Aru Nativity

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that as we celebrate Jesus birth, you and all of your loved ones find yourselves in good health and good spirits. You are often in my thoughts and prayers.

As I sit down to compose this letter, I remember Colorado's beautiful Christmas blizzard last year that blanketed the world white and made roads nearly impassible. The forecast for Christmas this year is green with roads that are perpetually nearly impassible. Maybe we can decorate a banana tree ☺ since pines are scarce.

Since I wrote my last general letter at Easter time, I've passed through three stages:

The Grand Getting Ready
April and May were busy months as I made arrangements to leave the country, prepared my house to sell, packed for two years in mission and said goodbye to friends and family. I am grateful to the many people who helped me to prepare practically, emotionally and spiritually. My house sold just a few days before my departure from Denver on June 6. (Thank God!) I flew to Paris, spent a few days traveling in France and enjoying the kind hospitality of Therese and Paul in Annecy before making my way to Rome.

Reflecting in Rome
I began formation on June 13 at the Canossian Institute in the heart of Rome along with three other volunteers. During these three months we came to better understand the Canossian Charism "Above all, to make Jesus known so that he will be loved" with Mary at the foot of the cross as a model of discipleship. Living in community and lessons of culture and language also prepared us for mission. We also spent some time eating gelato, pasta, pizza, pesto and pinoli and exploring Rome, Assisi, Lorretto and other beautiful places nearby.

Adjusting in Aru
On September 1, I arrived in my new home: the town of Aru on the northeastern edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Aru is a world distinct from any place I've known before. In some ways it's like going back in time one hundred years. In some ways its like living in a National Geographic magazine. Life here is fascinating, challenging and full of opportunities to learn. I am grateful for the chance to experience life here.
I teach high school English, give English/music classes at the pre-school and work with the aspirants once a week on English and music. I also do a bit of accounting and secretarial work. This, along with language study (French, Lingala, and Italian) cooking and housekeeping, keep me quite busy
For my first three months here I lived at the convent and shared in the community life of the Canossian Sisters, as I was the first long-term lay missioner here. Two weeks ago two more volunteers arrived from Italy and we have begun our lay community, eating meals and praying together. Luca and Fausto are delightful company and I am grateful for their presence. I will continue to sleep at the convent until the new volunteer house is finished and we call all move in.
The pictures that I hope to post with this blog show a scene from the fifth-year English classe's nativity play and our new VOICA community (Fausto, me and Luca). I will try to post another blog in January. Internet access continues to be scarce.
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année 2008! Rejoice, God is with us!

Love and prayers,

Tricia

Two More Photos

Hello from Aru!

A zi mi chi! Edyo ngoni ya?

I've started Logbara Ti and Lingala lessons with Papa Jerome, so I thought I'd try out a little bit of Logbara Ti on you! My students break out in laughter whenever I try this with them. I'm not sure if the laughter comes from delight in a shared language, or amusement at my poor pronunciation. In any case, I am enjoying the attempt.

Logbara Ti is the language of the local Logbara tribe. Lingala is more widely spoken as one of the four national languages of Congo. Daily Mass and Sunday Mass are usually in Lingala, so I've had more exposure to Lingala and I've begun to get a feel for the flow of the language. Logbara is still quite foreign. I'll keep practicing. My French, also, needs work, but I am usually able to communicate effectively eventually, although not always correctly.

I hope you are all well. You remain in my thoughts and prayers.

Much of my time is spent developing curriculum, preparing lessons, grading papers and teaching at the girls' high school. I have some delightful students. On Saturday when I entered the classroom, my fifth form class greeted me with a welcome song in English accompanied by dancing and drumming. Today they adorned my desk with an embroidered cloth with crocheted fringe. These moments help balance out the frustrations that come with teaching and living in a sea of unfamiliarity

I have begun preparing Christmas pageants with my fifth and sixth form classes. Fifth form will enact the infancy narrative from St. Luke's Gospel and sixth form will follow the story line from Matthew's Gospel. Both classes will sing Christmas carols.

I am also beginning to prepare a Christmas program with the pre-school children. They will sing "Good Morning", "If You're Happy and You Know It", "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Silent Night", if we can manage to have them ready by December. They are as cute as they are energetic.

I also have become an unofficial secretary, librarian and photographer. I use my laptop everyday. These high tech devices seem incongruent with our wood-burning stove, petal-powered sewing machine and charcoal-heated irons. We are still without internet at the convent, but I'm grateful that at least I can connect at the computer center.

The construction of the volunteer house is progressing well. Two Italian volunteers should arrive at the beginning of December and we hope to move into the house soon after that. I am looking forward to helping paint and furnish the house, and to starting the lay community there.

We also have begun making arrangements for the library, and the organization of books. I will keep you updated on the progress with these plans.

I am grateful for the many blessings God has given me in these first two months in Aru: a welcoming community, kind local people, energetic students, great natural beauty, a culture filled with music and color, exposure to many languages and many opportunities to learn. In the midst of the ups and downs, I feel I'm in a good place to grow and serve.

Thank you for your prayers and concern.

Peace,

Tricia

Phone Info Again

A zi mi chi!

I hope that you are well. I am fine. Next week I will post a proper post. For now I just wanted to let you know that the number might have 011 243 as a prefix or 00243. It's hard to tell.

Love and prayers,

Tricia

New Phone Information

The Pre-school field trip to the mission

Hello Everybody!

I am learning a lot and enjoying life in Congo. I hope that you are well.

I just wanted to correct the phone information that I gave in a previous blog. From the States, my number should be: 00243 81 7477103 Text messages usually don't go through because VodaCom the carrier here does not have SMS connections with many carriers in the States. I have tried sending several messages and none of them have gone through. I have a voice mailbox now, and I also leave my phone on most of the time since it doesn't take much battery power when its sleeping. If you would like to call, 9:30 or 10 p.m. Congo time (1:30 to 2:00 p.m. Colorado time) is the best time to catch me.

There is no fax service in Aru. There is still no internet connection at the convent, but I can get e-mails at the computer center. I go about once a week.

Lots of love,

Tricia

Photo from Aru

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