MISSIONARY SAVORS LIFE OF CHALLENGE

She spent the past two years in a strange country, where everything from the diet to the language were foreign to her. But Sister Jeanne Goessling can't wait to go back to Kenya.

Goessling has been a missionary to the African nation for the past two years, teaching in a secondary school and helping African women in their relatively new roles as Catholic nuns.

"Life is so much simpler there," said Goessling, who for five years prior to her Kenyan mission was principal at St. Mary's School in Cape Girardeau. "My schedule here was so hectic."

Goessling said it was her congregation's goals of meeting the needs of the poor, of women and youth that led her to Kenya.

She says her work in Kenya has been gratifying.

"It's been interesting to be there as we are just starting to receive African women, and assisting in education, which is Kenya's loudest cry," Goessling said.

The boarding school where she teaches has 340 girls. At the school, some of the new Kenyan nuns teach beside Goessling.

In her first year, she taught religious education, which she says is taught in every school in Kenya. Last year, she taught English to the students.

But the adaptation to Kenyan culture wasn't easy.

"I went with no expectations of what it would be like," Goessling said. "When I got off the plane I felt more of an awe than anything else."

When she first arrived at Kenya, she tried to cook like an American. She soon found that was impossible. She made a salad, but had to make the dressing from scratch. She's given that up.

"Now I just eat like a Kenyan," Goessling said.

That means she eats plenty of ugali, the traditional food of the Kissi tribe that Goessling lives with.

Ugali is a mixture of corn meal and water, which is cooked together until it takes on a "potato consistency," Goessling said. The Kissi eat it with every meal.

"If Kissi haven't eaten ugali, they haven't eaten," she said.

Goessling also has had to work through a language barrier. The Kenyans speak Swahili.

"I'm there to teach English so I don't really understand Swahili," she said. "I can only do greetings, and that is a frustration."

Despite the challenges, Goessling said her time in Kenya has been wonderful. And although her two-year commitment is up, she's going back next month.

When asked how many two-year commitments she's ready to make, Goessling says "Who know?"

"Normally after 10 years, there is a need for a sabbatical," she said.

Goessling said she's going back because she's done some good and feels there's more work to be done.

In November, Goessling will take on more responsibility by assuming the headship of the boarding school.

"The country is 28 percent Catholic now," Goessling said. "I think the church is coming of age."