mzuri sana!

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habari yako!

i know its the ultimate cheese cliche to greet you all with an official and legitimate kenyan greeting in my first official and legitimate post from kenya but i've grown particularly fond of this one as of yesterday. "habari yako" literally asks, "is there peace", to which a passerby or dear friend might respond, "mzuri sana!", meaning, "there is peace!". so to all of you back in the states or abroad, my loving family and dear friends, i pray peace to you and hope to hear that it is a Kingdom peace that has become and sustains the anthem of your lives.

i'm writing you from a cyber cafe in the heart of kitengela which is where i've come to call home and my place of work, if you want to call lovin' work. kitengela is about an hour and one heck of a taxi ride east of nairobi which is where i initially flew in and stayed for two days. when i first flew into jomo kenyatta after twenty-four hours of fly time i must say that i was a little disappointed in what kenya had to offer. having heard miraculous stories of healing and listened to accounts of redemption and renewal, my heart sank a bit when i got off the airplane and discovered not a heavenly welcome party or the sounds of tribes dancing to the tune of their Savior but rather no one to pick me up and a country i was completely foreign in. like i said, my heart sank a bit and i wondered if kenya was all it was cracked up to be. however, as close friends who've been to and loved in kenya told me, any expectations i had about kenya and her people would be blown out of the sky and i would be left in the streets naked and hopeless in need of a Lord. that is exactly what happened. my first day of frantically jumping on matatus (crazy 'pimped' out fifteen passenger vans that drive crazy fast on the crazy wrong side of the road) and getting lost in the kawangware slum and pulling the ultimate tourist act by visiting a fenced in giraffe park ( which by the way earned me a big sloppy kiss on the lips by a rothschild giraffe ) left me seeking a purpose here in kenya as what little hope i had had been drained. however, after a good nights rest at my first host home in kawangware and praying a prayer of healing with my host mom and pop ( both of them evangelical pastors) over one of their good friends, i discovered that hope is not an place or a person or even a feeling but a product of trusting in the Lord; that the very people who trust and hope in Him and not an expectation will renew their strength and rise up on wings like eagles. pretty sweet truth if ya ask me but one that took getting to a place of utter hopelessnes to figure out.

so, after my rough first day and couple of improvised hours of orientation i found out that the hospital i was originally placed in didn't have an opening in their hiv ward so i volunteered to get re-placed outside of the city. i wasn't really sure what work there was out there or what my host family would be like but a gal volunteer from texas (rad girl who worked in youth ministry) who was placed there by herself didn't want to go alone and i volunteered to journey out of nairobi with her, which is where i write from today. my host family here is an absolute blast with two boys 9 and 10 years old and a host mom who cooks great kenyan food ( a dynamite combination of rice and french beans and peas with the occassional cooked goat tossed in for good measure ). my first day of work was yesterday at a hospital right in the middle of kawangware, dividing a dirt and concrete neighborhood into those who have and those who have not, the homes with colorful iron gates and the homes with thin iron walls, the rich of kawangware and the absolute poor. arriving for the first time through giant teal iron gates i met with the head doctor of the hospital yesterday, which itself is an out of place modern concrete two-story facility with electricity and running water, and he proceded to joyfully shake my hand and tell me that they were enthused to have me. he also told me that i could spend the next couple weeks exploring each department of the hospital with the purpose of finding my niche in one of them. this was SUCH an encouragement and answer to prayer! so that is what i've been doing. yesterday and today was spent in the pharmacy with a very wise and energetic man named alex and i look forward to exploring more in the coming weeks, particularly the leper ward!

unfortunately, having only begun to tell ya about what i've seen and experienced here, i have to leave you and get back to my host home as dinner is usually served around 6 ( its about 5:30 pm here right now ). know that i have SEEN and KNOWN all of your prayers for me here in the most intimate and real of ways and look forward to waiting on the Lord for what He's got in store for me. i love ya all and would love to here how things are back in the states!

peace to you

kyle

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