Last Full Day in Kenya

I don't know how it has happened but today is my last full day in Kenya. I leave for the airport tomorrow at 2PM and fly to Dubai at 4:40PM. I have so many mixed feelings right now. I'm excited to go home. I do truly miss my friends and family. But the last couple of days saying goodbye to people over and over again has been really rough.

This morning I finally relented and packed my suitcases. They are heavy and full. I've still got some stuff to fit in them as well. I'm not sure how it will work but I know it simply has to work.

I met with Rev. Esther and have done the final check out sort of thing. I simply need Buri to finish filling out my final review so she can sign it. Hopefully that gets done today.

In case you want to track my planes as I go here are the flight numbers. Emirates flight 720 Nairobi to Dubai. Emirates flight 203 Dubai to JFK. United 11 JFK to SFO. I land in SFO at 2:33 PM on September 12th. To me that will feel like 12:33 AM on September 13th. So I leave at 4:40PM on the 11th and arrive at 12:33 AM on the 13th. That is a very long day.

I'll see many of you soon! I'll try to write more en route. I have many hours in airports between here and there so I'll need something to do.

Time is Short

I can hardly believe that my three months here are almost over. I leave in 10 days. I have real mixed feelings. I miss my friends from home and I miss just being at home. I miss washing machines. I miss my car. I miss smooth roads. I miss my cat. I miss watching movies. I miss TV. I miss my bed. I miss having adult beverages. For all these reasons I'm feeling ready to go home.

I am going to miss all the friends I've made here. I'm going to miss chai. I'm going to miss matatus. I'm going to miss walking everywhere. I'm going to miss dinners like rice and cabbages or minced meat and chips. I'm going to miss trying to figure out if the people around me are talking in Kiswahili or in Kikuyu. I'm going to miss the youth speaking to me in Kikuyu and expecting me to respond. I'm going to miss seeing guards standing at gates. I'm going to miss either walking people to the gate to say goodbye or being walked to my own gate to make sure I get home safely. I'm going to miss people enjoying the idea that I come from a village in Kenya called California and not some place in the US. I'm going to miss complaining about the roads around here. I'm going to miss the stares I get from children who aren't too sure what to think about a real white person. I'm going to miss saying "good morning" to people and having them respond "fine." At that's just the list I can come up with now. I'm sure there will be other strange things I'll miss once I'm home.

I do honestly want to come back here. Kenya has gotten under my skin. I'm telling people here to start looking for me around May of 2010. So many people around here think I'll marry a Kenyan. Marriage is very important to people here so when I try to tell them I'm not worried about getting married I get all kinds of crazy looks. Then they ask how will I have children. Children are also very important to people around here so I get even stranger looks when I say I'm not worried about having children. I haven't become too Kenyan yet. Yesterday I preached my last sermon here. It went well by the way. In my sermon I mentioned that I leave in 2 weeks so after the service a few people came up to me and said they couldn't believe I was actually leaving. I said that had always been the plan. They responded, each a little differently but basically saying, I thought you would meet someone, get married and stay. I was given so many offers of places to stay when I come back. I have so many good friends here. I had no idea that would happen.

People here are starting to tease me that I have developed some Kenyan habits. I'm not totally sure what all of them are but I am aware of some. I'm not going to say what new things I do now. I want to see your reaction to them once I'm back. I have become a little Kenyan even if I haven't jumped on their marriage and children bandwagon. You know that the first questions I'm asked by children here is how old am I, am I married, and do I have any children. Talk about getting personal fast. I have gotten used to it though. That doesn't mean than when I get back you all get to ask me how old I am, am I married and do I have any kids. Those questions are still a bit forward in the American culture unless things have changed a whole lot since I've been gone.

