Day 11 - Saturday, May 31

Lazy Day

I watched the Ghost and the Darkness last night. It is about two actual lions that terrorized a group building a train bridge in Africa in the late 1800’s. I have seen the actual lions (in the Field Museum, Chicago). I went to sleep after midnight, so I decided to skip breakfast and slept until about 8:00. I finally got up and showered about 9:00 and started studying.

Each class session we have a lengthy assignment that covers an analysis of one of our cultural traditions and then we compare that to an African cultural tradition. For instance: Bridewealth. A sample question, “Describe the process of spouse selection and marriage in your country. How is Bridewealth determined and paid?” or “Is your inheritance system patrilineal or matrilineal? What effect does the inheritance system have on marital relationships?

They usually take between 1 to2 hours so I decided to work through all of them today, so I will not have this daily burden. It is now 9:00 PM and I finished the last one. I was not able to complete them all but I am 95% finished. I will need to get to some books and have some conversations to fill in the small gaps I have with the resources I have at my room.

Mall

Lunch is at 1:00PM and I was feeling a little blue and was not ready to go back and study so I decided to go to the store to buy cloth pins for hanging my laundry. The man on the Fulbright scholarship (see three days ago) has his family with him. I asked his wife how she kept herself busy all day and she told me that sometimes they go to the mall. I chuckled, but she said, “No really, its amazing.” She drew me a map, so I decided to check it out.

I knew I needed to exercise so I set out toward the Nairobi Baptist Church to find out how long it would take to walk there and what time services will be held. It takes about 10 minutes and the service I am going to attend starts at 8:30AM. I then set out to find the mall.

I walked for 30 minutes and it did not look promising, but she was so certain that I decided to walk just ten more minutes before turning around and heading back. Right before the turn around point I came to it.

I came to the bottom floor. It could have been in North Dallas: polished marble floors and walls, immaculate decorations and air-conditioning. It is a three-story mall that has clothing stores, very nice. It had a fantastic coffee shop. There was an camping store that had top of the line hiking and climbing gear. It had a great grocery story (I got my cloths pins). It had the best Internet Café that I have yet found.

I was blown away. I got a Diet Coke a box of cookies and headed back to Flora. All in all it took about 3 hours out of my day.

Check out the mall's website http://www.yaya-centre.co.ke/about.asp

Father Goesh Abraha

I had dinner with my new Ethiopian friend. We had such a great time. I talked to him about what I was learning in class and asked him about his work. He lives on the far northern border between Kenya and Ethiopia. His is working with a Catholic Dr./Monk from Ireland who has worked in the area for over 40 years.

Goesh is trying to plant a church in Ethiopia just across from Kenya. He has raised $3000 dollars and needs $3000 more. I want our Catholic friends in Athens to start thinking about helping partner with him to reach Ethiopia. This would be an amazing connection. Wouldn’t it be fun to do this together, us working in one area them in another, but all of us traveling together for the sake of the Gospel.

This guy sounds like one of us. He is so concerned with people hearing the Gospel, being told about Jesus. He said, “I am going into the darkness to let my light shine.” He talked about the need for evangelism. He said the people of this area had never heard the name of Jesus. I was so encouraged. I couldn’t help but believe that one of the reasons I was here was to meet this man and to connect him to some of my other friends who can catch the dream and believe in what he is doing. I’m planning to pitch it to some of the Athens people I know connected to the Catholic churches in our area. (If you read this and you know people that might be interested, just forward it to them).

Katie Leatherwood

I heard from Katie tonight (Katie is a student at college and serving this summer in Kenya). We are planning to meet tomorrow, from her description I think we are going to meet at the mall that I found today. Odd? She said they are going to eat Ethiopian. I distinctly remember seeing one on the way to the mall. It will be great to see a familiar face.

Mind the Gap