Kenya 귀역해 Part I

Saturday, July 28th, 2007
African Inland Church
Mission Base
12:01
Namanga, Kenya

Last night's sleep was worse than before. At one point I was lying awake, stifling the will to drift off as I lay sweating in my polyester sleeping bag. My fear of being bitten by vicious disease-ridden musquitos and contracting an unknown malady kept me from throwing off the covers and soothing my fevered skin. But that's what we got for being forced to sleep within the church itself - the doors have barred windows at the top and some of the glass from the actual windows were broken. It's become a ritual now to soak ourselves in Off! spray every few hours. Then a warbling cry came in the direction of the cliff behind the church, and the bats decided to partyin the metal roof after it had died down. The other night, I saw two of them flying out of a bathroom 'stall'.

This morning the sky was filled with stars, it was incredible to see the sky so dark and the moon so bright. Kenya can't afford light pollution, to which I am grateful. The moon cast my clear-cut shadow against the stone path as Orion crept closer to the horizon, the stars like pin pricks shining from a flashlight from behind a dome of black construction paper.

Getting up at 4:30 is pretty tough, but then we had to re-enter the church by 5 to start the day with morning devotion. Basically that meant (for me) to listen to the fervent prayers of the missionaries for ten minutes, then the kids started trickling in. Once the first five benches on both halves of the sanctuary filled up, they started up their chants in KiSwahili - Pastor Lee caught some of it on tape. I hope to never forget the beautiful sound of the children's songs.