After two painfully long flights and 9 hours trying desperately not to fall asleep in the middle of the Istanbul airport I finally made it to Nairobi! As soon as I arrived I had my first "African time" experience- I waited in line for a visa for about 45 minutes without moving, my baggage took so long to come out, and people just in general move extremely slow. But it's wonderful in every single way.
Nairobi is filled with the most beautiful people I've ever seen. They're filled with love and passion and so much kindness. Last night Atazia and I wanted to go out to see where some loud music was coming from but the woman who runs our house, Winnie, said it wasn't safe because it was after dark. Then since it's our first time here she offered to take us to church today and then show us around a bit. Church was incredible. The service was about 4 hours long but it was so worth it and I want to go back to her church every weekend because I'm completely in love with everyone there. There are churches all over Nairobi because everyone goes, but the one we went to was in the middle of the slum that Winnie lives in. The roads we walked were made of a mix of dirt and garbage, and there were starving stray dogs every few feet. Goats wandered around the streets, but those aren't stray, people keep them for...well, I don't actually know why. All of the walls surrounding homes are topped with either barbed wire or broken glass to deter theft, and the air was thick with the smell of feces in many places. The church was small, the roof made of tin, and the chairs were the plastic kind you might use on a patio. But it was beautiful because the people are beautiful. They welcomed us with everything they had and genuinely want to see us again (every weekend). The children loved us (because we're white) and the whole congregation came up to us afterwards to meet us and at least shake hands, if not tell us how welcome we are in all of Kenya.
I have to go because I want to hang out with these guys we just met and my roommate but life is good and I am so happy here. I'll update again as soon as I can.
What kind of service was it? Was there communion? Was there a sermon? What was the music like? SO MANY QUESTIONS! Sounds AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteI forget what denomination that first church was but these past 2 weekends I've been going with my host mama to her Pentecostal church. No communion in any of them (I'm assuming the Catholic masses have it but I haven't gone to catholic mass yet), and the whole service is super different from everything I've experienced thus far. There's so much singing, dancing and clapping, and then at some point there is a preacher who says some prayers and talks and sometimes reads passages from the bible but everything is from the heart. None of the prayers are written ahead of time. And then sometimes the preacher will be praying out loud and everyone joins in with their own individual prayers out loud and the choir is singing so its an insane amount of noise that's all over the place but it's beautiful. You can email me too if you want since for now I have internet access :)
ReplyDelete