Back from Safari

I’m in my room writing another blog entry (as opposed to a place where I have an internet connection) because I’m just so excited and can’t wait to tell of my adventures. I just got back (about 3 and half hours ago) from a safari to the Masai Mara. Oh my goodness is it the most amazing place! It is most definitely a wonder of the world. There are just so many animals, I mean so many animals. They live together so comfortably and everyone has a job in the eco-system. I’m going to try and remember the names of the animals I saw. I can tell you now that I’ve already forgotten many of the names of the birds. I saw a baboon, a jackal, 5 female lions and 6 male lions, many many elephants, countless zebra, a black rhino, several warthogs, several hippos, a lot of giraffe, a few bushbucks, a handful of elands, many buffalos (and even saw 4 male lions kill a buffalo), lots of waterbucks, lots of hartebeests, many many topi, insane numbers of wildebeests (I mean these guys where everywhere!!!), a dik-dik, many impalas, and lots of both the Thompson gazelles and the Grant gazelles, a few crocodiles, lots of vultures, black collar doves, some bird that eats bones, the beautiful lilac-breasted something or other, a couple of eagles, several varieties of weavers, a flock of guineafowl, geese, and other animals I can’t remember. Can you believe all these animals live in one place? They just sort of wander around doing their thing and the people drive around in either vans with a pop-up roof or in fancy Land-Cruisers with openings on the sides. I was in a pop-up top van. I was getting pretty good a balancing standing up while the driver (Joseph) did his best to make the bumpy road a smooth as possible. With me standing was my Maasai guide George. We bumped around and into each other many times but I did try my best not to bump into him. I have a pretty deep bruise on my right arm from hitting the side of the car so many times. The bruise is such a small price to pay for the experience I had. I can not recommend strongly enough that everyone needs to do this at some point in their lives. I so hated to leave this afternoon. I can’t wait to go back. Of the “Big Five,” the elephant, rhino, leopard, lion, and buffalo, I only missed the leopard. So when someone is ready to go let me know so I can go back and catch the leopard this time.

Other than the excitement of the game drives, I spent a lot of time resting a reading. I stayed in very comfortable tented cabins. There was some very heavy rains Tuesday afternoon and again in the evening. The cabins are so well designed and cared for that the rain was not a problem at all. I took a wonderful shower with the sounds of heavy rain pounding on the roof. This camp has 10 tented cabins and a few rooms. I had a whole tent to myself. Way more than I needed but it sure was nice. When I checked in the receptionist told not to worry for my safety as the camp had an electrified fence to keep the animals out and there were two night guards that wandered around as well. Silly me, I never thought about the animals getting into the camp. Tuesday morning I saw that elephants had crossed from the park to the other side of camp (with the fence somehow they must have gone around us) so then I believed that was something to consider. The food was all Western food and actually quite fancy. It had been a long time since I have eaten that nicely. Though honestly, I was starting to miss my simple Kenyan dishes from the YWCA. The staff were all so wonderful to me and were constantly checking to see if I was OK and enjoying myself. They’ve only been open for just over a year so I think they are looking for more word of mouth referrals so I’m happy to say Ngama Hills Tented Camp is worth looking into when considering your safari. I do honestly hope to go back there some day.

I don’t want you to think that all I’ve done is relax and have fun. Last week was an exhausting one. St. Andrews had Vacation Bible School and I was second in command for that. We had about 170 children per day and we went Monday through Saturday from 8:30-12:30 everyday. There were so many kids and we had a very tight schedule and Kenyans are not known for their time keeping so my job was mostly to run around to the six different areas every 20 minutes and tell the leaders and guides for the kids it was time to move to the next area. St. Andrews is on a hill so I was running up and down the hill I can’t tell you how many times. By Thursday people were mentioning how much weight I have lost since coming to Kenya. I was fighting a cold all week and on Wednesday I managed to develop a fever as well so they sent me to the nurse we had for the kids. A little cough syrup, a hot dog, some chips, and tea and I was back to running up and down the hill. I thought the volunteers would be annoyed to see me as I was constantly telling them to hurry up and move to somewhere but the kids and the volunteers did have a very nice week. It was exhausting for sure. I had to preach on Sunday and couldn’t muster up the energy to write my sermon until about 10 PM Saturday night. I was still writing on Sunday morning when I got to church. This time I wasn’t preaching in the sanctuary. It was District Sunday so people were supposed to have church with their elders in their districts. An elder asked me to preach for his district. It turns out that his district joined with two other districts and drove out to Hawa Children’s Home, something St. Andrews sponsors and supports. I was a bit worried that my sermon was aimed too closely at people who are members of a church too much that the boys from the home wouldn’t be interested but it seemed to work. Praise God for working in ways that I can not see, understand, or expect.

