You're Never Alone in Africa

A British man who had lived in Africa for many years once told me about the time he asked his African friend the question, “What do you do when you want to be alone?” The man thought for a moment and said, “When I want to be alone I go down to the river with three or four of my friends.” In Africa, it is not good to be alone. Our female teammates tell us that people here on the island have been surprised to learn that they do not sleep in the same bed. “Doesn’t it get lonely?” they ask.

Today, I (Tom) am all alone. Megan and Grace have gone to Kenya to meet up with our family and bring them back to the islands (as well as do some shopping, get Grace her 15 month immunizations, etc.) But I have stayed behind and must somehow manage to get by on my own until Thursday. Megan was kind enough to give me a long list of things to do before family arrives, and so after seeing Megan and Grace off at the airport I found myself headed to the market alone. The market is part of our language learning route, so we almost always go together with Grace. Seeing me alone immediately brought a round of questioning.

“Is Mama Grace well? And the baby, she is well? Where are they?”

So I explained that they were traveling and more than once the response was, “So you are alone!” I didn’t think much of it until this evening. As I worked on some chores and thought about heating up some leftovers, I was interrupted by the arrival, one after the other, of two friends. One friend, we’ll call him, Sahara, speaks quite a bit of English and is a big fan of the sort of stuff I believe. We have had lots of conversations in the past on various subjects. The other friend, Mhono, speaks no English, but also likes to talk on subjects of truth, though he sees things very differently than me. While dining on some meager leftovers, we ended up getting into a big discussion about the different things we believe, switching from English to the local language and back. This may sound strange or unique, but it is really quite common here. Very few topics of conversation are considered taboo.

When we finally tired of talking and the food was gone, it was still early evening. Sahara left us at this point, but Mhono, seeing that I was alone, told me that we were going for a walk. So I complied. I guess he didn’t think much of the leftovers because our walk took us to a typical local restaurant where we had another meal. (The typical restaurant meal is grilled meat on a stick and the typical restaurant consists of a small fire, possibly a table, and a couple of benches.) Finally, after about ten sticks of meat, I was allowed to return home, with the assurance that Mhono would come see me again tomorrow. I’m just glad he didn’t want to sleep here.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
It looks like we’ve made a decision about the house for our other teammate. Pray that the details that go into preparing the houses would go smoothly. As I was writing this blog I heard a pop and smelled plastic burning. The power strip (which was plugged into a surge protector) was quietly burning, a small flame coming from the cord. Praise God that I was here when it happened and that it damaged nothing other than itself (a cheap power strip from the market.)

PRAYERS REQUESTED
As far as I know everyone is safe in Kenya. Pray that travel would be easy and that we might have a special time together as a family. The time together is short so pray that things like jet-lag, traveler’s sickness, and the like would not be an issue. Please continue to pray for all the people affected by the recent tragedy her