Asher Kaufman, age 18, set out on June 28 for a yearlong trip to help spread the Children's Rosary in Europe and Africa. He spent the months of July, August and the first two weeks in September in France. He arrived in Uganda on September 15. From Uganda he traveled by car to Rwanda on September 28. After a week in Rwanda there was once more a return for more travel in Uganda. On October 11 he arrived in Tanzania. Asher grew up helping the Children's Rosary and participating in it. He now is helping to spread the Children's Rosary to more parishes and schools. He is also discerning a vocation to the priesthood and has applied to the seminary through the Archdiocese of Hartford. Please keep both his trip and his vocation in your prayers. He has been sharing dispatches from the trip.
"Upon driving into Kenya, we decided to stay the night in Oloitokitok, a town not far from the border, for the night. It was late but the time we got over there, so we just found a hotel and went to sleep. For this part of a trip, we found it necessary to hire a driver, in fact the same one we had back in 2019 when we were in Kenya and Tanzania. In Tanzania this time we had mostly stayed around Moshi, and when we needed to go far, it was to Dar es Salaam, and we could take a bus. But here in Kenya, we have needed to drive long distances to very remote parishes, and thus the car has been absolutely indispensable. The next morning, Sunday morning, we set out from Oloitokitok with the destination of Mombasa. Mombasa is quite a long journey from the border crossing where we were, so we knew there was a possibility we would not make it there in one day. This was compounded by the need to look for a Mass and the lack of ways to check easily where one was available. We drove a long ways into the rural areas of Rombo parish only to find that the Mass at that outpost had already passed the homily, meaning it would not count for our Sunday obligation. We went to another subparish which did not have Mass at that time. We went to a third one only to find that the Mass was just ending. “We are not lucky,” Fr. Cleophus remarked to me. Indeed, we were not. Try as we might, we could not find a Mass, and so I had to settle for watching an online Mass that evening at the hotel.
We stayed in Voi, a roadside town on the way to Mombasa, that night. We did not stay long, for the next morning, we departed around 4:00 a.m. The way to Mombasa was still long and the traffic heavy. Upon entering the city, I was struck by just how hot it was. I had experienced the heat of Dar es Salaam, but the heat of Mombasa was still worse! The very air hung heavily about me like a thick mantle, the sweat gathered in unwanted droplets on my forehead, and my solace was in opening wide the window of our vehicle and feeling the wind on my face until my ear ached from the built-up pressure. But there was no time for excessive ruminations on the weather. Once we arrived, we headed a bit to the south of the city to visit a community of brothers called the Good Shepherd Brothers. These were friends of Fr. Cleophus’s, and they had a parish adjoining them at which they were interested to start a Children’s Rosary group. One of the brothers, named Br. Moses, agreed to accompany us to the other parish we were going to. It turned out to be quite an involved journey. We found trouble in following the directions we were given, and we endured several false starts and misguided turns before finally ending up on the right track. Once we arrived, we found Fr. David, a contemplative priest, who was running the parish. He welcomed both us and the Children’s Rosary warmly, introducing us to the children and promising to spread the movement more in his parish. I was very glad that Fr. Cleophus had been able to get in contact with him. That parish seemed to me a very promising place for the Children’s Rosary. After that meeting, we directed our steps (or rather our vehicle) right into Mombasa to the Changamwe parish where we stayed six years ago. Fr. Kalua was the priest here at that point, but currently he is studying in Rome as we chronicled during our visit to the Eternal City several months ago. We spent the night and were supposed to meet the children the next day but could not because of exams they were taking.
After leaving the parish, we drove through some torrential rain on our way out of the city. This might be commonplace enough in Uganda, but in the semi-arid climate of Kenya, such rain is rare indeed. Our driver, David, even said he had seen such precipitation on but a few occasions previously. At some points the road was partially flooded out, and we saw more than one house or building beginning to be inundated with water. We found a cheap and comfortable hotel along the way and settled in for the night. David and Fr. Cleophus went to go get dinner and ended up spending a few hours on this errand. However one might criticize American fast food, I have now had plenty of experience with the exact opposite, and though on the whole I prefer the latter, the wait time is not something to be taken lightly in many restaurants here.
After a luxurious night of sleep, we headed the next day in the direction of Voi again. There was a parish Fr. Cleophus wanted to visit not far from there, and it was on the way to Nairobi, where I would need to be next.
We stopped at Taru parish on the way, a small place with a school attached. The priest there, Fr. Chilumo, was very receptive of the movement, and I feel positively about the prospects of a group starting there. We have now come to Thursday morning, when we paid a visit to the parish I mentioned as being not far from Voi, St. Anne Ganganyika Parish.
It was in a very remote place, far up in the mountains. It was so steep and so verdant on the way up that it reminded me greatly of my time in Rwanda. The contrast between the grass and trees on the mountainside and the harsh, dried, savannah down below was quite stark. The church, when we managed to reach it, contained a small group of children who had come to host us. I felt this was a very promising place for a Children’s Rosary and was glad we had come. We took a picture in front of the grotto next to the Church, and we distributed rosaries. The children were even wearing winter coats and hats here because it was so cold. That afternoon was mostly a calm one. I stayed in the hotel room and finished some work and prepared to leave the next day to go to Dandora, just outside Nairobi. What awaited us on the journey and what became of my stay in Dandora I will save for the next post."
To see all of Asher's dispatches from his journey click HERE
