MINISTRY AT TAMALE CHILDREN'S HOME

(Left) What to wear today? (Right) Duelling bottles? Essential tasks to start the day.

Tamale Children’s home is one of the ministry places where the novices have been working as volunteers in previous years here in Ghana. This year two of us, Nature Joseph Busiku and Joseph Abass Kamara, are working there every Friday. The orphanage currently is looking after 28 children, 9 infants and 19 others who are of school age. The majority of the people working in the orphanage are females, including 13 mothers. They work in an organized way with three shifts, morning, afternoon and night. Many children kept at the home are brought from the hospitals or local families due to children being abandoned by their own mothers, because of poverty or because the parents have died.
The orphanage has a pre-school for these children, which is also open to the local community. The school has got no proper teaching materials, such as text-books, story books, teacher’s books, materials for games or writing boards for pupils. The teachers working in the school are finding it difficult to teach the children effectively due to this lack of resources. In the face of this, we novices have taken the initiative by providing some materials, such as bottle tops as counters which can be used by the children for counting in mathematics.

What we do at the Orphanage:
· Washing and dressing the children ready for school.
· Bottle feeding, cleaning and changing their dresses, and soothing them if they cry.
· Preparing their beds and helping in doing their laundry.
· Entertaining some of the children who are not in school.
· Helping to teach at the school.


A personal reflection - Nature Joseph Busiku
The reception which I was given on the very first day at the ministry was an impressive experience. I felt I was nourished and inspired in my spiritual growth and relationship with God by a spirit of keenness that I feel every time I am in the home relating with the kids.
Mostly I prepare the children for school, feed the babies, and entertain some kids who are not in school. When it comes to feeding the babies, it gives me a deeper sense of my own experience as a tot and the love and care I was given. As I start to bottle feed the tots and clean them if they have made a mess of the porridge or have urinated or messed themselves, I feel a special sense of connectedness with the kids. It’s during this time when these children experience the feeling of human touch and care which they miss from their biological parents. This challenge brings me happiness and joy in this ministry every Friday.
In the school on Fridays, the children have a few lessons but mostly entertainment activities. I teach them lessons such as counting, reading of the alphabet, drawing and coloring. For entertainment, I energize them with songs and different types of clapping, while outside they play football and other games.
I hope my heart will persist in reaching out with enthusiasm, courage and love towards all children I may encounter in my life.

A memorable experience - Joseph Abass Kamara
“Amaraaba!” This common greeting here means “Welcome”. I would like to share with you an amazing story from my ministry at the children’s home.
One Friday morning while we were busy dressing the children for school, a police officer arrived in a car from the Tamale Teaching Hospital. She had with her a baby girl. According to the officer, the baby had been abandoned shortly after delivery by the mother. When the baby started crying, the doctor and nurses at the hospital started asking for the mother. They asked around the entire ward but could not find the mother. Some of the patients nearby told the doctor that they saw the mother going outside almost an hour before the baby started crying. The lady in charge of the orphanage accepted the baby from the officer and asked us to give the baby a name. After giving her the name Josephine, we all welcomed her with a song.
We have been told recently by a family who visited the orphanage that Josephine will be adopted by them and will go to live with them overseas. May we all remember in our prayers Josephine and the many other abandoned children. We pray also for those working to care for such children in the world.

Launching out into the cultural deep!

Traditional dancers.

At the pito bar, and meeting two local women who make their living by making pots.

Meeting the chief (centre, standing) at Katariga, near Tamale.


All of the novices and most of the formation team at the Tamale novitiate are from somewhere else – other parts of Africa, Oceania and India. So as newcomers to Ghana, most of us needed an introduction to Ghanaian life and culture. A five-day workshop at the Tamale Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies (TICCS) at the end of March provided this opportunity.

TICCS is a valuable resource provided by the Divine Word Missionaries of the Catholic Church, but its unique work provides support well beyond church circles, to many newcomers to Africa and to Ghana, including government and NGO personnel, students and business people.