So now that I’m back in Nairobi feeling well rested and refreshed I’ll spend the next couple of days helping out with the high school version of Vacation Bible School. I also have a package to pick up from the Post Office (thank you Mom and Dad for sending goodies!!!!!!) I preach next on August 31st so I’ll spend next week working on another sermon, this time for the youth services. I meet with the Moderator tomorrow and we have some paperwork stuff to work on. (I’m loving my experience but I also want this to count for school.) Well as it seems the moderator is not in the office today so I'll drop off the paperwork for him and then head back out to Hawa Children's Home. The High Schoolers are out there with the boys right now.

Halfway Through VBS

So I'm exhausted. We have about 170 or so kids a day. There are divided up into 6 groups which are identified by colors. The kids have 6 stations to get through each day. At each station they do some sort of activity. We also have an opening meeting, a closing meeting, and a snack time. So to get this all done in 4 hours is just crazy. It feels like I get 5 minutes to breathe every hour. I make endless trips up and down the hill the church is on. The upside is that I simply have to be losing weight. People here are starting to comment on my shrinking size.

So the fatigue has caught up with me as I am sick once again. I have yet another cold. I seem to get sick once a month around here. They must have very different germs over here as I don't get this sick back in the US. Today I was fighting a small fever but I'm trying to not think about it and push on. I took some cough medicine from the nurse today so that has helped some. When I get home tonight I'll take some ibuprofen to hopefully kill this fever once and for all.

I'll be preaching again this Sunday. This Sunday is District Sunday which means instead of church being in the sanctuary it will be held in the homes of the elders. Each district has an elder assigned to it and one of the elders asked me to come preach at his district meeting. This district will be meeting in a home for children the church runs. So my audience will be from the very young to the very old. I haven't yet started writing my sermon. Hopefully tomorrow my head will feel better and I can start writing.

Well that's about it for now. I did receive some bad news today. My great-aunt Mary-Lou passed away on Sunday. There will be a service for her tomorrow in Denver, Colorado. Needless to say I won't be able to attend. Please pray for my family as we grieve.

August 11th

Ok, so I know that I have been terrible at posting on this thing. First off, I’m fairly private so there isn’t a whole lot that I want transmitted to the world. Secondly, I’m really forgetful. Together these two things keep me from becoming a regular blogger. Hopefully you can forgive me for that.

So to make up for the lack of posts for some time I am typing this up in my room and not waiting to have an internet connection to compose this post. The downside of that is I can’t check the blog to see what I have already said so I hope I don’t repeat myself. I’ll start with today and work backwards.

Today I went to a church in Karen. Karen has been the white area of Nairobi but that is now changing. The author Karen Blitzen had a place in Karen and when she became famous after writing Out of Africa they named the town after her. Many of the British settled in this area and that’s why it’s full of whites. The area is for the more upper class Kenyans and as the opportunities have increased for the black Kenyans more and more of them have moved into the area. The church I went to today is a black church. It was established 10 years ago and by Kenyan standards is a small congregation with about 200 members. I was at the church because my friend Esther, who I met in Kitui while on the mission trip, was invited to preach at this church and she asked me to come with her. I don’t go anywhere without singing for my supper so to speak so I gave the children’s message. I was asked to give the children’s message about 10 minutes before the service started. I used to hate being asked to say or something with so little notice but over the last two months I have gotten used to it. I just roll with the punches these days. After church she and I went out to lunch to catch up before she caught a matatu to Kitui. I also caught a matatu back to where I live to avoid the several block walk. I’ve been feeling so brave taking public transportation in a foreign city where the conversational language is one I don’t understand. The 20 Kenyan Shilling fare, which comes to 30 cents in US Dollars, seemed so worth it. It turns out I don’t know the public transportation as well as I thought. I couldn’t get out where I wanted to and ended up with a several block walk back to my home anyways. I have not done so much walking in my life. It’s no wonder why my clothes are all too big for me now. I feel a bit silly with my clothes so baggy but I can’t bring myself to buy new clothes. I’d rather go back to the US and buy the clothes off the rack than buy used clothes from the US on the street. The clothes off the rack here don’t last very long from what I hear so people buy used American and European clothes.

