Fr Francis Preston SDB sends us news from Don Bosco Utume, Kenya. He is pictured above with Fr Denis and with two of the Sisters.

Every weekend the students from Don Bosco Utume travel to various parishes in and around Nairobi to assist at the parish liturgies and to help with the animation of the young people. At the beginning of Advent, two of the students, Charles and Tamil, invited me to accompany them to their weekend apostolate at the Salesian community and parish at Makuyu, a small town about 40 miles north of Nairobi.

The journey to Makayu proved to be quite an adventure. It was the first time that I had driven through central Nairobi on a Saturday afternoon. There are traffic lights but nobody seems to obey them. Consequently negotiating the major intersections is not for the fainthearted! I breathed a sigh of relief when we safely exited the city and were on the three lane highway heading north out of Nairobi. What I wasn't expecting were the speed humps across all three lanes of the highway at a distance every four or five miles. I'm told they're there to allow pedestrians to cross safely! I can only guess what wear and tear they must do to the cars and lorries using the highway.

The Salesians have a big compound at Makuyu. It contains one SDB and two FMA communities. The SDBs are responsible for the parish which has 18 outstations and a large technical school which teaches several trades including a large printing press, a secondary school, a hostel for boarders and a farm. One of the FMA communities runs another secondary school and a health clinic. The other community is a formation community for FMA aspirants and pre-novices from East Africa.

On our arrival at Makuyu Charles, Tamil and myself were given a very warm welcome by the bursar of the SDB community, Fr Dennis Bisonga. Dennis was a 1st Year student in Jerusalem during my last year there. At Dennis' request I celebrated the Saturday evening Mass in English for the Salesian Sisters. On the Sunday morning I joined Dennis for the 9.30 a.m. Mass in Swahili in the parish church. It was a very joyful occasion. The singing was beautiful and the offertory procession included a whole variety of gifts from candles and soap to pineapples which are a local speciality.

After the parish Mass Charles drove Tamil and myself about four five miles along a couple of dirt roads to the convent of the Catechist Sisters of Mary Immaculate. The Sisters were founded in 1948 in northern India by Salesian missionary, Bishop Louis Morrow. They are part of the Salesian Family and wear a distinctive white sari very much like that of the Sisters of Mother Teresa. The Sisters have several communities in Tanzania but the community near Makuyu is their first in Kenya. They have just completed the building of a clinic and dispensary and a primary school, both of which they are planning to open in early 2017. The Sisters made us very welcome and insisted that we join them for lunch – thankfully a very mild curry! I have promised to return in the New Year and celebrate Mass for them in their convent chapel.

Back at main compound we paid a short visit to greet the Salesian Sisters and then said our goodbyes to Fr Dennis and the SDB community. It was then time to take the road back to Don Bosco Utume via Nairobi city centre - much quieter on a Sunday afternoon! - for the start of the last week of lectures and the beginning of end of semester exams.