“Karibu Sana!” “Feel at home!”

Today (Monday, December 10th), we visited Gonzaga Primary School for the first time. I was so grateful to be surrounded by the energetic children and the welcoming faculty and staff. While this will not be my full time work placement, I will be visiting here occasionally with students from Loyola High School as part of their service requirement. One of the phrases repeated with each introduction was, “Karibu sana! (very welcome) Feel at home!”  I love this phrase because it is indicative of the welcoming spirit of the people of Tanzania and my JV community in Dar and Dodoma. As crazy as it sounds and as much as I miss everyone already, I do feel like I could be at home here. Granted, I have to learn A LOT more Kiswahili and cultural norms before I truly feel at ease in this new place, but the important part is that the 2nd year JV’s and all of our neighbors, parishioners and students want us to ‘feel at home’ and the sentiment alone is enough to ease some homesickness. So, rest assured, I have been welcomed with loving and patient arms!

Making My Bed

Every year I moved into a new dorm at P.C., the first thing my mom would ask was, “Can I please make your bed?” At times, this idea really bothered me, I thought, “There are more important things to do. There’s still more to move out of the car. There are groceries to buy. I can always make my bed later,” but I knew that at the root of her question was a desire to know that I had a place to sleep that night: a place to rest my head and take refuge. I always let her do it, from freshman year through senior year, but I never imagined I, too, would see making my bed in a new home as a priority. Now that I have been settling into my new home in Dar es Salaam so very far away from my 6 person apartment with two bathrooms, running water, heat/AC, a full kitchen, ‘free’ wireless and cable, I found deep comfort in the act of making my bed and securing my mosquito net to the posts which surround it. In fact, it was one of the first things I did upon arriving, just before posting pictures and cards from friends and family. I’m still new to simple living, but it is really remarkable how much less stuff I brought with me to a new country for two years as compared to the carloads of junk I brought with me to P.C. each semester.

When I was awakened this morning by the call to prayer, a rooster, a neighbor’s baby crying and the sun shining through my window around 5:30, I picked up a book I had started this summer. The book I picked up was The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything* and the next chapter was titled “The Simple Life,” in which Fr. Jim Martin discusses simple living as a part of Jesuit spirituality. He gives examples from different theologians, scholars and cultures which illustrate the idea that possessions are not inherently bad, but their use as a distraction or an obsession keeps us from focusing on more important things. This morning, for example, I woke up at the crack of dawn rested and ready for the day- I did yoga, read part of a great book,  the readings for yesterday’s Mass (which I heard in Swahili and therefore did not understand), todays’ readings and a daily meditation. I can’t think of a day I’ve been that ‘spiritually productive’ before 7:00 a.m.

I do realize that it’s easy for me to romanticize simple living now, because it’s still a bit of a novel idea, but I am glad that this is a core value of  J.V.C.

*I recommend this book to anyone looking to learn a little more about the Jesuits, or really to anyone who is hoping to develop her spirituality with a comical and practical companion!