Kirsten's Updates about the H.C.C. in Kenya

Preachers Zablon (in the suit) and Jim Watson gave sermons about "Faith in Action" (Pastor Collins is interpreting)



Mama Kirsten is dressed as a Swahili woman by the congregation (much to everyone's amusement!)

The really great news is that three of the four luggage pieces came last night (Sunday) and although Miles has nothing to wear, the HCC kids are going to receive their cards and their soccer balls. Today we gave them 4 of the 8 Nike donated balls and they had a blast with the balls all day!! It was a HUGE hit and they played like puppies which is saying a lot, since sometimes they just look sad and hang about the edges of the rooms where we are doing the interviews.

Today we did as many more interviews as we could (I've done 50) but we still didn't interview everyone. We tried to at least get photos of everyone that was present. It rained hard today and some of the kids went back to their residence while we spent all day interviewing at the school/building project. The kids seem to mostly like the attention of the individual interviews (sometimes we did whole families...I did a family of four siblings today and several families of 2 or 3 kids) and they love having their photos taken. We don't ask them hard questions about their mother or father, but we ask about their age, friends, health and interests. Just having anyone ask them something about them as an individual is a big deal, I think. We will give out the cards tomorrow, but we are still struggling with the roster of names and writing a few notes on the cards. The roster seems to be a fluid thing, and although this seems to be a really strange concept to Americans (either you have a kid or you don't it seems to us) the Kenyans see it differently.... Sometimes it seems the kids go off to some relative's home and then they come back to the Happy Children's Centre. We are still sorting out all of that and trying to understand it. Jim plans to have a meeting with the elders of Zablon's church community tomorrow and maybe we'll understand the organization better afterwards.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a huge extravaganza of preaching and feasting. I admit to not being comfortable with either concept, but it is really integral to the culture here when you have guests, to host a huge feast. There were hundreds of people at church (which held comfortably about 40 people) and pastors came from miles around. There were many, many speeches and introductions, all over an absolutely horrid screeching PA system (which I kept praying would break.) The service is a combination of music, group prayer (not silent, but all in various voices and intensity, like a cacophony of prayer which was very powerful) and then the long list of introductions and speeches. The room was very hot and humid and the kids became restless, bored and sleepy as the hours droned on. But it was really a very big honor for us and we were gifted with cloths (kangas and kikoys for me and ties and kikoys for the men) and coconuts. Jim gave a great sermon which was about "faith in action" --a sermon even a Unitarian could get behind. He called upon the other pastors (there were about 25 of them) and the congregation to support Zablon with the Happy Children's Centre and to work to help the widows and orphans of the community.

Our feasting on Sunday was all about meat, which is a scarce and expensive commodity in Kenya. We first had a breakfast of liver and bread, which was actually pretty tasty and a real delicacy. This was just for the three of us, Zablon and Mr. Lawrence, the headmaster, and breakfast was held at the home of a relative of Zablon's wife. The home was pretty nice compared to the mud huts all around us and the kids at that house reminded me of wealthy American teenagers...a bit insolent and indolent, very different from the kids we see at the orphanage. After the day of preaching (I was reminded of a Lyle Lovett song about a preacher who goes on all day and starves his congregation!) we ate stewed goat over rice and then roasted beef. Both were excellent and so far our guts have held up to all of it. The rest of the village got rice and small pieces of goat and I think the party went on for many hours after, but we went home and I was asleep by 7:00 PM, but up again by 5 AM...I'm an early riser here and I like the time before dawn and use it to collect my thoughts, get centered for the day, read and write.


Nike soccer balls score big with the H.C.C. orphans!!