Thoughts from My Parents

In the movie Sahara, treasure hunters are searching for a great lost treasure on the continent of Africa. During the movie one of the main characters says a line that will always remind me of the way most of the world thinks about Africa. The line goes as follows: “It’s Africa, nobody cares about Africa”. The continent of Africa has been called the Dark Continent, the Forgotten Continent and for most of the modern world it is probably one of the most misunderstood and least thought about places of the planet.

Although we would never claim to be any type of authority on African culture, we were recently blessed with the opportunity to visit the country of Kenya and get a very small taste of what it is like to live in a country that has great beauty, wonderful people, and day to day challenges that make living there an adventure.

After landing in Nairobi and traveling 6-7 hours by bus to our final destination it became apparent that many of the modern conveniences we have grown to simply expect would not be so available in Kenya. Things such as power, water and smooth roads would soon become a treat that, when available, would elicit great joy and excitement.

We spent the majority of our time simply doing what our daughter and her fellow class mates do everyday. We were blessed to be able to visit two different schools in the area and meet several of the students, teachers and administrators that have taken on the day to day challenge to give this generation of children the best education they can. Two of these administrators were a couple that we spent time with on several different occasions. This couple has taken on the challenge of running a preschool, building a new home a bit at a time, and just plain trying to make a difference in the community. They are a fantastic couple who love the Lord and are doing His work to the benefit of those they meet everyday.

We were treated to fantastic Kenyan hospitality and food. We visited a giraffe park, went to the market, attended a local church, ate goat and camel, drank lots of water and the occasional soda, sweated a lot, prayed for electricity and water and simply looked forward to each day’s activities. We walked a lot, tried to talk in Swahili as much as possible, remembered how good cinnamon on toast is and learned that water doesn’t have to be clear to use for bathing. We were re-introduced to the art of simply sitting around for hours and talking to each other about any subject during those times when power and water were not available. We learned that you always take a flashlight and bucket of water with you whenever you enter the bathroom, and that it is actually possible to kill a hundred flies in less than twenty minutes without ever leaving your chair.

We remembered how good a cool drink of water tastes, and that a person can survive without napkins, ice, the internet or even Mountain Dew. After spending a few days in the country we discovered that those things that appeared to be total chaos when we first arrived were simply the way things are in a country that takes chaos and make the best of it. We learned that it is possible to dig a 200 mile ditch by hand, that when it comes right down to it the people are what make a country great and not the government, and that God loves those people dearly. Our hearts were opened for the people of Kenya and we discovered that when the love of the Lord shines, even in the slums of Nairobi, it can put a light in people’s eyes that shines for the entire world to see.