I'm here! It's the end of my first day in Nairobi. Everything went smoothly with my flight, my luggage arrived with me, and I had no trouble going through customs or getting my visa. Thanks for praying!
Nairobi has been a complete shock to me, since my mind was preparing me for a city like Freetown, Sierra Leone. The airport is really nice and the part of the city I'm in is very developed. In fact, I had to remind myself a couple times today that I'm in Africa! But parts of my day were very Africa and it's good to be back! The weather has also been unexpected. I think it's about 18 C tonight and I wore a fleece most of the day.
I'm staying at the SIM Sudan guesthouse and sharing a flat with Grace, one of the nurses on my team. She's a retired nurse and a grandmother of 10 and is now doing a 2 year stint in South Sudan! Unbelievable!
The guesthouse is very comfortable and what do you know? I have access to wireless internet for $1/day through the director's wireless network upstairs! So feel free to email me--we CAN communicate! By the way, if anyone is on Skype or Messenger, let me know and we can try to connect.
Today was the first day of our community development seminar. In addition to Rob the doctor and Vicky, Barb, and Grace the nurses on my team there are several other people with other organizations, a mix of Americans and Kenyans. There are 2 ladies facilitating. One is American and one is Kenyan, both with a lot of training and experience with Christian community development in Africa. There was a lot of experience in the room and hearing all of the African perspectives, both from the Kenyans and experienced missionaries in Africa, was very enlightening. It's a great time to be here with my team, thinking through how we should approach this new work as it begins. There are many difficult issues. Vicky and Grace, who were in South Sudan over the last few months, are struggling with trying to focus on learning language and getting to know the people and their needs BEFORE starting health work while there are sick people coming to them each day or people wanting them to go and visit a sick relative. Please pray for us this week as we discuss and learn. We really want to be led by God and to ensure that this health and development work is holistic, owned by the people, and sustainable by them. That's what this week is all about.
Well, I'd better go for now. Watch this space as I intend to do a lot of blogging about my new experiences here in Kenya!
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