Today was such a day of celebration. We started with our normal breakfast routine of Nutella and toast and coffee, and then headed back to Githerai for the CFA graduation celebration. And what a celebration it was. After being at the church two separate times, we were more comfortable with the people there and the environment as a whole. When we arrived most of the clients had already found seats, but we decided that we wanted to sit all around the clients instead of at the front, so Cornell said something in Swahili that everyone thought was hilarious, and then different clients got up out of their seats and took us by the hand and lead us to sit next to them.
A lady named Yasmin grabbed my hand and we went and sat towards the front. Yasmin is a very special CFA client because she is a Muslim. It is a big deal culturally for her to even be in a church, and for her to have attended faithfully for nine months during the course of the program is a really unique, ground-breaking event. She has several children and has known shes been HIV positive for years. Many people in her community do not know that she is HIV positive. She heard about the program through a friend that had completed the program and had lots of positive things to say about it. I asked her a little about the healthcare in Kenya. She gave birth in a hospital, and during her second birth stayed for almost a week because of complications due to the HIV medicine. She knows five languages, including English very well. She laughed at me when I told her I only knew one. She introduced me to her best friend, Latifa, who is also an HIV positive muslim. The two have been through a lot together and were inseparable for most of the graduation process. Yasmin even gave a testimony about her CFA experience in front of the entire assembly. They sang and cheered and danced during worship, and also laughed at me as I tried to sing and dance along. These ladies are my same age and even though we have so little in common, I found it very easy to relate to them. They were comfortable, kind people to be around. The moment that I hope to remember for a long time happened when they asked me if they could ask a question about America. They asked "In your country, do you have this disease?". To which I answered yes, we had the disease, and we were using the same medication to treat it as what they were taking. They seemed surprised to hear this response, and saddened. They told me that they would pray for our country for our people to be healed. I didn't know what to say to something like that. How humbling.
The graduation ceremony itself was such a lively celebration. The CFA central staff came to hand out certificates and Bibles, and they did such an excellent job making it a grand celebration. I had several favorite parts of the celebration, and one of them was at the beginning when Lynette said in both Swahili and English that she loved to hug and celebrate and congratulate people, but since there were so many people in the room she could not possibly reach everyone. So she started a chain of hugs by hugging one person who was suppose to hug the next and the next. And thats exactly what we did. There was so much laughing and music and cheering and celebration, and slowly the hug made its way around the entire room with at last 100 people in attendance. The pre-recorded keyboard melodies were in full force for this and every other portion of the event, of course.
For the actual calling out of names, our American team was integrated into the ceremony and we got to pass out Bibles and hand out certificates of completion to the clients. You would not believe was an honor it was for these clients to receive a certificate. Many were not able to complete secondary school, so this is the only graduation they will ever attend. When their names were called the danced and danced down the isle and smiled so big as they received their items. It was quite an overwhelming, beautiful thing to see.
After all 80 clients were called, we sang another song or two. Another favorite part of mine was when the clients were asked to hold their certificates high above their heads. Again, so much cheering and clapping and celebration and victory. It was beautiful. People under immense struggles can do incredible things. To quote the pastors wife, Beatrice, "you cannot stop a bird from landing in your head, but you can stop it from nesting there". It got laughs at the time, but this phrase absolutely embodies what these clients are doing. And it is inspiring.
Kilgari
After graduation, which we ended up leaving early because service was still going long and people were still celebrating, we drove back to Kilgari to observe some individual client training sessions. The Kilgari site is much bigger than Githari; Cornell affectionately referred to it as the "Buckhead" of Care for AIDS centers. I watched a spiritual counseling session and a health counseling sessio and was very impressed with both. The moment that sticks out to me the most happened during the spiritual counseling sessions. The counselor, James, asked the client to take out her notebook to record notes during the sessions. She took out a notebook and flipped to the first page...making it very obvious that she had not been taking notes in the weeks before. He asked her why she was using a new notebook, and she smiled wide and replied she was using the notebook that we had given her the previous day during our home visits. He laughed and said that was the best excuse.
As we were preparing to leave Kilgari, school was letting out in the area. For whatever reason there was a large group of 4-7 year olds just waiting in the sanctuary of the church, and they were fascinated by us. They would look and point and smile and tip toe closer and closer, but they were too nervous to come up and shake our hands intially. Their courage built quickly, however, and before long we had come up with a game where they approached us slowly and cautiously, and right when they were arms lengths away we would turn around and shout. They would then run back laughing and screaming....not unlike sneaking up on pigeons in the park (I am cringing at that analogy but it really is the best fit). Eventually they would come up to us and shake our hands and pound our fists. It was just the cutest thing. The only English they knew was "How are you? Fine" so that is what we said to them over and over. They loved to take their picture and see it afterward, so we took many selfies with them. And throughout the whole thing they would just giggle and giggle. And so we would giggle and giggle. It was a good time. A wonderful time.
We loaded up in the vans and drove to dinner at a wild game restaruant in down town Nairobi called Carnivore. The theme of the restaurant is all you can eat meat, which is brought out on spears and comes in all sorts of variety. To get there we drove along the border of the Nairobi National Park, which was the most safari-like thing we had seen up to this point. To fit the mood, we obviously played Toto's Africa song, and not twenty seconds into the song we saw two giraffes over the fence in the national park. It was amazing. Just amazing.
Dinner was wonderful. I tried ox balls (....interesting, lets just say), crocodile, rabbit, chicken gizzard, and lots of lamb. What an experience.
We got back to the house a little earlier than normal so that we could pack up for safari tomorrow. I just can't wait.
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