President for Sale

Justice, my classmate from Zimbabwe, stopped by this morning saying, "We are looking for someone who might want to buy a new President. Zimbabwe's ready to sell theirs." I'm couldn't help but smile. Which made one of our profs walk up and say, "What are you up to today? You tend to have this grin on your face which makes it seem like you're up to no good..."

I really am enjoying this class. I'm enjoying my classmates, too. This is most likely the only class we'll take together, but we're still seen as a cohort. The rest of the class will travel to China together, but since I took that specific class requirement in Ethiopia, I won't be going with them.

As I was getting ready for bed last night, it struck me again what a profound impact my classes can have on how I do life and ministry. As long as I implement that which I'm learning, and I have every intention to do so. It's already impacted the way I think about missions, my community and our role as Christ-followers. And there are some components built into the program that keep us accountable to doing, not just learning. I'll share more about that as time goes by.

Our class this morning is on Contemplative Leadership. Interesting concept.

A Walk in the Forest

A walk in the forest, originally uploaded by Boyznberry.

I'm back from the forest. After getting up at 5:30 on Thursday to make coffee for the team that was leaving, I got my things together, loaded the car, and took off for the forest with 11 other staff members from our home-based care ministry. This is the team that runs ELI's AIDS ministry, but also cares for anyone in our extended community who needs someone to walk the journey with them. People like the Sifunas, or like Hannah, or Lillian, the mom with the twins.

I'm not part of that team, but I went along to assist with facilitating some of the sessions. The purpose of the weekend was to rest, to reflect, and to plan ahead. And we did all of that, and more. We laughed, got to know each other, we ate good food and shared stories.

It was so much fun to discover what things my Kenyan colleagues simply weren't used to. Understandably, they had no idea which knives and forks to use, which side plate was theirs, or which glass. But everyone was keen to learn! They asked the waiters to teach them to fold napkins, and they wondered aloud about the strange dishes that showed up. In fact, on our ride home, Meshak wanted to know if it's really monkey meat we ate at breakfast. I assured him that bacon was from pigs, not monkeys like his friends told him... He--and several others--had never had bacon before. Nor salad, pie, or sauerkraut.

So it was quite an adventure for them. So much so that some are talking about saving 20/= a day all of next year so they can go back there by themselves at the end of the year... (That's just more than a quarter a day.)

I love it about this team. They had fun, and they had no qualms showing it. They worked hard, like they always do, and came up with even loftier goals for next year. They want to see more people tested for HIV, more people helped. Most of them can find higher-paying jobs in other places, but they choose to stay and serve here because of the immense job satisfaction. And it shows.

We played Jenga our first night, combining it with answering questions about yourself after you jengad. (Jenga is Swahili for build, so here, we use the word as a verb while playing the game.) And if someone toppled the tower, they were showered with any and all questions people may want to ask.

By the time the generator was switched off, we continued the game by candlelight and flashlight.

Same last night. They watched a movie (I went to bed early) and played Scrabble, Chinese solitaire and Uno till way after midnight.

This morning, we did some fun team building activities where I had everyone blindfolded, trying to make a square. It's always fun to do these activities, but what's even more fun is to do the debriefing afterwards. "Who was the leader? Why did others take over? Why did you not listen to that person's advice?" and so on and so forth. Learn through play.

Oh, and yesterday, Juli had us all go out and spend time reflecting on "Thus far, the LORD has helped us," (1 Sam. 7:12) by drawing stones with people or event names in them. And so, throughout the various events, people shared some of the stories from their stones, and I wrote the names from their stone stories on rocks I had collected from the forest. We brought them back as a reminder of what God has done.

We concluded our time together with a time of affirmation. Though we thought it would take perhaps an hour or two, we spent almost five hours (!) sharing what we appreciated about one another. I can attest to the difference it has already made in relationships, simply because people could share their hearts. In fact, during the ride home, everyone in my car was involved in a VERY heated discussion about Christ and culture because of something that was said during the afternoon session. It was exhilarating to be a part of the ride home, to hear people's hearts, to be able to share some of my heart with them, too.

By the time I dropped everyone at home tonight and Maru's children ran and threw their arms around their dad, my heart was smiling.

I had made some good friends this weekend. I got to know an amazing team, and they got to know me a bit, too. I discovered that some of them had been a bit afraid of me before, because, I'm told, I have high standards. But spending these days together, sharing, laughing, praying, eating, having communion, made us a stronger team. Even though I'm technically not a part of their team.

Click on the picture to see more photos from the weekend.

What a day!

