June Recap, Family Visitors, and a Trip to Lamu

 This recap is hard to start because I have to go back to a very different mindset than I am in right now. I will say by way of explanation that I am currently sitting in my in-laws' house in Fallston, Maryland, on a pleasant Thursday evening. David and I arrived here on Saturday and have been here for the last week doing some college visits and some driving practice so he can take his driver's license test this week. Rebecca is still in Kenya and will come early next week. We staggered our visits by a week so I could be here early with David, and she will take an extra week here at the end of the summer. While I am not going to focus on the current setting, I will mention that David took his driver's test today and passed, which is a relief since rescheduling during a short summer visit would have been a big pain. 

But the interesting things in the month of June happened before we left, at least thus far. School finished at the end of May, David did his exams, and was off when the month began. Rosslyn has activities in the first week of June, including some special trips. David was invited to go to France with about 40 other students who studied French this year. I remember my own high school trip with about 10 other students, and I was trying to imagine the logistics and stress on the chaperones that would accompany this group. But I talked to several of them, and they were very excited about going. 

We did have some concern about the flight on Emirates going through Dubai during the brief lull in fighting in Iran. In the past month, there had been missiles that hit a runway in Dubai, which led to extensive delays for people travelling. We were praying that there would not be any problems for the French trip on their layover to and from Paris. Actually, they spent the first day of their trip in Brussels, then took a bus to Paris. The travel to and from France was, fortunately, without incident. 

While David was on his adventure, Rebecca and I were preparing for some adventure of our own. My brother Jonathan and his wife Emma had planned to come to Kenya since Christmas, and we set aside 10 days at the beginning of June for them. David was going to be in France, and we had some ideas for a Kenya vacation with them while David was gone. It was actually exciting for me to see Jonathan here because Jonathan was in middle school in Kenya in the 1980s when my dad worked her for a few years. I had spent a semester with them when I was starting my junior year in college. So we had some shared memories of Kenya from that time. Jonathan had not been back since. 

Nairobi is a completely different city from the 1980s, with a massive amount of growth. But I had vague memories of where our house was in Runda Estates, not far from where Rebecca and I are living now. I was keen to show the road and gate to Jonathan to confirm that this was the place where we lived. Unfortunately, almost all houses in Nairobi are behind walls, so one cannot really look inside. We did a drive-by on the day we dropped off David for France. Jonathan confirmed that the gate and wall were in the geographically right place, but he remembered that the 'wall' in the 80s was a tall hedge. Now the place looks more like a fortress.  He also confirmed that Nairobi was virtually unrecognisable from his childhood. 

Fortunately, we had more than a house visit planned for our vacation, and the next day we took a flight to the coast to spend a week in Lamu, an archipelago of islands just off the Kenyan coast. Lamu is a bit like Zanzibar, where our family has been many times, in that it has an older Swahili vibe. It is a largely Islamic community, with the architecture influenced heavily by Oman, which
was a protectorate of it and Zanzibar in the 19th century. The whole Kenya/Tanzania coast has a Swahili feel, but we often go to the more western resorts in Watamu when we vacation there as a family. But with Jon and Emma visiting, we thought it might be nice to do a more adult vacation and enjoy a more cultural experience.

When you land in Lamu, you get off the plane and get onto a boat. Most of the island resorts are accessed by boat. We had made a booking on Shela Island at a hotel called Jua (Sun) house. Porters helped us get our bags from the plane onto a boat, and it took about 40 minutes to get to the dock at Sheila Island, where more porters carried the bags another half kilometer to our hotel. 

Shela town has the old Swahili feel with roads the size of pathways. I was really worried we would never be able to find our way back out to the beach, but one becomes quite adept very quickly. Our hotel was charming and featured a rooftop venue where we could see the whole town and the ocean as well. The downside was that our rooms were a five and six-story walk-up. (reminds me of when I lived in Manhattan in the East Village ;-) We had our breakfast on this rooftop and featured fresh fruit juices, Swahili pastries, and fruits. We had about 4 full days during our time there and did something interesting each day. 

One thing we missed out on was snorkelling. We were told on arrival that this being the rainy season meant the snorkelling area was quite silty and not good to visit, so we had to forgo that. Actually, our first day was rainy, and I worried that we might have bad weather the whole time. But, in fact, every day after that was beautiful and sunny. 

