Mzungu Invasion!!!

I can’t believe it! After five months of preparation and anticipation, the mzungus have landed! Pulling gigantic suitcases and bulging carryon bags, the Grace Community Church team greeted Nairobi for the first time! Unfortunately, the airport experience wasn’t perfect. Eight pieces of luggage never showed up! To the amazement of all, there was no complaining (despite the prospect of sharing underwear and toothpaste!). These guys are such troopers!




I got to see my sister for the first time since leaving in January! It was great! With a couple inside jokes and small talk about her journey here, we were right back where we left off! Honestly, it is so great to have her in Nairobi with me! Though we won’t see each other much this week, we’ll have plenty of time to catch up at Massai Mara next Tuesday and Wednesday…



After finally getting transportation sorted out, it was time to leave the airport (about 2 hours after they landed!). With bleary eyes and dazed expressions, the GCC team filed onto three shuttles bound for the Methodist Guest House, where they spent their first night here. Many of these guys hadn’t slept in two days! But guess what… They weren’t allowed to go to bed! Following the advice of several “jet-lag experts” in the group, the team was required to stay awake until at least after dinner!



They did whatever they could to stay awake. Playing cards, talking, drinking tea, playing more cards… drinking more tea… Honestly, I admire their efforts. I know how hard it can be to fight the urge to sleep! If only there was an easier way to get on the rhythm of a country halfway across the world!



I don’t think have any idea what they are in for this week! After receiving a very Kenyan welcome at church tomorrow, they’ll be spending the rest of the week living with host families. During the daytime, they’ll be visiting prisons, helping at children’s homes, experiencing the slums, doing street evangelism and prayer walks, etc. When they go home at night, they’ll be eating Kenyan food, enjoying Kenyan hospitality, greeting visitors, and trying to figure out this extremely different culture! It will be a busy week!

Stay tuned here for more updates and pictures!

White People - We're Hopeless...

Ok, being white here is SO weird! Especially being a white American! When I walk down the street, I feel like a circus parade, with everyone staring at me all the time! Sometimes I just feel like throwing down my bag, raising my arms and yelling out “Are you not entertained???” like Russell Crowe in Gladiator…

There is this basic mindset in Kenya that all white people (mzungus) are filthy rich. Because I’m pretty much as white as they come, taxi drivers wake up from their day-long naps to holler at me, street kids stop playing with their friends to hobble over and ask me for money (“Brother? Buy for me bread? Five shillings?”) and random people will stop me on the road just to say hello. I guess they think that I, being the ignorant and absurdly wealthy mzungu, would like nothing more than to shower them with money!

One of my intern friends said that when he was growing up, he honestly believed that you went to America when you died. Another man I met here was shocked to realize that we actually grow crops in the states! He simply thought that we imported all of our food.

The other day I talked a matatu conductor down from 20 to 10 shillings because I wasn’t going very far. When I got on, I heard a woman behind me asking in Swahili “Why does he need to save money?”

I often get ripped off when I ride matatus because I’m white. Ok, I used to get ripped off. Now I’m armed with an arsenal of Swahili words and phrases to totally make the conductor feel stupid. “Wewe! Ulisema mbau!” (“Hey, you said 20!”), “Hapana. Silipi thelathini. Kila wakati mbau!” (“No. I’m not paying 30. It’s always 20!”), or my favorite, “Unafikiri mimi ni mzungu mjinga???” (“You think I’m a stupid white person???”).

I’m learning to live with it. There’s really nothing I can do, so what choice do I have? Whenever I take the time and energy to gently realign a matatu conductor’s mindset about white people, the next mzungu he sees will inevitably be a chirpy, camera-toting American holding a 1000 shilling bill and asking “Jambo! Is this enough to get me to the Hilton hotel? Do you know what hotel means?”

White people – we’re hopeless…

Kenya Email Update #8

Hi everyone! What’s up??? Sorry it’s been so long since my last update. Time is flying and I’ve had trouble getting inspiration for what to write about!

Anyway, check this out… Since arriving in January, I’ve lost close to seven pounds! It’s weird. It’s not like I’m eating less… In fact, whenever I can find any chocolate or candy I just wolf it down! No, I think the weight-loss comes from the actual food that I’m eating daily. Most Kenyan dishes are actually healthy and organic – not laced with sugar, cheese and butter like most dishes in the states (I miss good ol’ American cheese almost as much as Halo 2!).

