Nairobi Day 2
Sunday October 7, 2007
Nairobi, Kenya
The next 24 hours were one of the most amazing I’ve ever experienced. I woke up to the sounds of Kenya. I have a huge window on my third floor hotel room and could hear the vultures and birds of the air squaking for me to wake up. It was 6am and I was ready to experience my day.
I got dressed and went downstairs to the hotels dining hall and waited for the rest of our team. Nancy was the first to come downstairs and she was a polished silver jewel. She has beautiful silver hair that crowns her countenance. We talked while the others arrived. Breakfast was incredible. They had an omlette bar and fresh squeeze passion fruit. Incredible. It was a total surprise since my last breakfast in Africa (10yearsago) consisted of an egg&ant scramble. Yummy.
We then attended an Anglican service in Nairobi. The church was a very affluent church. Fresh African flowers were largely displayed near the elements on the altar. They had a great choir and a lovely preacher. The choir sang us a fantastic welcome song and sang Happy Birthday to members of the congregation. I did my usual walk around church and photograph the worshiping community as I have been doing for the last few years now. But the faces were different. There were so many colors and so many special moments in that one hour. I wish I could have photographed all I wanted to. But I didn’t want to take away from the message. I sat in the back with the ushers and found myself greeting people as they walked in too. One woman walked in with her elderly parents and sat near me. Her father and a brown suit on with a tie and not so new polished leather shoes. His face stayed in my mind and I was looking forward to communicating with him after service. Immediately, after service everyone came to us and welcomed us. We talked to several people, but I made it a point to converse with the older gentleman. He mentioned to me that he was a young man when the Lord appeared to Him. The Lord told him that he is soon returning and to share the testimony of St.Mark 13:1-…… He went on to tell me that he had a vision for the youth of the community and I could help his ministry by sharing the chapter of St.Mark. I soon asked him if I could take his photograph and I did. He stood proud in the middle of the church while I snapped a picture. The entire time of the conversation he talked to me about how He saw the Lord, and saw His coming, and saw the youth suffering without a relationship with Him. And the entire time he talked about vision when he was nearly blind from cataracts. Sometimes one doesn’t have to see, to see.
We came back to the hotel for a brief lunch. Nema came to pick us up and joined us while we were having lunch. Henny and henric joined us too. They are at the local CRWRC office and are here for sometime. They too joined us for the afternoon. Nema took us in the Land Rover to the Masai Market in Nairobi. What a display. What a raw example of commerce. What community. What sales people. Amazing. Suddenly I was everyones, sister, friend, white woman, and then someone elses sister, friend, and then down the aisle someones elses sister and friend. Kristen was bombarded by so many. She became friends with the whole market. And bought tons of stuff that she doesn’t even know where it’s going to go. I went down the market looking at everything. And communicating with everyone. And immediately I could hear the reminders of the Holy sprit, to not shop but to minister to the Masai. And His compassion over took me. I started to photograph the market and then met a beautiful Masai woman who spoke little English. But we managed to carry and excellent conversation. And she was so beautiful. Ancient. Her eyes were so ancient. Dark. Real. Honest. I met an artist who paints with acrylic and we began to talk about the difficulties of life as an artist. When selling art is our only income. I then proceeded to take a photograph of him with all of the art around him. I also met a man who was selling an old broken camera. He was trying to sell it to me. I told him that we both new that it was broken, but that we should take a picture of it for memories sake and give it a good burial. Apparently I was the best bargain person in the group. When I got back into Nema’s car people spent 3x’s what I spent in the market for the same thing. I didn’t get my grandmother the elephant that I wanted. But we’re going to the park on Wednesday and perhaps I will find one for her. Perhaps a real one for me too! ( I wish)
In the afternoon, while at the masai market, a big black cloud came to visit over us. It was so huge and appeared so quickly that sellers at the market began to cover up their merchandise. But something changed in the colors of the earth. The grey sky illuminated the coral clay dirt. The lavender blossoms fell to the ground and melted into the coral. Have you seen lavender blossoms kissing the rich coral earth? It’s breathtaking. The coral is a great contrast to the Kenyan skin colors. And the rain causes the city to brighten and sift the smog away. It’s lovely.
We drove to Junction Market where I got to see a wal-mart like supermarket in Kenya. I could purchase a washer and dryer, a tea kettle, a tamale pot, dishes, water, candy, tv’s, etc. It was quite fabulous. I love international markets. They’re so stimulating. I could have spent hours in there. Great items one will never find at home.
I think Nema really enjoyed our company. She even took us to her home to meet her husband Philip and their daughter grace. The other two daughters were having their afternoon bath and preparing to go to sleep. Nema’s home is beautiful. In a vey gorgeous neighborhood. She has a security person who opens the gate and takes care of her Land Rover. She has a gorgeous home with a great big yard with some of the most incredible flora ever. I would kill to have the lush garden she has. I now know why explorers of our past took such great efforts to record flora. There isn’t anything like some of these plants back home.
The evening soon came to an end. The group met for our devotional time and discussed what fears/trepediations we may have about our first visit tomorrow. In my opinion, the visists have already begun.
More tomorrow. I hope. Apparently my converter doesn’t work with lap tops and I’m using the last juice I have to send this update out. If I find a converter at the conference center in the morning….I’ll write more. Please pray that I may be able to find one.