A mix of morning presentations and afternoon excursions provided a rich experience, offering much information, many challenging insights about culture, and broadening experiences of aspects of life in northern Ghana. Many found the talk on Islam by the secretary of the central mosque in Tamale an eye-opener in regard to Muslim attitudes to Christianity, especially to Jesus and his mother. The visit to a local diviner took most of us into new territory, as diviners are often frowned on by Christians. So just sitting in his consulting room, surrounded by bottles of herbal recipes and various amulets and charms, was an experience that stretched most of us! We found the man, who was, incidentally, also a Muslim, engaging, down-to-earth and interesting, even if we were not quite ready to take our personal questions to him!

Other presentations challenged us in regard to culture shock and cross-cultural understanding, gender relations in Ghana and the growing popularity with the youth of evangelical and charismatic Christian churches, among many topics.

We visited a local chief – one of the very few women chiefs in northern Ghana – and were intrigued by the protocols that had to be observed. We were welcomed to a traditional meal by a family in a village on the outskirts of Tamale, and treated to traditional dancing by a local dance group. And we found time to squeeze in a visit to a pito bar to sample the local beer (or pito).

The week was informative and varied. As well as the valuable information it provided, we were left with new ideas to use as we continue our journey of cultural understanding over these two years. And we were challenged to carry with us the many questions raised by the experience, questions about our own cultures, our own religious faith and, above all, the attitudes and prejudices we all carry with us.

The workshop concluded after five days, but the journey of cultural understanding has a long way to go! Our thanks to Fr. Marek and Sylvester for organising such a stimulating workshop for us.

New Year, New Team, New Novices

It is not common that all the formation team in a novitiate are changed at the same time, but various circumstances have conspired to bring this about at Tamale this year. The previous director, Br. Vivek da Silva, has moved to a well-earned sabbatical, Br. Henry McGann is providing his experience to the new novitiate team at Stellenbosch in South Africa, and Br. Denis Vaughan is part of a new community at Yambio in southern Sudan.

In their places have come Br. Tony Shanahan from East Africa, as Director; Br. Kevin Delaney, also from East Africa; and Br. Con Cerejo, well-known in Tamale from his previous role as Principal of the Catholic Mission school at Kanvili.

Following the first profession of the previous group of novices last November, we have welcomed a group of 14 new novices. While most are from Africa (Zambia, Kenya and Sierra Leone), two have come all the way from Papua New Guinea, continuing a tradition that began in Tamale with the very first group of Christian Brother novices in 2001, when three young men from PNG did their novitiate training here.

Below you can read about the formal reception for the new novices on February 19, and you can also meet each of the new novices via the photos and short introductions below and in the Archive section.

Reception of Novices

Our fourteen new novices arrived at the Br. Paul Noonan Formation Centre in Tamale on February 6, but their formal reception into the novitiate did not take place till February 19. This marked the official start of the novitiate experience that will unfold over the next 21 months, culminating in the first profession of vows in late November, 2012. For two weeks the new arrivals were introduced to a new country and place (none of them are Ghanaians), new companions and mentors, and the particular way of life that goes with a religious novitiate. Two weeks is not enough for a complete introduction to so many new things, but at least heads had stopped spinning, and feet were more-or-less on the ground, for the ritual that signaled the beginning of this special time.
We were delighted to be joined by Christian Brothers from the Choggu community, and a cross-section of our religious brothers and sisters from congregations in Tamale, to witness the young men asking for admission and being accepted. The novices were presented with symbols of the journey ahead – a candle of encouragement and some of the basic sources of nurture and challenge for them on this journey - the Bible, the Constitutions and the 2008 Congregation Chapter document.

In the photos above (from top left going clockwise) we see Br. Tony, the Director, speaking at the Reception; Br. Kevin presenting the Bible to the novices; Br. Con pouring a libation for the ancestors; and the final blessing of the novices by the assembled community.

Meet Our 2011 Novices - Victor Piniau

I am Victor Piniau and I come from the Duke of York Islands in East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. I am the first of six siblings and both parents are both still alive. I also have an uncle who is a Christian Brother, Br. Joachim ToRavit. I am a teacher by profession and have been teaching for three years before coming to the novitiate. I have been in contact with the brothers as a candidate for about ten years. I lived with the brothers in community for three years - in Golgobip Community in the Western Province for one year, and for two years in Vunakanau Community in East New Britain Province.