Ok so yesterday I went to a wedding in Kikuyu. David Wakogy was the groom and he is a friend of Evans who is a fellow student at SFTS. I received David’s contact information from Evans before I left the US and managed to meet David after arriving in Kenya. David runs a school in Kikuyu and went to visit the school one day in July. During that visit someone else at the school mentioned that David was getting married and that I should come to the wedding. It turns out that I was free yesterday and so I decided to go. I brought a translator with me; he also served as a traveling partner for the matatu ride from Nairobi to Kikuyu. (In town I’ll brave the matatus, traveling between towns I’m not too excited to do by myself yet.) I was not the only white person at this wedding, the best man and the best maid were an Irish couple. The wedding was at The Church of the Torch which is the first Presbyterian church the missionaries established in Kenya. There were beside the Irish couple, a couple of American missionaries who regularly bring teams from New Jersey to the Church of the Torch. So I was one of five whites. I was the only one not doing something in the service so in the middle of the service they asked if I wanted to come and sing a song for the newly wedded couple. I politely declined but did have to stand and wave to the congregation. Ahh the Kenyans and their surprises. At the reception I was seated in the tent with the bridal party. I do try to be one of the crowd but I seem to always be treated to some honor. My translator was a little uncomfortable with it but he just had to adjust, as did I.

Last week at work was pretty quiet. I haven’t been able to meet with the Moderator in three weeks because either his or mine schedule did not permit it. This means that I don’t have too much work to do. I’m starting to get a bit frustrated by that and so I hope that will change. The head of the Children’s Ministry has learned of my lack of work and has put me second in command of Vacation Bible School, which begins next week. I won’t be bored next week. We are expecting between 200 and 300 children to come. It will last from Monday to Saturday. VBS is even eating up my two days off, Mondays and Saturdays. I guess I’ll not complain about having nothing to do again. On a sad note, I did learn that my Great Aunt Mary Lou is very ill with cancer and has been given 1 to 2 months to live. I hope to see her again before she passes but it is possible that I won’t. That does make me feel far from home. Please pray for my family as we all prepare for her passing. The only excitement of last week was buying a new camera battery after my camera battery refused to hold a charge.

I learned that my camera was having trouble the week before when I was in Mombasa. I went with the Women’s Guild, which is similar to the Presbyterian Women in the US. The Women’s Guild had their retreat in Mombasa so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to see the coast. I’ve been hearing so much about the coast since arriving here and many people suggested that a trip to Kenya was not complete without a visit to the coast. The retreat was jam packed with things to do so there wasn’t much free time but I did manage to swim in the Indian Ocean. The water seemed very nice to me but the lifeguards told me the water was cold. The lifeguards were told to stand next to me while I was in the ocean because most of the ladies who went didn’t know how to swim and they were not that confident that I knew how to swim. Reverend Esther from St. Andrews would not learn the beach area until she saw me come in from the ocean. She told me later that she was worried that if I drowned in the ocean that she would have lots of questions to answer back in Nairobi. I tried to explain that I’ve been swimming since I was six but as the lifeguards explained to me, many of the people from up country don’t know how to swim and are terrified of the ocean. I’m just so happy that I was able to get into the water and relax some even if no one with me was relaxed. I also took a short trip to old city Mombasa with some of the women but the shopping was not that interesting to me as the ladies wanted to buy household items and I don’t need household items right now. I just walked around with the women while drunk men tried to impress me by shouting things at me, at first in English and then in Kiswahili. The women talked back in Kiswahili and took care of the problem for me. Don’t worry Mom, I was well protected by these women because most have children my age so I was with 50 second mothers.

