Final Stages

It has been almost a month since my last blog entry. My excuse is that I have been very busy finishing up work and that for the last two weeks (at least) we have not had internet at the house. Also, since I was on leave and was not at the office, I was completely without internet access.

Since the last blog entry, so much has happened. From June 10th I have been on leave because my friend Priscilla from Vancouver was visiting me. Just this evening we took her to the airport. It has been a special blessing to have someone walking alongside me as I began to take leave from Kenya, Nairobi Chapel and especially the friends I have made here. She also got a taste of Kenyan hospitality and how a one-hour meeting can easily turn into a whole afternoon as we visited some of my friends to say good-bye (she says I have become more patient here... there were indeed a number of times we just had to sit and wait for someone or something, and I guess I have gotten used to it - but don't expect this to necessarily translate to another context!).

Last week, we went on safari together to the Maasai Mara and got to see the beauty of Kenya after experiencing the dust, crowds and traffic of Nairobi.

The last few days have been times of saying good-bye as we had a farewell meal with the staff of Nairobi Chapel (those who could make it - mostly interns), with my discipleship class and with some closer friends. I have been blessed with many gifts and memories to take home. The communal emphasis of this culture becomes very apparent when almost everyone tells me to take greetings to family, friends and people back home - even though they do not know anyone they are sending greetings to. Herewith I am passing the greetings to you, receive the greetings from all the many people here.

In two days it will be my turn to walk through the security check at the airport and check in for my flight. Some of the things I will miss about Kenya: the value that people have here and the time they will take for you, people-watching at a matatu stage, the challenge and experience of understanding what people are saying in Swahili, real African worship and dancing at church, being inspired by the deep faith of people here in God, the aliveness of Africa, having my meals cooked for me and my shoes cleaned ;-) and of course, my friends here.
Favourite disgusting experience: cleaning my nose in the evening and seeing the tissue turn black from all the dirt and dust in my nose! ;-)
What I am looking forward to at home: Being HOME, seeing my friends and family, having dependable internet access and power, having a washing machine, good roads, riding my bike, being able to be out in the evening after dark, not worrying about anything being stolen or picked from your pocket.

All in all it has been a good time here, sometimes challenging, sometimes frustrating, but a time in which I have learned a lot and have been given a bigger and wider perspective of life and faith.

Thanks to Pris I have lots of photos to post on my blog (links will follow on the right).

Spinal Injury Hospital

On Saturday we visited the Nairobi Spinal Injury Hospital. This was our third visit. We have been going as a group of interns from our department, but we are trying to get other people from the congregation involved.

The experience is really worth it. The first time we went there I was not looking forward to it. It felt like just another task that we had been given (under the assumption that we are not busy enough?). Secondly, we were not prepared or organised that day. When we got there, we talked to the nurses and some of the patients sitting outside. After that, the four of us went inside together, visited each room, introduced ourselves, talked with the patients for a while and then prayed for them. We had come to minister to the patients in some way, though we were not sure what that would look like, and we felt rather helpless and unprepared. We were surprised, therefore, when we realised that some of the patients were actually ministering to us and encouraging us!

Most of the patients stay there for many months or even years, so they get bored and lonely when their friends and families stop visiting. They are very eager and interested in anything new, so it has been easy to connect with them. We were surprised at our second visit how much it felt like seeing old friends. Some of them are able to be in a wheelchair, so we have been doing a time of fellowship outside for those, reading a passage from the Bible and discussing it with them. Then we go inside to visit those who cannot leave their beds.

This last Saturday we also got a team of people to come and do their hair and nails (for the ladies) and give them a shave (for the men). I was especially encouraged this time by a small thing that happened with a guy who had hardly spoken to us the other two times. This time he seemed eager to talk and asked us to bring him a Swahili Bible! Those little connections and the trust we are building by going there regularly make it worth it.

And the moral of the story is... no, seriously, here is another thing that I learned from my friends at Spinal Injury: pain is not necessarily bad. The patients at the hospital are actually happy to experience pain because it means something is happening to their nerves. Pain means that there is healing. Now that is deep!

