What a day today was. We woke up relatively early (compared to when I went to sleep) and had a quick breakfast before heading out. We started the day visiting CFA Staff training. There are almost 80 Kenyans that work at CFA (administrative staff, counseling staff at each site, etc) and twice a year they try to get everyone together for training and information exchange. We sat in with them for a few sessions on leadership, community, and compassion. We had a break for tea at 10am, a routine part of the day for Kenyans, and had an opportunity to chat with the Kenyan staff. They are the friendliest people and truly love what they are doing. They've added a lot of new staff in the past year.
We had a traditional Kenyan lunch with things I can't remember, and then headed off to a small village outside the city to a quick 3 hour VBS with a group of kids. The only thing we prepared for was to "get out of your head anything you remember about American VBS." And they were right. It started monsooning on our drive to the church, which meant the roads became rivers. We continued on, no fear. The first floor of the buildings that we were driving passed flooded maybe six inches, but with no concern to any of the occupants. Because its so hilly here, things drain as quickly as they flooded. No panic from anyone.
We arrived at the church (still pouring) and ran into the building to about forty screaming, excited kits between the ages of 2 and 10. They ran up and shook our hands and said "how are you?", which for some is all the English they knew. We did significant improvising because the rain changed almost all of our plans. Things still went off wonderfully though. The kids were excited to color, sing, and play games. We taught them some English VBS songs, and they sang some in Swahili for us as well. My favorite moment of the event was when we divided the room into two groups and did a "Allelujah, Praise Ye the Lord" singing competition. All the kids and all the adults had a great time singing and shouting. The strangest moment was ending the event. There was no parent pick up or check out; all the kids just walk home afterward. The community is very protective of the children and everyone watches out for everyone else. Favorite comment from a child: "What is your long hair about?".
From VBS we went straight to the home of a member of the CFA board for dinner. They live in the ex-pat area of Nairobi, which was a stark contrast to the church event we drove from. Most of the people that live in that area are ambassadors or business people, and they have a pretty excluded community....their own schools, their own stores, etc. It is easy to live a complete life without interacting with traditional Kenya if you so choose.
After dinner we drove back to the CFA house. Tomorrow is church...which I have been told can be quite a long experience. Stay tuned.
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