**
now updated with pictures!**One of the greatest ways you can honour your Kenyan friends is to accept an invitation to visit them in their up-country home. Many Kenyans live here in Nairobi just so they can have a job and make some money to support their families who live up-country. One of Trevor’s friends and co-workers, Benedicto, lives in Nairobi, in Kibera Slum, but his wife and five children live in Western Kenya, in a place called Kakamega. So Benedicto goes home as often as he can, and invited us to spend Easter with him and his family in their up-country home. We accepted his invitation without hesitation, but we felt nervousness and apprehension along with excitement. Even though we have made quite a few trips up-country already, this was the first time we would not be staying with a missionary family.
What a weekend we had! I wish I could bring each of you to a place like that! In order for you to really know what it’s like, you need to be able to smell the air, to walk on the soil, to hear the voices in other languages, to taste the food, to shake all the hands, to see the vast and beautiful landscape…put all of your five senses in gear at the same time and EXPERIENCE it! Close your eyes and try to imagine all of what I will try to describe to you (while you read, of course!! :o) )
The first step was to pack up the vehicle for the drive out there. We borrowed a Pajero from some friends of ours, and went to their house on Friday morning to load it up. And loaded it was!! We had extra passengers besides us and Benedicto…we gave a ride to Benedicto’s cousin, and also to Sammy (another one of Trevor’s co-workers), and Sammy’s son. Benedicto was bringing a lot of stuff home to his family…we had a table, a gas cooker, a mattress, a couple jerry cans, a bike for his children and numerous other items strapped to the top of the vehicle!! And that’s not mentioning all the stuff and bags we crammed into the inside of the vehicle!! By the time we were ready to leave, we looked like a matatu! But we all stuffed ourselves in, and were ready for the long drive.
Our full vehicle! Benedicto, his cousin Matthias, Sammy's son and Sammy! Good times were had by all!! :o)There is something amazing about driving through Kenya. It’s almost like God has taken scenery, climate, and landscape from many different extremes, and placed them in one country! The trip was many things, but it was NOT boring! There is so much to see. The distance is only about 400 km, but we drove through the Rift Valley escarpment, to thick forests of tall and mighty trees, to a barren landscape with Yellow Fever trees, to vast lands dotted with Acacia trees, to lush farmlands and rolling hills in the Rift Valley, to green, green, green tea plantations, to Lake Victoria in the distance, to more rolling farmland with mountainous horizons…are you getting the picture??? All this, in 400 km! Over and over again, Trevor or I would have to comment on how unbelievable Kenya is! I should also mention that this trip took us close to 9 hours…! We would often stop to buy fruit or vegetables from vendors along the road, so as you can imagine, the vehicle got more and more crowded the farther we drove! We passed some Internally Displaced People camps…people who are still not settled from the post-election violence in early 2008. We also saw some reconstruction happening in different towns where they are trying to rebuild from the destruction that the violence caused. It was quite the drive.
One of the markets that we stopped at to buy fruit and vegetables.So, after dropping our other passengers at their destinations, we arrived in Kakamega after dark. We had to stop along the side of the road a few times so Benedicto could buy a few more things…and that’s when we realized that we would be quite the spectacle all weekend! It was like a message had been sent that the wazungu (white people) were in town, and people flocked to our vehicle, pointed at us, pressed their faces and hands to the windows to get a better look. (remember, it’s dark out already, and we are in a place completely unknown to us, so I felt a bit nervous!) But at last, we finally arrived at Benedicto’s home. It was then that we knew we would have a wonderful time. As soon as we drove onto his yard and parked the vehicle in front of his small mud house in the shelter of banana trees, his wife, Nancy, and children Jacob (14), Anna (12), Daniel (9), Joseph (5), and Glarene (2), came out to meet us, shook our hands and with beautiful smiles on their faces welcomed us and expressed over and over again how happy they were that we came to their home. We felt overwhelmed with the display of immediate hospitality. The kids were giddy with excitement to see their dad, and to see these white people!
We walked into the dimly lit house and tried to mentally adjust that this is where we would be staying for the next few days.
In a mud house. I looked off to my right and saw a Bible open on the table with a
lit candle beside it. To my left I saw chairs and couches covered in white and flowery doily-like fabric, specifically laid out to make the home as pretty as possible for us. We were asked to sit down, and were immediately brought hot chai and bread. After we had finished that, I whispered to Trevor that I was glad that Nancy had not prepared a huge meal for us because it was already so late and it would have been a lot of work. Just after I finished saying that, Nancy and the kids started bringing out dish after dish after dish of food! It was unbelievable!! She had made chapati, ugali, sukuma wiki, stew, chicken, potatoes, and salad…I’m telling you that you have never seen such giving and warm hospitality until you have been to Kenya! We were given their master bedroom for the weekend…this is how our time in western Kenya began.
Benedicto and Nancy's house. Mud walls and a mud floor, with a mabati (tin) roof.
