Years ago I served as a lay missionary in the Kibera slums of Nairobi. I lived and worked among some of the poorest of the urban poor in East Africa. I lived with a Pallottine priest from Ireland who was one of 18 children and the son of a working blacksmith. It is not hard to imagine that household finances were stretched very thin, yet the father had a great compassion for the “travelers” a group of Irish people with their own traditions, language, stories and more. Known as “travelers” (lucht siúil, meaning the walking people) their history is filled with stories of discrimination, mistrust, and poverty. Continue reading →