JCAM 2021 27 Annual Review FORMATION WITHIN JCAM GOING TO SET THE WORLD ON FIRE: AN AFRICAN REGENCY Fernando C. Saldivar, SJ - JCAM I am now in the second year of the formation period we call back then, one of the thoughts that I had was, “Oh my God, “regency”, and which comes after we complete our “first they could send me to Africa!” The prospect of being sent to studies” in philosophy and our initial period in the novitiate. It live and work in Africa was so frightening, so foreign sounding, is an opportunity to live in a Jesuit community and work so off-putting, that I went no further. God certainly has a full-time in one of our ministries for 2-3 years before we are marvelous sense of humor in that what I would find again missioned to studies, this time for theology. It has now unbearable in my 20s, would fill my heart with such been five years since I walked in the door of our novitiate in tremendous joy a couple of decades later. Africa has become Culver City, California. Although each Jesuit has a province my home now, opening its arms to teach me, nurture me, and that they belong to, mine being USA West, we are taught early feed my soul in ways that I never imagined possible. For that, I on that the entire world is our home and one of the hallmarks am tremendously grateful and excited for where my Jesuit of our charism is a willingness to be missioned anywhere in journey takes me next. the world where the need is greatest. For me, “anywhere in the world” has come to mean Nairobi, Kenya. I have been missioned to be the Global Policy and Advocacy Officer for the Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa (JENA), a central part of the work of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar, helping to do research and analysis on social justice issues related to debt and development, human rights, disarmament, and climate change, among others. It is, by far, some of the most exhilarating, life-giving work that I have ever had the chance to participate in as a lawyer. In fact, a decade ago, as I was staring out my office window in Los Angeles, if you had asked me if I could ever imagine visiting Kenya, let alone living there, I would have said you were crazy. Yet, here I am, and I could not imagine my life any differently. In fact, it is a tad ironic that I find myself in Africa at all. Even Fernando C. Saldivar, SJ though I entered the Jesuits just shy of 40, I had first given © JCAM thought to being a Jesuit when I was in my early 20s. However,