On our first day, we took a walk through the town and found our way out to the beach. We took a long walk on the beach and found some interesting houses, including one that was modelled after an old fort. The beaches were vast and generally not too crowded. Generally, looking out from shore, you saw other nearby islands and not the open sea. We had dinner at a well-known restaurant on Shela Island (Peponi) and learned how to find our way from the main docks and commercial area down the crisscrossing narrow alleys back to our hotel. 

On our second day, we took a tour of the old city, which dates to the 18th century. We took a boat to one of the docks, where we were met by a guide who took us around. The architecture was beautiful and fascinating, and steeped in traditional practices of Islamic culture, as well as practical considerations on how to keep cool. Houses were generally square, surrounding a large central courtyard. There were high ceilings and pools on the ground floor. Walls were over a foot thick, and rooms were generally small with small windows. Heavy darkwood furniture and cushions were typical, as well as places to wash feet on entering. Walking barefoot on cool stone floors was a part of the ritual of entering the houses we visited. The town is on the UN list of historic preservation sites. We returned to the hotel in the afternoon. 

I should mention that Rebecca and I went to a yoga class every morning. Yoga is not a particularly Swahili thing to do, but there were a number of quaint hotels that offered spas and other health and well-being activities. This was true on the third day as well. The highlight of this day was a sunset dhow cruise. A dhow is a kind of single-mast sailboat. It can hold quite a few people and is nice to lounge around on. The trip starts in the late afternoon and ends after sunset. On the trip, we sailed along the shoreline and through some beautiful mangrove forests with narrow channels. The sunset and other dhows sailing on the channels between the islands were very picturesque at dusk. We were served some Swahili snacks as well, en route. We finished after dark and tried to find a place to have some food, but ended up just going back to our place. This is low season as far as tourists, so there were not many people there and the town tended to close up early. 

The next day, we took a long walk over the dunes toward the beach. It is one of many donkey trails, and donkeys were definitely a feature of the island and the primary means of transport for people and cargo. There was even a donkey refuge facility that Emma enjoyed visiting to feed some of the sick donkeys. On this day, though, we went on a path over the dunes and down onto a very wide beach. We were hoping to snorkel there, but found the surf to be too rough, and we ended up body surfing rather than snorkeling. It was actually amazing how deserted it was where we were swimming. It is nice that there are not tons of vendors wandering the beaches trying to sell stuff to tourists. We only occasionally met a person selling samosas or fresh coconuts that they cut open so you can drink the juice. That evening, we took a boat again out to a floating restaurant built on a kind of barge. It was really charming, although food and drinks took forever to arrive--like they were ordering them from the shore. Generally, we ordered fish curry prepared in a Swahili style. We again took a night boat ride back to our hotel. 

On the last day, we took a boat ride to another famous resort called Magelis Hotel. It was a lovely place, and we enjoyed playing games while sitting on couches that overlooked the beach. It was a fitting end to our time there. We returned to Nairobi the next day, about 1 day ahead of David. 

We continued to do some typical things with Jon and Emma that Jonathan would have remembered from his past. The Nairobi game park was one of them. I actually took them and hired a vehicle with an open roof for good viewing. We had a particularly good day seeing all the typical animals, as well as a large python and a lion sleeping in a tree! (Apparently, it had gotten itself stuck up there for a day.) The game park trip did succeed in jogging a lot of memories for him. 

In their last 2 days, we took them down the escarpment into the rift valley. We stopped at Mt. Longonot and climbed it! This is my 4th trip to the top in a year. But I remembered climbing to the top of the crater with Jonathan in the 1980s. I was impressed that all four of us made it without too many problems. After that, we headed to Lake Naivasha and stayed in bungalows by the lake at a camp called Carnelli's. It was really nice, and there was quite a bit of game right around us, including warthogs that wandered on the grounds, not bothered by people at all. There were also hippos nearby, but kept off the property by an electric fence. 

