Short Term

Well...Jessica's lesson of the day: life is different when you're only here on a short term trip.

Our area coordinators...I think that's the right term...came down from Nairobi to visit us with their kids and a friend who was extending her stay after coming for a two week missions trip. Comparing the number of things that she saw and did in her two weeks here with the number of things that we saw and did over our first two weeks here was rather remarkable. (Not that we mentioned so to her. :P)

She was very excited to tell us how, just this morning, Warren had taken them, "to see all of those little shops, like you see in the movies." After living here for over two weeks, this was her first time to set foot in a market or buy fruit from a market stall. On the other hand, we flew in on a Sunday, and by Tuesday we were flying all over town on the matatu system as part of our amazing race, including the market that we returned to the next day to shop for Garissa appropriate clothing.

She bought her first pop from a duka early this afternoon when Becca took them to visit the mama who owns the duka beside our house, another thing that we did many times within fourty-eight hours of getting off of the bus here. And, this evening, I believe that we may be exposing her to her first meal of camel meat. So many things that seem so inherantly tied in with understanding life in Kenya that she did come anywhere near in her origional two weeks here.

It makes me wonder, looking back on all of the short term trips that I have been on, just how much of the culture and lifestyle of those places I missed while I thought I was seeing the reality of people's lives. The experiences themselves aren't that important. I mean, I'm sure her family at home will love to hear about all of the adventures that she had, but there's more to it than just seeing things.

The market is part of the heartbeat of this town. It's where people get most of their food and clothing, most of their household supplies. It's where down-countries and up-countries have stalls in the same row and begin to learn each other's language and culture. It's where the world of freshly picked produce collides with the world where aid food is resold at a profit. Christian or Muslim; Somali, Pokomo, or Luo; everyone collides at the market. (sometimes literally! lol.)

You can't really understand the way that most Kenyan's live unless you've seen how they get their food. It would be like going to America for the first time, never setting foot inside a grocery store or a WalMart and never eating fast food, and then saying that you had really seen the way that Americans live.

There are huge benefits to spending a week or two involved in missions, but this was a good reminder of how very short short term trips really are.

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