Swahinglish III: Blog Challenge Answers and New Swahinglish Challenge!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Blog Reader Challenge and a special thanks to those who dared share their answers. Congratulations to thduggie for getting all the answers right on level 1 and to Janet for getting full score for level 2! Special mention for creativity goes to mimilibrarian.

Here are the answers:
Level 1
Disemba - December
sukari - sugar
kompyuta - computer
milionea - millionaire
oksijeni - oxygen
operesheni - operation
stempu - stamp (also stampu)
shule - school (also skuli from English)
plasta - plaster/band-aid
buluu - blue
gazeti - newspaper


Level 2 – public transport and vehicles
baiskeli - bicycle
stesheni - station
gari - car
motokaa - car (again)
boti - boat
dereva - driver
gereji - garage
mota - motor
petroli - petrol or gas (also gesi)
teksi - taxi
tiketi - ticket


Okay, here's the next challenge, level 3 and 4. I am having a hard time deciding which ones to give you - I have found so many more! So here goes level 5 as well - be creative!

Level 3 – countries
Marekani
Ufaransa
Uingereza
Uswisi
Ubelgiji
Ugiriki
Ujerumani
Urusi
Misri (for those who know Hebrew)


Level 4 – Sports
feni
timu
soka
ripota
kemra
picha
mechi


Level 5 – getting harder and more random
bia
gilasi (you can put your bia in there)
kahawa
chai (that's too easy for level 5)
stoo
swichi
sweta
shati or tishati
daktari
musuli (hint: men have more of it/them)
slaisi
gesti (meaning the place where they stay)

Online again

The good news is (as you have noticed), that internet is back, both at the office and at home. The not so good news is that there is a water shortage (Knappheit, Engpass) in Nairobi. Though this has been the rainy season, we have hardly had rain (I only used the umbrella I bought about twice). This means that they will start rationing the water. We will only be getting water from Saturday afternoon to Wednesday morning. Fortunately, there is a water tank on the roof which is usually filled by the city council water, so even when the water stops running, we will still have water for a day or two, depending on how much water we use (we have guests here right now, in total we are five grown-ups and four kids). It will be an interesting experience - I can't quite imagine yet what that will mean.

Post Office Treasure Hunt

(written on Monday evening)

Today, I ran an obstacle course – well, not literally, but I was trying to pick up a parcel at the post office downtown.

Step 1 – I arrive at the GPO (General Post Office) downtown. I find the entrance and go straight to the customer care desk. The lady, upon seeing my pink slip, tells me that I am at the wrong post office (strange, I seem to remember someone at the office confirming that I was to go to GPO). She tells me to go to the Post Office at Times Tower and vaguely describes how to find it.

Step 2 – I leave the post office and walk towards what I think is Times Tower – a tower with a clock on it. It turns out to be City Hall. I ask one of the guards for directions. He first tries sending me back to GPO, but then explains that I should go towards KICC (Kenyatta International Conference Centre) and that the post office is behind there.

Step 3 – I set out towards KICC and cross City Square in front of it. In an effort to go around KICC, I end up much further to the right than I intended. This means that I get to do some Kenya government sight-seeing as I turn back left to get behind KICC: Along Harambee Avenue are all the important offices and ministries: Harambee House, where the president receives guests, the Office of The President, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of This and the Ministry of That. At some point I start wondering about the post office. I ask another guard – I guess I had asked at the right point: He was able to point out the post office to me which was visible down the street on the next Avenue over.

Step 4 – As I walk towards the post office, I am glad to see the sign: City Square Post Office – 00200. Until then I had been wondering whether the people there would just send me straight back to GPO, but I recognize the numbers from my address (most people here just have a post box, so it is important to know what post office the box is at).

Step 5 – I enter the post office on the ground floor, wondering how I will find the right counter to pick up the parcel. I find one that says something about “box” and which has no queue (Schlange), so I ask the lady there for help. She points me to the far end of the big hall. Sure enough: there is a counter “PARCEL DELIVERY.” There is no one at the counter. Do I wait – will someone turn up? Or do I trust the sign saying “Parcel deliveries on 2nd and 3rd floor?”

