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!)

Swahinglish (II) - Blog Reader Challenge!

Yesterday I felt good about my Swahili. First of all, I was able to carry a simple conversation with the house-help for a few minutes, even though it was challenging for me to understand her. It still takes me some ten seconds to register and understand what someone has said, and most people here have never learned a foreign language and do not know what it means to speak slowly to a foreigner. Even when I ask them to speak “pole pole”, they just keep going at the same pace!

Secondly, Rinna (the elder daughter) said something yesterday which made me laugh. Because the language at home is English, she does not speak Swahili very well, which is why the parents want the house-help to speak Swahili to the kids. When she doesn’t know a word in Swahili, she will resort to Swahinglish. Here’s what she said yesterday: “Wapi headi ya fishi?” (Where is the head of the fish – in proper Swahili: Kichwa ya samaki wapi?)
I cannot speak better Swahili than she does, but I can also speak Swahinglish (which is what many young people her do – e.g. nimekumiss – I have missed you).

Speaking of Swahinglish: Proper Swahili has many words that have come from other languages, Arabic, Portuguese, German and recently of course from English. Some of them may not look recognisable at first glance, but you may be able to figure them out. Many of them will add an “i” at the end (sheet turns into shiti, blanket into blanketi) or they take the way the words sounds in British-Kenyan pronunciation and transcribe it into Swahili (Swahili uses the same vowel sounds as German, so shiti is pronounced shee-tee).

Here’s the challenge: I have selected some words of foreign origin for you to figure out. If you think you know the English or German equivalent, post your answers as a comment. I will let you know who has gotten the most correct answers.

Level 1
Disemba
sukari
kompyuta
milionea
oksijeni (I love this one!)
operesheni
stempu
shule (especially for you German-speakers!)
plasta
buluu
gazeti


Level 2 – public transport and vehicles
baiskeli
stesheni
gari
motokaa
boti
dereva
gereji
mota
petroli
teksi
tiketi

Levels 3 and 4 to follow! Have fun!

P.S. Copyright by Cornelia; however, idea was taken from a certain travelling and blog-writing brother (though at that time there were no blogs, the quiz came in one of the very lengthy newsletters).

P.P.S. Sarah Nimo – don’t even try, you are excluded from this contest!!! Hope you had a good flight, though!

“Birth-week”

For the most part, I had a good birthday. On the negative side, my birthday was overshadowed by the sad news of two friends being robbed at gunpoint on a bus the evening before (note to self: stay away from citi hoppa buses!). On the bright side, I got to celebrate my birthday for at least three days. Wednesday was a regular working day, but I got phone calls from the important people in my life, and in the evening I was surprised by my Kenyan family and the neighbours with a small party! We had cake and soda and crisps (chips) and popcorn and some more cake. The kids (Rinna and Tanielle and the neighbours’ kids) sang for me and then proceeded to run and jump around like crazy because of all the sugar! It is a custom here to “wash” people on their birthday, meaning that you pour water on them. I was able to avoid that, but was face-painted with cake icing instead by the kids.

On Thursday I went out for Ethiopian lunch with two friends, then in the evening I went to a concert at the Carnivore, a well-known restaurant and club serving mostly meat. Because of my birthday, I was given a CD for free! (In case you are worried about what I wrote earlier on about my friends being robbed: I am rarely out after dark here, and then not on public transport. That night we took a taxi to the restaurant and back.)

On Friday, we went for an evening service and then had a movie night and sleep over at a friend’s house. Since one is restricted by the safety issues here and since we are usually too busy to spend a lot of time with friends, it was fun to have a reason to celebrate and go out. By the time we got to Saturday, however, I was rather tired!

Toilet Philosophies

If you live in North America or Europe, there are many things you will take for granted when it comes to toilets. I have gotten used to all kinds of toilets here, but I realised that I unconsciously still compare the washrooms I visit with the standards I have from places back home. I noticed it when I was using the toilet at another church and found myself commenting to a friend on the two positive facts of toilet paper and cleanliness – and then realising that the door would not shut or lock properly. “Two out of three is not bad,” was my evaluation. Since then I have come up with a number of criteria for the grading of toilets. Please let me know if I am missing certain criteria or whether the ones I have chosen are internationally useful.

Toilet paper
This is not a uniquely African problem – even in Switzerland I will often check public toilets for toilet paper, but here it is especially useful to carry some toilet paper in your pocket or purse when travelling.

Clean toilet/flushing
A toilet that can’t be flushed will not stay clean very long. Because of issues with running water or with water pressure, toilets will not always flush (probably also because it takes a long time for the tank to fill, and when there are many people using the toilet there is no time for the tank to fill properly).

Door/Lock
You may have never thought of this as an issue, but you would be surprised at how many doors here will not close properly. Even at our church, there are some toilet doors that you have to push very hard for them to close. Another thing is the lock – you will often find (even with hotel room doors) that there are multiple signs of locks that had once been there. Sometimes there is only a bent nail on the door jamb which you can turn towards the door to keep it from opening.

Running water
As mentioned above, running water can be a luxury item. If there is water to wash your hands, be thankful (even if the water is coming out of a canister or a tap outside the washroom facilities).

Soap
If there is soap to wash your hands with, even better! If there is liquid soap out of a soap dispenser, you have found luxury toilets!!!

Mirror
Some people go to the bathroom just for the reason of checking on their hair, make-up, teeth etc., but just remember that this presumes that you have a mirror available. In our office, only the toilet on the ground floor has a mirror – it is even a full-length mirror!

Drying your hands
The issue of drying your hands was one of the last items to come my mind. I guess I have already gotten used to the fact that you often have to go without drying your hands here. The really fancy bathrooms here have the automatic blow-drying machines for drying your hands – complete with the sticker assuring you that this appliance is “energiesparend” and “umweltschonend” (saving energy and taking care of the environment). It reminds me of the recycled toilet paper that was used in Swiss public schools which also had that signet (anyone remember that paper?).

Toilet seat
I have saved the most interesting for last: toilet seats. Just yesterday I used a public toilet in a nice shopping area that fulfilled all the other criteria – except the toilet seat. Even the Lonely Planet guide comments on the fact that many of the hotels or public toilets do not have toilet seats. Even after four months I do not understand the reason for it. The best explanation I have gotten is that people might want to squat (hocken, kauern) on the toilets, therefore the seats have broken or have not been installed in the first place. Or maybe there is a secret association for the liberation of toilet seats…

Nairobi Chapel Family Day

On Thursday we had a meeting with all the Nairobi Chapel churches (just the staff). About three years ago, Nairobi Chapel split up into five different churches with the aim of multiplying and planting churches. Now there are eight churches – and more to come. It was amazing to hear about what the other churches are up to and to see all the staff – about 80-90 people! About half of them are interns; that is an average of seven or eight interns per church. Just imagine what you could do in your church with all those interns!

