A season to narrow the focus

This present moment, as unique and different as it might seem, is wholly perfect. Over the past three weeks, I’ve been working to cultivate this perspective. While I might seem laid back on the outside, I’m an inner striver and perfectionist. Contentment does not come naturally at every moment; I’m always fending off the nagging question, “What else should I be doing? How could I have better used my time?” I might tend to pick apart and critique what is, rather than simply receiving and giving thanks.

The major challenge of this current season is that all of us Kenya-based Mosleys have different travel schedules this summer. We had one last celebratory Sunday all together in May – Paul, David and I all were part of the worship band at church. 

One very special moment was leading “Day by Day” as the children’s song, with Paul helping the whole congregation in worship movement; David sang beautifully as always. We were grateful for the chance to also share time with our Nairobi-based volunteers so they could farewell Paul and David. 

That afternoon, we hosted several of the “Burundi gang” at our house. Most of the families have been led to Nairobi to work for international humanitarian organizations, and at least one will likely need to leave in the next month due to the Trump aid cuts. Others are closely examining their other options. It’s a very sobering time for people in our community. The kids enjoyed having time to play, thankfully oblivious to the conversation among adults.

And then, a couple of hours later, we sent Paul off to the airport to start his journey back to the USA. He needed scheduled medical treatment, and this was the best time. But that’s his story and I will let him tell it separately. It's not easy to be in a season where we need to write separate blogs, but that's the reality right now. 

1st annual MCCK Bowling competition:
Winner James on far right

Sadly, his flight schedule has been moved by the airline 24 hours earlier, so he missed the long-planned opportunity for an in-person farewell with our whole MCC team the next day. Even our short-term volunteers made the journey in to Nairobi for a day of discussions and then a time for team building. I had hoped we could all take a hike in the forest, but the weather was uncooperative, so we shifted to an indoor activity: bowling. I was actually a bit astonished by how popular a choice that seemed to be with our team. Only a handful of us had ever tried bowling before, so it was completely novel and delightful to just about everyone. 

Office Jackson's chamelone

Our top-scoring bowlers were two men who had never touched a bowling ball in their lives but took to it so naturally. Our Food Security officer James took a little while to get the hang of it, but by the end he was bowling strike after strike. Raymond from Tanzania was the runner-up, bowling with lots of energy and just slightly less accuracy.

For the rest of the week, there was a lot of admin needed in the office, but the days were fairly normal. David was also wrapping up all his final assignments for the last 2 weeks of school. He sang in a voice/piano recital on that Tuesday and then I took him out to Thai dinner afterwards. 

We were talking through his remaining assignments and he casually mentioned that he needed to record the voice-over he’d written for a video documentary project. I was a bit astonished and asked him if he already had footage for the video. Nonchalantly, he told me he would just use stock footage. And then I asked if he had ever made a video before (I have the impression it’s not easy, because our MCC partners are dying for help with it from our gifted young adult volunteers). David admitted that he’d never done it before, “but that’s what YouTube is for.” So that night he downloaded software and had about half the video made on his first try. He actually wrapped it up in good time and it had all the look and sound of a David Attenborough short. Gen Z are really something else!! He also needed to use modeling clay to complete a biology project on the structure of a tree – which then inspired other recreational sculpting work when his class work was finished.

Sculpting a tree for biology

When it came to the weekend and evening time, at first, I was really hoping he would be invited to hang out with friends, but everyone was busy studying for exams. And I realized what a relief it was to not have plans for a change. David and I hung out and started playing a board game each evening. This was really a turn for him: he’s pretty much refused to play strategy games this year with Paul and me. But I begged him to try it out and he actually beat me in a game I’m usually pretty good at. Which gave David the courage to challenge me at a different game the next day. He ended up pretty much being the winner of everything and relished every opportunity to rub it in: “Imagine…losing to a child!” 

German choir

On Sunday, he joined me with the German community choir to sing special music for the German church confirmation service. That was a unique cultural opportunity for us, and also very fun to take part in something meaningful with fellow singers. David was incredibly gracious and adaptable, given that he wasn’t with the choir and didn’t understand German!

One evening, David and I decided to have a cookout. He marinated pork the night before and we labored hard to make a fire. It was very quaint and lovely, and the fire had finally reached the point where we could cook on it – and then it started raining! We had to carry the grill under cover and just enjoy our roasted meat indoors.

