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Day 30

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Breakfast

I sat with Deborah Wilson, the nutritionist that I met last night. She talked to me about nutrition gardens and gave me some excellent recommendations of groups that do this kind of work. She told about the Unicef program she had just completed. Through a mixture of teaching and gardening she has had significant success in building indigenous programs that show results in getting children healthier. One of the issues she raised which I had never considered was the importance of a child having their own plate so that a parent could monitor if they were actually eating a balance of foods. In places where the family eats out of a shared bowl, this is complicated, but important. So many tiny details that need to be dealt with, lots of warnings of failed programs that were too complicated, too obtuse, and not natural to the environment. Totally convinced that we are on the right path.
Clean water + clean hands + a slightly improved diet = exponential impact for life and health.

Walk to Dickson’s
I set out, after reading for a few minutes, to get to Dickson’s office which is about a 25 minute walk. I noticed how apprehensive I was. I kept probing in my heart trying to figure out what was producing the feeling. I thought I was over the culture shock stuff, but felt it all over me again--like a rouge wave that suddenly rises up and strikes an unsuspecting swimmer.

I live by routine and not by faith. This is my conclusion. Once I had a routine here, I was able to manage the feelings, but all day today I’ve been thinking it was the last of the known. The next two weeks are really unscripted. I think the massive uncertainty, the pressure of what I want to accomplish began to creep, then flood back into my soul.

I look back on the last 30 days and sometimes it seems the minute hand on my watch was frozen in place, at other times I looked up and a day was lost. I wish I had accomplished more. I’m completely stuck on the Christmas program, I have the right amount of Nouwen cards, but I’ve got to get them to fall into the right order, our mission team is in the final days of preparation for Ethiopia, but there still contacts and supplies I need to find in Addis. Its like I am trying to juggle all these balls and suddenly I realized they were all falling at the same time.

I’ve spent a lot of time being quiet. Mostly my real life is spent talking, communicating, calling, visiting, and teaching. Here I have been free to listen, think, reflect, ponder, dwell, formulate, daydream, and ruminate. Sometimes that has been great, other times it is really hard. I am privileged to have been allowed this time by my church and mostly by my family. They have born the brunt of my being absent.

Buckner Kenya
Dickson came and collected me and we headed to the Baptist Children’s Center. It is on the opposite side of town and took a while to get through traffic and then over terrible roads to arrive. Since visiting last year they have built two new buildings. One is in the final days of completion and when occupied it will leave the BCC just two classrooms short of their master plan. They are very proud and the children that have been sharing the church building will now have classrooms.

I got to see the new electrical system. They have run by generator until this year. Through a gift by the Red Dot 100X fund they now have electrical power through the whole compound. I took pictures of the pole and the junction box. Dickson was so excited that the children now have electricity, and not just for a few hours each evening.

We stopped into several classrooms and kids were busy studying, but like kids everywhere welcomed the distraction of a guest in their room.

We also looked at the nutrition garden that they have and the drip irrigation they use to grow food for the children. I took pictures to take to Ethiopia and share with Getahun and our team.

Hamburgers
Dickson stopped at a hamburger place for us to have lunch. They have a Thursday special buy one get one free. I was ordering, so I ordered two burgers and one set of chips (French fries). Then the price. It was as if I was paying for two burgers. I remind him of the special. He said, “Yes, we have that special today.” Then I wanted to know why it was so much. He said I orderd two hambrugers. Yes, one is free. “No,” if you want only two hamburgers then order one hamburger and you will get two hamburgers. Fine I said and ordered one hamburger and got two. It was not a great burger, but the chips were really good.

Flora
I came back and started working on the Nouwen file. After and hour I started feeling sleepy so I began the process of packing. I really got anxious. It seems like my stuff has grown. I’m not sure how I got all this junk in these two bags. I did as much as I could and then went back to work on Nouwen. After a break for dinner I came back and finished phase two of the Nouwen project. I now have a calendar of everyday, I have the holidays on the calendar, the day of the week connected to the date, and I have the entire text of the four Gospels split into 365 readings and each days section is printed in the appropriate day. Phase three should take about 5 full days. I will retype all of my Nouwen quotes and link them into 7 categories and then assign all the “Day Quotes” to a specific day. . . Phase four is to write two or three thought questions for each day. Phase five is to connect every day to a photograph. Phase six will be to produce 365 separate pages that have all these pieces of information attractively organized on a page that can then be reproduced in a book form. In 2009 my church families will have opportunity to get the book or get a page delivered by email each day.

Wednesday June 18, 2008

Last day at Tangaza

Today we turned in our papers. I wish that I could have heard a report from the other students, what they investigated and what they learned. I did talk to one person who wrote on colors in African culture. It sounded vaguely interesting, I would day blue or blue green.

Then we heard several concluding lectures and saw a presentation from one of the classes on the issue of leadership. Then we met in small groups and talked about leadership in the African context, what they look for in leaders, what they want leaders to do.

After it was over several of the American noticed how different we thought the conversation would have been if the group had been primarily American. The Africans seemed to value listening to the needs of people and helping people as the key elements of leadership. We went around the room and described a leader from our perspective (an African Leader). No one mentioned, vision, inspiration to move ahead, challenge, the future, goals. Nor did they mention moral leadership that moved counter to popular opinion. It was one of the places I felt that we really at two different places. I think we believe leadership should move us to the future; it appears the group I was with thinks real leadership focuses on the present and the past.

After lunch I we said a brief round of good-byes and I was off to complete my Nairobi journey.

Karen Blixen House

Since I knew how to ride the busses around I jumped on the #24 and headed to Karen Blixon's House which was only a few miles away. Made famous by the movie, Out of Africa, the farm house is a national museum.

