It all started when I was driving to work one morning. My roommate and I were using the school car. We had kid/house sat the weekend before so we were in Karen, not far from the school. I pulled out of the driveway without any problems. As I drove for less than 10 seconds my roommate shouts out ‘WIRE!” There was a wire streamed across the road and I was going too fast to miss it. I ran over the wire and quickly came to a stop. Thankfully the wire was a dead wire or we may have gotten hurt. It was wrapped around the car’s front end and had somehow tied itself together so as to make a loop. There was a group of Kenyan ladies walking by that had stopped to watch us muzungus (Kiswahili for foreigner) try and get ourselves out of the fix we were in. We attempted to try pulling the wire out but were unsuccessful. We had not noticed but one of the Kenyan ladies had left. When she returned she carried in her hand a knife with a blade that was at least 9 inches long. She grabbed the wired and tried to cut it. By this point two Kenyan men on their way to work stopped. They took the knife from the woman because she was unsuccessful in cutting the wire. They then proceeded to try and take pull the cord out from under the car. The ended up having to cut the wire and then both get on the ground and untangle the wire from the underside of the car. We both laughed the entire way to school. It was quite the eventful morning for us.
I gave an English assignment that required the students to write three nouns of a particular topic in a series. One of the questions asked for three vegetables. One girl answered with cabbage, carrots, and sukuma. Sukuma weke is a collard green type meal here that is eaten with ughali (it looks like really thick grits and is made from white corn maize). I never would have gotten that answer in the States. Another amusing answer was to the question of three types of transportation. One student answered a donkey, car, and matatu. The next day I shared with them how much I like how we are different. They add spice to my life that was not there before. I can’t help but enjoy them and smile.
My roommate Amy and I went out to eat one evening and had a good laugh about our differences. We had gotten a few things at Nakumatt (a grocery store that’s similar to Wal-Mart) and then went to the food court at Westgate (a mall in Nairobi) to eat. After our food came we bowed our heads to pray. I quickly lifted my head before prayer and realized that Amy’s bags were sitting ungarded on the chair next to her. Her wallet was in one of them. My purse was in my lap. I said, ‘Amy, aren’t you going to at least put your hand over the bag with your wallet so it doesn’t get stolen while we’re praying?” She appeased me and placed her hand over her bag. After we prayed she pointed out how differently we think. She has grown up in the mountains of California where it is apparently safe to leave things lying around. I have lived in the city for the last eight years where you can’t always leave everything out in the open. I have to keep remembering that God is in control. I sometimes worry about her because Nairobi is generally not a safe place to live and she’s an extremely trusting and kind person.
On October 31st my students were in charge of chapel. We did a sports’ themed Chapel and talked about teamwork. They had a great time and learned a lot in preparation for it. Thanks to all who prayed with me for Chapel.
One of our teacher’s got in a car accident with the school car last week. The front end is completely smashed (so I hear). He got out of the accident because our go-to-guy Peter and the police officer are from the same place. He told Peter to give him a goat and it would be settled. So our teacher got out of a hefty fine for a goat. I hope your laughing right now because I am laughing yet again in writing this. Things don’t always make sense here, but my sense of humor has grown. It’s different but not wrong.
I hope you’ve gotten a couple of laughs out of my post. I’ll try to blog sooner than a span of two weeks next time. Love all of you and thanks for the prayers!!!
