Br. Simon

 I want to refer to him as a man of few words but I think I should simply refer to him as a man of ‘no words’. Strange, isn’t it? That is not strange to me in any way. I have lived with Simon in times when there were many brothers around and in times when there were no other brothers around except I and him. It is all the same, a quiet brother. At times I used to feel like I might be making noise by asking how he had slept the night before, but to my surprise he always asked first, “uko sawa ndugu”.

                    Well, ours was not a community. If you ask Br. Kamrata, he will say two is not a community, three is! It follows then that mine with Simon was not a community, it was two brothers, during which I had a chance to see the inner side of him, the prayerful Simon. For the first time – and the only time – I knelt before the Blessed Sacrament for two hour nonstop. I remained on my knees for that long because he knelt right in front of me and it seemed so good a thing to emulate. Well, I don’t know if I prayed but I believe God listens to the prayers of every part of us, that day He must have heard the cry of my knees.

                    After that stay with him, I left for Lusaka and he left for Ireland. We didn’t meet until after two years. Unlike how it goes with many people after staying for such a long time apart, I and Simon repeated our old phrase “uko sawa ndugu” and the presumably catch up chat was over!