Counting Down...

Thirty-five hours forty-five minutes until the Kenya Airways plane is due to take off, headed to London's Heathrow, the first leg in the long, long journey home. How familiar this feeling of mixed eagerness and reluctance is...so similar to what I was experiencing at this time last year. Eager to go home- to the familiar, to the dear, to the "nest" that is my home, to the family and friends who populate my world daily. I miss my congregations- the one where I am a member and the one I serve three Sundays each month. I miss the sights and smells and sounds of my little corner of the world, and I long for a taste of my own home cooking.

But once again I am leaving behind another corner of the world which continues to captivate a piece of my heart...East Africa. The Kenyan people are like no others I have ever known, with their casual attitude toward time, their incredible hospitality (even by those who have so very little), their determination to make strangers feel included, their strength and courage in the face of seemingly-insurmountable problems, the value they place on education, the ready smiles which crease their faces whenever they greet one another.

Of course, I would willingly leave behind the frustrations, though I know I will be unable to do that...frustration with the perpetual trash thrown everywhere by everyone...with the terrible traffic and worse roads, even as new highways are being constructed...with the penetrating dust which coated my nose and throat and every possible surface...with the lack of potable water...with the incredible divide between rich and poor...with the existence, the very existence of slums like Kibera and Mathare in sight of the President's residence...
with an unemployment rate of more than 40% and far higher in places like Kibera...the never-ending expectation that we "rich" Americans should supply the monies needed for admittedly worth-while causes, even as the governments here fritter away monies given to them by the international community. I could go on and on.

Mt. Kenya nyanyas

Partout and Emmanuel in Rwanda

Kibera Nyanyas

Teacher Elizabeth & watoto

A Maasai giraffe

But it is difficult to leave the people I have come to know and love... the grandmothers of Kibera and Mt. Kenya, the preschool staff, the Rwandan family that has "adopted" us, our dependable and beloved drivers/translators/friends, Julius, Simon, and Bosco, who made this trip go so smoothly, as well as the many new friends and contacts we made throughout this trip. And thanks to the miracle of technology, we will be able to stay in contact via email and Facebook and cell phone.

Unlike last year, though, I am very, very tired, drained of energy by being confronted day in and day out with problems and situations for which no solution is within our grasp...enouraged by the people we've encountered who are making a difference but discouraged by the magnitude of what lies ahead for ALL of us. I suspect that I will take a long time to recover my equilibrium after this trip...a long time to sort out my conflicting and oxymoronic feelings...a long time to see with any clarity the path that lies ahead for me.

And so, dear friends and "followers", surround us, please, with traveling mercies, with prayers for our safe travel home and for the courage to handle whatever lies ahead. Kwa herini, dear African friends. Karibu, America!