From Buffaloes to Birthdays--Day 3 in Africa

Following a pretty heavy downpour of rain through the night, we awoke to a cool, bright and beautiful Friday morning  We all gathered at 7:00 a.m. in Bishop Dominic's Lodge room for the celebration of Holy Mass on the Feast of St. Luke, Physician/Evangelist (and for the special occasion of my own birthday).  After Mass we enjoyed a hearty buffet breakfast and checked out of the Lodge.  On our two-hour leisurely drive out of the Massai MaraGame Preserve, we got to see, both from a distance and from close up, thousands of wild, beautiful animals:  buffaloes, wildebeasts, elephants, warthogs, ostriches, zebras and many more.  It was simply breath-taking and once more, a reason to give praise to God for all His amazing creation.
  
Our destination today is the neighboring Diocese of Elderet---about a six hour drive.  Some roads during that trip were fairly good; many were in great disrepair.  We passed through beautiful mountains and lush valleys where there was a good bit of farming. The main crops are tea, sugar cane and wheat.  The raising of cows and goats is essential to each family's livelihood; therefore cows and goats are everywhere:  along the roads, in the marketplaces, and grazing in the fields.  The marketplaces are very, very modest; some are quite poor.  But once again, the people are industrious, happy and very friendly.  Halfway through our trip, we stopped at a local parish----Good Shepherd in Reton---(unannounced) for lunch and to freshen up.  The pastor and staff dropped everything to welcome and wait on us.  It was a living example of the quality of hospitality that we seem to find evrywhere.  

 It was past 7:00 p.m. and at nightfall when we arrived at the St. John the Baptist Pastoral Center for the Diocese of Eldoret.  Unlike our Diocesan Pastoral Center in Kalamazoo (and most diocesan pastoral centers in the U.S.), this was more like a retreat/conference center.  

The Center is staffed by Sisters who  are part of a newly-established diocesan religious community known as the Cornelian Sisters of Mary of Mt. Carmel, founded by the current Bishop, Cornelius Karrir.  We were each given a clean, modest room at the Center where we only had time to freshen up before traveling to the Bishop's House, where Bishop Cornelius graciously hosted us for a festive meal.  Somehow he had come to know that it was my birthday, and had arranged a party with the dinner, including a cake with candles, the signing of the traditional "Happy Birthday" song (African style, including a verse:  How old are you now?---which of course I did not answer), and even presents.  Bishop Cornelius is an extremely outgoing man:  humble, simple, astute, and truly a gentle but strong shepherd for his People's spiritual and temporal well-being.  He was ordained a bishop at the age of 40 after only 8 years as a priest, and he has now been Bishop of Eldoret for 23 years.  At the end of the evening, and with assurances that he will consider coming to visit Kalamazoo in the near future, we returned to the Pastoral Center for a much needed good night's sleep.  I'm quite certain that the memories of my birthday this year will be remembered for all the years to come!