You Must Go Far to Find What is Near…

I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed and frustrated by our Kenyan partners. It is almost the end of the month and still no records in sight. Charles and I worked hard this summer making up a chart they could fill out. Several revisions were made so that the language and what we were asking was understandable to the schools. I sent them letters encouraging them to get their records in on time, but it is the same old story. They just don’t do it. And I have come to wonder if it is possible to work in Kenya and not be seen as a donor instead of a partner.
I realize also that I miss the guidance I received from one of my retired board members. I need a sounding board and fresh ideas. Sometimes it is very lonely to carry this project despite all the amazing folks willing to lend a hand at supporting it. Sometimes I wonder if it is my own ego that drives this project not what God asks of me.
Two nights ago I felt real despair, as I am prone to do from time to time. In the last moments of the night before it becomes morning I prayed. I asked for some sign, something that would let me know to keep on keeping on. And I fell into restless sleep.
Yesterday my church was sponsoring the Zimbabwe Children’s Choir. I had sent several emails around inviting people. A couple of people said they would come. I was tired and dispirited after work yesterday, but felt I had to go and support these children whose courage and joy shone in their faces. I was driven more out of obligation than desire to hear another group of African children sing. I was feeling somewhat jaded since it is so much a part of my journeys to Africa. But I went; I put on my African clothes and I went.
I arrived early to greet my friends who said they were coming, but they did not show up. Instead there was a quiet African man sitting at a table. I began a conversation with him. He was Kenyan. We greeted each other in Swahili and lo and behold, he was Luhya. However as we began to get to know each other I found out he had done exactly what we are trying to do, only in Tanzania. And he had been successful!! We were excited to share stories but the concert was about to begin.
I listened and watched the children. I was struck with the differences of their dance and instruments. Theirs is much softer than the urgent beat of the Kenya drums. Their dance is much more restrained than the pounding and shaking of the dances I see. I longed to see my children dance at Manyole and Mabunge. I wanted to go home again to Kenya.
In the end Phillip and I exchanged information and knew that each of us had found something we were searching for. I told him of my prayer, and in his elegant, quiet way he held my hand and told me, “Sometimes you must go far to find what is near..” And so I begin again.

Time to Move On/Or This is Really Creepy

As most of you know I read the Kenyan papers every day. I have always been partial to the Nation. I thought their coverage was better and besides Daniel is my friend,but they have gone all internet glitzy and it's hard to get the real news. So I switched to reading the Standard and have replaced it on the blog.

This is the front page of the Standard and I don't know about you but I find this really creepy. And if you hit the link for the paper, you'll also find out the Kaddafi now owns their 5 Star Hotel in Nairobi. Nice huh!

Seems the US has been flying secret missions into and out of Nairobi. The suspicion is that they are "taking" terrorists out of Kenya. Check the article. It's creepy, and then check out the hotel story.
http://www.eastandard.net/?
Keep the faith Y'all

Lemony Snickets Meet Dante in the Third Circle.

I have just returned from a week in the Dominican Republic. I had booked this vacation for my children and me as a means of de-stressing from a difficult couple of months. My children indeed, had had a series of ‘Unfortunate Events” and truly needed to be pampered and loved. They are experts in Latin American traveling, my son in law being “equitoriano” and their having spent 3 months last year traveling from Tijuana to Central America, South America and back by ship, I figured they would know about the Dominican Republic. Even they were shocked by what was to follow.

I purchased the vacation on eBay. The glossy photos showed a 4-bedroom villa with a private plunge pool for a week for only $1000. Ok, so when it’s too good to be true, it’s too good to be true. Lured by the promises of fabulous restaurants, lobster every night, maids to make our breakfast each morning at the pool, who could refuse? And thus began our descent into hell.

There are rings to hell, if you remember your Dante, and we hit every one. It seems that Lifestyle Hacienda Resort and Spa is composed of myriads of layers of people who neither communicate with you or each other. It is based upon the idea that everyone is secretly elitist and wants to piss on people who have been made unequal. Yeah and you know how that’s going to work for my family and me.

Once it was clear that we did not want to be “VIP Members” we got shuttled off to the morass of people who didn’t know what was going on, who were trained to always practice deniability while appearing to acquiesce to your desire, or try to be helpful. It mattered not that my son in law spoke perfect Spanish so that he could deal with the lower echelons; we were always bumped to someone else.

And what, you might ask, required all this discussion with the staff. Well, let’s start with the villa which had no air-conditioning in the main part of the villa. Only in the bedrooms, and only in 2 of them. And no we didn’t get a 4-bedroom villa, but a 3-bedroom villa. Seems the lady who sold this to us on eBay is a notorious liar and guaranteed us al kinds of things that don’t apply to Lemony Snickets. There was a lot of reassurance that no villas had air-conditioning, but that was clearly not so, we had met folks who had it. But remember we were not worthy of that treatment since we did not want to plunk down $85,000 for the privilege of feeling superior to other people with inferior wristbands. (And trust me there is a whole hierarchy to that as well.)

They also had this amazing ruse about “restaurants”. What they had was a central slop bucket buffet, which served unrecognizable food to the peons. Then they had other “restaurants” that served up the same food, just further away from the industrial kitchens of the lower depths. But for these you had to make reservations the day before. Only on the last day were we allowed into the inner sanctum (The VIP Gourmet Restaurant which served hot food) Yes I did feel like gnawing my hands off. Oh, and you were required to buy into this as it was “all inclusive”.

We finally figured out how to escape, rented a car and left Dodge. We found 2 amazing beaches where the snorkeling was fantastic, the scenery delicious, and where one would hope you could get away from the constant push to buy a timeshare. That was not the case, however by day 5 we were intrepid soldiers in insulting anyone who ventured near us to sell us the “Lifestyle Resort Life”

There is definitely a lot more I could report on including the 3 little girls who slammed into our rented car, knocking the bumper off, or the inability to get any kind of report from the higher ups (who all happen to be white Europeans), but suffice it to say, my advice is to stay away from eBay and timeshares. It ‘s not for me and my peeps.

Keep the faith y’all.