|
Along the Way: A Novelist in Kenya
Wilmoth Foreman, writer who lives in Columbia, Tennessee, was a member of the Kenya mission trip and wrote a three-part story of her experiences. The series, "Along the Way," was featured in the Columbia Dispatch.
Part 1: The Story of Jakaranda, a Church Named after a Tree
Part 2: Where We Were and Why; Learning To-Do's and Taboos
Part 3: At Gaitumbi's Church-in-Progress, Open the Door and Meet the People
Part 4: Africa's Animals
|
| |
Thursday, July 28, 2005
This is the last email you will receive from us, as we are going on safari tomorrow morning and will not return to Kikuyu.
Today we travel down to the Rift Valley to visit Maasai Land. We went to Kimelot school. There are 100 children in 4 classrooms of Maasai children from 3-9 years old. The entire people of the area came to meet us. It was a very humbling occasion for us to be greeted so enthusiastically. The children all bowed there heads expecting us to place our hands on their heads. This is a custom that blesses the children from each adult. The ride out to Maasai Land was 3 hours and we saw a herd of giraffe, gazelles, and zebras. We have much to tell you about our exhausting day.
We send our love to you as we are busily packing our suitcases for the trip to the Maasi Mara tomorrow. We will leave there on Sunday, and go directly to the Nairobi airport for the 36-hour-long trip home.
Peace,
Courtney Mott
|
| |
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Hello from Kikuyu:
We spent the day at Embulbul again building classrooms. We finished plastering a school room, landscaping the side of the church with local flora and painting the window frames on the new school rooms.
For lunch the "mamas" of the congregation prepared a feast of roast goat and a number of other local favorites. They really went out of their way to treat us special and we tried to reciprocate. At the end of the day we had a ceremony in church where they serenaded and danced for us and presented us with gifts. We gave gifts to all the children and presented the school teachers with some Christian reading materials, toys and school supplies.
When we got back to Kikuyu, we did some serious power shopping from the private display of Gilbert, a friend of Stu and the group, who acts as a middle man between us and the local artisans. We are off to dinner now at the Horseman, a restaurant in Karen known for its zebra steaks and other local fare.
We will be traveling to Maasai land tomorrow to the village of Kimelok, the oldest stationary Maasai village. We will be delivering water and hundreds of pairs of shoes and clothing donated by FPC members. We have a two and a half hour drive each way so may be back too late to send an email tomorrow. Since we leave for our final safari in Maasai Mara Friday morning, this may be our final email.
It's been a fantastic trip and we can't wait to get home to share our experiences with you.
The Kenya Mission
|
| |
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Yesterday we did the touristy stuff—shopped for coffee and such; had milkshakes or cokes and HAMBURGERS at Java House, where some among us who were frantic for a catsup "fix" got a new lease on life; toured Karen Blixen's house [its exterior was used in the filming of Out of Africa, the movie based on Karen's life]; visited the Giraffe Center and Kazuri Beads, a bead factory which makes jewelry and pottery; and generally had a relaxing break.
Today? Another story. We returned to Embulbul, the church where we worshipped the first Sunday we were here. There, some of us dug and planted a flower garden alongside the church. Others painted windows in one of the new classrooms at the school we're helping build. Several others helped plaster walls of another new classroom. This job literally was mudslinging, but of a positive and productive kind.
With the generosity of the Kikuyu people running true to form, we ate lots of food and drank lots of chai tea onsite. This time, we carried sandwiches and snacks to share and learned that, if Embulbul is any barometer, Vienna sausages will never make it big in Kenya.
We're getting used to driving through seas of kiosks [spindly open-air food and merchandise stalls] on roads riddled with potholes and lined with grazing donkeys, goats, and occasional herds of cows. Life goes on in Kikuyu, and we feel blessed to be in the thick of it all.
The Mission Team
|
| |
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Great day! We arrived at Jakaranda about 10:00 to find the roof completed, the floor poured, dried, and painted, and finishing touches—such as cleaning up construction clutter—finished. Our guys hung banners at the front of the church inside and the dedicatory plaque [see pictures] on the outside front wall.
As honored guests, our group accompanied the ministers, elders, etc. to the vestry at 10:30. By 11:00, we were ready to process—elder Michael leading the way holding a large Bible, followed by the rest of us in the order requested by the host minister. We sang our way to the front stoop, where Sandra had the honor of cutting the ribbon [picture].
My, what music! The Jakaranda choir, a girls' school group of perhaps 40, plus...dare we admit that, as a group [picture], we attempted three songs, which were politely received? On hymns with congregational participation, there was dancing in the aisles. And the wonderful sound of born-to-sing voices.
The service, counting vestry time, lasted three hours and 45 minutes. A highlight was the auctioning off of pineapples, banana bunches, pumpkins, mosquito netting and such. Speaking of netting—LeeLee Dietz' new title is "fruit lady." She netted quite a haul of fruit that church members bid on and donated to her.
The moderator of the Presbytery's sermon jumped back and forth between English and Kikuyu. After the service, we celebrated with goat stew, rice, ugali [mixed mashed vegetables], bananas, pineapple, and Fanta sodas.
A good time was had by all. As they say often in Kikuyu, praise the Lord!
