Sunday (02/21): I am so thankful for this time in Kenya and that I have had the chance to visit some churches here in Nairobi. About 9:30 this Sunday morning, I was standing near the center’s gate waiting for Kip (whose real name is Edwyn Kiptinness) to pick me up to take me for church. While I was waiting, I noticed a small group of African Christians in the small building that used to be the maintenance building a couple of years ago and now provides a single meeting room, large enough to hold about 70 people. The sound of worship music, mostly acapella and sung in Swahili, filled the courtyard. You know you’re in Africa whenever you hear that beat and that style of singing.
Kip and his family took me to his church (Kileleshwa Covenant Community Church), planted by the huge Nairobi Baptist Church about 25 years ago. The outside certainly looked like no church I’ve been at, all angles and disproportionately tall, planted in the middle of a neighborhood of houses with at most 2 stories. The worship songs were very God-honoring and meaningful to me today. There were some expats there and the preaching/teaching by one of the African pastors was good, based on Psalm 101 (“I will lift my eyes unto the hills…). I continue to be struck by how limited the church in the US understands how to interact and worship with people different from the norm. In this case, I was extended a very warm welcome and know that I was worshiping with people from many tongues and tribes, much as I will in heaven.
Kip brought me to his home again for a quick, traditional Kenyan meal of a bean dish, rice, chapatti (like tortillas), tea and fruit. He then returned me to the center. I look forward to returning to Kileleshwa church next Sunday and probably a quick lunch again at Kip’s home. Since he’s had the same after-church meal for 30 years, I should know what’s for dinner. This is a picture of Kip and his wife, Edna.
I rode with Serge and Olivia as they dropped his mom at the airport to return to Cameroon. We took the long way home from the airport, passing through some older neighborhoods, rather than the sections of Nairobi that have turned into apartment complexes. Everything is surrounded by high walls and solid metal gates with people-doors built in, certainly not at a level of your typical neighborhood in the US but not slums by any Kenyan standard. Some roads were in disrepair and some were just packed, rocky dirt. The nicer the neighborhood, the walls start getting topped with broken, sharp shards of glass or metal or even with barbed or razor wire.
We passed through an area with a high density of Muslims and with a mosque. I can hear the early morning call to prayer from the BTL compound. Interestingly, there is an Assembly of God church two blocks from the mosque in one direction (notice the sign on the left) and other Christian churches in other directions. I wonder what that’s like for them. We then passed through an Indian neighborhood with its Hindu temple.
I went shopping at the local grocery supermarket chain for food for the next two weeks (hopefully) with Olivia’s help. Milk can come in boxes that last a really long time or in jugs that only last 2 days. Half ‘n Half essentially doesn’t exist here since everyone uses low fat milk for coffee. Ugh! Most brands are unknown to me except for things like Hellmans mayo, some spaghetti sauces and, of course, Coke products. Believe it or not, they did carry Vermont maple syrup. Go Vermont!
I treated Serge and Olivia to dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant that they love as a thank you for taking such great care of me. The place had a wonderful atmosphere, sitting out in the open air (under cover). They leave at 5 am for the airport for two weeks in South Africa and, though they are essentially packed, are not early risers. Besides the 5 hour trip, they’ll be meeting some friends who are themselves driving 5 hours to see them, so will be exhausted by the end of tomorrow.
Tomorrow begins my last two weeks, working with Larry and Phyllis since Omonge and Jeff are gone. There is plenty of work to do including wrapping up two tasks this week and starting two more. The final hard drive for a network backup device is being hand-carried from Dallas and will arrive Wednesday so we can being looking at getting some network backups going. The other task we’ll start is to move all the user files from one server to one of the new ones. This one will be tricky because of coordinating with the users to help them stop looking at the old server and learn how to get their files from the new one.
Just another day in the life of a techie…
I rode with Serge and Olivia as they dropped his mom at the airport to return to Cameroon. We took the long way home from the airport, passing through some older neighborhoods, rather than the sections of Nairobi that have turned into apartment complexes. Everything is surrounded by high walls and solid metal gates with people-doors built in, certainly not at a level of your typical neighborhood in the US but not slums by any Kenyan standard. Some roads were in disrepair and some were just packed, rocky dirt. The nicer the neighborhood, the walls start getting topped with broken, sharp shards of glass or metal or even with barbed or razor wire.
I went shopping at the local grocery supermarket chain for food for the next two weeks (hopefully) with Olivia’s help. Milk can come in boxes that last a really long time or in jugs that only last 2 days. Half ‘n Half essentially doesn’t exist here since everyone uses low fat milk for coffee. Ugh! Most brands are unknown to me except for things like Hellmans mayo, some spaghetti sauces and, of course, Coke products. Believe it or not, they did carry Vermont maple syrup. Go Vermont!
I treated Serge and Olivia to dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant that they love as a thank you for taking such great care of me. The place had a wonderful atmosphere, sitting out in the open air (under cover). They leave at 5 am for the airport for two weeks in South Africa and, though they are essentially packed, are not early risers. Besides the 5 hour trip, they’ll be meeting some friends who are themselves driving 5 hours to see them, so will be exhausted by the end of tomorrow.
Tomorrow begins my last two weeks, working with Larry and Phyllis since Omonge and Jeff are gone. There is plenty of work to do including wrapping up two tasks this week and starting two more. The final hard drive for a network backup device is being hand-carried from Dallas and will arrive Wednesday so we can being looking at getting some network backups going. The other task we’ll start is to move all the user files from one server to one of the new ones. This one will be tricky because of coordinating with the users to help them stop looking at the old server and learn how to get their files from the new one.
Just another day in the life of a techie…
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