Another day of learning (Lindsay)

Today’s meeting with Terry went beautifully! We were able to discuss the basics of our vision for what we want to accomplish here in Digoland, and we asked many of our questions. She is a perfect resource for exactly what we want to know. She is a missionary from Nairobi, and she has spent the past 8 years working with the Digo. She is the founder and director of Pamoja, a nursery school and development program for women.

She has a wealth of wisdom from her years of working here with the Digo people. She was explaining to us the challenges and issues that she often faces in her work. An important key to having an effective program, she said, is to sell the vision to the Digo people. This was interesting to me. She works with the community to understand what their felt needs are, but then she really tries to pull the community together to share a sense of responsibility and desire to make the program work. She said that many missionaries overlook the importance of getting the community to take the project into their own hands. She said that many times she has seen missionaries run successful projects while they are physically present, but when they leave, the projects collapse. She was explaining that this is often due to a lack of involvement and shared responsibility from the community.

It was really great to visit with Terry. We got to meet her 2 month old baby boy, David Peter. He was adorable! She is currently on maternity leave, but she still works several hours each day from home. While Terry is on leave, a Digo woman is managing the daily work at Pamoja. Terry said that this is a wonderful sign that the community is starting to own the vision. She hopes that this woman’s involvement continues.

Time flew today while we were talking with Terry, and we decided to get together again tomorrow. Tomorrow will be especially exciting because we will be visiting Pamoja and other projects that are similar to what we want to do in Digoland. In fact, there is a new program in its beginning phases. The initial funding to buy land and build a facility was donated to Terry. The program will be geared towards training and equipping adults with different practical skills (computer training, English lessons, baking, sewing, etc.) so that they can get jobs. The building is already standing, waiting for the next steps. We will learn more about this and other projects tomorrow.

After our time with Terry, we rushed off to have dinner with the Grossman and Rains families (both American missionary families). Our rushing was only an attitude, however, because you just can’t rush things here in the Kwale district. No matter how much of a hurry you are in, the matatus are not going to leave until they have sold more than the caravan’s capacity. When we went to pick up gelato as our contribution to this evening’s menu, it took about 40 minutes for the person to scoop it for us. After living in American for my whole life, and especially after holding a full time job for the past 4 years, it is engrained in me to rush, rush, rush. It seems that there is not enough time in each day for all that I want to do, so I find myself racing through life at break-neck speed more often than not. I have wanted to kick this habit of rushing, and it looks like this is the place to do it.

We did make it to the Grossman’s in time for dinner, and we had a wonderful evening with both families. Each couple has three kids, and they are all under the age of 11. It was really fun to be in a house full of laughter, home cooked food, and English conversation.

Some things that I am learning about myself…

I put a lot of confidence and stress on my plans. I plan and schedule my life. I have a Day Runner calendar/planner that I use to govern my life. I write everything down that I have to do, and I often even write things down in retrospect if I didn’t know that I was going to do them, just to document that I did them. Who plans their life even in the past? Apparently, I do. Being here in the Kwale district for a month is going to challenge me in that area of my life. It’s not bad to plan, but it is good for me to see that life can still succeed without trying to plan every detail.

So much is out of my control here. I don’t have my own car, for one thing. That is a huge difference. The matatus are adventurous and interesting to an extent, but when you are in a hurry there is nothing you can do to make them move faster. Also, there is NO personal space. For those of you who know that I have sharing issues, this is God’s way of forcing me into shock therapy in this respect. These are some American tenets that are being purged from my being: individualism and independence.

Another thing that makes me feel out of my element is that I don’t speak the language. I can’t understand what people are saying. People often talk to us and then talk amongst each other and laugh, and I wonder…what are they saying? This is one area that I feel excited to change. I think that I may start taking Swahili lessons with a personal tutor. It is $5.00 US per hour.

Our lack of knowledge about the details of how much things should cost is also a challenge. We get on the matatu and get charged a different rate for the same ride from day to day. I know that today we got the special American rate for a ride that cost about 20 shillings less per person yesterday. We are learning, though. It’s like becoming a child all over again. There is so much that I don’t know.

So, these challenges are strengthening me in ways that I probably wouldn’t experience in my daily life at home. It’s humbling to be so ignorant and so aware that I can’t control things.

Practicing the following will keep me busy for the month (and the rest of my life):

Ephesians 4:2
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

I want to end this entry with a note of thanks to all of you across the oceans who are thinking of us, praying for us, supporting us as we are here. It is encouraging to know that we are not alone. Many of you did (or are doing) something specific that is enabling us to be here for this month, and we really appreciate it. This trip is something that is bigger than just Collin and me. You are participants in making this happen. So, thank you, and stay tuned for more.