26 December 2025: Panama City

On our way to Cartagena,  Colombia, we had to spend a night in Panama City. We chose a hotel without stars to spend the night before taking the connection to Colombia. It is our first experience of Latin America although we have been living in the Caribbean for the last 24 years. We actually had no reasons to visit any latin american country before. I have seen Venezuela already from San Fernando, Trinidad, many years back.

This trip has a meaningful significance to me. It fulfills an old wish of mine. Since I was a child, I wanted to visit the town where my saint patron, Peter Claver, was buried.  I wished, I would at least once visit Cartagena. I knew about him since 4th form of my primary school. The first person to tell me about St Peter Claver was Fr Ben Van den Boom SVD at St Esprit Kenge. He told me that Peter Claver dedicated his life to care for slaves who were deported from Africa to the sugarcane plantations in the Americas. I did not quite understand that at that time. He told me about the Hatians, who were living in Kenge in those years, that they were descendants of the slaves sold by Tipo Tip, a name whose picture was in the book of history.  All that was too old for me to be true. 

In Kalonda minor Seminary I searched more about my saint patron. There were missals and books in the library describing the lives of holy persons. His celebration wqsbon September 9. Beside Charles Lwanga, Kizito, Dominique Savio, Jean Marie Vianney, Francois Xavier or Don Bosco, whose lives were very popular, I managed to read on St Peter Claver. I never understood the hole story about him. 

In Mayidi major Seminary I improved my knowledge of this saint patron. The fact that our training teachers were mainly Jesuit fathers opened my eyes to the jesuit father that Claver was. I could therefore better manage my experience. All was there at Mayidi. I could spend hours in the library for the sake of self training. It is in Mayidi that I built my book reading. I discovered that many catholic institutions and institutes had Peter Claver as patron. I was amazingly surprised. I continued my deepening of the knowledge by a steady reading of many books related to the topic of slavery. My view at that time was simply spiritual. 

In Rome at the Urbaniana University, I managed to write a research project, but for any reason the project did not reach completion. I really regret, not having achieved that goal. At Goethe Jnstitute Staufen, Germany, I happened to learn German language with two Jesuit Fathers from Colombia who pushed my excitation to visit Cartagena. One of them was trained at St Peter Claver University and was preparing his doctorate to lecture at that university. 

When I was studyimg French language and literature at Fribourg University, Fr Prof Jakob Baumgärtner used to talk a lot about the Mission of Latin America. He was a specialist of liturgy with a very high level of theological ecperience. He used to comment on the controversies around the evangelization of Latin America. He mastered the history and the theological backgrounds of those controversies.

What matters today, is that I am about to land at Cartagena airport in a few hours. A dream is becoming true. We are three Clavers in the Mabana family: Mama Mapasa. Mukawa and Kahiudi. And all three are visiting Cartagena.

To be continued.