We had an amazing dinner at their restaurant that night before bed. The next day, we took a boat out to Crescent Island, a small island in the lake that has served as a movie set for some famous movies like Out of Africa. It is a fun visit because you get so close to the animals. At times, we could reach out and touch an ostrich or a giraffe (we did not do that, though), zebras were nearby, and at one point in the day, we stood by and watched about 30 hippos on shore eating some hay. It was another really great day, and ended with us driving back up the escarpment that afternoon. Naivasha was another place that Jonathan visited often when he lived here. 

So that was the extent of our visit with them. They did get a number of souvenirs to take back with them, too. We are also bringing back a few things for them as well, since we will be seeing them in Dallas, where my parents are living as well. 

By the time they left, I was down to my last week in Kenya before David, and I would leave. David was home from school and did not have a lot to do. Fortunately, some friends invited him to play Dungeons and Dragons, and he did some private voice lessons with our choir leader. Rebecca, I, and he also joined a family with kids whose parents were school teachers at Rosslyn to see West Side Story, which was being performed live at a local theatre. We had a great time playing Telestrations and having dinner afterwards. Hopefully, we will do more things together. He was David's chemistry teacher, and she worked with me on the musical this past semester.

I wish the last week could have been spent in the office to catch up on work after Jonathan's visit, but I actually had a field visit in Kisumu. The event was a strategic planning meeting for Kenya Mennonite Church (KMC), one of our development partners. They were workshopping their strategic 5-year plan and wanted MCC input. I went with Judith, our Health Programs Officer, who was also the facilitator for the meeting, and Nelly, our Peace Programs Officer. I copped out on the 6 hour drive and took a flight each way (about 30 mins). We had a very full 2 days of meetings and workshops. I was glad I could listen in, but was aware of office work continuing to pile up. Fortunately, Rebecca stayed behind to work there. 

Work in the past 3 months has felt very overwhelming with recruiting and onboarding a new staff person, trying to complete audits, board meetings, submitting compliance docs to the NGO board, reapplying for not-for-profit status, preparing for new volunteers, managing expiring work permits, and keeping projects and disbursements up to date while many staff are on leave, to name just a few things we are doing. 

We really need a break, although we have as many responsibilities as parents as we have in our jobs that we are stepping away from briefly. College visits are going to be a big part of our time here, as well as visiting family in different cities for the first time and a college student in a third place. I hope we can keep sane through it all, but at least we are able to get some really great photos (and memories0 out of all of this. 

May Recap: Curses and Blessings (and a bit of Ebola)

I generally try hard not to be political in this forum. Not because I don't have political opinions, but because this family blog goes out to a very diverse group. And while I won't repost or share in larger political opinions, it is worth noting that American foreign policy under this administration has notably harmed us in the past year, and it cannot be ignored. 

I did mention last year that the complete dismantling of USAID had immediate effects as we watched many American families depart quite unexpectedly, leaving halfway through school years. Our maternal and child health projects felt some impact as the government health sector in Kenya had to adjust to losses of support, particularly with ARTs for pregnant women with HIV and even stockouts of childhood vaccinations. Now we are dealing with an Ebola outbreak in the region with a notable absence of CDC surveillance and response. I fear that the outbreak has probably spread well beyond the communities affected in DRC, but surveillance and response have been very slow, with stockouts of basic things like testing kits. Sadly, the Ebola surveillance program was dismantled and not replaced with the dismantling of USAID. The impact on MCC has been the upending of our volunteer program, which has been scrambling to find ways to get people back to final orientations while dealing with new travel restrictions from countries fearing travel from this region to theirs. Even the US is putting limits on us. If we have been in Uganda (right next door) in the past 3 months, Rebecca and I would have to fly to only to one of 3 airports in the US for screening. Rebecca and a number of our international staff were planning to travel to Uganda, but have since cancelled those plans. I even worry that by the time we do travel back to the US at the end of June, these travel restrictions may apply to Kenya as well. 

Our program has been harmed as well in the incredibly restrictive visa policy that has made it impossible for us to send one-year volunteers, students, or even senior staff to the US for meetings because every person applying is assumed to be trying to illegally immigrate. I cannot tell you the number of visa rejections we have had for people who would never immigrate---a retired professional with grandchildren and a wife, our senior program manager--a woman-- with a young family, countless volunteers, board members, and pretty much every student who hopes to go to the US for study here. These people are rejected at interviews before a question is even answered. There is clearly an unstated policy (as we have heard) to reject all temporary visas for study or work conferences. We have completely shut down our volunteer exchange program for Kenyans to visit the US, which is disappointing.