I was the only one touring the building and had an excellent guide who was very knowledgeable. The building is furnished with original furnishings that were sold at auction when she went bankrupt and had to return to Europe. Since the movie, people have been donating her things back to the museum. Some of the other furnishings were props from the film that they donated to the museum.

The school she started still exists, as does the church she began. The area is named for her and her reputation for caring for the African people is very high. They said that she continued to send money to the people the rest of her life, though she never returned to Kenya.

At the end of class at Tangaza one of the teachers said, "Everyone bring joy to others, we just have to decided if we will bring it when we come or people will find it when we leave." Life with others is about making that decision.

Ngong

The road to Tangaza is called Ngong. Out of Africa begins with the line, "I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills." The tour guide told me and then showed me the hills. He said the word Ngong is a Massai word that means knuckels. They say that when God gets angry with the Massai this is where he pushes down on the world.

The robet Redford character was buried at the crest of the second hill. This is a view from the Blixen backyard looking straight at the area.

Bus rides

After finishing the tour I went out to get a bus to Karen (a town) and then a different bus back to Nairobi. It was so weird sitting on those busses and reflecting on how much confidence I have now in my ability to navigate the city. I understand the money, the routes, where to sit, how to buy a ticket, how to tell them you want to get on, and how to tell them you want to get off.

I met a professional runner who travels the world running in long distance races. He trains in the high country. He was lean as a rail. He was reading a Christian book and we had a great conversation and exchanged emails.

Most people are very curios about me. Why am I on the bus? What do I think of Kenya? How long have I been here? Will I vote for Obama? Do I know the person they know that lives in the US? If you get in a bus and sit right next to a person you know that even if it is just for a little you are sharing life. You are on the same journey. It is one of the most equalizing feelings in life. I try to start a conversation eve time I sit down. Just to see whom (or is it who?) God will lead my way.

Preparation for the next leg

I dropped by the YaYa and sent off email, got some money to pay my final bill at Flora and set aside some for the Taxi ride to the airport. Then got back to the room and read my materials for the next couple of weeks and wrote out a daily schedule to make sure I get everything done. I have started thinking about packing, but haven't actually put anything into bags yet. My tidy little nest has to get all back into two equally balanced bundles. I was spot on with weight, so the little I have added will have to go in my carry on bag.

A Nutritious Dinner (Click on Cabbage to see article)

There was a new face at Flora, so as the rouving ambassador of the eating hall, I sat with him so that he would not be alone. He is a computer science teacher from Prauge, Czech Republic. He has taken a one year assignment at an Opus Dei College here in Nairobi. We struggled a bit to communicate, but had a good time. One of my friends from Tanzania came and joined us. We talked about his foot and his plans. The man from Prauge said, "Are you here together?"

"No," said the man from Tanzania. "He just (pointing at me) meets everyone at all the tables."

Just then a woman sat down at the table (also new to Flora).

"Where are you from?"

"New Zeland"

"And what do you do?"

"I'm a nutritionist."

"Really?," I say with too much excitement in my voice. We know that nutrition is one of the things we have to help with in Bantu. We just don't know how we are going to accomplish it. We don't know the plants, we don't know what they will think of the idea. We are just shoot in the dark on this one.

"Who do you do that for?"

"Well, I mostly do contract work. I work with NGOs in developing countries to help people with sustainable and local methods to increase people's nutrition. I've just come from Indonesia and am working in Tanzania, but hoping to get into Uganda. Nutrition is so important."

We then have half hour discussion about nutrition in low income, rural areas. She talked about nutrition gardens that help supplement people's diets with the vitamins they need. She talked about clean water being the foundation on which all other developments have to depend. She talked about hand washing. She is going to bring me contact information in the morning.

I really do believe God was in that moment at that table. I've been praying for just such a contact.

New Friends

I met with Ouma Owina, the AIDS educator. He was scheduled to speak tomorrow, but someone canceled so he presented today and then will speak again tomorrow. He is going to get me a visitor badge and I am going to go with him on Friday morning to the conference and listen to a couple of talks and visit the information booths and materials to see if there are resources we might need in Ethiopia.

We talked about his day and his dreams of finishing the Baptist School he had to leave because of finances. I could find worthy people to help here everyday.

This is the thing that will tear a person's heart out of their chest. We have access to resources that most of the rest of the world can only dream about. There is no way that it is fair. There is no way to make it fair. There is no way to fix this part of the world. There are no promises that can be made. There is just the lingering sadness.

When I said good bye to Maurice he said, "I hope we will meet again in this life."

And I responded, "If not in this life, then certainly in the one to come."

Mind the Gap

Day 28

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Dominic

I forgot a story from Monday that I wanted to preserve. The way from downtown to Flora is all uphill. I like it because it gives me a great way to train. Since it takes about 20-25 minutes I am usually dripping with sweat when I get to the room. As I crossed the last major street out of downtown a really tall guy moved right past me. I decided to take my walking up a notch and see if I could catch him. In just about 50 feet I was in front of him and cooking up the hill. It wasn’t long until I could hear his footsteps right behind me. We were both in full stride.

No matter what side of the world you are on, boys will be boys. It was like a car race. He would pull ahead, and then I would pull ahead. He got jammed up by some people and I went far ahead, then I got stopped at a street crossing and he timed it just right and moved past me. By the time we reached the crest of the hill we were both smiling and we introduced ourselves. His name is Dominic. He is a student of international relations and his hoping to get a master’s degree in NGO management. He says he pays to ride into downtown, but always walks home for the exercise. He thanked me for the good walk and the fun and then he strode up Ngong Avenue as I turned into 5^th Ave. to get to Flora.

Nairobi National Park

I was planning to visit the park, which we pass every day on the way to Tangaza, on Thursday, but am going to be with Dickson instead, so today was the only day I could go. I decided to take my camera, but I kept it in my backpack and therefore decided to ride to town instead of walking. Then in downtown I got van on route 126 and headed to the park.

I arrived at 9:20 AM wishing I had been a little earlier when I realized it opened at 8:30 AM. I didn’t need to worry. I was the first one of the day. They have a Safari Walk, we would call it a zoo.

It encompasses about 40 acres and is very beautiful. They have the major attractions, lion, zebra, rhino, cheetah, jaguar, antelope, warthogs, cape buffalo, and others. It was quiet as I walked and looked at animals. I got a few shots, but they looked like animals at the zoo, so I switched to the birds that were free, but were hanging out in the park.

For the first hour I was totally alone. Then three guys walked through talking loud and scaring the birds. Then a group of 100-125 kids from a school arrived. The birds went into hiding. The kids were great. A group wanted their picture taken with me. I think they thought I was a zoo exhibit. I decided to circle back around to see the jaguar/leopard.

This is where things got interesting. One of the zoo maintenance staff was cleaning near the cheetah cage. He said, “You have already been around once.”

“Yes, but I did not see the jaguar, so I thought I would go and look again.”

“Have you ever petted a cheetah?”

“No”

“Would you like to?” He said, and he put down his broom.

I figured he was kidding, but he said, “Follow me.”

In a couple of minutes I was standing in the cheetah enclosure with the cheetah. It had been orphaned at about two weeks of age and had been hand reared by humans. The two workers began to play with the cat and invited me over. They took my camera and started taking pictures of me with this huge cat. It just laid on the ground and looked around and purred. This is obviously not an American Zoo.

Then we headed off to the Jaguar exhibit. He said this cat came to the Safari walk later in life and was used to some people, but not everyone. He walked me down next to her cage. She showed me her teeth “Mean mugging” as Catherine Rohr would say. I was inches away from this beautiful and scary animal. She would let the trainer reach in and touch her, but I was not interested.

An unforgettable experience.

Animal Orphanage

Most of the animals in the Safari Walk came from the Animal Orphanage that is next door. When abandoned animals or wounded animals are found in one of the national parks, they end up at the medical headquarters. If they cannot be returned to the wild, they make the Safari walk their home. If they are too little to car for themselves they go to the hand raising area.

The Animal Orphanage has lions, cheetahs, ostriches, monkeys, servils, and warthogs. When you walk through the gate a worker is assigned to you (later you need to tip them). Mine walked me through the cages. He asked me, “Have you ever petted a cheetah?”

“Yes” I said with a smile.

“Really?” He said incredulously.

“Yes, just a few minutes ago in the Safari Walk.”

“Have you held a lion cub?”

“No.”

“Would you like to?”

“Yes,” I said out loud. On the inside I screamed, “Of course ‘Yes,’ Are you kidding? A lion!”

We went to a building, the nursery, outside a trainer was working with a very young cheetah. Inside they opened a cage and out wobbled a three month old lion. They took my camera and handed me the biggest cat I have ever held. She did not squirm but looked around the room. I petted her, looked at her huge paws and very sharp claws (one was digging into my hand). After about 5 minutes they said it was time to go and that I had to leave the cat with them. We finished the rest of the area and then I looked at my watch. It was 3:00 AM in Texas. I seriously thought of calling and waking Cindy up. I just got to hold a lion cub. The only thing I regretted was not hold it up like Simba.

I didn’t call, but as I was finished I head back to town and sent an email about it to Cindy and a teaser on my blog.

An unforgettable experience.

Downtown.

I needed to get some paper to print my research paper, because my new friend and proof reader was making marks on the pages, so I went in search. I went from store to store begin sent from one place to the next, but all of them only selling reams of paper. I only needed about 30 sheets. After about 45 minutes I gave up and bought a ream of paper.

In my search I had gone back by the movie theater and they have a Tuesday special. Matinee movie, coke, hot dog, and popcorn for $5.00 bucks. I couldn’t pass up the chance. I saw the Forbidden Kingdom. It’s a B- martial arts film, but the hot dog was great. All in all the day was going great.

Hit by a bus

I left the theater and was headed past the conference center. They drive on the wrong side of the road and we had been given a stern briefing at Tangaza about being careful crossing the roads. They said lots of people get hurt in the roads. I have been extremely cautious. I look both ways. I look two or three times to make sure. Many of the roads have a midpoint sidewalk. First you cross to the middle, then to the opposite side. I came to one of those junctions. I easily crossed to the middle and was waiting for a large bus to pass. Behind it I there were no other cars. I looked right out of instinct to make sure no one was driving down the wrong side of the street as I prepared for the purple bus to pass. I think if I had been looking left this might have turned out differently.

At that moment, everything suddenly stopped. The next few minutes are very surreal. I heard a loud slap, I felt like I got hit by a sledge hammer on my left side, the a huge crash, screeching tires and a purple bus hitting the curb just a few feet to my right. The next image I can remember is seeing the driver talking over his shoulder to people in the bus. It becomes clear to me that his door has popped open right as he was passing me and the door hit me on my left shoulder. Then it has slammed back into the bus making the huge sound. The drive had reacted by swerving to the right and slamming into the curb.

The driver is looking at me like I did something wrong. People in the bus have their faces against the window looking at me. People on the street have stopped and are pointing at me.

I imagine everyone thinks I should be dead or bleeding or at the very least been knocked down by the impact, but somehow, it looks like the bus bounced off of me. Its just an illusion, but I feel really awkward so I cross behind the bus and start on my way back to Flora. The people on the bus shift sides and are standing in the bus staring at me. The driver looks at me and shakes his head.

It does not take long, but my arms starts to hurt and I get sore, but I take some pain medicine and I seems fine.

An unforgettable experience.

