Greetings from Nairobi, Kenya.
It was a long time coming here, but I am feeling good and extremely optimistic about this trip!
I flew Turkish Air. Washington Dulles - Istanbul (9.5 hours) and Istanbul to Nairobi (6 hours). I slept very little on the flights. I arrived at Shalom House, my home base for the next month, around 4 am this morning. I slept a couple hours, and then had breakfast with some American students from Concordia University in Irvine, California. Today I will head to the local shopping center to buy water and other essentials for the trip. Tonight I will have dinner with Ken Okoth, founder and executive director of Children of Kibera Foundation as well as some parents from the DC area. Then Ken and I will head to the airport to meet the fifteen high school students and two other chaperones I will be with the next two weeks.
My American upbringing has really colored my expectations. I feel a little strange about having such deluxe accommodation when my charge is to serve children in Kibera who have no permanent structure to live in. I have a large bed and a TV in my room-- and my own washroom as well. Then this morning when my shower was luke-warm I found myself annoyed. For me, this is one of the main reasons I'm here-- to learn to live more simply. I don't need so much stuff. I've begun to realize that since moving into my *tiny* room at my new house in D.C.
It's no coincidence that one of the songs the highs school students and I are prepared to sing when called upon here is "Simple Gifts." The lyrics will be my mantra.
'Tis the gift to be simple 'tis the gift to be free
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed.
To turn, turn 'twill be our delight,
'till be turning, turning we come 'round right.
No comments:
Post a Comment