Oh, and an even more obvious reason for the weight loss – I walk a TON! Seriously! I got my map out and did a few calculations. To get to and from Chapel every day, I walk 1.5 miles. And most of that is up a steep hill! Add that to the 10 and 20 minute walks I take all the time (just to save a few shillings on bus fare), and I’m getting used to making long these long treks without complaining. For example, to get a good cup of coffee, I have to walk about 2 miles… A little different from pulling up to a drive-thru Starbucks!

A couple of weekends ago, five of the guys from Chapel went for Nyama Choma at Kenyatta Market. Tim and Njau ordered FIVE KILOS of meat (that’s almost 1.8 pounds for each person)!!! A normal person who hasn’t eaten in three days might be able to force down a half kilo… You see the problem we had. I ate more meat than I ever thought possible. We kept on encouraging each other to eat more and more even though we had no hope of finishing. Whenever I knew I could speak without throwing up, I would turn to whoever was slacking and say “You’re going to stop now? Be a man! You don’t see me slowing down!” Guys are so stupid.

Turns out girls aren’t much better! Last weekend, in honor of the release of Star Wars: Episode III, we had a huge Star Wars marathon over at Angie’s place. A bunch of us gathered in her living room, surrounded by piles of junk food and all of the Star Wars movies ever released. From Sunday evening till Monday afternoon we watched all five movies with only a few hours in between for sleep. It was great! Except for how miserable we were the next day…

Will and I went on Friday to see Episode III, which totally rocked! It was actually one of the few movies released here at the same time as in the States… We got there an hour and a half early to make sure we got good seats. Um, so yeah. Only 15 other people showed up (3 other white nerds like us, a handful of very single Kenyan guys and this crew of French kids talking excitedly about all the stupid movie trailers)… I’ll be honest; the real disappointment was that nobody came wearing a storm trooper outfit!

Ok, so not everything here has been a big party. In fact, some of the stuff I’ve been doing is quite intense. I’ve recently begun getting involved with a church in the Fuata Nyayo slum (near South B, where our church will be planted). I was originally just doing some contact work for the GCC team coming in June, but felt a deep urge to get more involved. Over the next few months I plan to spend time with the pastor evangelizing door to door in the slum and working with their congregation!

The slums of Nairobi are some of the poorest places on Earth. Trash fills every sewage lined “street.” In one area of Fuata Nyayo, kids play along a 15 foot cliff that drops directly into a disgusting river of human waste and industrial pollution. I don’t think you can ever fully imagine what a slum is like until you’ve visited one. The sights, sounds and smells are just too much to explain in words. I believe wholeheartedly that visiting a slum is one of the absolute most eye opening experiences on this earth. You cannot enter a slum without being changed forever.

But that’s not the only amazing thing I’ve been up to! On April 17-19, I took my very first personal retreat. I went alone to a Jesuit retreat center called Resurrection Garden. It was amazing. For 48 hours I wrote in my journal, read scripture, prayed, and totally examined my spiritual life. Chapel only allows its interns to bring a Bible, notebook, journal and pen, so I was forced to focus on hearing God’s voice.

The experience was truly life-changing. I explored my spiritual gifts and passions while unearthing my sin habits and unconfessed sins. It was so eye-opening to see my list of sins growing longer and longer. I had a lot of junk in my life that I had never confronted! I spent time confessing my sins before God and decided the steps of repentance for each. One of the greatest moments of the retreat was when I walked through the garden, stopping at different depictions of the crucifixion to confess individual sins to God.

I left a changed man. When I walked out of the gate (for the 30 minute walk to the main road!), I knew that I had heard God’s voice. I honestly felt like I truly understood myself for the first time! Since the retreat, my spiritual life has skyrocketed! I am disciplined, committed to ridding my life of deep sin habits and replacing them with godly virtues. I’ve begun confessing my sins to others, seeking ways to continue my growth, and reading the Bible as God’s Word, not just a textbook. A few Sundays ago, I cried during worship for the first time in four years!

Anyway, I don’t know if that even begins to describe the amazing things that are happening in my spiritual life. I mentioned in my last update how much I have been growing. I was only in the foothills of this mountain! In fact, I’m beginning to realize now that this year is not just a spiritual mountain… it’s a mountain range! Of course, the implications of that are clear. I have a long way to go yet! There are many more mountains, and many more valleys to cross before I reach my destination. It will be long and it will be hard, but I am committed to seeing this through to the end!

Ok. I have two requests to make!
Please send me any digital pictures you have taken recently of yourself or your family! I’m realizing now that I have almost no pictures of my friends back home! What’s that about???
I made an update with similar content (but lots more pictures!) using Publisher, but it doesn’t work with all email providers, so I went with the old fashioned one. If you’d like me to send you the fancy one with all the pictures, let me know!

