We have nearly reached the halfway point of our five months in Kenya, which began on January 10 and will end when we depart for home (with a stopover in the UK) on May 27. Te time has passed quickly, and there are many things we still want to do while we are here. But it’s a good time to take stock and look back.
Things that David has done, but not Susan: drive all around Nairobi without causing any injury to anyone (discounting the terror and anxiety to his most frequent passenger when matatu minibuses come hurtling at us in the wrong lane); eat (and enjoy—really!) a traditional Kenyan delicacy, matungu, a stew made from chopped-up bits of cow stomach and intestines (and I ate it at the U. S. Embassy’s lunchroom); climb Mt. Kilimanjaro (have I mentioned that already in this blog?); gradually adjust my speaking speed and teaching style to Kenyan students; learn the names of about 10 students in my class (still working on the other 50, but the pictures I took last week will help); participate in two “moderation” meetings where all the faculty of my department met to review and approve each others’ grades in the previous semester’s courses and (at a separate meeting) to review and approve each others’ examinations for this semester; complete an article for a collection on African Christianity in which I was able to develop some themes from my Fulbright research proposal and apply them to recent observations in Kenya; attend the rehearsals of the Nairobi Musical Society, which will perform Bach’s St. John Passion in late April (and may need special divine intervention to do it justice); lose Susan’s beloved little Sony camera (either misplaced or stolen on our way back from a volunteer project in a Nairobi slum a few weeks ago with US Embassy staff and Fulbright program alumni); and take the arduous 40-km bus journey to Daystar’s remote campus at Athi River and back, fighting bad roads and heavy traffic, thankful that this is not necessary (as was once envisioned) to teach my classes each week.
Things David has not yet done but hopes to do: meet the main Daystar philosophy instructor; figure out whether there is an administrative support office for my department on this campus; receive any mail whatever through Daystar; obtain a Daystar faculty ID card; obtain residency papers that Daystar is supposed to obtain from the immigration service, whose absence has already cost us several hundred dollars in entrance fees to parks and museums (but I've been warned that expecting these to be issued by the end of a five-month stay is unrealistic); conduct the interviews for my research project; spend at least two full days a week on reading and writing for that project, which is supposed to occupy half my time but has tended to get squeezed out by more urgent tasks until now.
Things Susan has done, but not David: make contacts with nonprofit agency staff in Nairobi about what contribution she can make to some projects related to law and business development (appointments to discuss that coming up this week); explore the side streets and markets and fabric shops of the town center and ride the matatu out to the small town of Karen with our friend Mia; keep meticulous financial records both for the Calvin interim course and for our family budget; serve as a regular babysitter for two alarmingly energetic neighbor boys, aged 5 and 9; find (through Daystar friends) a young woman who comes twice a week to do laundry (all done by hand) and cleaning, a very hard worker and who when we sit down to lunch together has lots of ideas and lots of questions about the US and Kenya, the church, family relations, and more; make lots of wonderful things in the kitchen including stews that transform the usual tire-rubber consistency of Kenyan beef into tender morsels, Indian curries of varieties we never encountered in the US using leaves from the curry bush just outside our kitchen door, and numerous batches of granola.
Things Susan has not yet done but hopes to do: identify some concrete projects that can use her skills and experience for nonprofits with whom she has so far had only preliminary contact; buy more baskets and more fabric.
How the Nairobi where we live differs from the Nairobi we expected to encounter: it’s a great deal more interesting, more varied, more cosmopolitan, and more enjoyable to live in. And less worrisome: there are things we know we can’t do, like walk or drive around freely at night, ride matatus on unfamiliar routes, and venture into slums and other problematic areas of the city even during the day unless we are with someone who is known in the community. And we were victimized just this week by credit card fraud: someone apparently swiped our credit card number at a supermarket on Friday and used it to charge more than $2000 of purchases ($500 at another supermarket, $1700 at a tour company) the same day. Susan discovered this Saturday evening when she checked credit card records on line. She immediately spent 15 (very expensive) minutes on the phone to the bank in the US; that account is now closed and another card is on the way. But on the whole we feel no less safe, and no more anxious, than when we are in a major American city. And the people of this city are just amazing. We’ve had the most illuminating conversations with people who sit next to us in church, stand at the bus stop with us, introduce themselves at receptions, or tend to us in shops. The air quality in Nairobi is dreadful, it’s true; but the quality of human interaction is extraordinary.