And now... the war with Iran. The war has created significant fuel shortages here, nearly doubling the price of diesel and gas. This has caused public transit and Uber to raise fares, and probably encouraged some hoarding because gas prices are controlled by the government. The result has been riots and general strikes that have forced our staff and us on several days in the past few weeks to work from home, as angry Matatu conductors and taxi drivers set many fires to tires on highways and buses and trucks parked across roads, making passage on any major arteries impossible. There are currently negotiations with the government. for some relief, but until the Strait of Hormuz is open, this will not be resolved fully. The other impact that we have not yet felt but is quite ominous is the fertilizer shortage, which may cause significant food insecurity in the region. We will not know until next harvest.

So that is the way current US foreign policy is impacting us living in Kenya. Full Stop.

I don't mean to imply by the above challenges that we spend our days in idle fretting (or doom scrolling on our phones). In fact, this month has been quite busy, and I will try to recount some of the highlights here:

In April, I was asked by our pastor's wife if I might be willing to take him up Mt Longonot for his Birthday at the beginning of May. They are Canadian, and he is turning 60. She did not feel up to it because of her health, but knew he wanted to try it. Longonot is a volcanic crater in the rift valley near Nairobi. I agreed to do so and arranged a van and talked to other men at the church about going along. We had about 8 in all who agreed to join for the day trip up and back to the crater's edge. The hike is not long by distance but VERY steep, and it starts at about 5000 feet and goes to about 10,000, so it is quite grueling. Typically, it takes 1 to 2.5 hours to ascend, depending on one's capacity and acclimatization to the height. There is an option to add 7 more kilometers to hike around the rim, which is also a bit treacherous and steep in places, so we did not plan to include that in our trip. 

We set off on a Saturday morning and arrived at the base around 10am. It is a park, so we paid the entrance fee, and the 8 of us set out. I am happy to say we all made it, but it was hard on the knees and hips of the pastor. He did enjoy the challenge, though, and there were many hands to help each other along. I had prepared ham and cheese sandwiches and other snacks for everyone, so we had a nice picnic on top before making the treacherous descent (walking sticks are a must as there are a lot of slippery slopes). Coming down takes about 30 to 45 minutes, much faster than ascending. 

It was a good day, and we were back in Nairobi by late afternoon. I was glad that I did not overestimate his ability, and it was a complete success. In the following week, we celebrated his actual Birthday with a party at a mutual friend's house. I really appreciate the diversity of our church, which was really evident at the event, even with a small group of friends. 

The following week, we had another special event for a coworker. Our Office Administrator, Sarah, has been on maternity leave for the past 3 months. We have not had a chance to see her since she gave birth, and in Kenya, it is not considered good etiquette to visit a new mother until 3 months have passed. We hit that mark, so we planned as an entire team (9 office staff and 6 volunteers) to go and visit her at her house. This was an adventure in itself because Sarah is Maasai and her family home is out in a village in the Rift Valley. We drove together in two Land Cruisers for about an hour out of Nairobi. We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and turned into a fenced compound where we came upon a traditional house, but behind it was a large 2-story, very modern house. (This belonged to her uncle.) We were welcomed by her clan, some wearing Shukas, and sat together for lunch in the big house. Sarah normally lives in Nairobi, so it was quite interesting to see her at her family home in this traditional setting where she spent her maternity leave. She was very happy to see us, and we all took a chance to hold the baby. We also had a nice traditional lunch. 

We spent part of the day there, then rushed back in the afternoon for a number of work meetings, but we all felt like the visit was very worthwhile, and I cannot even say how much we have missed her presence in the office with our current workload.

Since our entire team was in town, Rebecca and I also took the opportunity to invite our volunteers to come have dinner at our house. It is very convenient now that our office has 3 bedrooms and is about 3 blocks from our house. It is easy to host them when they are in town. It was a great visit, especially since we will be leaving on our summer break before we see them all again. It was interesting that they wanted to know about my dance career, and we ended up watching some of my old dances on YouTube. 

