Dear Friends,

  Good afternoon on this Sunday after Easter.  It is a beautiful day here, skies almost clear, slight breeze, perhaps low 80s in the sun.  And flowers everywhere.

  I trust you have heard of the latest bombing in downtown Nairobi as the police have gotten increasingly tough with people who do not have documents (like me!) or have bribed their way past border guards to enter the country and do damage.  Some local imams are urging other imams to tone down the anti-government rhetoric, to calm down the youth, and to put the best face on Islam as a peaceful religion.  We shall see whether this works!!  Last Tuesday evening tow policemen stopped two suspicious looking men driving a car on the wrong side of the road.  They took over the car with the two men in the back.  They drove it to a police station and just as they arrived the car was blew up thanks to a large bomb.  All four were killed--pieces of human flesh and blood everywhere!

   Public life has become quieter at the ocean port of Mombasa (300 miles from here) and in other places of the nation, except in the far north where there is a drought, extensive famine, and cattle rustling.  People there in the far north walk around with AK47s on their shoulder or back (It is like on the US frontier 100-140 years ago when residents walked around with pistols and rifles, ready to defend their cattle and homes. Justice was often taken care of by the locals, similar to the way it is handled here often times.)  So too in the north of here there are rather frequent shoot-outs by farmers and rustlers, elephant and rhino tusk poachers and rangers as well. (Formerly it was with spears, now it is with AK 47s!) In a number of other ways this nation seems to be where the US was in the 1920s and 30s:  not many paved roads, very few sidewalks, very rare is there a paved surface in front of stores or public areas.  Yet in the city of Nairobi things are very much of a first-World style, with very modern malls, grocery stores, and some buildings that go up 30 stories.  This is the financial capitol of Eastern Africa with many headquarters of international companies mostly near the airport.  Even General Motors has an assembly factory here.  Nairobi has around 4 million people in a nation of 44 million.  The birth-rate is high, but so too the death rate.

  Easter here was really special.  I had the privilege of leading what is my favorite liturgy of the whole year: the Easter Vigil service.  About 100 people participated.  Drums that had been silent all of Lent were heard again.  How special!  I included in the homily the famous sermon of the 5th century Greek bishop, John Chrysostom.  I like that sermon so much that I have included it in the last chapter of my forthcoming book.
The Easter meal was at midday so that the cooks could have the better part of the afternoon and all the evening with their families, all of whom live here on the compound.  We had turkey and cranberries, small shrimp with rice colored in saffron (called paiyea--spelling?) and Ethiopian pork (which I stay away from; I got terrible food poisoning on some Ethiopian meat-dish about two months ago!).  We were 35 people in all, many of whom were guests joining us.Cake and ice creme to conclude.  The meal was preceded by a social with some Johnnie Walker Black to sip.

   Since our rector was away till Tuesday dinner time, I and two others had a post dinner celebration of his return with some peanuts, other snacks, and Glenfiddich 18 single malt scotch.  The scotch, a gift to me from a recent visitor, is really smooth!!  I had been looking at it all Lent.  To break the seal of the bottle that evening was fun.

   Earlier today I watched on our wide-screen TV the last third of the mass from Rome celebrating the canonization  ceremony for Pope John and Pope John Paul II.  It was very special to see it live.  (We are one hour ahead of Rome's time.)   I found it even more special knowing that I will be leading a pilgrimage from Detroit to Rome and other places in Italy a little over a year from now (June 1-15, 2015).

   Some of my most satisfying moments here come when listening to how the retreatants I am privileged to guide each day for eight days are moved by God to such marvelous new places, awarenesses and personal freedoms, as they enter into the silence and reflect on certain Scripture passages or whose manner of prayer is simply being quiet with God--not thinking, not speaking, just choosing to be quiet with God (eyes closed) for 30-45 minutes four times a day..  Some live challenging lives, some in the bush, some in the wild north with the people who carry AK 47s, most in villages but some out in the bush where life is tough and skimpy in resources.  The common factor in all of these retreats is the reality of Jesus and the Father.  This is what these retreatants experience and in the great variety of ways that happens they find much renewal of their spirit, while getting good physical rest and the luxury of having others cook and serve the food they eat.

  On May 15-17 I am leading a two and a half day workshop for all of the faculty of the CLC sponsored, Jesuit supported school near the Nairobi slum called Kibera.  The school is named St. Aloysius Gonzaga High School (you can google it and catch an 'eye-full' of this great success story).  I will be getting them to work in small and large groups (25 people in all) on elements of Ignatian spiritual values as well as brainstorming ways in which they can improve their teaching methods and adopt more consciously the method that is distinctive in Jesuit-Ignatian schools: with an emphasis on interactive learning, social context of the subject matter, and creative action/application of what they have learned in order to help promote values of the Kingdom of God wherever they will live and serve.  I really look forward to this opportunity to get to know these people and help lead them to make the school and its male and female students even better--almost all are orphans, with both of their parents having died of AIDS.  (You should see Kibera where these kids live!!  You can google this also. They live in shacks whose inner space is about 15' by 15', with two beds, a TV and maybe a throw-rug on its floor.  Right outside are open sewers and the smell that goes with it.  It was a blessing for me to meet and talk with people who live there, to spend the better part of an afternoon with them in that setting.)

  I have to go.  I am off to the gym where I can get some exercise on a stationery bike and some weights for upper body exercise.  On Friday one other American and I are going up into the hills some 30 minutes from here by car--8,000' above sea level (2,000' higher than here) and hike on the ridge of the mountains that we can look at from here at the retreat house.  There are seven peaks that constitute the whole hike, with nothing but green: bushes and trees up there, some cattle and goat herders.  I was there once before; it can get really windy.  I will cover myself with sun-screen!  Kenya Electric has put on the ridge some windmills, with three blades whirling and generating electricity.  These windmills are just huge!!  Eventually 24 will be established up there.  Right now there are only about 6 operating.  One can see them from our retreat house lawn chairs.  So I am curious and want to walk up in that area.  Have a great week.  We start looking toward Pentecost tomorrow, beginning with the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus who comes to Him in the night to inquire.  Come, Holy Spirit!  Come to us all and to our world (especially South Sudan and Syria) that is so torn by war!

Bernie Owens