Step 6 – I decide to go take a look on 2nd or 3rd floor. (Surely waiting will take me nowhere.) I find an elevator at the end of the building. As I approach, a man speaks to me, “Excuse me, Madame?” – “Yes?” (I am suspicious, is this an official guy or just someone random looking for an excuse to talk to a mzungu lady?) – “Where do you need to go?” (He is acting official…) – “Parcel delivery.” – “They are on lunch break.” (Surprise, surprise!) – “What time will they get back?” – “At two.” I am lucky, it is ten to two. The man (receptionist?) asks me to have a seat and shows me a sofa made for three people. There are already three people sitting there. They squeeze together to make room for me.
It is nice to sit down. It is an unusually hot day for this time of year, and I am tired from the sun and the long walk. After about five minutes, the gentleman calls us to go up to parcel delivery.

Step 7 – On the second floor, I enter a big hall with a long counter. Once again, there are different signs. None of them seem to apply to me, but I decide to go to airmail parcels. I notice that the other people have yellow slips while mine is pink. I hand the slip to the man behind the counter, knowing that he will tell me to go somewhere else… I am right. He tells me to go downstairs, leave the building, turn left – I am obviously confused. “But downstairs they told me to come up here!” – “Who told you?” – “A lady at a counter downstairs.” (Not quite true, but she was the last person who had given me directions, and from there I just followed the signs.) He shakes his head. “Ah, that one knows nothing.”
This is starting to feel like a treasure hunt (Schatzsuche/Schnitzeljagd). Fortunately, the parcel guy offers to take me downstairs to show me where I need to go.

Step 8 – I realise that I was indeed totally wrong. Since the parcel was delivered to a P.O. box, I should have gone to where the boxes are (you enter on second floor from the outside of the building – how confusing!). At the end of the hallway I find a counter and know: this is it!
I hand over my pink slip. This time I am not sent away. Instead, the lady asks for identification. Fortunately, I have my Swiss ID on me. “This is not an REN ID!” I stare at her. Did she say REN? Or Arian? Or – I just thought of this possibility now – is she Kikuyu and is trying to say Alien? (Kikuyus are like Japanese, they mix up their Rs and Ls.) “You don’t have an REN ID?” – “That is my ID,” I insist. “They didn’t give you an REN ID?” – “No.” Whatever it is that she is talking about, I am quite sure that I do not have it. She seems to give in and goes to get the package. “How long have you been in Kenya?” is her next question. I seem to have gotten the lady who is a secret agent working for immigration, checking for illegal immigrants. She is satisfied to know that I am just visiting for six months. I sign the book – don’t forget the date – and she finally hands over the package. Mission accomplished – obstacle course completed! It was fun and gave me another cultural experience, but I think next time I will accept the offer to let the office errand boy pick up the parcel for me!

Offline

Here's a quick blog entry to tell you to hold on and keep watching this space - even though nothing much has been happening in the last week. The internet at home has been down for since Tuesday evening, and since the problem has to do with the government owned network, it might take a while for them to fix it. Unfortunately, the internet at the office wasn't working after Thursday either (for a reason unknown to me). It is common for the internet to be down for a few hours or a day or so, but this is the first time it has been this long. The power is also sometimes a matter of luck, though I hear that a few years ago it was much, much worse, with people getting only a few hours of electricity a day. However, I thank God every morning when I get into the shower and there it hot water!

Right now I am at an internet café because I got tired of waiting for internet to happen at home. Since I am paying for my time, this entry will end here - the Swahinglish answers and the next challenge will have to wait for a few days!

A Note on The Blog Reader Challenge

Since I cannot hide the comments without making it impossible to post a comment, I am giving you a chance to cheat - but of course you will not make use of it! Decides on your answers before you click on the comments, and then after writing your answers you can cross check with what others have written. Anyway, it's all just about having some fun with words and language!

Two clues: Most of the words come from the English language, and most of them are nouns.

Look out for the next Swahinglish blog entry! I'll give you a week for this one. Jienjoy! (Enjoy yourself!)