Bye! Bye! Kenavo! Kenavo! It was with these words that the stay of our two Nigerian sisters ended (with regret) in our medium-sized community of Elven -a French town located in the Morbihan department in the Brittany region-.
For three days, we had the joy of sharing our lives with Juliet and Theresa. A bit of youth and laughter did everyone a world of good… The visit of our young African sisters gave us a new lease of youth and life. It did us a lot of good, and this stay will remain engraved for a long time in our memories and in our hearts, which have remained young! … Their joie de vivre, their availability, their kindness, their eagerness to get to know our community life, their eagerness to be of service and to adapt to our rhythm, really touched us; the difficulty of the language didn’t penalise us too much: Juliet spoke very good French and translated into English for Theresa and vice versa.
Those three days went by very quickly, too quickly… On the 1st afternoon, we accompanied them to Sainte-Anne d’Auray: unfortunately, the covid was again present in our EHPAD Lann Eol- Ker Anna and they weren’t able to meet our older sisters, or enter the park; they only saw the outside. They did, however, take the opportunity to visit the Basilica and the souvenir shops… and they were busy taking photos! They came back enchanted and delighted: their joy was a joy to behold.
On Friday morning, they put on their cooking aprons and prepared a ball of manioc with fish and a delicious local sauce: you should have seen them busy in the kitchen! Their joy at letting us taste their cooking was obvious.
In the afternoon, we took them to the sea at Damgan – a seaside resort in the Gulf of Morbihan. We stopped off at the port of Pénerf, and visited the pretty little church there: what more discoveries for them! On the quayside, they admired the fishing and tourist boats… They didn’t tire of taking photos again, or of showing their joy by laughing and dancing! They discovered oyster farming and, after a dip in the sea on the beach, they collected oyster shells, seashells and some beautiful pebbles to take back to Nigeria. The visit to the Kervoyal chapel, in the shape of an upside-down boat, made a huge impression on them. On the way back, they were thrilled to see a windmill…. They went from discovery to discovery, from photo to photo!
On the last evening, we prepared a celebration of the DHS mission with them. They were full of imagination and spiritual depth!
The stay of our two African sisters allowed us to see how deeply rooted they are in their culture and how much they love the Congregation! Thank you both, Juliet and Theresa: we remain united to you in prayer, and Mission in the Spirit is still at work!
The Elven community. Published on 8 September 2023
