Day 10

Day 10
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Not a long drive today so we leave about 9:30, again taking Sister Sabina with us. We’re going to visit Kapatu where there is a church of St Leo the Great, the Postulant Training Center for young women beginning their training to enter the Sisters of the Child Jesus, and the Lucena Farm where we will spend the night.
Lucena is a 400 hectare farm managed for the SCJ by Sisters Clare and Clementina. Clare has been there just two years and three months, and, to my mind, has worked miracles in that time. They now have three functioning fish ponds and have dug out two more which are temporarily providing homes for banana plants. The ponds get their water from a small stream which runs down the hill above the farm. Water, as you can guess is a precious commodity and the joint use of it necessitates considerable meeting and talking and working out mutually acceptable agreements. The Sisters have managed that with grace and humor so that now they can use the run off from the ponds (yes, fish need living water) to a beautifully designed gravity flow irrigation system for their hillside gardens which run down to the small river which borders the property. This has been done by women who were never farmers before coming here. And of course the farm has not enough water (have you heard that before?) to irrigate the flat lands which comprise the major cultivation areas of the property, They too need a bore hole and pump. Then there are the animals: goats, cattle, pigs, chickens, all of which is a handful for the two nuns and five farm families which make up the work force. They hope some day soon to be a demonstration farm like Chilabula. Already neighboring farmers are learning from them some new methods.
It is afternoon and youth choir is practicing for mass the next morning. They sing lustily, in perfect intonation with drums as usual. To that accompaniment we go in and meet the 11 postulants ages 18 to 20. Bright, cheerful, respectful, giggly: all you would expect from most girls that age. We leave them a football and an Aerobie. Then we are shown around the grounds passing the two vehicles, one donated from USAID after they had worn it out, the other in similar condition. It’s a wonder they were useful at all. The gardens are hand watered, each postulant having her portion to care for. The inevitable chicken pen and piggery we had come to expect. They raise as much of their own food as possible. Yes, they work, they study, they play, they pray, they are beginning to learn how to live out the motto of SCJ “Apostles to our own people in their own language.” From the gardens we move further away and are shown with a great deal of pride the mill: two motorized grinding mills which serve the surrounding farms enclosed in the little house which also contains a small very basic grocery store and a store room, all under lock and key, not once, not twice, but with eight significant padlocks, four on the regular door and four on the grilled iron work door outside that!! I guess security has its place in this world. We meet some of the residents living in the former dispensary. One little girl has a special attachment to our guide and walks happily along with us the rest of the way until she becomes disconsolate at having to go home,
It is dusk now and in the cool of the evening we meet and chat with three mothers, each with her baby carried in her mother’s wrap, looking out at the world from the security of that warmth. One baby fusses and is immediately offered a breast to nurse, all with no fuss, flair or embarrassment. Then back to the farm for dinner and rest. There is no electricity at the farm, so we eat by candlelight, and follow candles down the hall way to our candlelit room. Cooking is over charcoal, and water is heated so we can bathe with warm water in a plastic tub. Not a problem for a night or two, but to live like this all the time? These sisters are amazing! And in the midst of all their hardships, they remain cheerful, gracious, and loving. Such an inspiration to us.
Bruce and Paula