The Kenya Mission |
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
July 22, 2005
Greetings from Kikuyu:
We have just returned from Safari in Nakuru, a three-hour extremely bumpy ride from our home base. The safari was great: three all-you-can-eat meals, showers with serious water pressure, nice bungalo accommodations and incredible animal watching. We had three vans, each with a pop-up roof that allowed us to stand up and take pictures. In addition to the incredible landscape we saw a million or so flamingo's (on the lake where the flight scenes in the movie Out of Africa were filmed), rhinos, cape buffalo, impala, gazelle, storks, warthog, girraffe, baboon, waterbuck and others. The animals were great, but the real highlight was watching Sandra take part (pulled from the crowd) in the traditional dance ceremony in front of the entire resort.
We have an early night tonight at our compound before departing for for Jakaronda tomorrow for the dedication of the church we built last week. We are excited to worship with the members of the congregation we got to know during construction.
We heard the news about additional terrorists attacks in London and Egypt. We are saddened, of course, but are not affected at all in our travels. The Kenyans we speak to are just as appalled by the violence as we are.
All the best,
The Kenya Mission
|
| |
July 20, 2005
We went to a new site about an hour and a half from "home." The trip took us through Nairobi and through poverty areas unlike any we've seen before. We also passed about five miles of Del Monte pineapple fields, coffee trees, tea trees, and green houses where roses are grown.
When we got to our work site, a church's frame was the extent of the building so far. It's almost a church by now. We'll go back tomorrow to finish this Mabati [metal] church at Jakaranda. We're pooped and late for supper so that's it for today!
More tomorrow.
The Kenya Mission
|
| |
July 19, 2005
We woke to rain this morning, which made us wonder how fast today's paint would dry. By the time we loaded up the van to travel to the church, the weather had cleared up.
Ours isn't a typical job site, since we begin in a circle, holding hands, during a prayer in praise and for guidance.
We had another laughter-filled day of building foundations and whatever else the tough guys in our group do while the more cautious among us paint and paint. Then we paint some more.
Today's lunch featured African dishes—many vegetables, a barbecued goat, etc. The women are jutifiably proud of the many meals—some called teatimes—they have furnished.
This afternoon, though it was only our second day at Giatumbi, the knowledge of our pending goodbyes hung in the air. What friends we have become with our co-workers! After lunch together, on behalf of the entire Nashville church, Sandra presented several gifts. Among them was a communion set, which is one of the items the church chairman mentioned they specifically needed.
All gifts were appreciated, but the lovely knitted shawls which were knitted by members of Nashville First Presbyterian specifically for this giving, were the biggest hit. The joy on the faces of the shawls' new owners spread to us all. Plus, one of the Kikuyu elders spoke of how clearly the shawls pointed out that this mission group is an extension of the entire Tennessee congregation.
More tomorrow.
The Kenya Mission
|
| |
|
| |
July 18, 2005
It's been another great day in Kenya!
We spent the day working on the stone church in Gaitumbi which has been funded entirely by our church and the congregation itself. They have been waiting for a year to meet us and most of the elders and some others worked along side us today. We would have accomplished a little more if we had not stopped for two tea times and lunch, but the local traditions are not to be broken. Each tea and lunch was essentially a full meal where we learned about the local congregation and ate things we couldn't identify. One elder proclaimed that meeting and working with members of FPC, the church that made his new church possible, made this the best day of his life. After lunch each group sang a song to the other. I'll let you guess which group had the choreographed song and dance and which group didn't really know the words.
To say the church is made of stone doesn't really capture it. The church is built to hold over 500 people. The stones are mined from local quarries and are the size of bricko blocks but weigh about 45 pounds each. Our group worked on two tasks: building the walls of stone on the front entry porch of the church and scraping and painting windows. See photos below. THERE WAS NO COMPETITION between Team Baron and Team Wagster to see who could build the best wall the quickest, and it's a good thing because the professional contractor would have been HUMILIATED. All the workers will sleep well tonight.
We are about to go to a devotional and dinner. Tommorrow we will return to Gaitumbi where we will give gifts of peanuts (a new favorite of the elders) and soccer balls to some of the children who were playing soccer with tied up bundle of rags.
On our way to Gaitumbi, we will waive to President Clinton who is visiting the girls school on the grounds of the hospital where we are staying. Fortunately for us, his visit prompted the government to level out some of the dirt roads between here and Nairobi. The roads are so bumpy now, it's hard to imagine what they were like before.
More tomorrow.
The Kenya Mission
|
| |
July 17, 2005
This morning, we worshipped in PCEA Embulbul Church that our monies and previous mission groups partnered with the Kikuyu to build. A speaker said, "Your help has given us 20 years. It would have taken us that long to accomplish what, with your help, was done in three years."
The first service we attended--in English language -- had a small but enthusiastic congregation. Courtney Lee Mott [in picture] and others of our mission group were invited to read scripture. Sandra [pictured] shared by delivering the sermon. Stu Ross, project manager, took our group's picture outside the church.
The second service, in the native language, Kikuyu, nearly filled the large sanctuary. And did fill the air with praise and music. At lunch, John Wagster observed, "We go to church to improve our faith. They go to celebrate their faith."
After lunch at the Rusty Nail [under an awning surrounded by flowering trees and birdsong], we're back at home base, unpacking, learning to-do's and taboos, and resting up for tomorrow's work day.
We are eight hours away on the clock and a world away on planet earth.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
