| Goretti
became a nun at age 20. "I became a nun because I
liked to help elderly people. In the village, I would
help my grandmothers with the chores. We didn't have
running water, they were too old to go to the river and
carry back the water. I helped them with water and
firewood. So I had a desire to help in my nature. I saw
the sisters wearing white, and I wanted to be clean like
them and wanted to serve the church. I was seven when I
decided I would be a nun". Because of this decision,
she spent her teen years in a convent learning the ways
of the church as well as the ways of the Western people
that were there. This meant that she ate mostly Western
food and spoke mainly English. When she joined the order, the church
sent her to Germany to learn German and study economics.
She was there for three years. Unfortunately, she was the
only African at the university and encountered some
prejudice. She then wanted to go somewhere else, and when
she found out that the University of Louvain in Belgium
had a Nigerian community, she decided to study there. She
lived in Belgium for five years where she studied
philosophy and theology and learned to speak French. She
was then, after eight years in Europe, called back to
Nigeria to teach Secondary school and do social work.
|
Goretti
is in the middle
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