Finalize the paper

My friend the AIDS educator came over to my room. He had given incredible attention to my paper. We talked about it together first the ideas, then the grammar, and typos. He had trained as a pastor at a Baptist school in Tanzania, but could not afford to finish. He is employed by the church as an AIDS educator and is in town for a big conference that I saw being promoted downtown. We spent about an hour and half together.

Here I am in Africa being taught by this incredible gracious African man sitting and talking about Colonialism, tribal conflict, and the gospel. It was so rich and rewarding. When I left I made the corrections he had suggested and had a much better paper.

An unforgettable experience.

Day 27

Monday, June 16, 2008

Breakfast

Its always interesting to see the new people at breakfast. If they are from the area, they seem to know exactly how to act. If they are from the US then they are confused. I know I was surprised by the simplicity of breakfast. A piece of bread, a cup of tea, and sometimes a fried egg, but if you don’t get there early or right on time then its, “No egg for you!”

The largest group of Americans to come to Flora arrived in the evening. There are 9 and they are headed to a mission trip. They are from Pheonix AZ from Grace Church. We had an interesting conversation about their work. It sounds similar to what we are doing.

I continue to find people who are in Africa trying to alleviate the suffering and difficulty of the situation. I don’t think one can come for the West without the firm conviction that something is seriously out of balance in the two worlds and that those of us with resources must extend our efforts to help others. But Nouwen said that guilt is not a good enough reason to try to help others. If it is guilt, then our tendency is to sooth our guilt with little concern for the actual accomplishment of real help. At the end of the day we feel good about what we have done, but we don’t ruthlessly evaluate our thinking or our results.

The trouble with this for us is that what might feel good to us, what might make us feel less guilty, might not be what is needed nor what is helpful. The West has invested money into Africa, but has not accomplished much. That is our real dilemma.

AIDS

I met an AIDS educator at breakfast. He is part of a program in Western Kenya and is in Nairobi speaking at a conference. He was articulate and passionate about his work. He told me that AIDS and violence go hand in hand and that there had been an increase in AIDS cases since the violence after the elections.

He said before the violence they had been seeing some successes. He invited me to come see there work, but that will have to wait for another trip. I really hope I can interest someone from Buckner into getting the training and helping develop strategies for us to use in Kenya and Ethiopia.

He was very interested in my paper and took a copy at dinner to read. We have an appointment to talk about it on Tuesday.

Obama

Obama mania is in full swing. Not a day has gone past without someone asking about him. Everyday there are multiple articles about him in the paper. He was mentioned in church Sunday. I see his picture in mattatus and in shops. The newspapers here even printed sections of the speech/sermon he gave last Sunday in Chicago on Father’s day.

The Christians here are so excited. They think Obama will help so much to counter the influence of Muslims. People here are excited to have such an outspoken Christian leader who reflects the racial complexities of Africa. Even if he does not win, they believe he helps represent the face of modern Christianity which looks less and less white and more and more racial diverse.

Museum

I went to the natural history museum. The last time I was in Nairobi our hotel was just past the entrance to the museum and I kept wondering how I could go see the inside. I never made it. I decided to make it a goal for this trip. In reading my fieldwork notes it suggested going to a museum so I gladly put this on my agenda. I met Maurice downtown and we walked to the museum, probably an hour journey. The walk through downtown was great. We stopped at the Catholic Cathedral (very modern) and it has a tall bell tower that I decided to come back to later and hike up for the exercise and view.

The museum has undergone extensive renovations and is very good. It has a section on the animals of Kenya. It looks like a Bass Pro Shop Taxidermy shop. It shows all the different adaptations that animals have made to their environment. There is a section on the history of the museum where there is information about the Leaky family and their legacy of knowledge about Kenya.

The display on fossilized remains found in Kenya is very interesting and shows comparative analysis of skulls.

The area of natural history I was most interested in was the section on birds. The history section said that the museum got its start from a group of bird watchers who were making a through collection of the birds of Kenya. This massive collection has hundreds if not a 1,000 birds. I looked through cabinet after cabinet of birds. I told Maurice that God was in a great mood when birds were being created--the incredible diversity, the beauty, the oddness, the joy. They could have all been blackbirds, but no there are amazing varieties.

Upstairs was an exhibit that was perfect for my class. It was as if they had been attending our lectures and then went out to get artifacts from communities that illustrated the ideas. Then they made a video about some of the rituals. We watched the whole thing. It was like getting to travel all over Kenya at just the right moments to witness the cultural being lived and taught. I am going to make a strong recommendation to anyone attending the program to start in this exhibit. Its like a fast on-ramp. There were also two very good photographic exhibits. The last exhibit was about stone painting and stone art very informative.

Like so many things we find in the great museums (British Museum, Louvre, Field Museum) they have been taken by the West as the spoils of conquest. The cave and rock art is being taken by the new conquest of Africa, materialism. People from the West are buying it from the black market. Much of it is being destroyed in the process of “recovery.” While in the exhibit and they are showing examples of the destruction it made me feel embarrassed for the greed and selfishness of our culture.

Archives

After finishing the museum we walked back downtown because I had seen a building called the national archives. Maurice had not been to either place so he did not know what the building contained, but I wanted to go and see. It had a collection of art and artifacts from all over Kenya. It was at the core someone’s private collection that they gave to Kenya on their death. It showed the broad diversity of art and artifacts in Kenya. There was a picture gallery telling the history of Kenya from the late 1800’s until the modern day. I found the section on the Mau Mau uprising to be the most interesting.

Internet

I went to the fourth floor of a building near the Archives and the Hilton where I had been told a good Internet café existed. There were probably 40 computers all with flat screens (the key board was still broken and the connection slow). I posted email and the blog read my income mail and it took the standard hour.

Finalizing the paper

I reread my paper, made additions based on my interviews and experiences this weekend and then printed out my paper so that I could share it with my friend. Immediately I found several errors so I have to go tomorrow and buy more paper because I am down to one sheet.

