I am Father Joshua Nailon Nyoni, coming from the continent of Africa, and the country called Zimbabwe.  I hope you hear me, and I hope I am clear enough.  Am I?  OK.  Well, my accent is Zimbabwean.  Zimbabwe, itself, was colonized by the British, and so we try to imitate the British when we speak, but say we remain Zimbabweans.  So, the population in Zimbabwe is about 13 million, and the political situation at the moment is really in shambles, because of the land issue.  Mugabe is fighting the whites, and the blacks are getting land, grabbing land here and there.  So, … trying to solve it… fading, and the economy itself is really down.  This is the situation concerning the country.  For myself, I am from a town called Hwange, just northwest of Zimbabwe.  Maybe some of you have gone there, or are thinking of going there.  Now this gives you a chance.  I am from the Diocese of Hwange, which has a population of about 800,000 people, and Catholics are only about 60,000, with 17 religious priests and 11 diocesan priests.  In that place, Hwange itself, there are some places of interest.  We have the Hwange National Park, where we have all types of game – elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions, you name it.  We have also Victoria Falls, which is one of the Seven Wonders of The World.  Victoria Falls itself is there is Hwange, so that gives you a chance to come and visit me!  Not only me, but to be able to see the beauty that God has created.

Now, I have been talking about Zimbabwe, talking about Hwange, and I need now to talk about myself!  Who am I?  Who is this man, this black man standing before you?  Just as I said, I am Joshua Nailon Nyoni.  Now, Nailon Nyoni was the name that I was given when I was born.  My mother and my father gave me that name, Nailon.  And what does that mean?  You know the nylon, the nylon cloth.  I think I was given that name because I was born during that time when the nylon was in fashion, you see.  So, to try to remember, they gave me that name.  “OK, you are Nailon.”  And I am Nailon.  When I got baptized, in 1984, I took the name “Joshua,” which means “Savior,” which means “Jesus.”  I am from a family of three.  I am the first, while having two sisters that come after me.  My mother is still alive.  After baptism, after two or three years, I saw the vocation, I felt it, and I decided to join the priesthood.  Then I went to do eight years of priestly training – a year of spiritual formation, three years of philosophy, four years of theology.  Then I was ordained on the 1^st of February 1998.  I went to work in a rural parish for two years.  Then I was transferred, and I went to work in the Seminary another two years.  Thereafter, in 2002 I was asked to go to Rome and pursue a Masters in Theology, with a specialization in Spirituality.  I completed that Masters in 2004, now I am just continuing in that same field, following a Doctoral course. 

What do I like?  Father John likes and loves what?  (Baseball, Nascar, Golf.)  You know very well.  (Theology!)  He’s a good preacher, eh?  He loves preaching.  Well, he likes and loves that which you know.  I will leave it like that.  He is mad in that field, you see.  When it comes to that, he is really ….  I like and I love soccer.  You put me in the field, you will really see how terrible I am.  I may be gentle and quiet when we are here, but when we go there, things change.  That is what I like. 

The question which might be in your minds is, How and Why do I come to be here?  Why do I come to be here in Los Alamos, and not New York or Chicago or whatever you can imagine?  I visited India in 2002. When I was in India, I was helping the sisters of Mother Teresa, who were doing some volunteer work there.  Of course, I was a priest already, so we were doing some volunteer work there, helping, washing the sick, massaging them, and doing all that, cleaning, and all that.  One time, the sisters asked me to celebrate mass for them.  I did celebrate that mass.  After mass, there came an old lady, the late Margaret Carter.  (Father John ~ Margaret Carter was a long time parishioner, she died in the middle part of this last April.  I am sure some of you knew here.  A long time parishioner, who used to travel the world helping the poor and those in need.)  She came to me after mass, and said, “Father, I liked your sermon.  You preach so well.”  “You’re welcome.  If it helped you, thank God,” that’s what I just said to her.  Then we became friends.  We started writing each other, and all that.  And then she’s the one who spoke to Father (to ask) if I could come here.  Recently, there was another lady who came also to Rome, Catherine.  She came to visit Rome.  And while she was there, I took her around.  We became friends, and in fact, she is also friendly to the late Margaret Carter.  And I also asked her if she could talk to Father that I may come here to Los Alamos, or that I may come to this place.  And, thank God, she did.  Thank God Father allowed me, … you allowed him to allow me, to come.  I don’t know that I have put it so well.  You allowed him or he did make the decision, I don’t know!  So I just come as a brother, as a friend, to come and help Father here.  Not to chase him away, no, he’s not going.  He is still here with you.  So feel free to come to talk to me and ask me.  If you want to ask me about Zimbabwe, about Hwange, about something in that line, about spirituality or in that line, feel free, please.  Thank you.

Father John ~ When I first communicated with Father Joshua, he was still in Rome. He is pursuing a Doctorate in Spirituality. He received his Masters.  I said, “Well, do you want to travel the United States?  Is this your first visit?  What’s your objective?”  He said, “I just want an experience of three months in a typical American town.”  So, desperate for help, I said, “Oh, yeah, yeah, that’s Los Alamos, all right.”