Palm Sunday

Hello dear friends! It's weeks past Palm Sunday as I write this. I started it on the day, but now am home in Iowa enjoying time with my family. As I sit, I am babysitting, waiting for my niece to awake so we can go outside & play with everyone else.

This year I journeyed into an area called Kibarani with the faithful of St Francis' church. It is an "outstation" or extension of another parish served by the Missionaries of St Patrick, friends of mine from Ireland. For Palm Sunday, we processed from the main road - laden with trucks importing goods from Mombasa to all of East Africa, down through the homes and into their small but welcoming church.

Since I work in the next neighborhood, I was happy to see some familiar faces as we walked along, singing Hosanna. Palm Sunday is a day of remembrance for Catholics - we read the story of the Passion of Christ, his trial, suffering and death. As I listened in Swahili and felt the sweat running down, I could envision more of what it might have meant to the followers of Jesus so many years ago - the uncertainty, disbelief and disappointment.
Remembering those who still await hope in their disappointment, uncertainty & disbelief,
Mary

Two ways defeated the hyena

Njia mbili zilimshindwa fisi!

Proverbs are very common here, used for storytelling, advising and commenting on situations. This proverb was told to me yesterday by a student explaining why she's not interested in dating anyone while she's in school.

The story goes that the hyena couldn't decide which way to go, so he tried to go both ways - two feet on each side. He stretched and stretched until he split in half. I was able to use it later in the day so I know this proverb will be used again!

In our complex world, there's so many paths to chose from, and in some cases it's not even clear where the path is at all. Someone I work with seems to have chosen a different path or perhaps is split between two and it's been a challenge for me to know how to respond in a way that is fair when I've lost the trust I had in the person. I have to keep my frustrations in perspective with those who have lost much more.

On the brighter side, it's report card time again! The students here get reports for 1st term in April, 2nd term in August and 3rd term in December. This week I had two of our 1st year students (Form 1 = Freshman year of high school) surprise me with their grades and I am SO PROUD of them!!!

Moments from the past two weeks...

Did you ever wish you were a goose so you could play in mud puddles?

I'm learning about cracked cam shafts

and engine repair ... Unfortunately also learning about lack of ethics in the auto part business. Lots of learning experiences to be had!
Therapy session in the kitchen was successful - Thanks to the blog of Joy The Baker, which had an excellent garlic potato soup. I only had 18 of the request 40 cloves of garlic, but it was still amazing!
One of our students that just finished a welding course asked for a new pair of wedding goggles to protect his eyes. For a few dollars, we were able to help protect his sight. It was fun to see him try them on and pose with them (here demonstrating how to weld).
And the kids who come to the church after school usually provide entertainment. We were doing a "photo shoot" of a student who was given a uniform and everyone wanted in on the action.
I hope you don't find yourself torn between two ways!

To brighten the day

Sometimes things aren't so easy for a whole number of reasons.

Today I asked one of the kids who is HIV+ what helps her when she is down and this is what she said...

• Talking to someone, particularly someone who can give her advice
• Praying
• Doing things that makes her feel like everyone else, so she doesn't feel like she's different because of her disease

I'm in a Small Christian Community at my church, which is like a faith sharing group in the US. Here it's called a Jumuiya in Swahili. We usually meet for an hour on Monday nights with prayer, songs and reflection on a short Scripture reading. It's been good for me to connect with people outside of my work & challenges me to keep trying to learn more Swahili since the meeting is 95% in Swahili, even though all the members are at least bilingual, usually trilingual (Swahili, English and their mother-tongue, typically another local language). Last night instead of our regular meeting, we went to someone's home to comfort her since she lost her first and only child the day before. Sometimes being here is humbling.

So tonight I'm thinking of things that help me lighten the load when the situations I am trying to navigate or the stories I hear get too heavy to carry.

• Morning prayer in silence with the crows and birds outside
• Seeing things anew
• Cinnamon in my coffee
• Seedlings breaking forth in my mini-nursery
• Laughing
• Cooking
• Talking with friends and family from home
• A delightful email from someone I haven't heard from in a while
• One of the kids succeeding at school
• Guardians who manage to smile in spite of the struggle
• Someone understanding
• A good book (escapism i know!)
• Ripe avocado or mango
• Dark chocolate
• The multicolor lizards doing push-ups on the steps to our house
• The smell and sound of rain
• A cool breeze
  

Last week I helped with a Mission Symposium put on by the Maryknoll Fathers. It was really great to connect with others in this new family of mine!

I've been visiting schools to check on the progress of our students who are completing Std 8 this year. Here I am with Leah and Halima.

Today I was visited by Obama! This little guy was born the year President Obama was elected. I told him that he might be presidential material too...

A few faces that brighten my day...




Okay this one wasn't so much to brighten, more like frighten and enthrall at the same time. He was the uninvited guest to a dinner party last week.