Out of Africa

After two days of trouble my DVD drive started working again on the computer for no apparent reason. I had been waiting to re-watch Out of Africa because Karen Blixon’s house is here very near Tangaza and I was going to see it after my last day of class. I decided to watch the movie while the computer was working. It’s a sad movie and even sadder now that I have been here. The problems that were ushered into Africa at that time have taken full root. People displaced from their own land by force have been marginalized and still must ask for permission to have a place to live. The west tried to turn Africans into proper “Westerners” which makes them not fit in either location. Trash has become a huge problem. Morality and its consequences have just switched from STD’s to HIV.

I finished the evening trying to get through another section of the book on S. Africa’s truth and reconciliation commission. Story after story of horror followed by the dignity of people who have every right to be vindictive, bitter and hateful, but instead have found room for grace, generosity and forgiveness.

Preview of Tue. Hold the lion

Day 26

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Rain

I woke up to the sound of heavy rain. I thought of my clothes, but rolled back over. They will dry eventually. I got dressed and got out my raincoat and headed to church. It is just about a 15 minute walk. Lots of other people were headed to churches all around the area.

Church

I went to the Nairobi Baptist Church again for the 8:30 service. The singing was good and I knew a couple of the songs. The others were good and I tried hard on the Swahili songs to keep up. The sermon I head was fantastic. The wife of the man who preached last time preached this time. She is much better. I took a ton of notes.

It was as if God was speaking just to me. I think all the school, all of the reading, all of the listening just coalesced in the sermon event and I got clear in my head a few ideas. I got a whole sermon series for the fall and felt really energized when I left church.

The Sunday Paper

I bought the Sunday paper and came to Flora and sat outside and read the whole thing. Then I did the Sudoku. I actually finished it. Then I decided that for Father’s day I would go to the movie. The family had seen “The Incredible Hulk,” so I picked that same movie.

I got confirmation that the theater I had seen in downtown was the one advertised in the paper, so with 45 minutes to spare I set off for the movie. It was peaceful and quiet as I walked through town. My route took me right next to Parliament and then the main conference center, then past the basilica, and then finally into downtown.

I got to the theater and bought my ticket (assigned seating), got popcorn and a diet coke all for about $6.00. The theater was very nice, big screen, steep seats, great sound, and the film was not scratched. I loved it. After the show I came back to Flora.

Calendar

I went to work on adding the scriptural text into each day of the calendar. I got through two months in about 2 hours. So that gives me a rough guess of how long that step of the process will take. After I get that completed I will take the 365 readings from Nouwen and link them to each day of the calendar. That will be a huge typing job and a huge undertaking. When I finish that I will start trying to add a photograph to each day. Then I will have a series of questions that amplify or unpack the day. Sometimes I look at it and shut down for feeling overwhelmed. All I can do is the next part I tell myself and try to push on.

My bible program stopped working again, and without it the project is sunk. I’m trying not to think about that while I take a break and write this report. Hopefully I can figure out what is wrong this time and get it back up and working.

Unexpected Dinner

I went to dinner expecting another quiet meal. Then I saw a face that made me think a conversation might develop, but they went and sat at the opposite end of the room. I had passed up sitting with others, thinking we were going to sit together, and when that didn’t happen it felt too awkward to get up and move tables. So I sat alone and ate. I was a little sad. No, I was really sad.

Then a lady came and sat at my table. We started to talk. She is from Western Kenya and near the area I had traveled. We had a great conversation. She was so interested in what I had been learning and my impressions of her area. She couldn’t believe I had a son in college.

About that time one of her friends came an joined us. She is from Zambia and just moved to Nairobi on Monday and is looking for a home. She is on a three year assignment working with NGO’s in trying to help them increase their capacity and especially to help them help women. She was so bright and helpful. She ran a radio and communications division where she came from and is now the director of communications for a large African consulting firm. She was in charge of an AIDS awareness program that sounded really interesting

What they found is that their AIDS education materials were not getting read. There is not universal literary so they tried to think of other ways of getting the information out to people. Public service announcements on the radio get tuned out, so they decided to co-op radio soap operas. Yes, that is what they have hear. Similar to the states, but on the radio.

They hired writers to help write characters and situations into the regular scripts and had them deal accurately with the information. Over time they were able to get lots of good information to lots of people. Very impressive. I was so encouraged by the end of the meal.

Ethiopia Team

I wrote a long report to the team that will be meeting me in Ethiopia. I’m so excited about the trip and think what I am learning is going to set the stage for a number of strategic initiatives in Ethiopia that I believe will bear great fruit for the gospel.

Father’s Day

I called my Dad to wish him a “happy father’s day,” but they were out. I left a message, but since I know he reads this frequently, then I will say it again here, “Happy Father’s Day!”

Day 25

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The time gap between Nairobi and Athens is weird. When I am getting up on Saturday, Ya’’ll are going to bed. This morning I got a text from Cindy that they needed some info that they thought could help them to find. We tried by text for a while, but then I called. It was a difficult time and one of the first times it really felt like my being gone was a bad thing for my family. I carried a lot of guilt around all day, but couldn’t figure out how to help in the situation.

MOMA - Museum of Modern Art

My next field research was to go to an art exhibit about the post-election violence. Since my paper is on peacemaking in the light of the riots, I thought it might be helpful to try to crawl inside some of the thinking at the time. The art exhibit might give me a unique insight. I left late from Flora because of the phone call and really hurried to downtown. I got their 8 minutes early ( I hurried een faster than I thought possible). Maurice and I then went to meet a couple of other teams that were going to the same exhibit. We had to wait about 30 minutes, so all the hurry was unnecessary. I bought a coke because I was thirsty.