What I do all day...

I am two weeks into the second half of my stay here, and it suddenly seems like time is going to fly. Things have changed at work, partially because Msafara is over and everyone is doing their "normal" job again. We also had an evaluation two weeks ago in which we were given new job descriptions and tasks. When the guys from the worship department came back from Msafara, I was suddenly out of work, as they took over service planning and bulletin work (which I had been involved in) and I had finished baptism class and baptism. With everything being different, I thought I could give you an overview of what I do all day or all week - as that is usually hard to see anyway in ministry.

Just to remind you, I am in the Pastoral Care department which involves pastoral care (weddings, funerals, births, illnesses, visitation etc.), adult education, small groups, visitors, and helping the Worship department with the worship service on Sundays. Here are my tasks:

• organise and co-facilitate discipleship classes
• put together a baptism class manual with the material I developed and with the information I gathered
• organise visitation one week a month ("Amtswoche")
• organise visits for our pastoral care team to the spinal injury clinic, lead our team
• take care of administration for the Pre-Marital Counselling Class, sit in on the class
• develop two study guides for small groups on two sermon series ("burn-out" and "the names of God")
• research on how volunteers at Nairobi Chapel are recruited, trained and appreciated; speak to staff team about possible problems or areas that need strengthening
• interview pastors in other departments about their work to get an overview of what the church does and how it does it

If you are thinking that this is a lot to get done in two more months, then yes, I agree. Especially because I sit in meeting half of the week! The senior pastor and the associate pastors have become very intentional about equipping me as much as possible in these last months, so I now sit in on meetings with the pastoral team. Right now they are discussing their vision and the strategies for getting there, so it is a very interesting discussion to be a part of. However, it also means an additional all-day meeting:
Tuesday: departmental meeting in the morning, service planning in the afternoon
Wednesday: "library day" (which means you can actually get work or research done with out being interrupted)
Thursday: pastoral team meeting
Friday: class in the morning, admin or visitation in the afternoon
Saturday: admin, visitation or service preparation as necessary
Sunday: discipleship class, service, pre-marital counselling class (Sunday is my longest day!)
Monday: off-day!

Political Update

Yesterday, President Kibaki finally announced the new cabinet. Now, you may not even have been aware of it, but since the signing of the national peace accord, Kibaki and Raila have been fighting over how to share power - how to divide up the various ministries and the seats in the cabinet. Here's a time-line as a reminder:

December 27th, 2007 - Elections
December 30th, 2007 - Results are announced
December 31st, 2007 - Post-election violence and riots begin
January 22nd, 2008 - Kofi Annan arrives in Kenya to mediate between the government party and the opposition
February 28th, 2008 - National Peace Accord is signed by President Mwai Kibaki and Honorable Raila Odinga
April 13th, 2008 - President Kibaki announces his cabinet

For the last two or three weeks (I can't even remember anymore), Raila and Kibaki have been meeting to determine the cabinet (after the parliament had worked out the details of the of the peace agreement). It was supposed to be announced last weekend, but they were not able to agree. At that point, it looked like the coalition was about to collapse, and there were people talking about a new vote etc. Many people here were just getting annoyed and fed up with politics. Others started rioting again in protest of the proposal of an enlarged (or inflated) cabinet - or whatever it was they were rioting about.

Now they have finally agreed on what the coalition government should look like, which means that we can hopefully move on to more important things: resettling the displaced people who have been waiting all this time, getting the economy back on track and reworking the constitution (which has been the plan since 2005, I think). Resettling the IDPs (internally displaced persons) is a matter of urgency for two reasons. The rain makes living in camps miserable, not just because of the mud, but because there is the danger of diseases (cholera, typhoid etc.) and sicknesses because of the rain and the cold. Many of the people depend on being able to plant and farm for a living, and if they do not plant before the rains start, it will be too late. Even though this is supposed to be the rainy season, we have not had a large amount of rainy days yet (which I am glad for), but there is also fear of drought (Dürre).

Swahinglish (I)

As some of you may know, I am fascinated by language and the diversity of how language is used. It is especially interesting to see how the same language can be used so differently! Since coming here, I have been listening to people speak English and have sometimes been puzzled, surprised or amused by what people will say here – because their English has been influenced by Swahili or their mother tongue. To demonstrate this, I will tell you a story using as many “Swahinglish” phrases as possible.

Last week but one, one of the chicks from Msafara invited some of the interns to her house for a bash. I met Njeri and Gedion at the bus stage to catch a citi hoppa to Karen. As we entered the bus, we happened to find another intern there who had come straight from town. Gedion, always eager to get the best option, had worked out a way to save money: take the bus to the first junction after the Karen round-about and then catch a mat, but his plans were crossed by the fact that the bus conductor came to complain after passing the round-about that we had not paid enough since we were supposed to get off there. Gedion started causing and actually succeeded in not having us pay more.

Last week but one – two weeks ago
chick – girl, gal
bash – party, get-together
stage – station
citi hoppa – a local bus company
to enter the bus – to get on the bus
town – downtown
mat – matatu, a Nissan minivan for public transport
to cause – to cause trouble, to give someone trouble, to complain or rant

When we reached, we alighted from the bus and looked for a mat. The matatu tout finally agreed to take us to where we were going for ten shillings, so we entered the mat and were soon on our way. The matatu was full when we left, but on the way, we kept stopping to add more people. When we stopped for the third time, Gedion started protesting, as he was to make room for an old mama. They made room in the first row and we continued with the tout and the mama hanging out the side of the open van. When we stopped again, Gedion really started causing, threatening come out of the mat and walk – which the four of us actually did, leaving just enough seats for the extra people. We hadn't paid yet, so we actually saved money, but then again, what service can you expect if you are only willing to pay ten shillings?!

to reach – meaning: to reach a certain point or destination (verbs here are often used without objects)
to alight – to get off a bus (sounds to me like getting out of a carriage like in Jane Austen’s day!)
a matatu tout – the guy who “advertises” for the matatu at the stations, shouting out the destination, enticing people to get on (rather than go to the competition), and who acts as a conductor
to add more people – to let more people on
mama – pronounce mamá: an older lady
to come out of a bus or mat – alight, get off

Gedion supposedly knew where to go and told us that it was the next road, but when we got there, the road was Kufuga Road instead of Kuwinda Road. Strangely enough, the person we asked confirmed that this was Kuwinda Road, despite the sign that clearly said otherwise. We started walking down the road, but then decided to call Sarah (our host) to check. I would like to say that she did not pick her phone (just to use that phrase), but she actually did and explained to us that we would have to go farther down the main road to where her dad was waiting to pick us. We finally reached there after half an hour of walking and found Sarah’s dad patiently waiting. By that time we were quite annoyed with Gedion and his making us shuka way too early, but at the same time we had a story to tell and someone to blame for being late!

to pick your phone – to answer your phone
to pick someone – to pick someone up
shuka (Swahili) – to alight, get off

Adventures as a Mzungu (white person)

I am post-dating this (which you will only notice if you have checking the blog regularly) because I actually wrote it offline on Monday but have been so busy or not able to connect to the internet that it has stayed as a Word-document until today. It turned out rather long, but I am hoping you will enjoy it nonetheless.

