Rabitt's Hole

Where have we landed – we feel like Alice in Alice and Wonderland, freshly emerged from falling down the rabbit’s hole. We are alien; in our surroundings, in our family, in our persons. Which way is up and which is down. How do we recover from such an intoxicating experience? At least we have money right? No, we don’t even know how to spend it, where to go to get milk, eggs, cereal…where do we throw our trash…how do we not get blanketed by mosquitoes…how much water can touch my person – drinking?, washing hands?, washing dishes?...how do we keep our boys sane in this seemingly insane place…That was day one.
Day Two. We have cell phones. We can call each other. We can conceivably call home, but it will cost about $5 for 30 seconds. We found food! Cereal - $6-$14. Bug spray - $10. Internet - $.50 per 30 minutes!!! Slow, but the connection is steady. Can count to 10 in Kiswahili, Moja, etc. We can casually greet people. We can say “no thank you” to hawkers, trying to sell us socks, or hats, or newspapers we can’t read yet. We have mosquito fumigation - we’re saved!
We have arrived! Sort of. We have our own wheels! We need insurance, but we can drive. We met friends, and now know our general location and living area within this vast city. I can leave my house and get to the “main” road – despite the 3-foot divots and random lakes made by people cutting water lines to get a couple of buckets of water…
The heat is bad, but it’s similar to Columbus. It gets quite warm by 9am and will not cool down until 9pm or so. We’re told “this is cool – wait until December”. The other strange thing about the environment concerns day and night. Because we’re miles from the equator, the sun comes up at 6am and it goes down by 6pm everyday, all “seasons” (I put that in quotes b/c there is only a 10-20 degree change between seasons).
The people, oh the people are wonderful! They are so kind and friendly – if you engage them. They like foreigners, they are patient and helpful. This is a fundamental difference between Africans and Americans. Africans value you, the person, above your contribution, or purpose – above what you offer to them. Americans often value just utility – usefulness, satisfaction of need, etc. An example is how Americans mock and treat people rudely for not knowing English – or at a minimum - Americans who display open annoyance b/c of the delays or inconveniences caused by a foreign worker at some grocery store or retail location. As Christians, we have much to learn about valuing others. We came here b/c we thought we did – we found out how much further we have still to go.