A sports crazy Goan nun who lives for her little ‘angels’
The saintly Mother Teresa is said to have first received her calling to religious service at the age of 12 and later again at the age of 18. It was then that she was convinced where her future lay. As a child, she was exceptionally devout. The same could never be said about Kenyan Sr. Trifa De Souza. As a child she was never devout. In fact, she was quite the opposite.
Virtually every Roman Catholic Goan household gathered each evening to say the rosary. Some ultra-devout worshippers used to kneel on cement floors for more than an hour. The centre piece in every home, be it a single room or a several roomed house, was an altar with clay figurines of the family’s favourite saints especially St Francis Xavier and Christ on the Cross as well as several pictures of Mary with Jesus, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and several saints.
As a child, Trifa was not a fan. She ‘fought’ with her dad about saying the rosary, attending Mass daily and other religious functions. As she grew, sport was her main focus. Very quickly she was a champion sprinter at the Dr Ribeiro Goan School and later a star hockey player. She had a special partner in her sports adventures - her twin sister Nifa. In fact, the bond between them was strong in almost every aspect of life. A religious life was the furthest thought on her mind. When a priest pressed her to consider a life of the nun’s habit, she was quick to reject.
Yet, for two years, that snap outburst tormented her and she was filled with a little remorse and a lot of regret. Eventually, in the hope her action would be an exercise in futility and fail miserably, she wrote to a convent applying for admission. The moment she placed the letter in a post box, she prayed that they would turn her down. After all, life was pretty good. She was the sports girl of the moment, loved travelling around the world. She visited Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa to play hockey. She was such a good sprinter and the only reason she did not represent Kenya at the Commonwealth Games was because she had a Portuguese passport. Being a reasonably sensible girl, she really could not see any reason to give it all up. Imagine her shock when she received a letter from the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity accepting her.
“God has strange ways and what he wants he gets. On 25 January 1967 on the Feast of Conversion of St Paul, I started my Postulancy in Redcote Convent, Bitterne, Southampton. At that time, the Church was going through transition so life in the Convent to a certain extent was monastic. It was tough! The food, the weather, the rules all were difficult. We couldn’t talk in corridors and there was I breaking all the rules and getting into trouble but I enjoyed life without complaining,” she explained.
“It was difficult leaving my family, my friends, the wild way of life doing what I wanted to do climbing trees, watching football matches, other sports and taking part in athletics and hockey. It was most difficult leaving my sister. It took me years but I fought it and kept going,” she mentioned.
Thus began her life with the Sisters of our Lady of Charity and with her fellow nuns, began a devotion that was dedicated to helping young children, especially girls who had run away from home or children brought by social services. The nuns’ chief aim is to instill a sense of dignity, provide sanctuary and provide them with an education and prepare them for the world.
“Education, especially, secondary schools are very expensive and we need all the help we can get,” she said.
Her heart has remained broken from the day Nifa died in 1994. “I knew something was wrong. My head was aching and I had that feeling something was wrong. My body told me that she was dead,” she recalled.
The single most unforgettable thing about Sister Trifa is that she is almost cheeky, yet sometimes naughty, but there is always an innocent twinkle in her eyes. As a child she got up to all sorts of mischief.
While at school she fell in love with athletics: “At the age of 13, I ran 100 and 200 yard sprints and the long jump and won. The winners usually received clothing items like socks, scarves etc. This gave me the urge to do well not for the prizes but to get to the top,” she said.
“When I finished school, a group of us (formed the famous Spartans athletics club) who were interested in running got together to run relays. We travelled to Mombasa every Easter to run at the annual races there and enjoyed our success. In Nairobi, we took part in the annual Goan Institute Sports Day that took place every December 26 and it meant that we could not eat the wonderful Goan Christmas sweets and chocolates until after the races,” she fondly remembered.
Trifa loves all kinds of sports. “My favourite was Athletics and Hockey is a close second. I am still interested. My favourite international team is Manchester United (from that fateful day in February 1958 when 43 people including players, officials and journalists lost their lives in plane crash returning home from a match in Germany). My local Team is Gor Mahia. At the moment my favourite sport is Rugby and my team Kenya Sevens is doing fairly well,” she said with pride. Her only regret is that these days, she rarely gets to see live sport unless someone shows her.
Trifa’s life is really only about the children and prayer. She wakes each morning at 4 and begins and ends the day in constant prayer. “That is what keeps me going. If he should call me, I am ready,” she says with that cheeky smile of hers.
As she says her prayers, her face is lit by the memory of the thousands of girls the Sisters of our Lady of Charity have been able to help and prepare for a future in Kenya.
These days she looks forward to a day out with the Goan senior citizens in Nairobi. When she goes to the UK, she loves to cook at her sister’s home. Her favourite is fish raechado or a pork curry.
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