Since July 2001 the community of Karungu is the place of the Novitiate, because this has been transferred here from St. Camillus Seminary, where it was before.
The reasons of the move are essentially two, the first being represented by the opportunity given to the novices of practising the Camillian charism in our hospital. The second reason is that it was not seen as proper to have all the three groups of formation – i.e. postulancy, novitiate and theology – in the same place (St. Camillus Seminary of Nairobi), even though they were staying in different houses. Though the novices remain in Karungu for the most part of the year, they spend in Nairobi three months every year (in thrcc different periods), to attend some intercongregational courses of spirituality, ethics and history.
To accommodate the novices, the community of Karungu had to face the problem of building a suitable novitiate house. This was done in a quite a short time. The house, which is facing the Lake, is constituted of three separate buildings. The first includes the kitchen, dining room and class-room. A second block has ten self-contained rooms for accommodating the novices and their master. This building is formed of two floors of which the basement co-nsists of an ample and modern conference room. The third building is the chapel, circular in shape. To accommodate the faithful instead of the pews there are steps, which de-scend gradually into a “cavea”, similar to the arenas of the Roman amphitheatres.
The novitiate has brought a wave of spirituality to the place since it is a reminder of our charism and therefore an enrichment for all.