It was with a great amount of excitement that I was sent to work at a seminary run by the Jesuits in Port Elizabeth, a small town situated along the south coast of South Africa. The seminary is named after one of the martyrs of Uganda, St. Kizito, and I was sent there to teach human development and computer studies. As it happened, I was also engaged in teaching the seminarians to swim and to play guitar, concentrating on growth and development in many different areas of the lives of the students. St. Kizito’s provides an orientation year to seminarians whose first language is not English, building up their skills in this language for use in their studies at a later stage.

I loved teaching at the seminary, and I valued the experience of seeing where in the community in Port Elizabeth I could best serve Christ in terms of my time and talents. I was deeply struck by the realisation that God calls each one of us to be himself or herself in service of Him. I found great joy and freedom in bringing into my teaching and interaction with the seminarians my own unique gifts and personality, and realising that it is this giving of ourselves as we are that gives God the most glory.

Apart from the work at the seminary, I was sent to work at a school for disabled children called Ithemba. Ithemba is the Xhosa word for ‘hope’ and is situated in the township of Windvogel, situated to the north of Port Elizabeth. It was my first experience of working with children with disability, and my biggest challenge was learning what the world of a person living with disability is like. I had to learn new ways to communicate, as well as ways in which I could help the children I was working with to lead more happy and fulfilled lives. It was a moving experience to try to bring the love of Christ to them in any way I could. Here too I realised the value of being myself in service of Christ.