Yesterday, I had an interesting day which made me feel like I was in the rural area, even though I was still in Nairobi.

I was at a retreat from Friday to Sunday up at Karen, which is a place unto itself, even though it is still part of Nairobi and only about twenty minutes from here by car. Even the weather feels cooler, and everything is much greener out there. On Sunday, I got permission to miss church and go visit two girls at their school visiting day. These two girls had been part of the outreach I was here for in 2005, and since they were not in school then, two of my team mates decided to sponsor them. I joined the sponsorship shortly after, and have been privileged to see them a few times since then.

I had agreed to meet Pastor Stephen, the contact person for the Giraffe Project girls, at the Karen round-about at 9am. I was early, and as was to be expected, I waited for about half an hour. When Pastor Stephen came, we got on a matatu (a minivan for public transport, but public transport in Kenya is worth a blog entry to itself). There were a few Masai in the matatu – recognizable by their dress (Masai blankets wrapped around their shoulders) and the woman’s colourful beaded jewelry. Apart from that, you can usually tell a Masai by the way their ears are pierced and stretched out so that they have a huge hole and their earlobe is hanging way below the rest of the ear. The Masai lady had her ears covered in interesting jewelry, including the huge hole (or the sides of it). As I entered the matatu, I noticed her looking at me and saying something. I sat down behind her. She kept turning and looking at me, commenting to her husband and then looking back at me. After a few comments, Pastor Stephen explained to me that she was admiring me. Now, I have gotten used to people giving me more attention here, but this was a new experience. After about another minute, she stopped turning and looking and seemed to forget me for the rest of the ride.

A Different Church Experience
Even though the main goal of my excursion was to visit the girls, Pastor Stephen of course wanted to take me to his church. Sometimes it feels like mzungus are like a prize exhibit (Vorzeigestück) that you want to show off to everyone you know – at least that’s what it felt like at this church. This church was like the kind I had seen in the slums (though it is not a slum area): a simple, one-room church with a wooden frame and corrugated iron (Wellblech), wooden benches, a few plastic chairs, and a pit latrine (Plumpsklo) behind the building. The ground was just packed-down dirt and even the stage was just dirt enclosed by large oblong hewn rocks (wie in der Schweiz Trottoir-Randsteine). The sound system (consisting of four microphones and a keyboard) was not very reliable, and the people kept exchanging microphones when singing. Nevertheless, the church has three pastors and about 60-70 people attending. The church service officially started at 10am, but I think it was 10:30 when we actually began with worship. The singing went on for one and a half hours, interrupted only for a short time of welcome of visitors and prayers. When they welcomed the visitors, they had them either come up front and share or at least stand up and say their name. Strangely enough, they did not ask me to do any of that – even though I was seated very conspicuously (deutlich sichtbar) with the pastors at the front (it is impossible for a mzungu to hide!). What I did not realize was that they were saving me for later…

After a short presentation by the Sunday School kids, the main pastor got up and said he had some announcements to make before inviting our sister from Switzerland to the front (everything was done bilingually for my sake). At that point I started wondering whether they had forgotten to tell me that they were expecting me to preach! However, I knew from previous experiences that they like having a special guest from afar come up and share something brief. It is their way of honouring a guest – and the guest’s way of honouring them (never mind the fact that some people would rather die than be honoured that way!). I hoped that it was just a case of sharing, and that is what I proceeded to do. I managed to keep it below fifteen minutes :-) which I felt was very considerate of me.

By the time the sermon began it was already 12:30pm, and Pastor Stephen actually said he would keep it short for the sake of time. Short in this case meant half an hour, and considering the fact that everything was translated, you could even say that it was just twenty minutes (not fifteen because he often was shouting so loudly and speaking so fast that the translator hardly had time to properly translate). By the way, I find it interesting how preachers here have a distinct “preaching voice”, maybe for added effect or the emphasis of authority. Even at Nairobi Chapel, I find that the preachers raise their voice or shout ever so slightly. On the other hand, I now remember people in Switzerland who would lower their voice for effect… But it did make me wonder whether here one has to do that to be taken seriously – maybe next time I could improve my sharing by developing a “preaching voice”. :-)

Enna Girls Secondary School
Before, after and during the service, many pictures were taken, and the senior pastor even advertised that today, people could have their picture taken with a mzungu – for free! After having tea and bread in the church “office”, we finally set out at 2pm to go and visit the school. Stacey and Grace had been waiting for us. We were their first visitors that day as their families live all the way across Nairobi and too far for most of them to come (except Stacey’s sister and sister-in-law who came a bit later). While Pastor Stephen visited with the other Giraffe Project girls (check out the website if you are interested in sponsoring a child in school or want to see pictures of the Enna Girls School: http://www.giraffeproject.org/), I got to chat with the Stacey and Grace. They are both almost 18 years old, but still in Form 3 (grade 11 or grade 3 of high school) because they missed a year or two as they were waiting for the finances to go to high school. Until just recently, high school has not been free, and many parents cannot afford the tuition. Grace is an orphan; she stays with her aunt when she is not in school. Stacey’s dad died some time ago, so of course her mom has a hard time providing for all the kids.

Nyama Choma
We only stayed at the school for about an hour, but I enjoyed my visit with the girls. I expected to go home from there, but Pastor Stephen insisted on taking me to have “lunch” (at 4pm). In Kenya, guests are honoured very highly (even more so when they are mzungu guests). He would not let me pay for any of my matatu fare, and he felt he could not let me go without my having had a real lunch (the tea and bread at the church was “just a snack – food is for the stomach and snack is for the mouth”).

We went back to a place called Dagoretti market to get some nyama choma (roasted meat). There were many Masai at this place, and Pastor Stephen explained to me that the largest slaughter house of Nairobi was just nearby and that the Masai come in to sell their cattle. Without my realizing it, he had called the team from the church to come and join us for nyama choma, so I was rather surprised when they suddenly turned up (the two pastors and two ladies who had still been at the church, planning for an upcoming event). I do not know how the pastors get paid at this church, but I could tell that all really enjoyed working together and doing ministry.

