The end of language immersion and some couple of events within the period
By Michael Omondi, SJ
To all companions in various apostolates, greetings from Kimwenza RD Congo. It’s now two months since we arrived in the land of Congo and a lot has taken place including two months French immersion which has finally come to its conclusion, the burial of the late Fr. Santime SJ, and some adventures within the city of Kinshasa not forgetting to mention a visit to Jesuit college Bonsomi.
On Sunday 28th of July 2024, Michael Omondi, SJ and Nicholas Oyoo, SJ arrived in Kinshasa at night to join their companion Brian Mugambi, SJ who had arrived earlier for language immersion. With the struggle of language barrier at the airport and without network connection, they struggled to reach out to the scholastics who were joyfully waiting for them in the crowd outside the airport. As if he had an invisible antenna, Nicholas figured them out within the crowd and as a result we sailed through a thick traffic jam to a Jesuit resident at Gombe. After one-week experience at Gombe, we shifted to Kimwenza to continue with our language classes. The two meticulous, patient and dedicated teachers facilitated this process and we saw a great progress after two months. We rounded up the immersion experience by a visit to a Jesuit school at Bonsomi. The intention of this visit was to interact with the students who were apprentices like us. With our little French we managed to respond to the litany of questions from these students. The interaction with the staff, Jesuits and students in that school helped us to overcome the fear of speaking.
Also, during this period, as anglophone group, we got an opportunity to visit le Parc de Nsele for an adventure and we profited by observing some animals’ indigenes of Congo. We also benefited from a one-hour ride across the slopes of the hills in the park. Even though the trip was fantastic we hardly forget about the traffic we suffered of on our way back to Canisius.
As things stand out now at Canisius, there is a reunion of scholastics who went for holidays and those who were working at different apostolates. The welcoming of the nouveaux is in the progress and we are looking forward to begin semester bientot. Keep us in prayers as we embark on this mission.
