The culture of a town always contains surprises for a visitor, hence there is a extensive bibliography on travel accounts told as personal experiences and that have a special attraction for the reader. The Augustinian Recollect Enrique Eguiarte visited Kenya from January 25 to February 10 and offers us the experiences of this trip and his stay in the african country.
Return to Rome
The nuns of Wote gave me as a gift for the Prior General Michelangelo Hernández a beautiful manger made of wood. Truly the nativity scene is very beautiful and it is very well done. The nuns told me that they were made by a craftsman who came from Rwanda, but living as a refugee in Nairobi. A true artist who unfortunately lived the harsh reality of many of the countries surrounding Kenya, the reality of war and the violence. Kenya takes great care of this, for this reason there is a large military deployment and surveillance at important points in the country, such as the Nairobi airport itself, from which I’ll talk next.
And without realizing it, the days passed in Wote and it was time to return to Nairobi to take the plane back to Rome. In fact, the nuns were going to take advantage of the trip to Nairobi to visit an Augustinian Recollect nun from Kenya who resides in the monastery de Cabra (Spain), since she had brought some things from Spain for the nuns of Wote. The place we had to go to before traveling to Nairobi was called Kangundo.
Before leaving Wote, Sister María José asked the four employees who work in the monastery, to help me carry my bags and load them in the car. I took out my bags and gave them to the four employees. They took them and then something unexpected happened.
Yes, the “Lion King” again.
One of the workers sang a song and the other three followed him singing the song. And while they sang, they danced rhythmically moving my suitcases. Again a vocal song. If there were four employees, it was a song in four voices, harmonic and melodious. I regret not having recorded the show that the workers gave me at the monastery. For a few moments I felt on Broadway or the West End from London, enjoying a musical that had been put together just for me. After of this unforgettable spectacle, the workers put my suitcases in the pickup truck the nuns and we started our journey towards the deepest Kenya.
Machakos, Kangundo, Nairobi
The great highway that took us to Machakos, the capital of this province, was followed by narrower roads. And as we moved away from the cities and narrowed roads, I could see the endless procession of people walking at the same time, along the road with containers of all kinds to collect water. Some carried donkeys with water containers hung around their necks. Others carried their containers in carts drawn by oxen, others on foot… an endless procession, which made me realize, on the one hand, what water means, and the treasure it is; and, on the other hand, the hardness of the life of the people of these latitudes.
Finally, we arrived at Kangundo and found the Augustinian Recollect sister, who gave Sister María José what she had brought from Spain. In turn she gave him gifts for her family and a light-colored habit for her to wear while in Kenya, as the black color is hardly suitable for the heat of these lands.
Later we took the road to Nairobi. A journey of another two hours, where from again I could see the procession of people looking for water. As we got closer to Nairobi, the procession was dying out and the traffic was picking up. When you get to the main road leading to Nairobi, the traffic was heavy and the road was full of large trucks with containers coming from the port of Mombasa.
Once past the traffic, we arrive at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyata Airport. It caught my attention that, before entering the airport, all the occupants of the car had to get off it, and pass a security check. The car had to open windows and the trunk for inspection. As I have said before, the Kenyan government wants to avoid all means of terrorist attacks, and that the country could fall into the violence that grips the nations around it. Kenya is a haven of peace in the middle of a tinderbox of violence.
At the airport we ate and, once the meal was finished, Sister María José and Sister Judith escorted us to the airport entrance. There we were able to meet the superior General of the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. she accompanied her literally an army of nuns. In fact, the superior general together with her companion followed the same route that I was taking. First to Doha and then to Rome. Since only travelers can enter the airport, as in Manila, I said goodbye to the sisters, but not before thanking them for all their attention and the beautiful days that I have been with them in Wote.
Once at the airport I waited for my flight. The boarding was a bit chaotic, and I was able to realized that I was not the only person who spoke Spanish; there was a small group of Spanish tourists. The flight to Doha was very good, although the plane avoided going through the Yemen airspace… In Doha after almost three hours of stopover I boarded the flight towards Rome, where I arrived in the morning, still not believing all that I had experienced in the last twenty days, and with many experiences to meditate on and keep in your heart.
The Wote nuns told me that “Bombo”, the puppy who was my friend, for several days he returned to the office where I stayed to look for me…
