The facts,
The statistics,
The prime matter of Maryknoll Associate Priests in Africa:
Number-wise: 0000 - 1980: 4
1980 - 1994: 6 Total: 12
States-wise: West - 2
Central - 3
Minnesota - 1 and a half
Other - 4 Total: 12
Age-wise: 20 - 30: 1 and a half
` 30 - 40: 6
40 - 50: 2
Other: All Total: 12
Wise-wise: Brilliant
Biblically perfect
The decision
The impulse
The call of the wild to be
to become
to live as an African Missioner
is as varied as fingerprints
the stripes on a zebra
the folage of the Serengeti
the waves of Lake Victoria
the matatus of Nairobi
From the shock on our mothers' faces
the resigned set of our fathers' shoulders
the ruckus laughter of our beloved siblings
We learned early that Africa is a divine call
from the womb
from a fall from our baby-crib
from National Geographic
from love too close
from love too far.
We, like Samuel, hear: Tom!
Bill!
John!
Blindly, we answer: Nipo!
Then we hear something like: you are my beloved
wild
woolly child.
I am very well pleased to see you surrounded
enveloped
enchanted
by African lively loveliness.

After the vision, images play with our minds:
elephants and lions
jungles and plains
faces and smiles
dances and spears.
Fears churn our bowels:
snakes
mosquitoes
jungle-rot
Aids
refugees and famines
wars and rumors of war.
A strange courage wells up as we pack
raincoats and hats
repellant and pills
cool-shades and Bible
pocket-knife and a Mars bar.
Doubts bubble up from volcanic depths:
You gotta be crazy!
Who else does this?
I am going where to do what?
Not me, who likes three squares and no hard lifting!
God said what?

Oh, but then, the comfort
the confusion
the consolation of the Knoll,
and we are planted firmly in missionary myth.

Intensely relaxed
Sun-baked and ancient
Hilariously sad
Balb and Serene
Anxiously intellectual
Honey-lipped missioners
smooth over the doubts
reconcile the paradoxes
assuage our fears...............in short,
lie to us.
As Picasso proclaimed: All art is a lie to help us appreciate reality.
As Maryknollers say: All mission is a lie until you live it!
We study Global Awareness
Inculturation
Missiology
Malaria
Counter-culture.
Wonderful words, but in fact
in Africa
in reality, way too real.
Global Awareness: Reading an October 15, 1992 Newsweek on January 31, 1993 and re-reading it on February 12, March 19, April 17.
Inculturation: Admitting I don't have the slightest idea after 14 years.
Counter-culture: over the counter - Hamna - None available.
under the culture - frying our Spam.
Missiology: Waving at the folks in the field.
The folks waving back.
God doing the rest.
Malaria: Fever
Headache
stiff joints
4 x 4 x 2
I got to be crazy.
At the Knoll of Mary, you find out
you are not alone
you are part of a world
people are very generous
prayer works
God has a sense of humor
you are nothing special in a special way
As a Maryknoll Associate:
Maryknoll is a mystic word
about to be enfleshed.
Mission has a glorious rustic ring
about to be demythologized
Justice and peace are noble words
about to become painfully real.
Life in the spirit is a personal matter
about to become a matter of survival.
A Maryknoll Associate is a feet-firmly-on-the-ground person
about to be launched into outer-cultural-space.
Whether we were introduced to mission through an Orientation Program
a Mission Institute
an Overseas Seminar
We, novice associates, realize that Maryknollers teach out of suffered experience
That Maryknoll is a safety net
that there is a wisdom in Maryknoll that the members
cannot even articulate.
I like the image of stepping off the plane in East Africa
onto a trapeze platform
swinging to and fro
stunned but with a Maryknoll safety net.
We go about the wild and high trapeze of mission with Maryknoll yelling and cheering as we do our mission fling
our counter-culture death-defying plunge.
Being an associate is way too easy.
We don't set up the tent
the poles
the high-wire
the bleachers
the launching platform.
Our first mid-air
free-fall
foolhardy summersault is performed in Maryknoll language school.
Brother Brian, Anita and Phil
George
Carl
Chacha Mwita
Bob
The Ring-Masters!

Mwita
John
Benedicto
William and Magdalena
The Clown Trainers!

After four months with Bwana Magafu and his hadithi, we are ready for
reality
life
God's African circus.
To a Maryknoller with years of mission formation
reams of mission stories
dreams of other cultures
it is hard to realize that associates, amateur missioners, have few stories
zero experiences
fewer theories
no mission myths.
Associates, mission Don Quiotes, ride out on their horsy culture
their Rozinante
armored in Levis
josting with whirling cultures
dismounted by trial after trial, real or imagined
heartened by the knights-errant before us.
Pancho is our families, friends and foes speaking to us of common sense
finances
our futures
our health
their sanity.
The first year in East Africa is wow year
Ah-ha week
Ouch day
The ouch of malaria
of loneliness
of stupidity.
Nothing prepares us for the reality of our encounter with the East African malaria spitting mosquito.
Some, like Steve, don't bother to get sick.
Others, decorate their rooms-with lunch.
Each one comes to know his own personalized symptoms.
Our malaria computer breaks under the conflicting advice from nurses
from quasi-experts
from doctors
from veterans
Then we survive
we move on
we wonder what we said during our fever
we become a bit closer to our friends in Africa as we feel our energy
and the energy to Africa drained by malaria.
Some week in that first year, we sigh a big Ah-ha
to African uniqueness
to their welcoming
to their generosity
to their godlikeness
to their pace
to their gift.
Not until we get into the rythmn of sun-time
in tune with chatting
in harmony with waiting
into the melody of savoring life
do we leave our watch at our desk
our calendar on hold
our TV in the past
our goals out the window,
and sit in the sunshine, the African bliss of
wewe in Mwanangu
Mpendwa wangu
Nimependezwa nawe.
You 're my kid
I'm crazy about you
Relax with that for-a-life-time.
There is the Ouch and Ah-ha of loneliness.
No McDonald's
No traffic
No distractions
We come after months or a few weeks from
a noisy culture
a busy schedule
sensory over load
and we miss fast junk food
77 TV channels
family fun
friends banter
we begin to appreciate being alone with ourselves
a letter
a Cadbury
Tony Hillerman.
It hurts, but in Africa it's OK.

