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.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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!
Monday, January 21, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
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!
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!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, January 14, 2008
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!
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