Dear Friends,

   I write on a Monday afternoon after waking up from a nap and feeling like a truck hit me in the head!  During these last few days I have been copying names and addresses of Jesuits throughout the USA and Canada who might be interested in information on my book due out in March.  A brochure on the book is being prepared by the publishing company ready for mailing.  How tedious to look up names and address, copy accurately. etc.  I am a little dizzy from work like this that demands a lot of adjusting of my eyes back and forth between a catalogue with addresses and the laptop screen.

  What has been going on here lately?  More excitement with that pest, the monkey.  Remember, this monkey is the size of a medium size dog, not some small toy-like cuddly creature.  He has a long tail and cute face, and will do anything to get a banana.  He checks out our windows to see whether any of them is unlocked.  This allows him to get into our dining area and to the collection of bananas.  We have recently purchased a plastic basket with a plastic lid on it that he has not yet learned to unhook.  But yes, he managed to break in last week through a window left unlocked but was not able to get a banana.  A small victory for humanity!!  But he did break into the private room of one of our Jesuits, Rodriguo's, two doors from mine.  Rodriguo had an apple in his room and a small sack of millet seeds he stored to feed the birds.  The monkey came in through an unlocked window and got these items.  Amazing!  He could smell the apple but also knew enough to take the sack of seeds.  He has no conscience!!

   The big shocker, however, is what he did a few days later.  An Italian nun in her 60s who has been in Africa for maybe 20 years and was on retreat here for 8 days went to our large chapel to pray before the Blessed sacrament one afternoon.  The chapel gets warm in the afternoon, thanks to the heavy summer sun.  So she opened a door for some ventilation.  While she was silently praying and with eyes closed much of the time, in came the monkey and from behind jumped on her back.  You can imagine her reaction.  Again, this is no tiny monkey but the size of a medium size dog!!  So his weight on her was quite noteworthy.  The locals here say monkeys in general are afraid of men but not of women.  In fact, some get sexually excited around women and want to "do their thing."  It seems that Mr. monkey had such in mind, right in front of his creator who gave him among other things his sexual urges.  If only he would learn to control himself!!  The poor nun recovered and continued well with her retreat.  What memories she will have of this retreat!!  In the meantime I can hear the monkey in the morning running across the roof of my room and on to other parts of the long extended roof that covers all of our rooms for quite some length.  He is looking for food and for any unguarded place.  I feed the birds every morning with bread on the sill of my windows, but this so far has not invited the monkey.  Maybe he can smell me and wants no confrontation with me.  I have growled at him on two occasions and stomped my foot in his presence to make "an impression."  No further excitement these last few days!!

   Yesterday, five of us Jesuits drove two hours west of here to a huge lake area and game refuge.  It is called Lake Naivasha.  The lake might be 12-14 miles across.  It has hippos in it and lots of good fish.  We spent much of our time walking around a large peninsula that juts into the lake.  On that peninsula is a wonderful collection of wild animals worth seeing and watching.  I was amazed at how close we got to zebras and giraffes, to pelicans.  Th impalas are quite skittish and start running, leaping when you come in the slightest sense of close.  We were warned not to stir up the water buffalos.  They are of an ugly mood at times.  Well, wouldn't you know it.  One of our guys was in the general vicinity of a herd of them and by God they began to stampede.  We all scattered hurriedly in different directions.  The fellow who began this commotion hid quickly behind a tree as the mass of animals rushed by.  Fortunately it took a turn away from us all and left us greatly relieved and thankful!  All in all, we had a great time and enjoyed ourselves walking in beautiful African nature.  I had the extra enjoyment of seeing at a distance of maybe 30 miles the impressive silhouette of the extinct volcano I climbed last July (Mount Longonut, 7700 feet above sea level).  It was gratifying to be able to say, "I climbed that sucker and about died coming down it, but down I came, successfully last July."

   Yesterday our retreat center finished another set of 8-day retreat.  This place is remarkable for how many people come here for individually guided retreats, for deep silence, then the luxury of praying on bible passages and having a conversation about one's prayer each day with a trained director.  We get people from all over Eastern Africa (12 nations including Rwanda and the Congo) wanting to come here for their retreat.  We have the reputation of being the best in this part of the world, largely because of the quality of the guides, the natural beauty of this place, and our insistence on complete silence during the retreat.  These factors help people get to great depth with God.  It makes my work so worthwhile and leaves me wishing more people were aware of this opportunity of encountering God with such richness.  I am convinced that busyness and a hectic, constant going-going-going lifestyle keep so many good people at a level much less than what they are capable of and so they miss out on what at times they so thirst for in their lives.  The one big disappointment I have is that we have to turn away too many people who want to come here for their retreats, simply because we don't have sufficient room.  I am hoping to help change this situation in the near future!!

   Well, I must go.  This week I begin teaching again; for this second semester I will be leading a group of future priests through John of the Cross' classic poem "The Living Flame of Love."  I have taught it maybe 5 times already.  It is perhaps the most beautiful and profound poem ever written in Spanish.  I do a lot of explanation of its main parts in my book because it describes what the Spirit of God makes us into by the end of our spiritual journey home to God.  Lots of people would like to know that, but no one has ever told thm about this poem or ever encouraged people to read it.

  God bless!

Bernie Owens