The exhibit was painful. It was graphic. There was lots of death. It was scary. The disparity between what was going on at the street level and what was going on at the political level was stark. In all of the time of the hanging chad, I never felt like our country was going to descend into madness. It happened here.

It is clear now that the president of Kenya stole the election. They continue to refuse to make a full accounting of the ballots. His party hired thugs to go into the towns and help create the violence and pit tribes against each other. They staged the crisis, knowing that it would give them power to negotiate. They should have lost all power but managed to keep 50% of the power. It was so terrible.

There were photographs from the towns I had visited in Western Kenya. It is hard to believe the cynicism required to use age old tribal injuries in this way. It makes me so proud of our system of government, and so glad for great leaders in our past who limited themselves.

Yaya and beyond

I made it back to Flora and at a quick lunch and then headed to the Internet Café to see if I could help the home information situation. I took a bus and got there in about 8 minutes. I ran up the stairs only to find the door closed. The lights were on, but they told me the Internet was down. I got on a computer and typed my Friday blog hoping the computers would start working, but to no avail.

I asked if there was another place near. They sent me across the street. The difference between the YaYa and the second floor of the opposite building was stark. One is a place the other a hovel. One is shiny the other smudged.

The Internet crawled, sputtered, stalled and then died. After 30 minutes I gave up and went back across the street to wait. Still it was on the fritz so I wandered the stores until finally the door was open.

After an hour I had not solved the problem back home, felt totally like a failure, and logged off and walked back to Flora. It started to rain. I didn’t have my jacket or an umbrella. I crossed the street to catch a bus and it didn’t stop when I tried to wave it down.

The rain drop on the end of my nose turned loose.

By then I decided there was no real reason to get in a small box with other wet sweaty people, so I just kept walking. By the time I got back, the rain had stopped and I was mostly dry. The cloths I had hung out in the morning were still damp.

Flora

I typed notes from the day. I added information to my paper that I got from Dickson, and made sure I had completed everything else I could. Then I started in on the Nouwen project for a couple of hours.

By the end I had a calendar produced with the four Gospels split into 365 different units and had assigned each unit to a day. I had also gotten the official holidays and put them into the calendar. At that I quit.

I then read another 100 pages in my book on South Africa, and drifted off the sleep.

Day 24

** Just added first three days of trip, about Lawrence, my friend Holly, and my hike. Click on May on the left side and read 1.5, 2, 3. **


Friday, June 13, 2008

Translator

When I jumped on the van our friend who had been mugged was sitting on the back seat. He face was swollen. He has stitches on his forehead. His moustache was half-shaved and he had more stitches on his top lip. He was black and blue. We talked for a while. He told us the story. They missed several buses, had three flat tires, got to town late, couldn’t find a bus, got a bus, but would not go all the way. He got out close to his residence, but right infront of the store. He decided to stop quickly and then head home.

He does not remember anything about the attack. He just remembers waking up in the emergency room. A person had brought him from off of the road, paid a deposit and guaranteed to pay the bill if necessary (just like in the Bible).

Last day of class

This was the last day of lectures. Dr. Katola tried to finish with evil and its manifestations in society. Heard lots of stories of how these beliefs influence so many daily behaviors.

At the end of class he met one-on-one with us and reviewed our papers. He had only a few suggestions for me, so I was glad to get to go quickly. I have three more interview events to complete through the weekend, revise my paper, a take home test, a class assignment, and book reading and then I turn everything in next Wednesday.

Dickson (Click on this and read about Dickson's recent success)

Maurice and I had rescheduled to meet Dickson this afternoon, so we grabbed lunch quickly and then headed across town. This is way easier to say than do. We grabbed a Mattatu that got us back into town. Then we got one that was to go across town, but at the Kibera slum it turned into the slum. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa with over 1,000,000 people living in it. Not the place for us.

We jumped out and started walking. The roads were in gridlock, so we put on our walking shoes and went fast. We made it the Dickson’s with just a few minutes to spare (totlat travel time 1:53).

Dickson is from the Luhah tribe so I got to interview him for my paper and add an additional tribal perspective. We had a great visit and interview. He invited me back next week and I will go with him on Thursday and go see the work in Nairobi. I will also meet the Buckner interns who arrive on Wed.

Back at Flora

I started both of the books that I have for the weekend. The first is about Prestor Johns (Mythical King of the Christian Kingdom behind the Muslims that drove much of the explorations of the 1300-1400’s). It is not a very good book so I struggled through three chapters before falling asleep.

I got up and showered as several of us from the class had decided to go to the Carnivore restaurant for dinner.
I got dressed and went to the road to wait. After a 20 minute wait I called the driver and they had decided not to go after all and thought I had been contacted. Kinda felt like getting dressed for the prom, but not getting picked-up.

I barely got to eat at Flora and then returned to my room.

Country of My Skull

I began reading a book about S. Africa, the end of Apartied, and the Truth and Reconciliation Committee. Another in a series of seriously depressing books about the brokenness of humanity. I kept asking myself how. How can we look at other human beings and see nothing but animals? How even if animals, could we act in such inhuman ways? At 10:30 PM I put the book aside and watched a movie on the laptop.

Day 23

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Flora

I shared breakfast with two new people to Flora, both from different parts of Kenya. They have come for business. One was an Anglican priest, the other a Catholic priest. We had a great conversation. It always comes to Obama. His nomination has done something very powerful here in Africa. It has given so many people a new understanding of America, given people hope, and lots of joy. The newspapers have many articles about him.

Class

Today Dr. Katola talked about the ideas about God in African Religion. The critical moment came for me as he talked about the names of God. We have people from 8 different countries in the room, and then at least 5 different tribes of the people who are from Kenya. He went around the room and asked people what they called God. He wrote this long list on the board.

