Kenya Update 10/3/09 - Downpours and Djembes

It has been a most excellent weekend in Kenya. Thursday night after PR rehearsal, Immanuel spent the night at my flat. He lives in Rongai, and the rehearsal is late so he needed a place to spend the night. I am lucky enough to have an old ghetto couch in my flat, so I was more than happy to share! We had a good time. I made dinner of spaghetti and oober chunky meat sauce (which I was teased about the next day in the office - I guess spaghetti isn't considered an actual meal here...), we stayed up too late and got up too early, but it was nice to get up and have someone to tease/say good morning to.

On Friday I spent 4 solid hours shopping for groceries. Xaviour came with me to the Tusky's in Rongai to find that it was closed for 2 hours due to a power outage. Not wanting to think about what they were doing with all the meat, and considering Xaviour's prediction of what a Kenya 2 hours would look like, we decided to go 10 miles down to the road to the larger Tusky's in Langata. The primary reason for our trip was (I'm very sad to say) to buy a cellular communication device. So now I have a cell phone, which is good because my students can reach me at anytime. Also, I am establishing some semblance of independence (don't worry Mom and Allie!!!!) so it is good to have a phone in case I find myself in a dangerous/unfamiliar situation.

Today I spent the morning reading Oswald Sanders. The book is called "The Joy of Following Jesus" and its a challenging little book. Sanders points out all the ways that modern Christianity is so drastically different than a scriptural discipleship of Jesus. "To some who have been nurtured on the 'easy believism' doctrine, the radical demands of Christ may seem excessive and unreasonable." It's very easy to write off Jesus' commands and his example as excessive and unreasonable (especially in our modern context), but Sanders challenges us to take them seriously, pay the cost of discipleship and experience the fullness of following Jesus!

After lunch I went with Charles and his brother Joptha to the Masaii market in Nairobi. The quest: find a djembe and purchase said djembe free of the "mzungu discount". Me and Charles did reconnaissance, scoping out the drums around the market and finding the one that felt "right". Then we sent in Joptha with a target price. After arguing for about 90 seconds, I had the drum guy offering me 8000/- ($100) which is totally out of my price bracket. Joptha spent 30 minutes bargaining, and he walked away with the drum for 3500/-!!! A good deal for such a quality drum. Check out the merchandise:It's a nice solid wood djembe. Granted, its a rope drum, which means I will soon be acquiring a new skill (tuning rope drums...), but it sounds great. And it has a lion carved in the bottom. Super cool.

On the way back from Nairobi it started POURING. This is such a relief for this region. It has rained on campus twice since I arrived 5 weeks ago, and never for more than 10 minutes. This downpour was so welcome, I didn't mind getting soaked on the way to dinner! I can't wait for tomorrow - I am going to try to play my drum in church (start salvaging my terrible rhythm skills...) and I seem to recall a rumor of going out for lunch with the Pitts??? Fingers crossed! God bless :-D