( Our field coordinator, Prosper, had an interesting few days across the border in Kenya, and has this to share with us, enjoy)
THE LEGENDARY KENYAN EXPEDITION
As funny and strange as it may sound, the Saturday of the 30th October 2010 was my first time to step foot in our neighboring lands of Kenya. Being one of the few lucky Ugandans who have had the opportunity of stepping out of Uganda’s geographical boundaries, its interesting how I had managed to go to eight different countries over the years and never to that closest to home. My trip was three-fold fulfilling as it turned out to be educative and informative, enlightening and a breath of refreshment.
Educative and Informative
My main reason for travelling for 12 hours on a bus, as comfortable as the ‘Akamba Royal’ was, was not for the luxury of exploring new lands as the title may suggest. It was to meet a few old work partners of YEA and talk about past, present and future work. Try to use the past experiences and today’s pivot as a catapult to set out plans for future work. One of the main people I was to meet was Pr. Nick K. Korir of Parklands Baptist Church. Busy a man that he is, it took me a few days to track him and finally pin him down for a talk, literally. It turned out more fruitful than even expected. We talked with him and Edgar Makona, our Kenyan delegate, at large on various issues and came up with a number of ideas on how to better and continue the partnership that has existed over the years. The one thing that got a lot of talk though was the ongoing idea of networks.
Nairobi Area Youth Workers Network (Naynet), founded in 1999 by Gowi Odera and Frank Mills has been a great inspiration in the setting up of the Kampala version with the YEA in a fore sit position. Edgar and Nick brought to my attention a few ideas that could be adapted in Kampala so as to further the growth of the network. Pr. Nick offered to travel over to Kampala in the first quarter of next year to this cause. He will be talking on one the network meetings we are to hold. To encourage and offer ideas that could be adapted in Kampala. I got the opportunity to attend a Global Leadership Conference in Nairobi that was fortunately happening at the same time I was in town. The lessons and ideas from that are enough for me to turn into a bestselling author.
Enlightening
As the saying goes in Africa, ‘It only rains where the Kid lives’ or maybe you are more familiar with the one that says, ‘If you’ve never moved around, your mother will always be the best cook ever’. Got it? Okay, okay. What I mean for those that don’t speak Japanese, It’s only after going out of your familiar environment that one realizes what is happening over the fences. As another saying goes, ‘travel is to see, return is to tell’. My trip to Kenya opened my eyes in a number of ways.
Most of the places I’ve been to in Africa are below Uganda’s standards of Biblical understanding and Christian development. I’ve always been in the teacher’s chair in all my trips teaching either youths or youth leaders. It took me a few minute of all my meetings to place my mind into the student framework and a lot of humility and grace was called upon in the process of the internal fights. Most places we work in are those that need us to help set up youth ministries or support the existing but crumbling ones. The Kenyan youth ministry in the churches I visited in Nairobi was definitely not in that category. Needless to say, YEA is still of great use as a partner to support the existing work and spread the same ideas in those places that these churches cannot reach. I picked a few leaves that am sure will come in handy soon enough.
On the road...
Refreshment
This may come as a surprise to a few but; I haven’t enjoyed church in a long time. I don’t know if it’s just me but, do any of you ever get too accustomed to going to church every Sunday that it has just turned into a mechanical routine? No? No one? Okay. Does anyone wake up on a Sunday morning and think to themselves, ‘Church, yeah yeah yeah’. At that point when you can predict what is going to be said by the preacher, because, of course you know who it is, their thought lines, patterns and style. Anyone? No Still! Then I guess it’s just me. But I was at that point in my church going life until I visited with Parklands Baptist Church or Parkie as commonly known. I had two of the greatest services I’ve attended in a really long time. The messages were very simple, applicable and relevant to me especially but I am assuming I wasn’t the only one thinking that way at the end of the services. I won’t go into specifics of the message. For reference, open your Bible, you’ll definitely get the three aspects; Simple, Applicable, Relevant.
Between the race track Speeding ‘Matatus’ and the not so gentle bus operators, the Nairobi experience is not one you’d normally refer to as refreshing. But the exhilarating feeling of being somewhere where people are bigger dare devils than your average Kampala ‘Boda boda’ cyclist is always priceless.
The plus side to my job is of course meeting a lot of people and seeing different places. I spent a few of my Nairobi days moving around in the city, getting lost here and there trying to find my way around. The fact that I had no guide with me, and I can hardly ask for a glass of water in Swahili didn’t help at all. It gave me an opportunity though to see the true colours of Nairobbery, sorry, Nairobi. My Kenyan trip was nothing short of this expectation. I met with a good number of Kenyan friends from church and University. However, the best people moments were of the new friends I made. I got a lot of work potential friends and social Friends as well, for what is the world and life without people?
Prosper K.