Oh, that first time that a Swahili word comes in our ears
rattles around in our brain
and comes out our eyes.
Ah-ha, that person is asking for a lifti.
Someone has recognized that I want an onion.
Glory to God.
I've been healed
I can speak
I am no longer dumb
Like Zechariah coming from the language school temple.
I am whole.
Ah-ha and Ouch.
I blew it
I have just missed all of African love
theology
Life
wisdom and grace.
I was on my way to my house
to important stuff
to buy a farm
to not be here
and I refused to be invited
to sit and chat
to taste the ugali and mchuzi
to be a present by my presence.
OK
I am a cultural nerd.
I admit it.
But I go on. A bit wiser
humbler
slower.
Wow, what a year.
Everything is new.
We write it all to family and friends.
The names have a special ring: Kibanchabancha
Bura-tana
Kilimanjaro
Nyambula
Chacha
Pili.
The birds and animals sound exotic: Widowbirds
Bataleur Eagles
Simba
Chasabugu
Nyumbu
The scenes take your breath away Lake Victoria
Mathari Valley
The Serengeti
Dancing and Drumming
Bunches of smiling faces.
Even the fears are new and special:
Vipers and mambas
Failure and fun
Roaches and lizards
Border crossings and a first Funeral
The Second Year
The Cow Year
If I see one more cow on the road
I am going to........
If I have to talk about another cow,
I am going to........
Can't they see that there are forty-seven and 1\2 person on
a 1 1\4 ton pickup?
If I hear one more hodi or one more Mzungu today.
I will absolutely........
WE thus begin to see the dark-side of mission.
As Lou says : You cannot have the bright side of the moon
without the dark side.
And our own dark-side emerges with a tactile
vocal
palitable vengeance,
that shock us to the core.
I did what?
I said that?
I complained about......?
Africa hides nothing of itself
of yourself
of the Great Self
Life is stark
down-to-the-bone
bold-lettered
real beyond words
Life is a bit different for an Associate
because we have a contract, not a lifetime
we are by vocation short-timers.
we still have one foot at home and are not all here.
Under the umbrella of Maryknollers
of lifers
of those on death row for Africa
we learn African - Christian patience
we feel a life-call to African mission
we know there is more than we'll ever know.

The mystic Third year is for-ever
all-ways
the year of perfection
Whenever it happens, first month or fortieth month
we will always be of Africa
sealed by mission
truly here.
Whether they've been in Africa for two years
or 20 years
You can tell who has gone through their third year
their baptism
their fire.
They complain but never bitterly.
They are zealous but never out of time.
They are impatient but patiently.
They are heretical but out of love for the folks
They are joyful but with a note of sadness.
They have an American sense of humor, but with an African's flavor.
They are fully Maryknoll but with a reverent distance.
And what does Maryknoll have to do with an Associate's third year?

With a delightful humorous wisdom
How long you been here, Cornhusker?
You look awful, parrot breath!
How's your folks?
How's your malaria or were you born that way?
Is it true that Notre Dame had a scoring deficit?
I like that outfit - safi sana.
Is Califonia still part of the union?
They push us over the edge
into the abyss of afro-mania
afro-fun
afro-wonder.
And the associate never recovers.
And they know we will never recover.
And they laugh as God laughs when they know we'll never recover.

African Maryknoll Associates announce by word
by action
by attitude to Maryknoll
to our African friends
to the world
we are like all of you, but different-giraffe unique
we look slow, but we're alert - buffalo alert
we can be fierce but usually gentle - lion belly up
we are short winded and quick starters - eland trot
we are nigra et fromosa - sable svelte
we are here because of Maryknoll and we never forget - elephant memory
But our special symbol
our sacred pair
our w-holy history is Jonas and his whale.
Called
Confused
Reluctant but present,
We are Jonas
Maryknoll is the whale.
In the comical confusion
Dressed in the sack cloth of poverty
Bedecked with the wisdom of the ages,
Bhoke, Elias and Felista realize that before the All-Mighty of Africa
they already have what they are looking for
they are the beloved and always have been
they are peacefully at home.
And we, associates, under the shade of our bean-plant are confused by the catholic
splendiferous
boundless generosity of the All-Present,
Stunned
Sadly delighted
Struggling but peace-full
Wide-eye and bushy-tailed
Belly-sick and heart-wild, the associate returns home.
And a whale-of-a-Maryknoll takes us down the road toward home-mission.
helps us get back to be Maryknoll Associates
for-ever
all-ways
every-where
States-side
World-wide

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