The biggest surprise I’ve had in Kenya happened July 30th. A classmate of mine, Don, is also in Kenya. He has been in Kenya nearly the entire time I’ve been here. He and I were good friends but had a huge falling out during the Spring Semester. When we discovered we were both heading to Kenya we agreed not to see each other while in Kenya. I have not paid attention to where he has been in Kenya. He however was aware that I was working in St. Andrews and on July 30th came to St. Andrews and my co-workers at St. Andrews were very excited to bring us together. I almost fell out of my chair when he walked in the Youth Office. We had a nice visit. I think we were both trying to be polite as Don came with his supervisor from his internship and a Maasai friend. He invited me to visit him in Amboseli but I’d rather go to the Maasai Mara. Hopefully I’ll go next week.We’ll see though.

I don’t know if this now brings you all up to date or not. If I think of something important that happened that I haven’t mentioned I’ll try to get that into my next post.

Wednesday After

OK so clearly I've given my sermon. I was well prepared but yet very nervous. The church was full and I was standing on an elevated pulpit so I was looking down on everyone there. I told the congregation at both services that they were the largest crowds I have ever preached in front of. They did laugh at the jokes I made from time to time in the sermon so I knew they were listening. Giving a sermon on stewardship is never an easy task, you know how much people do not want to hear anything to make them feel guilty about what they do with their money.

In both services there was an awkward transition after the sermon. I wasn't supposed to do anything but the elder that was supposed to call for the tithes and offerings didn't get up to do that for what seemed to be too long. During both services there was a wedding. In the first service we dedicated the team that visits the hospitals and during the second we welcomed new members and even had a new member be baptized. With all that was happening in both services I think everyone was glad it was the American preaching because my sermons are much shorter than the typical African sermon. They told me to preach for 20-25 minutes. I think I ended up coming very close to 20 minutes, maybe 18-19 minutes.

At the end of each service I walked out the center aisle and waited to greet the congregation. Not that I totally trust what people say to the preacher as they leave but the feedback was positive. I had mentioned in both services how nervous I was and many people told me that the sermon was good and that I shouldn't be nervous. Other said they would not have know how nervous I was if I hadn't said anything. They said I spoke with authority and even if I am nervous don't mention it to people. I checked with the moderator of St. Andrew's between services if he was happy with the sermon because I was preaching to his congregation, and he said he was very happy with the sermon. Mondays I don't work so yesterday was the first day back to the church and still people were telling me they want to hear another sermon from me. So, all this to say, the sermon went well, I still get so nervous. I thought the message was good and it seemed to be well received. Praise God that it's over!

So with my Monday off I went to customs to get a package from my parents. The Kenyan postal system did not impress me much. It took me over an hour to get the package. I had my slip which said Cindy Harris and when I showed my passport it said Cynthia Harris. They didn't believe me that Cindy is the short name for Cynthia so I had to go see someone extra to plead my case. After that they did give me the package to open and they took an inventory of the contents of my package. Then they stamped my slip and said leave the package and go to the customs supervisor. She looked at my slip, signed and stamped it and said to go back to the last person. I go back, that person then starts typing all these things into a calculator and writing on the back of my slip. She said to go back to the customs supervisor. This time the customs supervisor prints out an invoice of the taxes and duty charges that I owe. She tells me to go to the bank to pay my fees. She had to give me directions to the bank as I didn't know which one she meant. So I walk to the bank. I go in the the front door and they tell me all banking transactions happen in the back on the building. So I walk around the building and look for the window that deals with taxes. I wait in line there. I pay my 1588 Kenyan shillings of taxes and they stamp the invoice and I go back to the post office. Once back I go to the customs fees window and they give me a new slip as the one I came with is covered in stamps. I take the new slip to where my package is and they say have to pay 70 shillings in postal fees. After I pay that finally give me my package. I take the package to someone else who asks me to open the package again so she can write down what is in there. After that I go see a man who tells me that I can go but why carry the box and why don't I empty the contents into my backpack. So I do, put the box in a recycling pile and go. All that took over an hour.