After this enjoyable “lunch” of nyama choma and ugali (something like polenta), they all escorted me to the matatu stage (bus station) and sent me off. This reminds me of another interesting thing that I experienced that day: almost every time we took a matatu, people would make room for the mzungu at the front of the minivan – something that has never happened to me otherwise. I actually prefer sitting in the back for a number of reasons: 1. I would rather not see so clearly how we are driving and what crazy manoeuvres the driver is making; 2. in case of an accident, you are probably better off in the back; 3. as I discovered, it is easier to get on and off the back of the matatu, especially with a skirt – unless you are sitting in the very back, in which case it is never easy to get on and off. On the other hand, you actually get to see where you are going when sitting at the front. Carrying my backpack with my things for the weekend did not make all the “matatuing” very easy, but fortunately it was a direct trip home from where we had eaten.

Back again

Yes, I am back, not just from Msafara, but from suffering from some stomach bug (which was never identified). I am still processing all that I experienced and learned on Msafara. It was a emotionally, physically and spiritually draining trip, but it was also amazing, moving and indescribable.

Let me give you an idea of what we did. In the group, I was part of the volunteer team which meant that much of what we did was with IDPs (internally displaced persons - get used to the abbreviation!). In every place, while the pastors were meeting with the local pastors and working on reconciliation among them, we would go to the IDP camps. It has been more than a month since the peace deal was signed, but there are still over 200 IDP camps all over the country. The people there are still waiting to see the fruits of the peace deal. During the visits, we got to talk with displaced people and hear some of their stories. Even though there is "peace" now, these people cannot return to their homes because they have either been burnt, or they just do not yet feel safe going back. Many of them, even kids, have witnessed people being killed or hurt and their houses and properties being burnt or destroyed. Many of them are also still very bitter and hurt on the inside - they cannot or do not want to forgive what has been done to them. In that, it is hard for them to move on and to have hope for the future.

We tried to help these people in different ways: We brought "hygiene packs" that were distributed, we interacted with the people, talking with grown-ups and playing with the kids, and we had worship services with them. Even though these people have been taken care of physically and also have been given counselling, they are really thirsting for spiritual food and spiritual accompaniment in what they are going through. It was amazing to see people in the IDP camp in Nakuru breaking down in tears, asking God to help them be able to forgive those who had hurt them. In many ways, this is just the beginning of the work of reconciliation - we pray that this seed will grow and bear fruit. Many are not yet able to think of forgiving or reconciling - much still needs to happen for them to be able to move on. (For some people this is the third time that they have been chased away in post-election clashes.)

In Eldoret and Kisumu, the tension could still be felt on the streets as we came into town.

Oops, I have run out of time and must leave for our retreat... to be continued!

Msafara - Wheels of Hope

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the changes our church was making because of the political and humanitarian situation. A third of the staff was left in charge of running the church and the services, the other two groups started working with IDPs (internally displaced persons) and with the Msafara - the caravan of hope. For weeks the latter group (together with many other churches and pastors) has been preparing this caravan of hope which will be going through the five major cities that experienced post-election violence to work for healing and reconciliation.

Since I am in the group that has been running the church and the services, I did not expect to go on the Msafara (meaning caravan or convoy - safari, by the way, means trip). This week I was told that I could/should go, so I am getting ready to leave in a few hourse. For more information, you can check the website: http://www.msafara.co.ke/.

Tonight (Friday), we are leaving for Mombasa. We are staying there until Sunday night, coming back to Nairobi again at night. We then leave again for Nakuru on Tuesday morning, continuing on to Eldoret and Kisumu and coming back to Nairobi on the 17th of March. This means that it will be pretty silent on this blog for the next ten days, but I appreciate your prayers for safety and protection as we travel. Pray that God may bring true healing to the country of Kenya. Even in the church, pastors and members are divided along political and tribal lines.

I am actually not sure yet what I will be doing, but I am sure there will be plenty to do, whether it be with logistics, humanitarian aid, prayer or counselling. I will let you know when I get back! While I am gone, you can keep up with the happenings through the msafara blog: www.msafara.wordpress.com.

"We have a deal"

Today, finally, there is good news about the political situation. It is the news we have all been waiting to hear for the last two months. Kibaki and Raila Odinga have signed a coalition agreement whereby (not sure of the correct usage of this word, but this is a favourite word of Kenyans and is used in any and every context) the new post of prime minister will be created. The part about the prime minister was agreed upon some time ago, but the details and the powers of the prime minister and president took a long time to be worked out. Kofi Annan gave up talking with the two groups of party representatives this week and announced that he would be talking with the two head leaders, since they were the ones who really would have to agree. Today they finally struck a deal. (To read about the details of the deal, look up http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143982557&cid=4.)

Everyone is relieved at the news. For such a long time we have been going back and forth between hope and dispair, further development in the talks and people predicting the failure of the talks, that it seems hard to believe that the crisis has finally come to an end. Our hope of the talks ending successfully had been deferred so many times that I realised that I had not dared hope for such a quick resolution when Kofi Annan announced his plans to talk with the leaders. The good news has yet to sink in. Finally, we can move on. Thank God.

Then again, many people will not be able to move on for a very long time. There are still thousands of people in living in camps, unable to return. They do not know yet where they will be going and how they will be able to continue their lives after they have lost everything. Hatred between tribal communities is still festering and there is additional bitterness over what has happened in the last few weeks. There is still much work to be done.

I hope and pray that this coalition will last and that the underlying issues of this crisis (such as tribalism and economic disparity) will be addressed and taken care of (and not swept under the carpet as they have been every other time they have come up).

Intern Commissioning

Today is my day off, which I spent going for a swim and hanging out with Njeri (fellow intern and service manager). This is also when I get to catch up on blog-writing, because I still have not written about the historical event of intern commissioning on March 17th!
Last Sunday but one (as Kenyans say), the interns were officially introduced and commissioned (“eingesetzt”) in church. There are 23 interns, 18 Kenyans, one Indian-Ethiopian, one Armenian, two Germans and one Swiss (two of the interns were missing on Sunday). Dressed in black pants or skirts and with a Kanga (Kenyan piece of fabric used as clothing by coastal tribes) around our shoulders, we walked up on stage – barefoot! The bare feet were in order that we could receive African sandals as a symbol of those who go out to bring good news (“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” Isaiah 52:7). In that sense we are now sent and enabled to do our work for the church and for God.
I was happy to receive new sandals (the ones I bought in 2005 broke shortly after I got here), but I have only worn them twice for a very short time. They are still very hard and stiff, not like my comfortable old ones, and after the first ten minutes of wearing them I already had a blister. I have worn them once since the first day, trying to break them in slowly (“einlaufen”). I guess it is the same with the internship and the work I am doing here. I am still in the process of being broken in, getting used to the culture, the expectations and the kind of work I am doing.
You can take a look at the pictures from the commissioning as soon as I put the link up on the right. I have also gotten some pictures from the German couple of our relief work in January which you might want to take a look at.