Meet Our 2011 Novices - Septimus Sama

Sama Septimus Paul is my name. I was born in 1981 in Blama, of the Mande tribe, in Sierra Leone.
When I was five years old I was baptized and was given the name Paul. I am the firstborn in a family of six, four boys and two girls. My late father was from Bo District in the southern part of Sierra Leone. My favorite hobbies are soccer, fishing and singing.
The Brothers rendered great support, spiritual, moral and financial, to my family and others during the time we were displaced in the war. The call to follow the way of selfless service and love of others has inspired me to join the Brothers. I look forward to knowing more of the life of Brothers during this time of novitiate.

Meet Our 2011 Novices - Nature Busiku

My name is Nature Joseph Busiku and I am 26, and I come from Zambia. I am the fourth-born in a family of eight, five female and three male. I was born in the southern part of Zambia in the city of Livingstone, the tourist capital of Zambia.
My mother and late father are both from the south and they were not well educated. My father passed on when I was about ten year of age and was in grade three. I missed my father very much. Four years later I was baptized, and a year after I was confirmed. I joined a number of groups in the parish (youth, liturgy, vocations, English choir) and for eight years I’ve been an altar boy and catechizer. In the parish I’ve also been doing small jobs like decorating and projects for the parish. I like cooking, singing and art.
Having completed school, I joined Youth Alive Zambia in Livingstone as a volunteer facilitator. We were looking after the poor, people living with HIV/AIDS in communities and the elderly. We used to conduct programmes for behavior change in schools of different denominations, institutions and colleges. I also did a Certificate programme in Hotel & Catering Management for two years.
I came to know the Christian Brothers when I was still at school and in 2009 I was invited for a workshop and the Come and See programme. I was accepted for postulancy in 2010, and now here I am in Ghana trying to discover my vocation in the footsteps of Jesus and Edmund Rice.

Meet Our 2011 Novices - Lewis Musonda

I am Lewis Musonda and I was born in 1987 in Mansa, the capital of Luapula province, Zambia. I am the first-born in a family of five, four boys and one girl. I started my grade one in 1994 at Chembe Basic School. I did my Junior Secondary at St. Charles Lwanga Minor Seminary and I completed my Senior Secondary from the same school in 2005 with division one. In 2007 I did a computer course at St. Raphael’s printing project in Mufulira where I came to know the Christian Brothers. In June, 2008, I started studying marketing management at the Institute of Commercial Management. I completed my Diploma in May 2009 with a distinction and worked for two months before entering the Christian Brothers Come and See in August 2009. This was followed by postulancy in 2010.

Meet Our 2011 Novices - Lamin Tholley

I was born on the 11th of August 1978 and am the second-born son of Mr. and Mrs. Ibrahim Tholley. I have two younger sisters and one brother. I belong to the Temne tribe. My home is in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone in a town called Mile 91, so named because it is 91 miles from the capital city, Freetown.
My primary and secondary education, from 1984 to1998, was all in Catholic schools. Much later, in 2008, I attained a Teacher’s Certificate (TC) in the Northern Polytechnic (Makeni Campus). The subject I like teaching is Physical Health Education and also I am a skilled carpenter.
I have a patch of land at home where I cultivate rice, cassava and potatoes as food crops. I have also planted palm trees, mangoes, bananas and jack-fruits trees. I also maintain a fish pond. My hobbies are reading and writing. I enjoy a game of volleyball. I have organized concerts with children.
I am now with the Christian Brothers, in their novitiate in the city of Tamale, Ghana.

Meet Our 2011 Novices - Amos Kutwa

My name is Amos Kutwa Sibo. I am 27 years old and I am the second last child from a family of six children. Mombasa, on the coast of Kenya, is my place of birth. It is the most beautiful city in Kenya and is known for its tourist attractions.
I started my discernment journey as a postulant in the Congregation of Christian Brothers in 2010 in Arusha, Tanzania. During that period I had a chance of getting new horizons of learning, community and ministry. Working in a special needs school was a new experience for me. I really enjoyed it.
We started our novitiate journey on 5th February this year. The novitiate community comprises of people from Zambia, Sierra Leone, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, India and Australia. This gives me an opportunity to live cross-culturally. The most challenging thing so far is the hot weather of Tamale, but there is not much difference from the climate where I grew up. Coming to the novitiate is, for me, a more intense way of discerning my vocation.