Beaches, Toddlers, and Mudding in Africa

Just got back from a wonderful week at the beach! Every year, the World Gospel Missions (WGM) missionaries across Kenya take a week-long retreat together at Turtle Bay near the coastal city of Malindi, and they asked me to come along to work in the nursery. So I road with a few Tenwek missionaries to Nairobi on Wednesday morning and spent the afternoon and evening with the Tenwek pediatrician, Dr. Bemm, and his family (they have seven children-and four are adopted and all under the age of 5) in the city. We were also able to go out to a fabulous Indian restaurant downtown (there is a decent amount of Indian influence here), and then we all flew out to Malindi (which would have been a nine hour drive from Nairobi) Thursday morning.

Stepping off of the plane was a shocker because it's probably fifteen degrees hotter and much, much more humid on the coast compared to at Tenwek, even though they're approximately at the same latitude. But the resort we stayed at way directly on the gorgeous beach, which kept cool breezes and scenic views coming our way. I somehow managed to get my own room overlooking the pool and ocean, which was such a fabulous treat. The missionaries had a special speaker come in and held sessions in the morning and evening, so I worked with five very active 1-2 year olds from 9am-1pm and then watched the Bemms' three littlest kids (all around the age of two) at night so both parents could attend the evening sessions. I was super blessed to have an awesome co-teacher named Annette who is in her 30's and has four children of her own, and brought tons of crafts, snacks, Bible stories, and games for us to use during the week. Then late at night, Annette and I went to hang out with her parents who were leading the senior high group, and played games with them on the beach.

Working hard, obviously! This is pretty much what my weekly morning in Malindi looked like.

Our afternoons, between lunch and dinner, were totally free and I took full advantage of the ocean, beach, and pool. There were several dukas (stores) along the beach, which were fun to walk through and look at. We actually rented a matatu (the mini-vans used for public transportation here) and packed a huge group of us into the vehicle and drove to downtown Malindi to walk around and shop. Another big difference between Tenwek and Malindi was the religion: Tenwek is surrounded almost completely by Christians, while the coast is heavily populated by Muslims. On the way back from Malindi to the resort, I was able to share my faith with our Muslim drive and talk about why I was a Christian...only to have him tell me about his wife and newborn daughter, and proceed to continuously ask me out and explain that polygamy is well-excepted is Africa. Yeah, definitely a new experience. Hopefully some of the things we talked about with regards to my faith stuck with me!

The gorgeous beach-front view of the Indian Ocean from my reading chair! And yes, that's a camel on the beach; the owner was giving visitors rides along the seashore.

Now I'm back at Tenwek and already plugged into some new experiences here! Today, I went with a group of twelve or so other visitors to mud a house! Tenwek's Community Health and Development department does a really awesome job of identifying the most needy families in different districts and helping to mud houses, provide school fees and uniforms for, and do health check-ups on them. So today we worked with a family who were taking in two orphans whose mother had recently died from AIDS complications, and were expanding their house to accommodate the new children. Typically, the men build the stick-structure and roof for the house, and the women do the mudding, but we had some men from Community Health helped to show us how to dig up, add water, and mix it with our feet. We stripped our shoes off, jumped into the mud pile, and grabbed handfuls of mud to shove and smear between the stick columns that the house. We put the first/interior mud layer on, but the family must wait for three days for it to dry before applying the next layer; they usually apply 3-4 layers of mud before the house is complete, with the final coat being mixed with cow dung, which acts as an insect-repellent. After our work, we had bread and chai (tea) with the family, neighbors, and church members, and then the family and community leaders introduced themselves and showed their very generous gratitude to us before we each stood up and spoke to the group.

Three of our project team members and me after we finished mudding the housing addition directly behind us.

I'm quickly approaching the end of my time at Tenwek, which is seriously staggering. I cannot believe that after two months here, God is still providing a solid community for me to be a part and new adventures to be included in. The Kenyans continue to amaze me with their generosity and incredible commitment to their Christian faith; the fact that an already impoverished family would take in two orphans in addition to their other children is amazing. When I spoke to the group, I shared the following verse with them:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:

to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself

from being polluted by the world. ~James 1:27

I've never seen truer religion than what I have witnessed and been a part of here in Kenya. And it's my prayer that it will inspire and change me in a way that will never leave me the same as before, even when I venture back to my home and routine in the US.