave September 3 for Togo and Timor. I will miss them. Please keep us all in your prayers.
Thank you for your presence in my life!
Love,
Tricia
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