This was one of those days that was packed with all kinds of good things.

I left home early, hitching a ride with a colleague since my car needs to go in for gearbox repairs. (Or it could be clutch repairs... I'm hoping it's the latter.)

We picked up a family from the area whose son needed to go to the hospital. The 9-year-old boy is deaf, and recently, his entire left side has gone totally numb. The doctors aren't able to figure out what is wrong. I felt really badly for the kid, especially since he seems to have never seen a mzungu before, so having me in the car was rather traumatic. Every time I'd turn around to talk to the growing number of neighbors getting rides, he'd start crying... I decided not to turn their way so the boy could relax.

The family got dropped at the hospital, neighbors and I got dropped at various places in town, and then Laban left to pick up a new intern at the airport. I was maybe 15 minutes early for the meeting I was to lead for the Kipkaren teachers. They had really wanted to leave Kipkaren at 6 am and have a full day, but since part of the purpose of the day was to relax, the headmaster (Mr. Rop) and I agreed that they could leave at 8:30 instead, which would have them to their first event by 9:30. They ended up leaving Kipkaren around 9:45. (Remember: There's no hurry in Africa.)

So the first event of the day was scratched from the program. (One of the keys to success in Africa: Be flexible.) We were to have chai at Poa Place, a local park/restaurant/pool, and play some table games. We still had chai, but sadly the group could only be there for about forty minutes before we had to leave for the place where we'd have lunch and the rest of the afternoon's activities: Kerio View.

And yes, we really had to leave since I had already ordered lunch for everyone and they were expecting us at a specific time. (I had called to postpone lunch by half an hour, else we'd have just gulped down the tea, which wouldn't have exactly been relaxing.)

So we drove to Kerio View where the team of teachers and some spouses were amazed by the view and the beauty of their area. Of the 16 people there, only three of us had ever been to Kerio View. Most of the team are from this area. They simply have never had a chance to travel and see much of their area, let alone their country.

We had a wonderfully relaxing lunch, where after I led a few activities in a gazebo at the rim of the valley. First, the team did the human knot, and I had the quietest teachers be the leaders. We really had a great time debriefing the activity!

Next, I had each one share about the teacher who had the most profound effect on their life, and we talked about the common denominator in each of these stories (i.e. individual care/attention). We had a chat about their roles as teachers and how they can strive to have the same kind of effect on the lives of their students.

We ended with a fun activity where they were lined up on a little wall and had to change sides without stepping off the wall (one side had "lava" and the other side was filled with crocodile-infested water). I wasn't sure how this activity would translate cross-culturally, since you really get into each others' personal space, but they seemed to have no problem with it. The purpose of the activity was to emphasize how we need each other in overcoming obstacles.

I had a number of other activities planned, but those will have to wait for another time. We wanted to get back to Ilula so they could meet our children, get a tour of the school and children's home, and join devotions. They really seemed to enjoy seeing how far our kids have come in Ilula, how well they could speak English, what confidence they exude!

For dinner, I also invited the teachers from Samro, the school in Ilula. Though the Kenyan way is to have many speeches, I asked if we could just visit instead, and only have the headmasters and the children's home director say a few words. Both headmasters emphasized how much they appreciated being able to visit with their colleagues and to exchange ideas. The teachers also exchanged phone numbers and some were talking about getting together to talk about specific ideas.

We closed the fellowship with a time of prayer for the teachers, which turned out to be a really moving time of the children's home parents praying for the teachers.

As the Ilula (Samro) teachers and the rest of us non-Kipkaren-school-staff left, the Brook of Faith teachers started a meeting to evaluate goals set earlier in the year and to plan the steps ahead. (It's three hours later and they just got done with the meeting.) In the meantime, the rest of us got together and played Uno, Yatzee, and watched an episode of Monk.

One teacher told me at dinner, "You know, I could not imagine why we should leave Poa Place. It was so beautiful there. But when we got to Kerio Valley, I was amazed. You cannot know what a gift today was to us. I have passed Kerio View so many times - my college used to be right close to it - but I never knew there was such a beautiful place right there. And to have the time to visit and do the activities was really special."

To those of you who are part of my support team: Thank you for how you blessed the teachers today through being part of the work God is doing in their midst.

The team will drive back to Kipkaren after breakfast and some songs by the Ilula kids. I'll stay behind since I'll be speaking at staff devotions on Monday. Please pray for me as I prepare to share with the staff on Monday.

Thanks again for the role you play in the ministry here in Western Kenya.

(I'll upload pictures tomorrow.)