Sunday, June 2, 2008

Sunday, June 2, 2008

Breakfast is served an hour later on Sundays (8:00), but by the time I got their (8:04) the oatmeal they had prepared was already gone. So I had a cup of tea and a piece of bread with jam. Which was fine because I need to to leave quickly to get to church and I was planning to stop at an ATM on the way to get some money since I was down to just pocket coins.
The ATM thought differently and did not want to take my card. This put me in a little bit of tension since I was to meet Katie Leatherwood and her group for lunch. I figured it would be a problem to solve after church.

Nairobi Baptist Church
NBC is celebrating its 50th year of ministry. They have a huge facility, the largest in the city. The sanctuary is the top two floors of a five story building. It has lots of clear open glass at the tops of the trees, If feels a bit like you are floating. The steps would be killer in the US.
Which made me look around and notice that I have not seen many elderly people and almost no one who looks like they have any mobility impairment. I’ve not seen wheelchairs, or canes. I don’t know if people are too tough here to get sick, don’t come out when they have trouble, or they live in a different part of the city.
The church service could have been lifted up and placed in the US except for the three songs sung in African (Swahili I think). The rest of the songs were in English and I knew half of them. The preacher works for the Navigators and began a series on the Great Commission. He spoke with passion about the desire to reach Nairobi for Christ.
Even though the vast majority of people claim to be Christian, only about 16% of believers attend worship on a Sunday. (The roads were very quiet on the way to church, it was easy to see that most people do not work on Sundays).
I went to the 8:30 service that started a few minutes early, but people trickled in for about 20 minutes. By the time the service was over there were probably 300 people in attendance.

YaYa
The name of the shopping mall is the YaYa Center. Katie said her group was going there after eating lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant and invited me to eat lunch with them.
I headed that direction, stopping at another ATM, which was out of service, finally reaching the mall about 30 minutes later. I was early so I tried another ATM (success). Then I bought a cup of coffee at a Starbucks imitator, bought a map at the bookstore, and used the internet café to post my latest information.
Katie called and with map in hand I headed to the restaurant, which was just about another 10 minute walk.

Ethiopian Restaurant.
I love the people of Ethiopia, I feel we are so specially called to serve there. I don’t like Ethiopian food. I really could not believe that this group had picked eating at this place, it tells you how much I was looking forward to seeing a familiar face that I agreed to meet them.
The food was better than in Ethiopia, I think it must be like Tex-Mex, they prepare it in a different way. The bread was not as rancid.
I got to meet the team that Katie is working with. It’s a delightful group of mostly college students working with artificial limbs. They construct them, fit them (an adult on the team), do rehabilitation (a PT from Tyler), and then test the effectiveness of the limb (Katie’s job). They had come to town (an hours drive) for some shopping and R & R.

YaYa
We had a good talk and then headed to the Mall. In the parking lot on Sundays it is filled with people selling the trinkets and souvenirs sold all over Kenya: masks, shields, spears, beads, bowls, cloth, figures, wall hangings, necklaces, chess sets, and toys. Not an easy place to walk through and not buy anything, but my bags were packed to the final ounce and I have no room for even the smallest item, so I was not even tempted.
We walked around the mall marveling at the stuff. I looked at a shirt in Woolworths. It cost over $80.00. I couldn’t believe it. I’m not sure if it is a weak dollar or inflated prices, but we didn’t buy anything.
They stayed an hour and then we went our separate ways. Katie seemed to be having a great time.

Dickson
Dickson Masambano is the country director for Buckner Kenya. I meet him last year in Kenya, ate lunch with him in Dallas six weeks ago, and have been trying to connect with him since I got here. I finally was able to reach him right as Katie was leaving.
I got directions to his office. As he was telling them to me he gave me a landmark that I recognized from having studied the map while drinking my coffee. His office is only about a 2 minute walk from the YaYa center. I will get to see him this week.

Flora
I returned to my room and started in on homework. I began the research paper. The outline is due Wednesday and I got that completed. I then took research notes from the books I had checked out of the library. I finished the next two week’s assignments in the additional ethnography class we take each week. I headed to bed a little after ten.