Intern Work
The last week I have been very busy, often working until six in the evenings and continuing at home. I now have specific jobs: being in the service planning team, being service manager (I am still a bit fuzzy on what exactly this entails), putting together the bulletin (“Mitteilungsblatt”) and teaching baptism class. I started baptism class last Sunday and will be doing that every Sunday until Easter. There are only five people in the class (in a church of 1200 people), but I have enjoyed preparing the material and teaching last Sunday. I am getting a slow start on the bulletin because there were special bulletins last Sunday and the coming Sunday, so I only had to do an insert with the announcements. In the future, putting together the bulletin will also mean ghost-writing the main article for the pastors!
This week, some of us are able to go to a seminar on counseling for rape victims. I am looking forward to it, even though it will mean catching up on all the work on Thursday and getting up very early tomorrow morning (latest by 5:30am) to get through the traffic and across town by 8am.

Survival Tactics for Interns

I am back. After having been very quiet the last two weeks, I am trying to catch up with blogging. Part of the reason why I have not written any blog entries is because I have been very busy. I have now gotten the responsibility together with Njeri, another intern, of becoming “service managers”. This means that we are in charge of everything happening in the Sunday service. We oversee everything from cleanliness to the décor to lighting/sound to making sure the pastors have everything they need for the service. On Sunday, I got the first taste of what this might look like and set up the following guidelines for myself (to be taken a grain of salt (= nicht ganz ernst nehmen)):

• Never ask about anything that is not your responsibility – it might become yours.

• Do not show too much interest or empathy for someone with an administrative or organisational problem – you might be asked to be part of the solution (or even worse, it might become your problem).

• When having made the mistake of taking on extra responsibility, be sure to delegate the job to someone else.

• When being asked to solve someone else’s problem (e.g. “Please go look for XY and tell her to come to here”), have a good reason at hand why you are not available right now. – Look busy at all times!

• When faced with a problem, the best solution is not necessarily to ask your supervisor. Ask someone who you know will give you a clear answer, an immediate solution or realistic options. Ask someone you know will get things done!

• Do not give the impression of being reliable or trustworthy or you will be given more work than you already have. Other option: Make sure to delegate your work to others, but make sure they are trustworthy, otherwise it will all come back to you!

Hospital visit

Last week I went to the hospital to visit Njeru’s mother. I went with Njeru, also a pastoral trainee at Nairobi Chapel, and a pastor from Nairobi Chapel. Njeru’s mom had had a stroke the week before. They had been able to have her transferred to Kenyatta Hospital from a hospital outside the city because they have a relative working in administration at Kenyatta (the sign outside the hospital says “corruption free zone”). I was amazed at how many people were walking around the hospital. It was absolutely crowded and we had to stand in line to get in the elevator. When I visit the hospital in Switzerland, I mostly see nurses and doctors in the hallways – here I was noticing all the other people. I soon realised why there were so many people. In Kenya, if you are sick, you do not just get visits from your family and friends, but from your family’s friends (like me) and your friends’ friends. There were eight people in the room with Mama Njeru – usually about ten at all times according to Njeru, sometimes they have to take turns being in the room. I cannot imagine being ill and constantly surrounded by ten people, many of whom I do not even know. Maybe that is why they limit visiting hours to 12-2pm and 4:30-6pm.

Not Business as Usual

A week ago I thought that the internship was starting to become clearer and more organized, but on Friday, everything changed.

The first few weeks in January, everyone was focused on the political situation and the violence that had taken place. Churches were trying to help those who had suffered from violence and were speaking out publicly for peace. As things quietened down, people tried to return to their normal lives, expecting the situation to be resolved soon. Now it has been more than a month, and the situation has not really gotten better, even though here in Nairobi one can live one's life almost as if nothing had happened. While the mediation talks are going on, there is still violence and the number of internally displaced persons (IDP) is increasing. I have heard stories where the message was passed around a town or neighbourhood, warning the members of a certain tribe to get out before the end of the next day unless they wanted to be killed. The people concerned do not wait to find out whether the threat is true but leave their homes behind and seek refuge in a police station or church. This ethnically motivated violence has continued and will not be stopped through the resolution of the political situation. On the other hand I have heard reports of an area close to Nairobi where the pastors in the area reacted to the threats of ethnic cleansing by going out and speaking to people one-on-one and in groups, convincing them that this was not the right path to pursue. In that way, violence in that neighbourhood could be avoided.

Last week, the pastors of my church, Nairobi Chapel, decided that they could not continue business as usual. It is not business as usual for those people living in camps fearing that their attackers will come to attack their camp, neither should it be business as usual for us. The situation is not resolved yet and we believe the church should be part of the process towards peace and reconciliation. Therefore the church has decided to release a part of the pastors and staff to work in the following areas: opening the church ground up to displaced people (especially since the Jamhuri camp close to Nairobi Chapel is closing down and sending people back home - not all of them can return home), being a media presence to tell stories of hope instead of violence and destruction, setting up a "caravan of hope" (500 pastors who will visit the affected areas), and networking with community leaders in Kibera and Dagoretti (the area around the church) to convince them to use their influence among the populuation for peace.

It is exciting to see the church making this kind of a decision, but it also means that a part of our internship program is put on hold for now. A third of the staff will keep the Sunday services running while the others are busy on new projects. As I am on the pastoral care team, we are still more or less working on the same things, but we have also taken on service planning in addition to our regular tasks. The other tasks that I have been given is to set up a canteen (a cafeteria) after church on Sundays to raise money for the interns and to come up with a four-week baptismal class which will be starting in two weeks!

The canteen was successfully started last Sunday, and we made a good profit, though we have to get more efficient on setting up and cleaning up. We hope to sell even more as people get used to the idea of having a snack (samosas, donuts or hamburgers) or a soda after the service.

I do hope, however, that we will be able to continue our readings and discussions which I found very interesting and stimulating. We have been reading two books on leadership and church growth/church management ("Courageous Leadership" by Bill Hybels and "The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry" by A. Stanley, L. Jones and R. Joiner).

A Month Since the Elections

This will just be a quick post as I want to get to bed soon.

The political situation is at the same time getting better and worse. On the positive side, the government and the opposition have officially started the talks today with Kofi Annan. They have chosen their representatives and set the rules and goals for the negotiations. So far, so good. On the other hand, one of the ODM (opposition party) MP's was murdered last night in Nairobi. That has caused a lot of uproar and unrest again. You may have also been hearing that the situation in the Rift Valley has gotten worse as the people driven from their homes have started fighting back. The violence there has gotten out of hand - it is no longer political, but ethnically motivated.

