Posted: July 20

Visiting Zimbabwe

When I got off the Kenya Air plane at the Harare, Zimbabwe, airport, I experienced not culture shock, but cold shock. People had said that it would be “winter” in the Southern hemisphere, but I took that as a metaphorical statement. Wrong. It feels very chilly, probably more because the buildings are not heated than because of the absolute temperature. (Just above freezing at night.) But I cannot complain because Rome was starting to get very muggy and warm. It had already reached the point where you sit perfectly still at your desk hours after sunset and still start to sweat automatically. So this is probably an opportune moment to switch hemospheres. Anyway, I spent a good part of the winter in Indonesia and Australia. Travel allows you to play delightful games with the seasons.

I have come to Zimbabwe to help give a week-long workshop on communication to the Jesuit scholastics studying philosophy at Arrupe College. The workshop won’t actually start until the second week of August, but I came early to make my annual retreat with an American Jesuit friend, Fr. John Stacer, who teaches at Arrupe. We might also make it see Victoria Falls as well. One of my presentations is on an Ignatian model of communication. The workshop has provided the impetus and opportunity to develop something that I have talked about to young Jesuits in the last few years. Now I have a very good presentation with images to show some basic principles flowing from our Jesuit history. If the presentation goes well enough, I might well want to write it up.

For now, though, I am content to polish the presentation and finish two others and check out the facilities here in preparation for the workshop. There will be 61 young Jesuits in the second to fourth years of the program who will make the workshop. It is great to have to worry about having so many participants. And I am eager to learn more about these men and understand what they offer to the future of the Jesuits.