Tuesday 8 April 2014

Musungu in matatu

The last few days have provided plenty of opportunity to experience Kenya's roads. We've become used to picking up Matatu (minivan buses decorated -and driven -according to the owners' personal tastes) at the nearby junction. Here we are in the reggae-blaring discomobile that we caught on  our way back from Nairobi yesterday.

Nairobi was actually a fairly different experience from what we'd been expecting (shopping for tents took a long time and we didn't get to explore as much as we'd hoped), but I think we were all struck by the myriad  of faces we saw there and I found it interesting to get a glimpse of an African city.  Boraza, the base leader here, described Kenya as a country of contrasts and we could see how the young educated people of Nairobi have very different needs to the tribal people  we will meet  in West Pokot.

Our journey back from an orphanage today reminded us of that upcoming trip as our Matatu chose to take the bumpiest back road I've ever seen in order to avoid a police checkpoint.  The actual  orphanage itself was delightful. We spent the morning playing with some of the sweetest girls (aged ~3-11)  I've ever met. They were fascinated by our 'musungu' (white person) hair and soon got over their initial shyness, playing with us in the garden and singing us songs in the house. Some of our team helped out with practical tasks and Lukas told the story of Zacchaeus. The highlight was of our visit was probably several girls praying to invite Jesus into their lives after Connie shared how she'd found an everlasting loving father in God after loosing her biological dad at an early age. It was heartbreaking to think what these lovely girls (some of them so tiny) must have been through, but at the same time, as I cuddled them and told them how beautiful they were,  I felt peace knowing the depth of security and love that God offers them.  This evening we sung 'even what the enemy meant for evil, he turns it for our good.'  This is my prayer for those girls.


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