Internship news: This week is still focused on team building and training (this is kind of like a course week). We have been given reading to do on the topic of leadership and ministry and will be discussing it this week.

Despite the violence and the unrest, I have been kept safe and have not seen any mobs or any unrest when out and about (Kibera and the district of the MP who was killed are not far away from here). This is also one time when being a mzungu (engl: "moozoongoo", dt: muzungu - white person/caucasian) is an advantage, even though at other times it means being seen as a ticket out of Kenya and paying mzungu prices.

Tumaini - Hope

Kenya is back in the headlines! (If not, then I am disappointed.) And this time for good reasons. Kofi Annan arrived on Tuesday evening and spent yesterday and today talking to the two parties. After his talks with Raila Odinga and ODM yesterday, they cancelled the rally that had been planned for today. This afternoon, Odinga and Kibaki actually met face to face for the first time since the elections and talked. We do not know what the results were (the talks will continue tomorrow), but they appeared before the press and spoke to the people, affirming their will to have dialogue and urging the people to keep peace. Kofi Annan said that he was encouraged, so we hope and pray that the good progress continues tomorrow.

As for my internship, things have started to get going, though still slowly. On Tuesday, we had a staff meeting to be introduced to the rest of the staff. Yesterday and today we had meetings about the concept of discipleship, for our department and for Sunday service planning. Tomorrow the meetings continue with our department.

My department is the pastoral care department. Pastor Janet is in charge of this, and it includes pastoral care, adult ministry (small groups and Sunday services) and internship program. Pastor Cathleen is also a part of the team, and then there are six of us interns - four Kenyans, one Indian-Ethiopean and myself - three women and three men. This week and next week we will spend a lot of team in meetings of our department, getting to know one another and setting our department goals for this year. As the speed of work picks up, you will be seeing less and shorter entries in my blog, so be assured that silence on this blog is nothing to be worried about.

The Beautiful Side of Kenya

Since I already mentioned a movie in my last blog entry, why not give you another movie tip that would show you a different side of Kenya to what you are seeing on the news. The movie "Out of Africa" (Jenseits von Afrika) is a movie about Karen Blixen, a Danish woman who emigrated to Kenya in 1913. If I remember correctly from the book, she was one of the first to try tea farming this high up. She lived outside Nairobi in place that has now been named after her: Karen. I am staying off Ngong Road which leads straight to Karen (where I was staying for part of my time in 2005). Karen Blixen's house there has been turned into a museum. The book is well worth reading because it contains many interesting descriptions of her life here, and the movie is well worth watching because it is full of the beautiful scenery of Kenya. Enjoy!

Intern Retreat

The last few days I was on a retreat with all the interns. We went to a place called Diguna about 20km outside of Nairobi - right by or even in the Nairobi National Park. The surroundings were beautiful and we got to see two zebras passing in the distance while we were eating dinner. A lioness had been seen the week before on the compound, but they put up an electric fence towards the park to keep the lioness out before we came.

We had a great time bonding as a team of interns despite the fact that we spent the second day in silence - we had all the more fun in the evening when we were talking again! From Tuesday on we will be working in different departments, but it is good to know that there are other interns to encourage one another when we start getting stressed.

Coming back to the city was rather depressing. It had been so peaceful that it was hard to imagine what was going on during our absence. I had been hoping for less violence in the rallies that had been announced and was sad to hear that their had been lots of violence and destruction in the Rift Valley and also in Nairobi, especially in Kibera (people stopped a train going through Kibera, pulled it off the tracks and removed 10km of train tracks! Check out the movie "The Constant Gardner" to see the Kibera slums and the train tracks).

Today, Raila Odinga actually spoke out against the violence that was happening in the name of ODM. It seems that what they started (by paying unemployed youths to riot) has gotten out of hand. He is now in a difficult position because his supporters will not accept anything else but the presidency for him - or else he need not show his face in Kisumu (unless he wants to endanger his life). The mediation talks with Kofi Annan are set for Tuesday, but ODM is still setting conditions and does not want to speak to the people Kibaki has delegated. The situation is depressing right now - maybe that is just because I am tired. Please pray for the negotiations on Tuesday.

Rain

For the first time since I have arrived here I awoke to the sound of rain. I also woke up to the fact that the power was out which was not huge problem except that it meant taking a cold shower, but the water is usually not very hot anyway. Cooking is done with gas here, so there was still a warm breakfast with hot tea (chai - milk tea).

The rain continued and got stronger until about 11am - the power was out until about 2pm - that is when it started raining again! The rain was a good thing in the sense that is has kept people from going out to the rallies in Nairobi. In other places like Mombasa and Kisumu there have been some riots, but it seemed rather quiet here - I am sure I will hear more on the news this evening. 13 of 18 expected interns turned up today for orientation (we are actually 22 interns) and there was no fee for latecomers today. (I realised that I should explain the 50 shilling fee in value rather than exchange rate. 40 shillings pay for my bus fare to church and back or for a 5dl bottle of coke.) The other interns probably not feel that it was safe to come, though there was very little traffic out of fear of riots, even though the rally was only set for 2pm. We had planned to go into Kibera and visit a clinic that the church has helped build up, but with the current situation and the mud that was to be expected as a result of the rain we were not able to go into the slums. That meant that I got the afternoon off which I am enjoying as people have been warning me that we will be exceedingly busy once the internship takes off!

While I still have the time, I want to write a bit about my host family so you can imagine where I am staying.

Steve and Mary are a couple in their late thirties with two girls ages four and a half and seven. I met Mary when I was in Kenya in 2005, taking a class at Daystar University. She was then working on a Masters in counselling. She has since then also taken courses in management since she works for a project called Amani ya Juu (http://www.amaniafrica.org/). Amani ya Juu means "a higher peace" and is a sewing project for marginalized women (mostly refugees) to empower them and work towards reconciliation and peace. Steve is an Anglican pastor working for Church Army Africa, a leadership training program within the Anglican Church (http://www.churcharmyafrica.net/).

The girls, Rinna and Tanielle, are very lively girls who love to play with the two neighbour children. School has started now, but recently they were playing hide and seek with their neighbours and locked themselves in the bathroom at the other house by breaking the key while turning it! Fortunately, the seeker was able to alert someone and they got out, but only after about an hour of waiting for a new key. They are both in school, and Tanielle is already learning to read (though often she guesses words from memory rather than reading them - she has got a great memory).

Their house has four bedrooms (and an additional little room in a separate house), and besides me there have been a number of people staying here as they have a very open house. First of all there is the house help, a young girl employed to do housework and also look after the children when the parents are out. She sleeps in the girls' room. Then there were other people here, a friend or a relative coming through on the way to university or the boarding school where she teaches, or a colleague looking for accomodation in Nairobi.

