Josephine

Teresa

After the Sunday mass

The two of us, Mbayira Josephine and Teresa Aura from the Province of Uganda - Kenya, have spent three months in Egypt for our international experience before going to Rome and preparing for our final profession. We have lived in Bayadeya in Upper Egypt, in an rscj community of six members. We arrived at the end of May and left at the end of August. It has been a very rich experience in many ways.  During the long holidays the community runs a club where children of the village ranging from 1-13 years stay for fours hours and participate in different activities. These include games, singing, writing, painting, videos, drawing, exercises, prayers, and others

We assisted in all the activities of the club during these three months. This has been a mutually enriching experience because of the joy, hope, love, encouragement and faith shared in the club. Although we had no common language, we feel that we did touch the hearts of the children through non verbal language. The handicapped children from the village who join the club once a week have also enriched our experience. We were able to join their world, which required attentive listening, non verbal language, touch, smiles, laughter, play, and above all, “being with” even in total silence has been wonderful.

We have lived with sisters who have shown us that it does not matter where you are; the charism of St. Madeleine Sophie can be passed on in all circumstances in which we find ourselves. The culture of Egypt is very different from the cultures of Uganda and Kenya. This opportunity to share the diversity of our cultures (both with the rscj community and the outside community since we visited a number of families) has been most enriching. We have learnt a much about the Arab world which we didn’t know before, thus our eyes have been opened. Indeed, it has been an opportunity for us to see in a new way and to be opened to the values of the Arab world and culture.

The challenge in this experience has been the problem of not having a language, Arabic, to communicate with the local people. But, as mentioned above, we have communicated with the heart, and that has been beautiful.  The liturgies have been another interesting discovery. It has been our first time to participate in the Eastern rite, the Coptic mass, with its spirituality and the chanting of each part of the mass. This was amazing; however it required patience, since some times the Sunday Mass could last for four hours. We have come to know the differences that exist between the Coptic Orthodox, Coptic Catholic and Roman Catholic in the way we worship.

There was a chance for us to tour the various historical sites of the country: the ancient monastery of St. Anthony of Egypt, St. Paul the Hermit, St Catherine at the foot of Mt Sinai ,which have helped us to understand and enter deeply in the history of monastic life in the church and the beginnings of Christianity in Egypt. Other sites included the citadels, pyramids, Library of Alexandria, and Suez Canal, and the various other interesting centers in Cairo. This is a country which is indeed rich in its history!

The weather has been hot compared to what we are used to in Uganda and Kenya, however it has been manageable. We now return to our province with Egypt in our hearts. We are very grateful to all the sisters of this province who have made us part of their lives, wherever we went to see the communities and the ministries, and we have learnt a lot about the way they are passing on the charism of St. Madeleine Sophie. We have experienced the internationality of our Society at depth, living with people of various cultures and values, and despite of our differences we have felt at home. We thank each one for making our international experience very fruitful in the many ways they have assisted us despite of difficult in language and culture shocks at the beginning. May the Lord bless you. 

 

photos of Bayadeya by Cecilia van Zon rscj and Lolín Menéndez rscj