We’ve be in Africa for 2 weeks now – it’s been quite the change from Asia and things still surprise us each day. The first morning we arrived, we were told that we were going to a party/celebration and showed up at a funeral for a 2 year old boy who had just died from malaria. That put things into perspective right away as we were face to face with the harsh reality of this continent.
We’ve been trying to adjust to life here in Bukembe, Kenya – it’s a new way of living and a new way of doing ministry. We’re challenged on a daily basis, but redirected to find our strength in the Lord.
The first night we arrived, our pastor asked what our names were, and seemingly unsatisfied decided to give us new names – African names! So this month, we’ve been known as Nafula (Katrina) and Milimo (Paul). Here in Kenya, most people have an English name and an African name which is given based on the season or current state of the country. Since this is a farming community, everyone has a name that has something to do with agriculture. Nafula, is someone who is born during a rainy season and Milimo, is a hard worker, or person of the fields.
Each morning, we wake up around 7am to a breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, fried dough and some fruit. Then we get ready and walk over to the school that Pastor started. Along the way, we get stared down by the locals and have little kids run up to shake our hands. Sometimes they look down afterwards to see if our “white” has rubbed off on them. Once at the school, I teach the oldest students English while Paul teaches grade 4 science. Then we have some African tea and more fried dough before heading out on the field.
We walk for miles every day, through fields of corn and sugar cane, down red dirt roads to visit as many African mud huts as possible. Everyone eagerly invites us into their home, we “give some encouragement” from the bible and pray for the family who lives there.
Our evenings are spent together as a team, trying to be creative to occupy our time. It’s not safe for us to be out after dark, so we often watch pirated dvds, play cards or worship. For dinner, we usually eat a freshly killed chicken that we received as a gift earlier that day along with a heap of steaming ugali (African corn meal) and maybe some avocadoes or beans. We tend to go to bed pretty early, as we retreat beneath our mosquito nets and try to hide from the mice and cockroaches.
I hope this gives you a glimpse into our lives here in Africa. Also, check out this video I made of our travel day from Asia – Africa:
