TRAVEL EXPERIENCES

This blog post is going to be a bit different...

A bit of a collage...

Pictured here are the young folks who helped me find my way in Nairobi, Kenya. This is Charles and his friend Josephine at the Osewe Restaurant in downtown Nairobi Sunday afternoon after church. AAAHHHH THAT WAS A GOOD DAY!







And we ate deliscious traditional LUO food.

These two fellows are colleagues with Charles and work for him in his sound studio. They were in charge of the sound system for the Pentacostal worship service we attended.


Can't say enough good things about the ROSA MYSTICA RETREAT CENTER in NAIROBI...





...just go there to stay when you are in KENYA.


(Franciscans)


and while you are there enjoy prayer and meditation in the beautiful chapel.




...the tea plantations of Kenya...













and just the beautiful countryside of Kenya...





...it is stunningly beautiful...









I had to laugh...it was the season of road construction...













and Kenya is doing the high tech, good quality type of road construction... so is Rwanda.






This huge and beautiful Catholic Church next to the house where I am staying in Kigali, Rwanda is a real testament of faith. It has been designed and built solely through the work and finances of the congregation. No funding came through the Diocese to accomplish this construction.















And the most wonderful thing is that music ministry seems to be there strong suit. Hardly a day passes when I have walked by without listening to some WONDERFUL MUSIC. Especially fine traditional music including these drummers who were preparing to help celebrate the Mass.

Here is a photo op for Robin and Jen, wife and daughter of Pastor John Rutsindintwarane. He is the General Secretary of the Lutheran Church of Rwanda. I have finally met this man who I got in touch with by email well over a year and half ago....and wow what exciting ministry he has going. And have really enjoyed getting to know this family


Well, I just had to volunteer to help for my second church service with them...and they asked me to preach. It has been a real treat to be part of Lutheran services again and to be able to participate more fully...AAHHHHH!!!! SWEET!










Now I will close leaving you with a poem I wrote on Saturday morning last weekend. I had spent 3 long days traveling by bus returning to Kigali with our books for NKOKWE...

Descending

What must it feel like to be descended upon by vultures while still alive?
I am reminded of the picture of a starving child sitting in the dust somewhere in Africa with a vulture sitting patiently at a distance…
…waiting for his time to feed from the weakening, dieing child.
Did the child have yet the strength to know his life was ebbing from his weakened frame, did he have yet the strength to fight, to get angry…?

To be descended upon by vultures…
…that is the experience I liken to descending from a bus into the balmy warm air of a night in Kigali, Rwanda.
I descend into the midst of bodies crying out to me

grasping at my arms and my luggage and my attention.
Each wanting a piece of me…a piece of my money really,
it’s not me they want, but my money.
My skin has become a burden to me now and in these times when the vultures are there seeking to take from me all that I have,

I feel my life blood seeping out of me and I feel my weakening condition.
And then I get angry; angry at the situation of the world that fosters such behavior and grasping need.
But I get angry with the individuals also,

is there no shame for them in their behavior

that they will take advantage of me because of my color,

because of my WEALTH…HAH. I scorn the thought.
In my life I have not seen myself as wealthy…

but I can understand how the vultures see me as wealthy,

for they do not see me and my situation, but they see the paradigm of wealth portrayed by so many tourists and visitors who arrive;

those who live much higher on the scale than I.
They see the scale of wealth they’ve become accustomed to

in television, Internet, and journals.
They see a different kind of wealth than I enjoy or even aspire to.
I have lived my life simply,

forgoing the seeking of wealth on the scale that they see.
So now I pay the price, I am unable to pay the small fees for their help,

for a taxi instead of a bus, or for an extra pair of hands to help me carry my luggage.
And I get angry again when I am asked a higher fee for the bus

...because my skin is white instead of black.
I get tired of injustice in the world at these times…
…but more than that, I just get tired,
I feel the life seeping out of me,
I am no longer a living, breathing human being,

but a bit of food for the vultures to feed from…
I am drained by the presence of vultures descending to see what they can pick from my carcass.