Final Random Thoughts About Kenya

Kenya is the most overtly Christian country I have ever been in. There are churches EVERYWHERE, lots of missionaries (We were surrounded by missionary groups when we stayed at the Methodist House in Nairobi.), most of the people we met had Christian names, and it's not at all unusual for people to include references to God or the Lord in their comments about anything and everything. I am not a religious person so all of the overt God stuff took some getting used to I must admit and I feel really ambivalent about the role religion plays in Kenyan culture. On the one hand, life is really difficult over there so I appreciate how religion gives Kenyans strength, inspiration and hope, but on the other hand, religion can also encourage passivity and acceptance of the way things are because those things are "God's will." Also, I was uniformly offended by groups that were building large new (and expensive) churches in Kenya. If they truly care about the Kenyans, they should use their money on things that will really improve lives and ease suffering, not on buildings.

Kenyans are very entrepreneurial. I have never seen a country with more small businesses. I suppose the number of businesses is driven by the fact that there are so few employers, especially in the rural areas, so people have no other option by to try to eke out livings through self employment. Even so, the number of tiny enterprises lining the road in every little town we drove through was impressive. Equally impressive (and amusing) were the names of many of these businesses and the combination of businesses people were running. Here are a few:

Butchery and bar (Seems like a potentially dangerous combination especially at the end of a long night of drinking. Yet, we saw a lot of these.)

Hotel and seamstress

Driving school and computer college

Tailor shop and feed store

Hardware and car wash

Hotel and tires

Auto parts and chemist (A chemist is a pharmacist)

St Theresa Hospital and Funeral Home (I saved the best for last!)

I was really impressed by the spirit of Kenyans, their ability to endure and their sense of hope in the face of the fundamentally difficult issues they face. For example, despite the dire situations that many, many people live in, nearly everyone Beth and I met had a ready smile for us. Also, there appear to be numerous small Kenyan-based organizations trying to improve Kenya in important ways. Their very existence reflects a sense of sense of optimism and hope. Of course, the efforts of such organizations are but a drop in the bucket of what it will take if the lives of Kenyans are going to improve in appreciable and lasting ways.

Volunteering with AFK gave Beth and me a way to make a a small difference in the lives of some Kenyans. Although the needs of the people in that country are so great that it would have been easy to get discouraged and to question whether we were having any impact at all, I think we both focused on the fact that each of us in small ways were making a difference one person at a time, even if all we were doing was making a dirty-faced child laugh and smile for a little while or helping ease someone's physical discomfort, if only temporarily. In this regard, since I've been back my thoughts have often returned to Modesta, the darling and obviously intelligent girl two other AFK volunteers (Eric and Audrey) and I worked with during our second day in Kaimbiu. I wonder whether the fact that I called her "Little Teacher" might have planted a seed in her brain regarding what she could be in life. Perhaps because of my nickname for her she will actually try to become a teacher someday and create a better life for herself than she has now. You never know.