This means "Welcome to Kenya" in Swahili and I heard it several times this morning. I went to an Africa Inland Church nearby with Vicky and Barb. The service was in English but we sang several songs in Swahili. My family will get a kick out of this: I was excited to find that I knew the first Swahili song word for word because I loved the African Children's Choir when I was a kid! = ) "Yesu ni wangu ni wa uzima wa-milele!" Don't ask me what it means cuz I don't actually know except that it's something about Jesus. Wambui, if you're out there, can you leave me a comment and translate please? Anyway, it was fun to sing along and I did my best with the others too. Fortunately we had a song sheet with all the words. I was the only new visitor today so had to stand up and introduce myself. I was told that as a visitor I could enter the church through any door that I liked but could only leave through one, the one by the kitchen. After the service somebody escorted me to the kitchen and made me a cup of Kenyan tea. The sermon was given by a Dr. Such and Such, a highly intellectual and historical introduction to the book of Ephesians. It was interesting.
Then Vicky and Barb and I went to an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch. We had doro wot (a chicken dish) and shiro wot (a chickpea dish) with injera, the Ethiopian flat pancake-like bread. I've had all of these lots of times before but they were particularly tasty today. We sat outside in a little alcove of trees.
Vicky walked me home so I could learn the way and we stopped at a shopping center where there's a Maasai market outside on Sunday afternoons. It was HUGE and there was the most beautiful selection of African woodwork, paintings, jewelry, and loads of other crafts. I had to get out of there quick before I spent any money! I definitely know where to go to buy presents from now on!
Yesterday all of us nurses went shopping for supplies and I bought a lot of my kitchen stuff and towels and linens for Sudan. We went to 3 massive superstores that sell everything imaginable. It actually reminded me of the big department stores in Japan. It was such a shock to find these in Kenya! If you looked at my purchases you'd think I was getting ready for a big camping trip, which indeed I am! I'm already learning about new cooking methods that I didn't know existed. Today Vicky showed me her new "fireless cooker". It's a traditional Kenyan thing--a big insulated basket. You bring your rice or porridge or whatever to the boil (on a charcoal brazier in our case), take it off the heat and stick it in this basket for a few hours and voila! your food is ready! A slow cooker without electricity--brilliant!
My most exciting purchase yesterday was a bike. Vicky and Grace and I are going to be cycling through the bush to different Mabaan villages in the near future so a bike is essential. However, we're trying to figure out how we're going to ride a bike in a long skirt or wear trousers and change into a skirt before we get to a village...tricky!
We had a great day of planning on Friday, at the end of the community health and development seminar. We were trying to use the principles discussed during the week to plan the next steps of ministry among the Mabaan. All the members of our health team so far were there as well as our director and the 2 Sudanese pastors. Next week Dr. Rob, Vicky and the Mabaan pastor will return to Sudan and visit a couple of villages to start a process of "appreciative enquiry"--which is a term coined by Bryant Myers, author of Walking with the Poor--that we learned about this week. I haven't read the book yet so I don't know the ins and outs but basically you go to a community and meet people, introduce yourself, and observe. Then you ask if you can return sometime and, for example, talk with the women about their community. You return when they tell you to and then begin asking questions like, "Tell me about your community." "What are you proud of?" "How have you as a people sustained yourselves through...(the war)? "What kind of sicknesses are there?" In this way you have an opportunity to focus their attention on their gifts and resources (rather than their poverty) and find out what their main concerns and needs are. (ie. as a focus for community development work). You then tell them about the teaching or whatever you have available and ask if they are interested. If they are, they tell you when you should return.
I think it's simple but very profound. We come in and listen to them and respect who they are as image-bearers of God and the resources they have as a community, rather than coming in with our own agenda of what we think their needs are and assuming that we are welcome there. This really jives with me and I'm looking forward to reading the book and learning more.
So, we're hoping that these trips will uncover some ideas of what these 2 communities' felt needs are so that Vicky (with the help of Grace and I) can begin some basic health teaching there (hence the cycling through the bush) with a translator to build relationships with these communities.
Tomorrow morning we have a SIM Sudan team prayer meeting and then in the afternoon we'll continue our discussions from Friday. Please continue to pray for the Holy Spirit's leading as we plan and for unity to be built within our team.
Congratulations if you made it this far! I'm sorry this is such a long post--I just have so much I want to share!
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