Fr. Spiro

Fr. Spiro

He introduces himself as father Spiro Galea but meeting him in person, he tells me, “we are first and foremost brothers, then priests”. It is obvious that you cannot go introducing yourself as such “I am first and foremost brother so and so, then father so and so”. I have been with father Spiro for quite a while now. One thing about him is that he can phlegmatically withstand the lies told by those around him. There is this guy who came with a very nice story to Fr. Spiro. He said that he was a resident of Garissa having travelled to Mombasa in order to seek treatment for his wife. His wife had undergone a surgery and things hadn't gone well with her; her urine kept running profusely. It was a very long story yet father Spiro listened to him anyway. He then gave him some money and the guy walked away. While we were having lunch I told him that I didn’t see any truth in the man’s story. He looked at me and said, “I know, I know him, he resides at the manyattas behind our compound, I knew he was lying but he only does it once in a very long time.”  That con must have felt great to con father so easily, but the fact is, he never conned him. Fr. Spiro has this great understanding of what surrounds him and he is aware that those around him often go without food because they are poor. This is why he didn’t see any reason to tell the man off. The man was hungry! Feeding the hungry is what I have seen him do more than anything else. “Brother Kula” he always says to me.