In an area where there are 42 different languages spoken in the same country we have a communication problem that African’s just don’t get. We (westerners) have told them or God is different than their God. They say, “Yes, you call God something different than we do, just like the Luo, the Kikuyu, the Massii everyone has a word in their language for God, but we are all talking about the same thing.” In a massively multi-lingual world, the fact that people switch frequently between languages and words that refer to the same thing, means that for us to teach anything distinctive is going to first have to be filtered through the this cultural idea.

African Question: “Why should I try to get someone to use my word for God when we are all talking about the same thing?”

It is a totally foreign concept to them to convert others. Both Muslims and Christians have faced this idea. What we have mostly done is condemn their God (definitely monotheists) and told them that their God is false, but then they read the Bible and get to Romans that says that God has made himself known in the world. Africans say, “Yes, that is what we believe.”

I really am going to have to think on these things. This feels like a huge issue for the reality of evangelism.

Yaya

I made my daily journey to the Internet. Read lots of email responded and posted by blog. Then I went to the travel agent and tried to purchase some air tickets that we will be using later, but after a while they finally decided they could not help. They could find the reservation, but they said I would have to deal with the airlines directly at the airport. They told me not to worry and that the reservations are firm. I still want to get them purchased, as they are the only ones that are not yet paid in full.

Imperial Reckoning

Caroline Elkins won the Pulitzer Prize for this book. The newspaper had printed excerpts from the book and it intruded me. It tells the story of the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya in the 1950’s. It is a shocking tale. The British displaced the Kikuyu tribe when they took over the country. This ancient tribal land was given to the new settlers with no compensation and the tribe was driven to smaller less productive land.

Through the early 1900’s there was a growing resistance to the British rule and with India’s revolt and independence the people of Kenya moved to fight for their freedom. The British were determined not to loose Kenya and to protect the white settlers.

The British governor decided to reeducate the entire tribe. Nearly 1.2 million people were captured and imprisoned in camps for about 8 years. A series of torture camps were set up in which a person was broken from their dedication to a free Kenya. I they would not renounce this idea, they would be sent to worse and worse camps and tortured more and more until they finally broke.

Officially 11,000 people were killed in the process, but according to census data by the time it was over between 150,000 and 300,000 people were missing. The government destroyed the documents and has tried to keep the information sealed even until today. How can people come out of WWII and the Nazi camps and 10 years later be doing the same thing?

The evil, racism, violence was staggering. The clear violation of all the conventions signed at the end of WWII was explained away as a country emergency. I have talked to many people about it, but most do not want to talk about it. It is as if it never happened. There were never any “war crime” trials, never any reckoning, and no memorials.

At the end of the time when they had broken the last resistors, enough information had finally gotten out and the British realized they had to get out of Kenya. They turned the country over to the people they had been torturing.

I finished the book about midnight. It made me so sad and hard to sleep. So many of our problems come from our view of other people. Are they like me? Do they deserve what I deserve? How do we treat enemies?

Jesus is clear about this. How can we keep people locked in Guantanamo for these last 5 years without real trials, real charges, and real justice? Will people look back at us and wonder why nobody did anything? Is torture a good way to proceed even if it gets information that we want?

I keep my discomfort with our policies to myself because we seem to think it disloyal to the “War on Terror” and to our military to say anything. But as I read the accounts of what the German public said during the Nazi camps, when I read the accounts of the British officers and people who were quiet during the torturing and murder of at least 100,000 people in the name of “supporting the government” I am not convinced that this is a very valid stance. I was glad to read that the Supreme Court has said that the detainees can get access to some justice.

I don’t want the terrorist to go free, but I don’t want us to give up our values because they are evil people and I don’t think we will win the world through violence and the lack of a real judicial system.

In the book it describes the silence of the church during the killings in Kenya. The explanation was that they were trying to stay in the good graces of the British government. People actually went to the camps, saw the torture and still preached to the Mau Mau that they should convert to Christianity. The hypocrisy was so chilling.

Bugs

Mosquitoes. In Texas, I dislike mosquitoes. In Africa, they carry Malaria. I’ve met enough people who have had it to know I don’t want it. This morning when I got up there was a fat mosquito flying around inside and at the top of my mosquito net. I killed him knowing he had gotten me in the night.

I have taken my medicine, but as I’ve been reading into the night it has been a nightly battle. This evening about 11:45 PM several of them must have found their way into my room. I swatted (they are much faster here than at home) missed, jumped, lunged, chased, lost them in the ceiling, threw my newspaper at them and hit them against the wall with my book. After one such battle I realized that my neighbors might call the police and report a struggle in the room. I just can’t figure out how to kill them quietly. It all contributed to a difficult night of sleep.

Day 22

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Morning Routines

Almost every day I wake up and wash clothes so that I do not get behind and there is time for things to dry. I have it down to a pattern now. I soak the clothes overnight, I wash them out, then I wash them in soap and let them soak for about 30 minutes, then I go to breakfast. When I return I rinse them 3 different times and then hang them on the laundry line to dry usually until the next day when I get back from class.

Van to Flora

We have a new driver and he does not like coming down my road, so I go out to the main road to wait. There is a small shack/shop near so I have been buying the newspaper and then standing on the roadside and reading while I am waiting.

I got into the van this morning and there were extra seats. Since I usually sit on the floor I was a bit surprised.

“Where are our friends?” I asked into the van.

One of the bible translators from the Sudan slid up to the front.

“Sam* was mugged on Monday night. He is in the hospital. Karen* stayed behind to tend to him.” (In hospital about 8:00 PM Mon – Thursday afternoon. *Name changed to protect identity, Bible translators in the Sudan)).

Sam had traveled on the same bus that I was on as we traveled to the West on Saturday morning. His research assistant lives within about 50 Km. of Maurice. They had decided to return a different way than we did. They got up early on Monday, took a shuttle to Kisii and then a different bus back to Nairobi. They got back late very near dark.

