The sun came out!

All things work together for good...

This was the phrase that the preacher kept repeating over and over and over again throughout the 2-hour long church service on Sunday. Cleo, one of the guys who works with my program, Fadhili Volunteers, was kind enough to take me with him. It was my first African worship, and it was very spiritual to say the least. The music was so vibrant and full of life. Everyone was lifting their hands and shouting to God. And even though I couldn't understand most of it because it was in Swahili, I seriously felt the music inside me. The preacher himself was also very animated, and he kept yelling as loud as he could into the microphone. Though, a lot of what he said was muddled due to the guy who was translating into Swahili and also yelling into his own microphone with extreme passion. It ended up sounding like a lot of loud yelling, but I did manage to pick out every other phrase, which was "All things work together for good for those who love the Lord". Then the mic was cutting out so the preacher kept telling the guy at the sound booth to turn him up because his mic was going bad. I wanted to tell him kindly that his mic was probably fine, it was just a bad connection...get another XLR cable! So there's the audio engineer part of me coming out...

So at the end of the service, in front of everyone, they asked all the first-time visitors to come forward so the pastor could shake our hands. As if this wasn't awkward enough for me, they then herded us into another building so we could drink what they called "potion" (or what I would call really watered down Tang) together and eat cookies, while introducing ourselves to each other. They lined us up on a bench and stood in front of us talking...I couldn't really understand anything cuz it was a very hollow building with kids playing all around the inside and outside. So screaming abounded. All the while the church service was still in session. Eventually they let us go. Whew! But one thing I've picked up on is that whenever you talk about church here, Kenyans will automatically ask you first thing if you are saved. "You go to church? Are you saved?" "Welcome to our church! Are you saved?" "Hello my name is ..... I am saved." This seems very odd to me. I need to do some research and discover what that means to them. I'm intrigued.

So it did stop raining long enough on Saturday for Cleo and I to make it out to the Monkey Park, which is in City Park right outside of Nairobi. There they have lots of little monkeys running around everywhere who are just dying for you to feed them peanuts. They started out being adorable, but I quickly learned how vicious and conniving those little suckers can be! They were jumping all over me, searching my pockets, and fighting each other...sometimes over a single peanut! A couple times I thought I was going to get eaten myself, but they don't bite so that's not possible. It was a good time though, especially since I've never been able to actually play with a monkey before.

Well finally something I can relate to! Catherine, who is a graceful woman of 32 years, was having man problems this weekend... now this is something I know how to help deal with! I have lived long enough to know that no matter what country you're in, the two species we call Women and Men will always have difficulties communicating with each other. She was really down in the dumps, and extremely overwhelmed with worry. So, since she is an avid wine lover as I am myself, I did the proper "girlfriend" thing and bought her a bottle of white South African wine, which was called "Wozani" meaning "welcome" or "embrace" in Zulu. I thought that was rather appropriate. We spent Sunday night happily consuming Wozani, watching her favorite Spanish soap opera, talking, laughing, and helping her ease her anxieties. Now I'm certainly not condoning inebriation as a means of ridding oneself of problems, especially not long-term, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves for the night and perhaps bonded a little better... She had a huge grin on her face the next day when she told me that I had made her night :-) Honestly, that's all I could hope for.

So things have still been slow at the hospital this week. I talked to James, who said that if it doesn't pick up a little then he would transfer me to another hospital where there's more work. I'm not sure why it's so slow now, especially since things have calmed down a lot in the past week, but it's really hurting the hospital and their ability to do much. They think that a lot of their old clients have been displaced due to the turmoil, or that they're scared to come back right now. But in any case, I'm enjoying myself and the sun DID finally manage to come out and stay :-)

And one last thing, since it's hard to respond to everyone, I just want to say THANK YOU for all of your continued emails and comments. They are so supportive and encouraging, and it really does brighten my day. Hope all is well back in the US!