A bit more about the Holy Land pilgrimage ...

We had a meeting of the whole group as a sort of follow up, and one of the participants took along an album of her fathers old postcards of Jerusalem where he was posted in WW1 .... I took the liberty of copying a few .... 

So here are some 'then' compared to my 'now' pictures ...

The Jaffa Gate pre Allenby's entry into Jerusalem in December 1917 ... and my photo of the same place, in 2018.

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And then a postcard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with a troop of Ottoman police in their blue uniforms outside .... so almost certainly pre-1914.

My photo from over 100 years later ...

Black leopard

Isn't this fantastic !    A melanistic leopard has been caught on camera traps in Laikipia. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-47224887

It is just possible to make out the spotting on the animals body.

Update on Nyalenda Art School.

The art school was begun some years ago by Father Hans .... 

(This from a recent Mill Hill newsletter ...)

When I sauntered into the Nyalenda compound of the Kisumu Urban Apostolate Programme (KUAP-Pandipieri) I bumped into two young European females who were in the process of having their hair done ‘African style’. They noticed the logo on my headgear. “NS???? You must be from Holland!”.  So, we proved to be compatriots. They were on a three-month volunteering programme at Pandipieri, young and enthusiastic. Still at the exploratory stage, looking around at the large variety of programmes and activities of KUAP, before making a choice of one to get deeper involved in. ‘Had they already made up their minds?’, I asked. ‘Street kids for me’, said one quite determinedly. 

‘I’ve come to visit the Art School’, I volunteered.   At an earlier visit I had found the doors closed but this time I was in luck. Dan Ouma, the school’s director and, currently, the only teacher, stood there beaming in the doorway.   ‘How’s Father Hans?’    ‘Still moving!’. Getting the latest news about Hans Burgman, the founder and inspirer, of Mwangaza Art School here in the slums of Kisumu, obviously meant a lot to him.

We moved from the office into the atelier where the students were just having a break, some savouring a generous slice of watermelon.

‘When Fr Hans left here we had eleven students, now there are seventeen’, Dan tells me with some pride.   ‘I am the only teacher. It is not easy to accompany 17 students divided over three years. But I love doing this work. It is such an inspiration to see students come in, and slowly grow in understanding and skill. Some have already worked on their own, by pure natural talent and inclination.’

‘From time to time I get former students who have graduated and are now working in schools, graphics/design or as independent artists, to come in and give ‘master classes’.

We may get someone to come for a longer period in June/July through the intermediary of Fr Hans’.

I move around to take a few pictures and chat with one of the students, Julius Ochieng, who is due to graduate soon. He’s working on a pointillistic impression of a hippo from a photograph displayed on his smartphone. A real beauty!!

As we chat some more Dan reminisces about earlier assignments quite some years back. With the Claretians in Chiga and the church in Lemek.  ‘We were lucky that there was a Maasai catechist in Lemek. He brought us in contact with the local Maasai. Few used to come to church in those days. But when we painted gospel scenes and the resurrected Christ in clearly recognisable Maasai figures they began take an interest’.    ‘So, this Jesus we hear about is really one of us!’ they observed.  

Art as Mission ! I came away inspired by the visit.

And, for those familiar with the Nyalenda Centre and the Art School: the road getting you there is now beautifully paved! But the slum dwellings alongside it have not changed.

Will the one be a spur for change in the other?

Fons Eppink mhm

All change in Kisumu.

I receive almost daily news from the Mill Hill organisation about its work and missions all over the world, so was delighted to see recently several articles about Kisumu, which included photos of the developments at Mill Hill House where I stayed many times.

A new name, new paint work, and the garden at the front is a little different, but I see the tree outside 'my' usual room is still flourishing, but the pots of ferns and orchids by the front door have gone.

The upstairs corridor by 'my' room has been repainted and look how shiny the floor is !  

The dining room has been altered to make a covered veranda outside the windows ... 

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And Kisumu itself is changing rapidly, although the lake is still full of water hyacinth.   I see Nyalenda, the slum where the art school is situated, now has a tarmac road !! 

Lake Tiberias, or the Sea of Galilee ... choose whatever you want to call it !

A lot of the ministry of Jesus was done near or along the shores of Galilee.   We stayed on this trip at a wonderful monastery guest-house at Tabgha, the place where the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand may have taken place.

Outside our room was this in the gravel:-

Most of the group went out on the lake in a replica sailing/fishing boat, based on one from the time of Jesus.   Still suffering with my heavy cold, I stayed behind, as the water was very choppy, and it was cold and raining.   Instead, I went for a solitary walk along the lake shore, and saw a few birds, but it was such a dismal day, I returned to sit in the lounge with a hot drink and read my book.

Lunch was 'St Peters Fish' at a local fish restaurant.   They are in fact tilapia, the same as the ones I eat in Kisumu; very bony and very ugly, but tasty.  

A face only a mother could love !