I am happy to have the package as my parents sent snacks, vitamins, EmergenC, Echanacia Tea, a word search book, and a scarf. They Kenyans asked why I would need tea in a country that is always serving tea so I tried to explain this tea helps keep a person from getting sick. I don't think they understand and/or really prefer their own tea. So now I will share some of my snacks with my coworkers as they are really curious what sort of food my parents would send me.

It looks as if I will have a quiet week at work. I am so glad. I can use the rest.

The Saturday Before

So tomorrow I give my first sermon in the big church here. They have 4 services here every Sunday. Two in the new hall oriented towards the youth and two in the main sanctuary. I'm preaching in the sanctuary to about 1000 people before the day is done. That is a much bigger audience than my classmates in Preaching class. I also get to preach on every one's favorite topic, Stewardship. People live hearing about giving more of their time and money to the church. I'm going to take the approach that we are supposed to be responsible with the resources God has entrusted to us.

I feel like a bit of a hypocrite however as within 4 days I had money stolen from me twice. First incident happened while I was on a mission trip with the college students in Kitui. Kitui is in Akamba area and the Akamba people are known for practicing witchcraft. They believe in curses and being possessed by demons. Now most everything happened in Kswahili so I rarely knew what was happening but I'm told we did exorcisms and many people gave their lives to Christ. While we were there I became the object of desire of a couple of the guys who went. As flattering as it is to have two guys fighting over you I can't be sure if it was my winning personality, my pale skin color, or my nationality that was the attracting factor. One did profess his deep love for me and said God told him in prayer that his job for the rest of his life is to take care of me and to be where ever I am. That is very sweet. One big hang up for me is this guy is 24 and I don't know how much we really have in common. So at the end of the week when my money was stolen out of my wallet, which was in my bag on the church bus, these two guys were the prime suspects. Everyone was searched and the money was not found. One of the trip leaders also had his cell phone stolen. So that was last Saturday.

One Wednesday I finally managed to get out to see the Compass School in Kikuyu. Evans, a classmate of mine at SFTS, worked in Kenya for a year and spent some time at this school. I have been trying to go see the school and meet the people there since I arrived in Kenya. So someone from the school came to Nairobi to ride back to Kikuyu on a matatu with me. Matatus are vans that work as public transportation around here. They manage to squeeze 14 people into them so it is a very tight fit. While riding the matatu I was pickpocketted and this time I lost my entire wallet. So they got cash, my atm card, a credit card, my driver's license, my school id, and my insurance cards. The guy who rode with my also had his cell phone stolen. So once we figured it out we went to a cyber cafe so I could cancel my cards. No purchases were made so really it was just a huge inconvenience to me. Now I've ordered new cards and my parents are going to send them to me so I can have access to money again. Thankfully I kept some American money in my room and I simply exchanged that so I can eat and such in the mean time.

So right now I don't feel like a good steward of my money. God is most definitely humbling me before this sermon. I have no written out a transcript for this sermon. I have my main points on a single sheet of paper. This sermon is supposed to be between 20 and 25 minutes. I have never preached for that long but I am a good talker so I hope that helps me take up the time. I will also have to speak slower than normal because of the language differences. Yes we all speak English but my accent is different and I want to be sure I am understood. Mostly I am just praying that God takes over and the words are all His anyways. I do not feel like I can say anything on stewardship based on my week so God will have to do the talking.

So that's about it for now. I'll write next about how the sermon went.