Kutembea na Kutembelea - Walking & Visiting

Hello all. This will be a first draft that I'll update later ... so come back sometime if you want to read more.

I've been in Mombasa for 2 weeks now and the days are becoming full. My first assignment is language practice. I've been walking (kutembea) with community nurse, counselor or social worker. And the reason they walk the neighborhoods is to visit (kutembelea) people. Most of the people they see are clients, which mean they have already been tested for HIV and are positive.

Mary (community nurse), Mama Kamau (counselor) and I back in the clinic office after walking in Chaani.

It has been really powerful experience, which I'll write more about later. Yesterday we walked in the rain, crossing a ravine on boards, wading through pathways that became streams, and jumping over puddles. We sat in dimly lit rooms, with smoke from a charcoal fire heating the room for a frail older woman, on benches around a room where a client sell drinks, and in cushioned chairs across from a couple having marital problems. It has been humbling and mystifying. I am hoping my presence doesn't make people uncomfortable. When asked for my opinion yesterday on a situation, I had to just offer an apology that I didn't understand everything that was said.

Every day has it's heartbreaking stories and welcoming faces I hope not to forget but they are already blending together.

You might notice that the Swahili word for visiting is almost the same as walking. It's not a coincidence. Kutembelea (visiting) is the prepositional form of kutembea (walking) - which means visiting means walking to, at, for, or with.

I'm grateful for this time of walking and visiting. Even though I don't have much to offer yet - besides a few simple sentences, I know this has been a sacred time of being allowed a small window into others' lives.

Today I meet many of the children in the AIDS Orphans Project, which I will take responsibility for in June. They are on term break and the project is hosting a 3-day seminar, called Education for Life.

More later! Peace to you all and to our world.