My room is on the groundfloor next to the living room which means I participate at least indirectly in the life happening here because I can hear what is going on in the house even from my room. All the rooms have a few ventilation holes above the doors and the windows, which explains why I can hear everything even though the house is made of concrete. The girls have to get up at 6 or 6:30am for school, so there is no sleeping in for me on weekdays - my day off is Monday :-( My room has a bed, a closet, a desk and a bookshelf - and I get afternoon sun through large windows, so I am quite happy here!

First Day

As I am writing this, the parliament is voting on the house speaker - a very tense moment because the speaker has the power to determine the agenda and to make the motion to impeach (jmdn. seines Amtes entheben) the president. We have been watching the live coverage of the voting process - don't worry, I am not missing much. It is actually quite a tedious (langwierig) process and has been going on now for almost three hours. First there were discussions on how the vote should be conducted. Now they are in the second round of voting, and since every one of the 207 members of parliament votes separately, it will take a while for them to get through. No final result can be expected until the third round when the vote is decided by a simple majority (first and second round is two thirds majority). That is when it will get really suspenseful.

We are still hoping that the rallys set for tomorrow and the following days by ODM will be cancelled or postponed, but that probably depends on the outcome of this vote. In general, people here a hoping that the conflict and the violence are (as someone put it) "a dying fire," and that is how many people will treat it, trying to go to work and school if possible.

Anyway, my title refers to my first official day as an intern, so I better get on topic here. After three days last week of working with a different style of organisation or management than I am used to as a Swiss, I am happy to say that Nairobi Chapel seems very well organised and strict in what they expect of interns and pastoral trainees. There is actually a 50 shilling fee (USD: 70-80 cents; CHF: 90 Rp.) for coming late!

Today was orienation (Einführung) and I learned that we are expected to work a five to six day week, with classes twice a week and several reports to hand in at the end of the month (a book review amongst others!). I am looking forward to being challenged in many ways and am actually also looking forward to getting back into study mode as well, even though that will only be part of the work. I will be working in the adult ministry department which includes Sunday services and small groups (and maybe more). We will also be doing visitation in hospitals and at people's homes. This week we will be on a retreat for the interns and pastoral trainees from Thursday to Saturday to be able to focus and prepare for our ministry engagement. I am excited about what is awaiting me and looking forward to learning, growing and being stretched.

The second round has just been completed, and as to be expected, they will now go on to another round with only two candidates.

Hakuna Matata - No Worries

Just a quick note to anyone who was wondering about my silence. I was quite busy last week, and then on the weekend the internet was down, so this is my first chance to read emails or write in my blog. You will be hearing more from me soon!

Refugee Camp

My hands and nails are still brown from peeling bananas. I bet you have never peeled as many bananas as I did today. What am I doing peeling hundreds of bananas? Today, I was at Karura Community Church (a daughter church of Nairobi Chapel) with a group of the interns to help with the camp that has been set up for about 400 displaced people from the Rift Valley.

I was in the kitchen team. First we peeled green bananas for making mashed bananas (tastes somewhat like mashed potatoes but sweeter and a different texture). In order to keep our hands as clean as possible we first covered them with grease so that the banana sap would not stick. I guess I did not use enough grease the first time around or did not go back for more often enough, but my hands got very brown and even with scrubbing them I did not get everything off. After the bananas we washed and cut cabbages, next spinach and kale for "sukuma wiki". Before we could finish the sukuma wiki it was time for serving lunch, consisting of cooked cabbage and bean soup/stew, the mashed bananas (for the kids) or a mixture of mashed potatoes, maize and beans.

I got to help serve people, and because I had not really seen that many people around before, I was amazed at how many people were at the camp. Serving food does not give you much opportunity to actually look at people, but I tried to lift my eyes from the food and look people in the face while serving. Doing relief work does not necessarily give you a chance to get to know the people you are helping and get a sense of how they are doing since there is much to do in the background. There is a sense of hopelessness at a camp like this - even though people are being helped and there physical needs are met. But there is so much more to life than physical needs. Even when the political crisis is resolved, the question for them remains: where will they go? They have lost their homes, some have lost their loved ones and had traumatic experiences. And now they are sitting in the camp, waiting for a political as well as a personal solution, knowing that while other Kenyans return to their normal life, they is no life for them to return to.

My fellow volunteers, most of whom are Kenyan, keep exclaiming that they cannot believe that this has happened and is happening in Kenya. Kenya has always been the stable nation to receive refugees from other countries, but now Kenyans are refugees in their own country and are even fleeing to Uganda. How could this happen?

It is amazing, however, to see the response of people here. I am constantly amazed when I see the amounts of food, clothing and other articles donated. People are extremely willing to help with giving or with volunteering. One can only hope that the giving and helping continues while the effects of the crisis continue to create a need, as our memories are often very bad in regard to remembering needs over a longer time.

News flash

Since writing the last entry I have been told that the ODM rally (which was banned by the police anyway) has been cancelled! Thank God!

Monday (I can't come up with a better title)

People are back to work. I can tell because the internet connection is much slower than last week (we share the wireless with an office building across the road). That means that I am now writing my blog entry in Word and waiting till later to post it.

Yesterday
Yesterday was a nationwide day of prayer. People prayed in church services, prayer meetings and on TV for the political situation, for the displaced people and for the leaders of the country. People of all religions prayed. I do not know whether you heard of it wherever you are, but they even showed spoke about it and showed footage in the evening news.

Today
Today I went to church to help with making care packages for people in Kibera. The beginning of the internship program has been postponed to next week because of the immediate need of the situation. However, communication here does not always seem very clear to me, and I went to church expecting to meet the other interns and the pastors.

Surprise number two (which I should have anticipated) was that there was only one person at the church when I got there at nine as requested. At 9:30 there were six of us waiting for Pastor Faith who was said to be on her way. She arrived at about 10am, and we began dividing all the foodstuff we had received into 200 piles on the ground as people continued to arrive to help. Here’s what most bags contained:

• 2 bags of maize flour (Maismehl) – for “ugali”, something like polenta which you can use to scoop up the other food when eating with your fingers
• 1 bag of beans or lentils (Linsen) – protein
• 1 bag of rice
• 1 bag or can of “mafuta” – oil in solid form, shortening?
• some long-life milk (UHT) or milk powder
• a packet of tea
• a bar of laundry soap

Carrying around all the food, chopping up bars of soap and pouring maize meal into bags is actually hard work! Especially when it is hot (at least we were inside the church tent) and you have nothing to eat or drink for a few hours (I put my bag with my water bottle in someone’s car and she went off to hand out the bags of food with it in her car!). I think people here are more used to waiting for a meal, but I could feel my blood sugar level getting lower by the hour – I miss “Znüni” time (coffee break)!