May is also a month when there are many end-of-school events. Ever since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and as a member of the Honors Choir as well, David has made a lot of friends in the drama and music program. (He was also in volleyball.) Many of his friends were seniors, so he was not only involved in school programs, but was also invited to several graduation parties. 

Among the events we attended were the choir concert for the school, which included songs by the Honor's choir, the end-of-year Chapel, and David went to graduation as well as a choir singer. He also had several volleyball games as the season ended in May. I should not fail to mention the award ceremony at the end of the year, where David received two awards, one for Pottery and the second for Chemistry. 

He also went to two parties for his senior friends. It is good to see him developing a social group. He has even been playing Dungeons and Dragons with a group of friends. I think it takes about 2 years to really get integrated into a school community. Even for Rebecca and me as parents, the volunteer work with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many social connections for Rebecca, have really brought us all closer to the school community. It is worth putting in the time to build these relationships at this crucial time in David's life.

The other community Rebecca and I really enjoy is our community choir. It is called the German Community Choir because it meets at the German School in Nairobi, but it is not a German-language choir. In fact, it is one of the most diverse groups I have ever been part of. People from all over the world, and many talented, trained Kenyans, are part of the group. It is really great to be part of a group that sounds really together. 

We have been working for the past 3 months on a concert of folk songs from all over the world. The repertoire was very challenging, and I think only 3 of the 20 songs were in English. I cannot list all the languages off hand, but there was German, Swahili, Shona, Zulu, Kikuyu, Luo, and Spanish, to name a few. 

We performed a concert this past weekend, and I thought we sounded great. Among the highlights for me was a chance to play the banjo to the song Shenandoah, which we did as an American folk song. Probably the best-sounding song is Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin. Such a great Swahili song--The Lord's Prayer, but with power and rhythm. 

I do not want to mislead any readers, with all of these social events, into believing that we are not immersed in work on an hourly basis. The fact is, we were completely overwhelmed with a number of processes happening simultaneously. The big one was the recruitment and hiring of a new volunteer coordinator. Our old coordinator moved to the Peace Program Officer position so we have been in a process for a month. We had about 70 applicants that we screened and narrowed down to 10 that we interviewed on Zoom, then brought in 4 for a final interview. The process was arduous, but we finally made a decision, and the offer was accepted. We expect to start orienting her on June 8th. 

At the same time that was happening, we were also having our annual audit. That meant we had 3 auditors sitting in our conference room for a week, and sending us many queries the whole time. In addition, we have been following the process of our not-for-profit status renewal as well as registration as an INGO under the new public benefit authority. In short, we have been swamped in many administrative and bureaucratic processes.

Finally, I ended up being pulled into an application process for a really big maternal and child health grant, which could provide funding for 3 of our partners for several years. I spent about 40 hours in the last 10 days with the grants team and local partners writing the proposal and getting all the parts in. It was grueling and came to a bare-knuckled race to get it submitted under the deadline. I worked through 2 weekends and got up early and stayed up late many evenings. But we did succeed in submitting, which felt like a victory in itself. 

I am glad to get this blog done before tomorrow. June starts a completely new chapter with my brother Jonathan and his wife arriving tomorrow, and David heading off to France for a week (school trip). Then later in the month, we head back to the States for home leave. More on that next month. 

April Recap: A Musical Revue

Sadie Hawkins Dance Prep.

The last day of April: I am under the weather-- sick, that is -- although I could add that given the nearly constant rain this month, I could be under a cloud at just about any given moment. 

I really wanted to get one recap out for the month of April and I predicted in my mind that this would be difficult because of how insanely busy this month has felt, but that it would all come to an end this past weekend. While it is true that a big project ended for me, the workload of the past week has not felt like much of a reprieve. 

Veruka Salt and Mr. Salt

The project that had its apotheosis this past weekend was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I have written about this in the past 2 blog posts, because it has been a big part of my life (as well as David's) the past 4 months, from audition in December to performances in April. I was honored to be invited to be the choreographer for the show and accepted; I soon realized that, with 13 dance numbers in it, the commitment was quite big, and I ended up spending 3-4 afternoons a week rehearsing and Saturday mornings preparing material. It was truly a labor of love because I genuinely enjoyed being a choreographer again after more than 15 years away from that profession. 