Golf at Windsor

During the last week of school, kids only had exams in the morning, so there were a number of long afternoons for David to play basketball with our neighbor Aaron. He also packed and cleaned his room very nicely. We celebrated the end of school by taking David and Aaron for a round of golf at the nearby very expensive golf course – but when they as kids play, it just costs about 80 cents each, because they are both part of the junior golf federation. I walked along with them, enjoying the very fresh early morning and birdwatching as I went. We closed the evening with a rowdy cookout at the neighbors’ house. Aaron’s birthday was coming up and he had marinated steak. We all sat around bantering about whether or not to turn the meat, and lots of other silly conversation – a lovely way to farewell each other for this season.

A celebration of all the opportunities David
has had to grow in this past year
Display set up by David himself

On Saturday, David finished up a very ambitious personal art project and finished his packing. Thankfully, there wasn’t too much to do, and we had a very peaceful afternoon together playing a game and playing basketball until it was time to go to the airport. I made sure to walk him in past the check-in, because I had doubts about permissions for a minor to fly. But it all went smoothly. David was very calm and collected and confident that he could do it, and I’m so glad he has these kinds of opportunities to grow in independence – especially when he can’t enjoy the other growth opportunities
that kids in their home country might, like getting a license earlier, getting a job, going out with friends without parents arranging it.

Prayer at sunrise

Overall, I am incredibly grateful for 2 weeks to really have focused time with David. He is such a good-natured, fun kid and it was good to experience that a bit more profoundly by having undivided time with him. By the same token, I was also intrigued by the feeling of coming home to an empty house Saturday night. I made sure to leave space for quiet and solitude for myself on Sunday and Monday – I feel like I really need it to get through these next three weeks of intensive work in the office, including several work trips.

So, I’m trying to focus well and fully at
the office – where various admin tasks had drop-dead timelines this past week, including our annual audit and board meeting. But I’m also trying to balance enjoying some evening time to catch up with friends that aren’t as easy to see. I’ve really had encouraging and enjoyable get togethers with a variety of people during the evenings. And at the same time, I don’t want to jam my schedule. It’s quite a balancing act. There was one day after work I stopped at the local forest and took a long walk. It started raining halfway through, but that didn’t not diminish the enjoyment.

Dikdik in rainy Karura forest

One night, I was considering something I would really like to do that my other family members would probably not enjoy as much, and I realized that I very much wanted to go birdwatching in Nairobi National Park. Now that we have resident ID’s it is extremely affordable. My neighbor Carla agreed to go with me. And so we set off at 5:30 this morning on a middle-aged lady adventure, with minimal prep because no dependents. Just coffee, snacks and binoculars. 

We quickly entered the park through one of the less common gates, just as the sun was coming up. And within 2 minutes we stumbled across two very sleep rhinos right next to the track. They are so huge and strange looking from up close, with their very long foreheads and tiny eyes. And similarly, we ran across other mammals as we drove slowly, keeping our eyes out for bird movement: giraffe, waterbuck, hartebeest, warthog, hippos, many impala, another huge rhino 3 meters away. Every mammal was a gift and a surprise. And I feel like going on safari to find birds is really the key to a super relaxed and satisfying outing into nature. 

We were not racing around, just hoping for big cats. We were never disappointed because there are so many birds to see! Of course, many birds are ones I’ve seen often, but still, it’s great to grow in skill at IDing what is common. And Carla and I had to work hard to identify species that I wasn’t familiar with – in most cases, the bird sat patiently waiting and waiting us to look in the bird book and compare and look and compare. It was most thrilling to identify a rare, black-shouldered kite. I felt pretty good about spotting 40 different species that I could name, and at least 10 others that I couldn’t name.

 

There are a number of other little anecdotes from this season of narrowing and being more quiet. I'll add bonus photos to fill in. 

Burundi gang kids get together

Biology tree structure diagram

 

Our daily commute, which I've had to handle alone these days

 

Parting shots wtih the GSL volunteers and Paul

Sykes monkeys keep getting in the house. 
I've found messes like this twice.
twice it tried to break in my window when I was napping. 

attempted cookout

final school assembly

David wins

And wins and wins again

Golf driving range

End of year picnic with the Chege family

trying sack gardens for the first time

David heading off to Washington DC

Impala bachelors

Black shouldered kite