Well, it’s been 4 1/2 months and time is flying by faster than ever. Before I know it, the GCC team will be here and I will be reunited with Mom, Dad and Lucy! Thanks again for your prayers and I hope this email finds you well! Keep in touch!

Barry

Kenya Email Update #7

Hi everybody! What’s up???

I’m just enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon here in Nairobi. Thought I’d hop on my computer and finish this update since our power just came back. It seriously goes out at least once a week. I picture this evil little man sitting behind a large switchboard, laughing as he vindictively turns the power on and off at random. Poor guy. I should probably send him a letter or something. :)

Anyway, I want you to know that it’s getting harder and harder to cram everything into these bite-sized email updates. It just seems that whenever interesting things start happening, I have less time to write! Do I even need to mention how fast March flew by? I turned 22 and didn’t even notice! We spent my birthday visiting Will (the other American intern) who had been in a pretty serious car accident (he’s ok now). It really shows one of the big differences between our cultures. If the same thing had happened in the States, we would have all been trying to figure out who was going to send him a party favor!

One cool thing that did come from my birthday was that I was treated to dinner at a restaurant called Carnivore. It’s an all-you-can-eat gluttony-fest of meat (No surprise that most of the people eating there were white tourists)! They serve beef, chicken, pork, ostrich, crocodile, camel… Yeah. I even ate the crazy stuff… It’s becoming habitual. Anyway, at Carnivore, Waiters just walk around holding big skewers of roasted meat, carving off pieces for whoever can still cram more animal flesh into their already bulging stomachs. Good times!

Speaking of meat, I had another memorable first a few days ago. I got to see my lunch slaughtered before my eyes! We were out at Camp Malta, which is a team-building site owned by Tanari-Trust (Mo’s company). In good Kenyan fashion, we were having Nyama Choma for lunch. Will and I saw these two guys with machetes escorting goats to a corner of the property. Like real men, we were mesmerized as they killed, hung, and skinned the animal that in a few hours would be our meal. How cool is that?

On the way home, I introduced the people in our van to Twizzlers (my grandparents sent them to me). I was the only person there who had even heard of them! I explained that in the States, we always have Twizzlers when we go on road trips. After devouring the bag, we pulled off at a roadside kiosk and asked if they had any more. They must have been fresh out. We bought mangos instead.

In other news, the internship is going full blast. Right now, I have the responsibility of finding and training a production team for our church plant’s Sunday service, writing dramas and promotional materials, making a detailed map of our district, helping to organize the activities for the GCC team coming in June, and participating in a counseling class, discipleship group, and numerous intern meetings. That’s about it… except for the research, event planning, teaching and counseling that I do. Oh, and I’m studying Swahili on the side… and serving refreshments at worship concerts… and finding clipboards for volunteer sign-ups next Sunday... (It really doesn’t end!)

It’s funny. I think after a year living in a foreign country, the most valuable thing I’ll learn is not cultural adaptation or different paradigm of ministry… it’s time management! Seriously. You should see my calendar. It’s so organized it hurts. If someone told me that Microsoft Outlook was a direct gift from God to man, I wouldn’t be surprised.

I think I am finally able to grasp the fact that I’ll be here the whole year. I’m starting to see the bigger picture, and I’m realizing how awesome this year will be for my development. I come home at night filled with the stuff I’ve learned about myself – my leadership style, my emotional weaknesses, my spiritual gifts, my opinions, my past mistakes, my purpose in life, etc. That doesn’t even include the things I’m learning about ministry, cultural worldviews, church planting, and how to be a good uncle to a couple of absolutely crazy boys!

Thanks a billion for your prayers! I’ve had a few really tough emotional experiences that ended well, I believe, because of your dedication to pray for me! Keep it up!

I attached a little picture that I made with Photoshop (it puts to shame the last picture I attached!). If you like it, I can make more of ‘em. I’ve been taking a lot of pictures. Keep your eye out for a little email I’ll be sending soon. It will announce an AOL Instant Messenger chat session I want to do some Sunday Afternoon (well, it’ll be afternoon for you… I’ll be up in the middle of the night). I’ll just open up a chat room to answer questions and talk in real time with you guys! Cool huh?

May your wives be many and the wind be always at your back! Sounds like a cool Kenyan farewell. But it’s not. I just made it up. :) Sorry for the letdown!

Have a wonderful April!!! Bye!

Barry