Day 21

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Journaling

I woke up early and wrote for several hours to record the information for emails and blog. Then I worked on photographs. I had decided to go to the one place that has fast Internet service (YaYa) so I knew if I took some pictures I would be able to put them on the blog.

This is the first chance to review all the pictures that Maurice’s brother took. He actually got a couple of really good shots.

Yaya

I left at 11:15 and had to be back by 1:00 for lunch and to meet Maurice. I hustled and got to the Yaya in about 22 minutes.

The Internet was working the best since I have been here so I had a chance to send my email, post the blog, and read all of my incoming email. I left at 12:35 and made it back to Flora at 12:59. I have decided to make the hike to Yaya every day. It gives me a good workout and has fast Internet.

Maurice was waiting for me and we had lunch before we went off to meet Dickson.

Buckner-Kenya

Dickson Masombano is the country director of Buckner’s organization in Kenya. He is a Kenyan trained in the US. We met him last year on the first trip to Africa and saw the work he is doing here. I wanted to connect with him again, since I was in town.

I wanted to interview him for my paper since I knew he would have some additional reflections on the differences between the way the US works and they way things work here.

We went to the address, but could not find it. I had been there last year so we looked around the area for a while and then called Dickson.

He told me that he had missed his flight from the West of the country and would not be in the office. I was very disappointed. It meant the Maurice had come all the way from Rongi at cost and we were not able to do the interview. It meant I had to pay him for the travel because the course will not reimburse him without the completion of the interview. It was frustrating. I had thought earlier that I should reconfirm with Dickson, but had already called him 3 times to set up the appointment.

I returned to Flora a little frustrated and tired to work, but my heart was not in it.

Christmas

I’m trying to write the script for the Christmas musical, but having a hard time making the breakthrough that usually happens to make the story work well. I wrote three or full pages of material, but still have not accomplished much.

I gave up and read for a while. I’m reading “White Man’s Burden” which is analysis of effective and ineffective ways that the west has helped in Africa. Its pretty depressing.

I took a nap for about 30 minutes and then got up to get all of my school work printed and edited. I had four assignments due in the morning in addition to the rough draft of the paper. I printed the last thing right before dinner.

Brandon

There is a new white face at Flora. We ended up at the same table. Brandon is a Canadian planning to start an NGO that will focus on raiseing funds for existing programs in Africa that are working.

He was so intrigued with what we were doing, wanted to know about Buckner and especially how the fund raising was done. How much is given to administration? We had a fairly long conversation that also touched on US politics, which every person I have talked to for any length of time eventually gets to. Everyone wants to know about Obama.

Research Paper

I returned to my room and proof-read my paper, finding lots of little errors, but overall felt good about what I had learned. I corrected it and then turned to Henri Nouwen.

I needed just a few more cards to get enough for the year’s calendar so I spent about an hour re-reading a bunch of cards probably about 100 and narrowed them down to about 25 which I will use in the final sort.

Then I turned to the scripture readings that will accompany the devotion. I finally have decided to focus on the Gospel. I intend to split the four Gospels into 365 readings. I really want to spend the year with Jesus. As I began to search through this I was struggling on how to do this when I came to book on my computer by an author called Aland. He has a harmony of the Gospels (a way to read them all at the same time in chronological order). He has 368 units. I’ve already seen a way to get that to 365 so the second big task has real focus now.

I read another chapter from “White Man’s Burden” which continues to inspire, challenge, and confront me about my assumptions on how to help in Africa. I fell asleep thinking about these things.