Caleb
On my way to church I was approached by a guy named Caleb who told me that he had a blind wife and a baby girl at home, that he had no job and no food at home for his family. I took him along to church because I could not give him anything and was not able to discern whether his story was true or not (in a way it does not matter because he was obviously in need, but you first want to help those who are most needy, not the most clever in getting something). I was surprised at how patient he was, waiting for the pastor to come and then helping us prepare bags of food for two or three hours before he received his own bag of food and went off very happy.

The Present Situation
People I have talked to who live in or close to Kibera (the slum area where there was lots of burning and looting) have told me that it has been very quiet there the last few days. However, there is a rally planned for tomorrow in various places and people are worried about what will happen. Everyone who can will be staying at home, so once again your prayers are appreciated for the safety of people and against violence.

"You have come at the right time"

I am extremely tired and in need of a shower. I have been out all day. But let me start with yesterday:
I was starting to get rather bored on my fourth day spent mostly in the house, so I was excited when my host Steve suggested in the late afternoon that he take me to my church and to the fairgrounds nearby where the displaced people were staying. Things had quieted down quite a bit - people were out, going about their business, and there was traffic (though not as much as usual). Everything seemed to be quite normal - that is also what Kenyans are longing for, to get their lives back to normal. Though the political situation is not resolved, they are trying their best to resume their everyday life.

Jamhuri
Many of the people from the Kibera slums whose houses have been burned have moved to the Jamhuri fairgrounds (Messgelände). This place is ideal because it is only used once a year but has all the facilities (Anlagen, Einrichtungen) needed for them to stay there: halls and buildings to sleep in, toilets and water. Different organisations and churches have come in to help organise the distribution of food and other necessary things. Nairobi Chapel has also been involved in collecting food and clothes for the displaced people.

Steve knew about the situation at the fairgrounds and decided that I might as well go and help there instead of sitting at home, so that is where we went yesterday afternoon. When I got there I was very surprised and happy to meet a number of people there whom I knew. They all work for African Enterprise, the organisation that had hosted the outreach I was part of two years ago. They were just as surprised since even those who knew I was coming did not know when I was arriving.

"You have come at the right time," one of my friends there said. "Most people back home would say exactly the opposite, " I replied. But I agree - I believe that I have come at the right time. There is great need here now on many different levels, and even after the political situation is resolved, there will be many people who are suffering from the effects of what has happened. "When elephants fight, the grass suffers," an African proverb says.

The Challenges of Trying to Help
So today I was at the fairgrounds again, trying to help with whatever was necessary. There are about 2'000 people staying there, and the challenge with such a situation is the coordination of all the people involved in helping. Another challenge is the fact that there are always people trying to take advantage of the help being given, going back into the slums or onto the street with the food or items they have received and selling them.

What did I actually do today to feel so tired? I was supposed to help with "logistics" which is everything and nothing. It took a while for me to figure out what I could help with as there was no clear direction. The main thing I did was to help register the people arriving who wanted to stay at the fairgrounds. This gave me the opportunity to use my little bit of Swahili - especially my numbers when asking how many children they had! After the registration I helped in the office, entering the names into a list and typing up the minutes of yesterday's coordination meeting. So, actually I do not know why I am this tired!

Tomorrow is church and I hope to get hooked up with the pastor responsible for the interns (25, by the way!), since I have not heard from her since arriving.

News is on soon and I have not heard any news yet today, so this is the end of my blog for today!

Entschuldigung

Beim gestrigen Eintrag war ich etwas unter Zeitdruck, da ich ihn noch vor dem Zubettgehen fertigstellen wollte. Erst danach habe ich gemerkt, dass die Sprache für Nicht-Englischsprachige vielleicht etwas schwierig sein könnte. Deshalb hier ein paar Übersetzungshilfen:


compound: eingezäuntes Gelände
stubborn: stur, eigensinnig, dickköpfig
to tally: nachzählen, zusammenzählen
to resort to: auf etwas zurückgreifen, gebrauchen
rally: Demonstration
venue: Ort, Platz, Treffpunkt
mundane: alltäglich, banal

First Impressions

The Blog
This is my first time blogging, so I am not sure how to begin. I will start with the name: "Joy in Kenya" - why did I choose that name for my blog? First of all because of my middle name, and secondly because I hope with all my heart that peace and also joy will return to Kenya soon.

If this were my first time in Kenya, I would probably be quite shocked by the situation. As it is, the situation usually seems worse from the outside than from the inside. Life continues despite the unrest and the anxiety about the future. Yes, we are worried, but we are also hopeful. I am saddened by the news of people losing their homes and their means of livelihood (the two watchmen working for the compound here have both had their houses burnt down). Up until now I have not felt threatened or unsafe, but I have stayed inside the house (or at least within the compound) since I arrived on Monday.

When I arrived, people had been staying at home for the last five days. Now it has been more than seven days. Things are slowly getting back to normal, people are out again, buses running, stores open. But that is not enough, and people are getting tired and impatient with the situation. Even after three days I am feeling impatient and angry at the political leaders who are too stubborn to compromise or even to enter into dialogue. Today, however, the regular TV programs were cancelled to broadcast news in a joint media effort to send out messages of peace and to plead for a solution to end the violence.

The Situation
A short summary of what has happened as viewed from the inside: On December 30th, the results of the General Election were announced to the public with Mwai Kibaki as the winner. However, there were irregularities in the tallying of the votes, and the opposition party's candidate Raila Odinga did not want accept defeat. Since then, Odinga's supporters (mostly people from the tribe of the Luos) have resorted to violence to protest the outcome of the election. They have attacked people belonging to the Kikuyu tribe (Kibaki is a Kikuyu, and many of the people in higher positions in politics and business are Kikuyus), burning houses and businesses in the slums in Nairobi and in other cities. The ones suffering most are of course the poorest who are now left without anything.

Both Kibaki and Odinga are urging people to be peaceful and calm, but at the same time, Odinga called for a rally to be held today. The police did a good job in keeping the crowds away from the planned venue without resorting to senseless violence themselves. Odinga's party threatened to hold another rally on Tuesday, then they moved it forward to Saturday and now the newscasters just announced that it would take place tomorrow at 10 am. That means that businesses cannot open tomorrow as planned. Despite this news, my host family and their neighbours are confident that things are moving slowly in the direction of a solution.

We appreciate your prayers for Kenya, that the situation may be resolved soon and that the political leaders will be willing to dialogue and find a solution together.

At this point there is no need to worry about my safety as I am in a safe place and will not be leaving the compound. I am hoping to keep you posted on what is happening - hoping that my blog will soon contain more mundane and boring information on my life here!