The show took shape weekly, and thanks to a great set designer, the production was fabulous with over a dozen scene changes, a multi-level stage, and fantastic props and costumes. (I felt the choreography rose to the occasion as well!) The last 10 days, as expected, were the most intense with 6 or more late-night tech and dress rehearsals before opening night last Thursday. In short, the performances were a huge hit and almost sold out every show. David did a fantastic job as Oleg Salt, the father of Verucca Salt, as did the rest of the cast. I would be hard-pressed to name a favorite moment, but the squirrel costumes for Verucca's Nutcracker Sweet (where she meets her demise in the chocolate factory) were quite impressive! I have put up a few photos that I have consent to share, but cannot share many for safeguarding reasons around sharing images of minors on social media. 

Vidiots (Mike TV demise)

There were a total of 4 shows, Thursday and Friday nights, then Saturday matinee and evening. They all went really well. By Sunday, I was pretty wiped out and also had a low-grade virus that I struggled with over the weekend. Not unexpected given the workload. 

While Charlie took up a lot of my mental and emotional energy this month, it was not the only thing that happened. The month began with Holy week and Easter, and Rebecca was charged with organizing an Easter choir. We had several rehearsals with a pick-up group from church and several amateur musicians from the congregation. We did a decent job with about 8 different songs on Easter Sunday morning. It was a blessing to be part of this (as a bass this time). After church, we had a quiet Easter dinner prepared by David with our pastor and his wife. They are Canadian Mennonites, and it is always nice to catch up with them. David prepared a pork pad thai dish as the main course. He is getting very good at preparing food these days. 

The following weekend, we had a visitor. Having someone come from out of town is a typical monthly event in Nairobi, and this time it was Rebecca's dad, who has passed through here several times before. He does work with cholera prevention and treatment, and I think he has been involved in genetic surveillance work based on trials being conducted in the region. He arrived for a conference here in Nairobi right after Easter, and Rebecca was able to enjoy a nice quiet dinner and catch up with him the evening he arrived. After the conference, we spent a weekend with him doing some nice things, including taking a safari in Nairobi game park. That is one of the really nice perks of being a resident here. Going to the game park on the outskirts of town is relatively cheap as far as an entrance fee. We could drive ourselves, but it is better to go in an open-roof safari vehicle, which is what we did. It was a pleasant day, and we saw most things one can see there in the afternoon and evening. (Personal favorite was a family of rhinos with a feisty baby.)

On Sunday, we went to church with him and then out to a restaurant in Karura forest that was really nice. It is always good to catch up with him, and he was able to bring us a stash of chocolate from Aldi's in the US, which is really good and cheaper than what we pay for in Kenya. Dave left on Sunday evening and was off to Zambia before returning to the US later that week. 

Besides acting in Charlie, David Mosley had some other school events he was part of. On the work side, he took his SAT for the first time, but more exciting to him were some dances that he was part of. Rosslyn hosts an Annual Sadie Hawkins Dance. (For those of you who were L'il Abner fans, you may remember that character.) But it was a chance for girls to invite boys to a dance, although, from what David said, almost everyone just attends without a date as one big friend group. David did know a girl in the honors choir who invited him, though. David is quite a character and bought a pink tuxedo over the summer to use on special occasions at school. He wore it for the Christmas concert and then to Sadie Hawkins. I did not see the whole dance, but I did get a picture of him with our next-door neighbors dressed to go. He said it was a good time. 

At the end of the month, there was also a junior-senior banquet with a Great Gatsby theme. David did his best to find some 20's Gatsby clothes, and I got a picture of him and our next-door neighbor, Aaron, right before the banquet, which was hosted at a nearby country club. It seems that David had a really good time there with friends, especially because he has made a community of friends from the swimming team, the musical, and the choir. It was great to hear how much he enjoyed it. 

Rebecca also had a very special week retreat, which was part of a spiritual direction course she is taking. Here is her report: 

Back in January, I took a weeklong silent retreat at Mwangaza Jesuit Center on the outskirts of Nairobi. I learned that the Jesuit mission also offers a two-year course on Spiritual guidance. Intrigued, I thought and prayed about it and decided to apply. It has been years since I did any formal professional development in ministry, and I was inspired by Paul's involvement in life-giving activities at the school. I've felt like I need more balance in my admin-heavy life. And also, I have benefited so much from meeting with a spiritual director over many years. 

