Elvira with students from St. Mary Magdalene School in Riwoto, South Sudan
In June I returned to Tanzania with much anticipation, like I was going to visit a loved one whom I had not seen in 32 years. (In the 1980s and 90s I had worked for eight years as a Maryknoll sister in Tanzania, primarily with youth and young adults.) And when I arrived, Tanzania remembered me.
Somehow I resumed speaking Swahili like I had never stopped using it. The rutted roads around the Dar es Salaam and Mwanza airports surprised me because I expected that this sort of infrastructure had improved. But it was familiar.
Rachel (in wheelchair), one of the students at Huruma School in Mwanza, with lay missioner Anna Johnson (in the background) and the school’s director, Boniventura Toto (right).
The peace and expansiveness of Lake Victoria and the landscapes on the way to Musoma turned down the chatter of “so many things to be done,” and invited me to slow down and listen.
The people welcomed me as the friend of the Maryknoll lay missioners. It was easy to see the warm relationships and the depth of caring between missioners and the people they share life and work with.
It did not take long to change my focus from a reunion with the past to the reality of present-day lay missioners immersed in daily challenges and ordinary miracles.
And so it was for the next 18 days as I visited missioners in Tanzania, Kenya and South Sudan. Signs of progress in East Africa were apparent, but so was the absence of an impact of that progress upon some communities and individuals. Maryknoll lay missioners like Rich Tarro, Kathy Flatoff and Gabe Hurrish serve people from the most impoverished communities in their respective Mombasa, Kitale (Kenya) and Riwoto (South Sudan) places.
I am inspired by the work being done by Jaclyn Geyer, Anna Johnson and Theresa Glaser as they advance the possibilities for an abundant life for children living with disabilities and other marginalized children.
I witnessed the commitment to the transformation of despair and the impossible to faithful accompaniment and steadfast resolve. For missioners like Joanne Miya and Steve Veryser, Africa has become a part of them and though they work hard, they trust in the people, in the cultures, and in God to bring to fruition the transformation needed by all concerned.
I will continue to ponder the challenges and the conversations that all of the missioners in Africa shared with me. I know that their hospitality and examples will only enhance my desire to share in and be a part of Maryknoll Lay Missioners’ vision and mission.
It would take another page to discuss all that I learned about the in-country contexts of South Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania. I am grateful for the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of missioners who are invited into the local reality by their friends and community partners.
This is one of the gifts Maryknoll Lay Missioners shares with our sponsors and donors. Mission is giving what is received — in insight, hope, living Gospel values and an opportunity to serve.
Elvira Ramirez is Maryknoll Lay Missioners’ executive director.
