A day with a Catholic nun

While many women cannot contemplate a fulfilling life without a man, some have given up that pleasure for greater service to humanity and God, writes Brenda Kageni

Sister Veronica Thiga

Assumption Sisters of Nairobi

Archbishop KJ McCathy started our congregation. He was an Irish bishop who wanted to start an African congregation that would mix with the people and change according to how society is changing.

My work

Sister Veronica Thiga Assumption Sisters of Nairob (Assumption Sisters of Nairobi)

I work with women. I am a Gender and Home Economics Officer under the Ministry of Agriculture since 1989. I mainly deal with rural groups and in slum areas where I serve as an extension officer. I have a sister who was an extension officer and who inspired me to pursue the field.

I help people discover locally available resources. I assist them form groups through which we find out their main needs and then we try to solve it together. This is now spreading to the whole country and I have been allowed by the Ministry of Agriculture to reach all who invite me. I have 360 groups of about 7,000 farmers in Meru, Kangundo, Kirinyaga, Kakamega, Gatundu, Muranga, Kisumu and Molo. I also work in Kiandutu and Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums. Every group develops different income generating projects like tie and dye, Yorghut processing, or drying bananas.

I realised that what people need is someone to give them skills and knowledge and to help them start income generating projects.

Sisterhood

I joined sisterhood in 1970. The drive to become a sister for me was like the way one feels when she wants to get married to a certain man. It is a vocation, a call or a desire.

As a sister, I am called to everybody. I can give my life and love to everybody. I have the freedom to choose, to serve, to be myself, to be committed to the life I have chosen and to share my talents. There is no life like being a sister. There is nothing else I would have responded to that way. But it has to be your vocation otherwise you become very frustrated.

We are five of us in the community but each of us has a different job. I am the only sister in Kenya who is an agricultural officer employed by the ministry.

My day

I get up at 4.30am and do some jogging. I move a lot, therefore, I need the exercise. I then spend an hour at prayer — unless you are well fed spiritually you cannot serve God’s people. I attend mass at 6.30am then take a heavy breakfast. I leave for work at 7.30am.

Sister Auxilia Temba

Most days I cover 200km. Everyday I meet five groups. In the evening I shower, go for prayer, then take supper. Sometimes I don’t even watch news because I am completely exhausted. The work is so much. On Saturdays I attend weddings of the members. I have taught the women to bake and decorate cakes.

The lows and triumphs

When I started, I was walking. The farmers bought me a bicycle that I rode for six years. After that they bought me a mountain bike then a motorcycle that I rode for another six years. One day some men attacked me and stole the motorcycle. The farmers got so annoyed they each contributed Sh100. At the end we had sh300, 000 with which I bought a Toyota Corolla that I worked with for seven years.

One day I invited the former Agriculture minister Kipruto Kirwa to meet the 7,000 farmers. He was so impressed by the work I was doing, he gave me a car, fuel, driver and a work ticket to allow me to work all over the country, 24 hours. I now have a GK double cabin. Having been so lucky, I find myself working harder, even on weekends. I work with everyone. It is more interesting and you preach more when you are working with all the denominations.

Philomena Agba (Daughters of St Paul)

I do not work for the money. My salary goes to the congregation. I only get pocket money. Sometimes that is a challenge because I may want to buy someone lunch or to help my parents but there are limitations.

To join Assumption Sisters

One must have a C+ and above or should have finished college. There are no age limits because there are late vocations. However, you have to be keenly followed so that we know you are not running away from problems. Training is for four years. You are trained to live with people, to know yourself and to live the Word.

You have the option to choose a life of enclosure or an active life. I chose to work with people and to pray.

Sister Auxilia Temba

I knew I wanted to serve God as a sister in 1958 when I was 17 years. However, I started the process in 1960 and I professed in 1963. We have so many branches of working in our congregation: There are nurses, teachers, catechists and those taking care of orphans. Our mission is evangelism. I am a nurse but I can do catechism or take care of orphans.

Qualifications

You need to have had at least a C+ or you can join after your training. We are normal women. But we don’t take people with children because that is their vocation. Being a sister is a personal call from God otherwise you will not stay. I have seen people who give up and leave.

Lows and triumphs

I have never regretted becoming a sister. If I get challenges, I tell myself that even as a mother, there are challenges. I love being a sister because I can serve God in all the angles that a mother may not. I can pray alone or join my other sisters in prayer most of the time. As a nurse, I can work anywhere. I have worked with government hospitals for 10 years before I came here at the Catholic University.

The first thing about being a sister is staying in the convent and praying. Even if you have to be sent out, say to a seminar, you come back home to the convent. I can visit my family and spend a holiday though that has to be organised by the congregation. We can only remove our habits (the dress) when it is organised by the congregation.

My Day

We are allowed to wake up very early to pray but we gather for common prayers at 5.30am, then for the Holy Mass. After breakfast one is free to leave for their day activities.

In the convent, we clean our rooms, take care of our chicken and cows, watch TV or go to greet our friends.

Philomena Agba

Daughter of St Paul

I am a Nigerian missionary working in Kenya. As daughters of St Paul, our main apostolate is working with the media. We have people working in radio, TV and print media.

I joined the congregation in 2002, but even before then, I had been communicating with them enquiring on how to join, and the grades required. One day the sisters came to visit me and presented themselves to the whole family. It was quite a big shock for my mum. She knew I wanted to become a sister but she never thought I was that serious.

When I was at the university, they invited me for a retreat and then for a three-months live-in, for me to see how they worked, what they did and how they live. I saw and I liked it.

The drive for sisterhood

As you grow up, you are attracted to something. I was inclined to sisterhood. I could say God nurtured my vocation for me. I always wanted to serve God. I am not saying that married people cannot serve God. It is that I was interested in this vocation even though I was not very sure what it entails. I have now realised it is a sacrificial life. When you join, you undergo training. Mine was for four and a half years. It was a gradual process of making me understand what the life is all about.

Lows and triumphs

There have been challenges but I am one person who is very comfortable with challenges. To start with, we are people from different countries and we have to live together. There are so many differences in culture, dress and food. When you are undergoing training, you look behind and see your former classmates are already employed, they have good families and you think that could have been you. But I say that I will not offer to God a sacrifice that cost me nothing. Even before I joined sisterhood, I had my dreams, thoughts of marriage and a good family but there was a yearning that was stronger.

Full of joy

My life gives me a lot of joy. There is a lot of joy in knowing God and more joy in serving him. The convent gives me the opportunity of talking to God first thing in the morning. There is also the joy of helping people discover God in their own way of life. That gives me fulfillment. Our book centre (Holy Family Basilica Bookshop) is open to both Christians and non-Christians. Our main aim is that everyone will know God.

Qualifications

For you to be eligible to be a Daughter of St Paul, you have to be sociable, have a very universal heart, able to embrace people from different nationalities, be responsible and have a good grade that can take you to university.

I was interested in mass communication so I trained in that field before I joined the Daughters. However, they give you a chance to nurture whatever it is you are gifted in. Singers, writers and poets are developed.

For our congregation, the upper age limit is 28 and you should not be married. Either you should not be someone who is running away from marriage or from responsibilities of motherhood. Being a sister is not superior to marriage. We don’t live behind our feminine characteristics just because we are sisters. We are mothers to everybody.