Dear Friends, Sunday dinner time, Valentine's Day, here in Nairobi. We have had a day of beautiful weather, 80 degrees, low humidity, wonderfully sunny, and I took advantage of it all and went for an outdoor swim at a pool surrounded by palm trees, 50 feet high yucca plants in bloom, cactus plants probably 40 feet high, and then the ever present bougen-via (spelling?) bushes in bloom, these with fucia colored petals gracing the area. I swam my laps for about 20-25 minutes and then sat at the edge of the pool so I could soak in the sun on my back. It is like July here, the middle of summer, and a great time to relax. I needed this after some really busy days this past week, fruitful in ministry, including this morning. I came home and could not stay awake, so after lunch I napped for 90 minutes and then went for the swim. What a way to relax on the Sabbath! And yes, the monkeys are back, two of them roaming our grounds, trying to get into our mango grove and anticipate the ripening of our bananas in the big grove of trees we have. They are good size monkeys, with a white fur ring around their faces along with an otherwise black or dark grey coat and long tails. They are cute, even beautiful to see . . . until they succeed in stealing some of our fruit!! They are so coy, keeping their distance, climbing trees to get away and waiting there for you to tire of chasing them and walk away. It is very important that we lock our windows and doors if we have food in our rooms. They will try to break into our dining areas, here at our Jesuit community and then too in that of the retreat center, if they smell bananas and/or bread from inside. They are fun until they succeed in getting inside and making a mess of the dining area, with banana peels here and bread wrappings there. Last Wednesday night and then during most of the day of Thursday we had rain storms and lightning here that were of major size and force. One lightning bolt struck a transformer on a pole on our property and set it on fire. We lost power twice during this 36 hours. I was walking our cloister corridor, a canopied walk of more than 100 yards long--just wonderful where I can walk even during the worst of weather. I do that when praying a rosary or the chaplet. Around 3 PM on Thursday, during a downpour of almost monsoon proportions the lightning bolt hit. There was no gap between the flash and the sound. I really jumped, got scared, and got back to my room as soon as possible. I thought it much too risky to keep walking at that time in the cloistered corridor. Last weekend I went to the ordination to the priesthood of a young man I had led through his 30-day retreat a year and a half ago. Lawrence Otieno is his name. Three other diocesan seminarians were ordained priests with him and one other diocesan seminarian was ordained a deacon. What a joyous moment it was: at this recently built cathedral that holds about 1,500 people in a pentagon-shaped building. The singing and the dancing were just superb. Even though 15 Jesuits, four of them former students of mine, were being ordained deacons at just about the same time at the seminary on Nairobi, I felt I really owed it to this man who I greatly admire to come and celebrate him. I am very glad I did. There was not one cloud in the sky most of the day. The cathedral was jammed, from wall to wall, with about 1,500 people and then some people even standing outside the church building. The girls and boys who led the dancing and singing were like young folk (10 years old or so) at a jazzer-size class for the really physically fit. I got "winded" just watching them dance in the aisles, and then all so coordinated. It was obvious that they had practiced for this special occasion. At the start of the three readings an adult male with a turban on his head and dressed in very colorful costume, came running up the center aisle while beating a small drum to call our attention to the coming of God's Word soon to be proclaimed. Then behind him came two men carrying, one in the front and one in the back, a canopied ark of the covenant, except instead of stone tablets it was the lectionary, the book of bible readings for the liturgy of the Word. What an elegant and creative way to honor the Word of God and to get the attention of the congregation toward that special moment or time during the whole ceremony. In the meantime I was one of about 80 priests gathered up in the sanctuary of the cathedral. Once the bishop lays his hands on the heads of these men being ordained and says the words of ordination, then every priest is invited to come in a line and lay his hands on the head of each of the newly ordained. It is all done in silence. Quite impressive but rather long for 80 priests to do this! The poor heads of these four men just ordained!!! During the liturgy there was a choir, probably 100 members, a majority of them women, leading us in our singing. The energy that they showed was something else. And the organ, an electric one, sounded fairly close to a pipe organ--pretty good! Much better than the usual keyboard one hears in most parishes here. What is so characteristic of the liturgies, especially of the music at masses, is how the participants, choir members and those in the pews, move their bodies with the rhythm of the music. They love a 1,2, 1,2 beat, and then to clap their hands to that beat, to sway their bodies and to have drums accompanying all the singing. You cannot sit nor stand still. You really stick out if you do stand motionless and not clap. How different from white cultures and their style of worship. While the music and dancing were remarkable, what was not pleasant was the introductions at the end of the mass of about half of the 80 priests in teh sanctuary. Why this has to be done, I do not know. but it went on and on for over a half hour. It made the entire ceremony, from beginning to end, last four (yes, 4!!) hours and fifteen minutes. That is unforgivable. I have learned not to drink much before these mara