So I was admitted to the course, along with a good friend from our local church, Severine. The first residential block fell in mid-April, Monday evening through Saturday morning. I was grateful and delighted to leave behind the tax exemption renewal process and the young adult interviews and enter back into the gorgeous green compound at Mwangaza Jesuit Center. There was still a little time in the early morning and during the lunch break to walk the grounds and look at birds. 

But overall, I was back to school: sessions ran from 8:30 am to 9:30 pm. Severine and I were the only Westerners in a cohort of 32 people, most of whom were Africans with a religious vocation of some kind. Some of the first block of teaching was about Ignatius Loyola himself and how God shaped his life through disability and hardship to enable him to guide others in their spiritual life. During a few of the evenings, we watched a surprisingly engaging film about his life, https://jescom.ph/film-tv/ignacio-de-loyola/  We also had a number of sessions on some of the basics: what is prayer? the Examen prayer. and the basic rules for spiritual discernment. On another full day, a guest lecturer came to teach sessions on African Worldview and Spirituality. What a fascinating deep dive into the inner workings of culture and the invisible structures of life that make up how people see the world. I was struck by the way in which the African spiritual hierarchy is given visible expression in the way government is run here: a single Creator God delegates authority to a variety of divinities, a lot like various government ministries overseeing different areas of life, along with a cascade of regional and local government authorities, chiefs, etc. People seek favors or permissions from local deities, a lot like we were going from one to another government office to get a required letter for the higher tax authority. 

Easter Sunday

We had some fun along the way, too. On one afternoon, we were asked to break up into small groups and create dramas to act out a few of the ways  we see spiritual dynamics at work in people's lives. My group, all of them nuns, had so much fun hamming it up and portraying a scenario where a betrayed woman moves from being suicidal to being willing to live for the sake of her children, with the help of some guidance from a Catholic sister. 

I will have three more week-long sessions over the course of this year. After June, I will be required to start meeting with people who would be willing to share with me so that I can keep growing in my skills of listening together with them for the movement of God in their lives. The training has also deepened my conviction that I need to make sure I take time every day to stop and notice where God is at work; otherwise, there is a risk of turning this one precious life into "an endless chain of very busy but meaningless days." (exhortation received from the Ignatius film). Now back to Paul...

Papa Dave visiting our office

What I have conspicuously left out of all of this is work. April is a rough month in general because it is the beginning of our fiscal year and that means we are receiving about a dozen annual reports for local partners. What made it worse were several other tasks that were piled onto us this year. Particularly, MCC is due this year to renew its not-for-profit status. This is done once every 5 years, and it is a very labor-intensive process, even with the help of an audit form. For us in the office, it requires gathering up tons of documentation on all the projects we have done to date, past audits, all of our transactions in bank statements, all of our project agreements, etc. There is also a massive application form where you are asked to do calculations to estimate every beneficiary in different sectors, as well as the total budget spent in different sectors, all over the past 5 years. 

By the end, we were on a first-name basis with the guys in our nearby copy shop and we had prepared about 30 bound volumes of documents to be delivered to the Kenya Revenue Authority. We are also required to go all over town to get signatures from different government authorities to affirm that we do indeed exist and are doing the work we say we are. Now we are waiting to see what will be required of us next. 

In addition to that, one of our staff members let us know he will be stepping into early retirement. This has meant we need to do a recruitment process involving rewriting job descriptions, preparing job posts, etc., prior to interviewing next week. April is also a month when we do many performance evaluations and have performance evaluations done on us. In short, we felt overwhelmed on the job, and the fact that Rebecca had to sometimes cover me during rehearsals made it even worse for her.

William Kiptoo retirement party

Now that the musical is over, we are both fully available to tackle the many administrative and managerial tasks that form the bulk of our work at MCC.  I will really miss the excitement of creating dances and watching them realized on stage. It is always worth it to give more of one's time to things that are life-giving. 

I think I will end there until next month.  

Rehearsing opening (Candyman)

Cast Party