Much love my friends. Jambo.
Nairobi, Kenya
The next 24 hours were one of the most amazing I’ve ever experienced. I woke up to the sounds of Kenya. I have a huge window on my third floor hotel room and could hear the vultures and birds of the air squaking for me to wake up. It was 6am and I was ready to experience my day.
I got dressed and went downstairs to the hotels dining hall and waited for the rest of our team. Nancy was the first to come downstairs and she was a polished silver jewel. She has beautiful silver hair that crowns her countenance. We talked while the others arrived. Breakfast was incredible. They had an omlette bar and fresh squeeze passion fruit. Incredible. It was a total surprise since my last breakfast in Africa (10yearsago) consisted of an egg&ant scramble. Yummy.
We then attended an Anglican service in Nairobi. The church was a very affluent church. Fresh African flowers were largely displayed near the elements on the altar. They had a great choir and a lovely preacher. The choir sang us a fantastic welcome song and sang Happy Birthday to members of the congregation. I did my usual walk around church and photograph the worshiping community as I have been doing for the last few years now. But the faces were different. There were so many colors and so many special moments in that one hour. I wish I could have photographed all I wanted to. But I didn’t want to take away from the message. I sat in the back with the ushers and found myself greeting people as they walked in too. One woman walked in with her elderly parents and sat near me. Her father and a brown suit on with a tie and not so new polished leather shoes. His face stayed in my mind and I was looking forward to communicating with him after service. Immediately, after service everyone came to us and welcomed us. We talked to several people, but I made it a point to converse with the older gentleman. He mentioned to me that he was a young man when the Lord appeared to Him. The Lord told him that he is soon returning and to share the testimony of St.Mark 13:1-…… He went on to tell me that he had a vision for the youth of the community and I could help his ministry by sharing the chapter of St.Mark. I soon asked him if I could take his photograph and I did. He stood proud in the middle of the church while I snapped a picture. The entire time of the conversation he talked to me about how He saw the Lord, and saw His coming, and saw the youth suffering without a relationship with Him. And the entire time he talked about vision when he was nearly blind from cataracts. Sometimes one doesn’t have to see, to see.
We came back to the hotel for a brief lunch. Nema came to pick us up and joined us while we were having lunch. Henny and henric joined us too. They are at the local CRWRC office and are here for sometime. They too joined us for the afternoon. Nema took us in the Land Rover to the Masai Market in Nairobi. What a display. What a raw example of commerce. What community. What sales people. Amazing. Suddenly I was everyones, sister, friend, white woman, and then someone elses sister, friend, and then down the aisle someones elses sister and friend. Kristen was bombarded by so many. She became friends with the whole market. And bought tons of stuff that she doesn’t even know where it’s going to go. I went down the market looking at everything. And communicating with everyone. And immediately I could hear the reminders of the Holy sprit, to not shop but to minister to the Masai. And His compassion over took me. I started to photograph the market and then met a beautiful Masai woman who spoke little English. But we managed to carry and excellent conversation. And she was so beautiful. Ancient. Her eyes were so ancient. Dark. Real. Honest. I met an artist who paints with acrylic and we began to talk about the difficulties of life as an artist. When selling art is our only income. I then proceeded to take a photograph of him with all of the art around him. I also met a man who was selling an old broken camera. He was trying to sell it to me. I told him that we both new that it was broken, but that we should take a picture of it for memories sake and give it a good burial. Apparently I was the best bargain person in the group. When I got back into Nema’s car people spent 3x’s what I spent in the market for the same thing. I didn’t get my grandmother the elephant that I wanted. But we’re going to the park on Wednesday and perhaps I will find one for her. Perhaps a real one for me too! ( I wish)
In the afternoon, while at the masai market, a big black cloud came to visit over us. It was so huge and appeared so quickly that sellers at the market began to cover up their merchandise. But something changed in the colors of the earth. The grey sky illuminated the coral clay dirt. The lavender blossoms fell to the ground and melted into the coral. Have you seen lavender blossoms kissing the rich coral earth? It’s breathtaking. The coral is a great contrast to the Kenyan skin colors. And the rain causes the city to brighten and sift the smog away. It’s lovely.
We drove to Junction Market where I got to see a wal-mart like supermarket in Kenya. I could purchase a washer and dryer, a tea kettle, a tamale pot, dishes, water, candy, tv’s, etc. It was quite fabulous. I love international markets. They’re so stimulating. I could have spent hours in there. Great items one will never find at home.
I think Nema really enjoyed our company. She even took us to her home to meet her husband Philip and their daughter grace. The other two daughters were having their afternoon bath and preparing to go to sleep. Nema’s home is beautiful. In a vey gorgeous neighborhood. She has a security person who opens the gate and takes care of her Land Rover. She has a gorgeous home with a great big yard with some of the most incredible flora ever. I would kill to have the lush garden she has. I now know why explorers of our past took such great efforts to record flora. There isn’t anything like some of these plants back home.
The evening soon came to an end. The group met for our devotional time and discussed what fears/trepediations we may have about our first visit tomorrow. In my opinion, the visists have already begun.
More tomorrow. I hope. Apparently my converter doesn’t work with lap tops and I’m using the last juice I have to send this update out. If I find a converter at the conference center in the morning….I’ll write more. Please pray that I may be able to find one.
Much love my friends. Jambo.
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