Sam did not go straight back to the place where he was staying, but instead went to the Nakumat (Grocery Store). He left the store at 7:30 PM. He was walking near the stadium and railroad tracks and remembers getting hit in the head. The next thing he remembers is stumbling around. They took his money, emptied his pockets, took his shoes. His glasses were gone. His eyes are swollen nearly shut and his teeth are chipped.

Some good Samaritans took him to the hospital. Since he did not have anything, no ID, no money, these people paid money for him to get treated.

As Mat* was telling me the van was very quiet. It was a very sobering moment.

On the first day of class they had given us a very strong orientation lecture about preventing getting mugged. Three important things were violated:

1)Be in a safe place before dark (6:30 PM at the latest).

2)Stay away from lonely places (near the stadium /rail changing yard has a bad reputation and we had been warned to stay away from that area).

3)If you have to be out late only travel by Taxi.

Class

The early lecture was on Spiritual directors and diviners in African religion. These people are the counselors and discerners in the community. They try to help put thing right.

Dr. Katola’s class was on the structure, beliefs and practices of traditional Afrinca religion. One crucial area of the lecture was the conversation of afterlife. They have no concept of Hell or Heaven. The earth is all there is. Everything focuses upon this place. Reward and punishment happens here and now. When a person dies you either participate in the world as an ancestor or a bothering spirit. Hell or eternal punishment is almost completely irrelevant to traditional African people.

After lunch we had the final class on Ethnographical research. It was on asking questions that will illicit the information that the researcher wants to get. It concluded with an interview of some length with three Africans on the concept of evil, witchcraft, and witches.

Yaya

I dropped off my computer and books and headed to the Internet. I Figure it is a two-hour round trip to fast walk their, do the Internet and then get back to Flora. Since it gets dark about 6:30 I felt like I had time to make the journey with a good bit of buffer built in.

The roads I take are very busy. I walk past the Nairobi hospital that is very nice and modern. Tons of people were coming and going, super nice cars, very nice Western hotel is next door.

As I walk west the area changes and it moves to a middle class area and then a section that seem relatively poor. People are begging on the street. Some are selling fruit. Some cook ears of corn by making a fire in the inside of a cinder block and cooking above the coals. The ditches are filled with water and trash. People relieve themselves on the side of the road.

As I walk past people I am frequently looked at an only occasionally greeted. I caught the eye of person who then smiled and said “Hello.” It was the only thing said to me in the whole 2 hour round trip. Its like in the crowded world people create a buffer of privacy around them. Even though we are all flowing down the street and sidewalk we are carful to leave appropriate space around ourselves. The city life seems lonely for lots of people.

Return to Flora

I sat down at my desk and finished all the homework due on Thursday and then printed out all the pages. I reviewed the work that needed to be done for Friday, but needed to get some information at Tangaza to finish, so by dinner (6:45) I was ready for class.

Dinner

Seating in the dinner area is always interesting, people sit together and I have developed a couple of people who are inviting and friendly to sit with. The man I sit with mostly is quiet, but friendly. He has a foot infection and they are having a difficult time getting it to heal.

A European man joined us. He is a Presbyterian pastor in Holland and was passing through Nairobi on his way to the Sudan for a three-week teaching mission. We had a very interesting conversation about his work and our work in Ethiopia.

Invisible Cure

I got back to my room and decided to begin reading a book I had gotten at Tangaza. The Invisible Cure: Africa, The West, and AIDS. I absorbed the book and finished it about 11:30PM. It is an analysis of many different plans and initiatives to help deal with AIDS, STDs, and poverty in Africa.

There have been so many attempts to help. Almost all have failed to meet any of the goals set from the West toward Africa. It is a fair, but devastating critique of Western driven relief, why it rarely works, and some thoughts of things that might work.

The central theme is related to the lowering of the AIDS infection percentage in Uganda. Uganda is in bad shape. Idi Amin devastated the country, the transition from colonialism was botched, and The AIDS virus first moved to epidemic proportions in this area. Yet, in the midst of all this, a loose coalition of people were able to help lower the infection rates dramatically. They did not use any of the ways that the West says will work. They did not distribute condoms, they did not use billboard ads, they did not use abstinence education. All of these initiatives have totally failed in Africa. (I’m just reporting the book here, not my values, nor do I know enough to say what will “work.” I have enough experience and have read enough to know that the author is telling the truth).

Uganda used a grass roots almost free system of de-stigmatizing AIDS, homecare, and a simple phrase, “No casual grazing.” AIDS flourished in Africa not because of rampant sexual immorality, multiple partners, and strange sexual ideas (this is they way Africans are often portrayed). None of these seem to have produced the epidemic. The problem is we (the West) have believed these are the reasons and therefore have targeted our efforts at people we consider in “high risk” lifestyles.

Through moralizing the disease we initially convinced people that you only got AIDS by being promiscuous. We made it the fault of the people who got the disease. The startling analysis of the disease is how contrary this is to the facts.

The studies seem to indicate that the major difference between Africa and the rest of the world is the issue of polygamy and what it means in human relationships. Africans don’t have more sexual partners than people in other areas of the world, they just have them at the same time. The statistical analysis of this information and the computer models show that this creates the “perfect” setting for the AIDS virus to grow rampantly. In the West we have a very strong one relationship at a time culture, but in Africa it is not seen as betrayal to be intimate with two or three people at a time.

These people would not consider that they are “immoral” or living a high risk lifestyle. They would be married and possibly have a mistress (since polygamy is technically illegal, but ignored). They saw the ads as targeted at people who were sleeping around, sleeping with prostitutes, or using drugs. In fact the statistics show that sleeping with two people at the same time produces the greatest risk. The wife who might be entirely faithful (the usual reality) is exposed to what ever the mistress has and the mistress often has two partners. It grows exponentially very quickly.