The "shower" building...another interesting experience!
A view of the house and other buildings...There is so much we could tell you about this experience, but I’ll just try and touch on the highlights. We had so much fun with the kids throughout the weekend…they LOVE to laugh, and we just had a great time getting to know them. It was also great for us to see Benedicto with his family and to see where he comes from, and to understand his life a little bit better. He is so proud of his home and shamba (garden, or farm). He has about two acres where he has planted maize, tea and some cassava. He has also planted many trees around his home and yard, making it a beautiful place. Wouldn’t you like to have bananas and pineapple growing in your yard??! :o) Benedicto has started a tradition of asking visitors and special people in his life to plant a tree in his yard. Trevor planted a tree there Sunday morning, “Trevor’s Tree”. Benedicto wants his family to always have a memory of us being there, and for us to have left something at his home. We will always have that connection.
Trevor planting a tree in the yard. (with Benedicto beside him and a neighbour, Boniface, looking on.)Saturday we ex
plored the area and were finally able to see it in the daylight! Kakamega receives a lot of rain, and it was evident in the trees and grass and fields! The colours were intoxicating…the unbelievable green vegetation meeting with the deep red dirt and the stunning blue sky…we LOVED it there! There were people everywhere, many carrying firewood on their heads, many on bikes (bodas) and motorbikes (boda bodas), which are used as taxis, many carrying water, many selling fresh fruit and vegetables. As soon as anyone saw us, we heard the excited sound of “MZUNGU!!” We would wave, they would laugh. Yes, quite the spectacle we were. And the climate in that area is so nice…the mornings are quite cool, the afternoons get nice and warm, and it rains a lot. So nice…
Benedicto bought sugarcane for all of us to chew on…again, another interesting experience! You should all try it. :o) Chew and spit, chew and spit…
(the picture is of Joseph, Daniel and Anna, chewing on sugar cane in the vehicle!)
We spent quite a few hours on Saturday at Kakamega Forest, one of the last remaining natural forests in Kenya, and the only rainforest. What a beautiful place! We saw monkeys and birds and amazing trees and greenery. It was so nice to spend the time with Benedicto and his family. Hiking and climbing are quite the feat if you are wearing a wrap-around skirt that has issues staying “wrapped around”…!!
All throughout the weekend, people were constantly stopping by the house for chai and a visit. A lot of them came to see Benedicto and welcome him home, and a lot of them also came because they heard there were wazungu staying there. We spent a lot of time just sitting outside with a bunch of the local people, many of them being Benedicto’s neighbours, listening while they spoke in their mother tongue, Luhya. Often we would all sit together in silence…but to our Kenyan friends, that was time well spent.
We loved Western Kenya…the beauty, the culture, the people, the climate…often Trevor or I would comment…”I wish we lived here!” We know that God placed us in Nairobi for the time being and are okay with that…but we still wish we lived there! :o) Maybe one day…
Benedicto's wife Nancy with their youngest daughter, Glarene, in the kitchen.
Benedict's two youngest children, Joseph and Glarene, using the crate as a wagon and having the greatest time!!
Hanging out with the kids.I also have to tell you about our time in Church on Sunday. We were heartily welcomed into Church (are you seeing a pattern here of welcoming and hospitality??!) and given the front row seat. The service was all in Kiswahili and Kiluhya. We were asked to share a few words with the Church, and Benedicto translated. After that though…are you ready for this??…they asked Trevor to share the message! That’s right! My Trevor is a preacher! :o) He did a wonderful job, and God really gave him words to speak. Later an old man with no teeth came up to Trevor and shook his hand and said “You have been called.” He asked Trevor to come preach again one day, and repeated “You have been called!”
The Church service was longer than we are used to…we arrived at about 10:30 am and didn’t leave until after 3:00 pm! Many people went up to share or read scripture or preach or sing. We were constantly watched and everything we did was noticed, which is quite unnerving after awhile! Such is being a mzungu up-country!
We learned a lot over this Easter weekend…it was unlike any Easter we have had before, and we felt blessed more than we can explain. To be treated like royalty by a wonderful African family living in a small mud house, to have Nancy make so much food for us, to have her heat up water every morning and every evening so we could have a “shower”, to have the children bring chairs outside so we could sit down (constantly!), to have them wash our vehicle the morning we left, to have Anna, Benedicto’s oldest daughter, wash my very dirty feet and sandals, to be given the best room in the house to sleep in, to hear them say over and over again how happy they were to have us in their home…I could go on and on, but you get the point. Such selflessness and joyful servanthood should be a lesson to all of us.
Anna washing my feet...
All of us together in front of their house (along with a few other neighbours..)As we were saying goodbye, seeing little Joseph’s tear-filled eyes brought a lump to my throat. We were sad to leave them, and they were sad to see us go. They will be forever in our hearts…
we will never forget them.
