Pleasant places

Smooth white shiny mug of hot brown Kenyan coffee and many many little 2 wheeled taxis going piki piki piki piki under my window across the dirt road to start the Kenyan morning. So many school children with smooth brown heads and gingham uniforms are riding to school at 6:30 a.m.  Our children tried to hike with me a fraction of the distance over the river, but by the end of the day everyone is too tired to make that commute- the walk to school, the walk to work, the walk to water for the dry season is bearing down too.  But life in the village across the river still reminds me of the goodness of Africa and the traditions of community and respect and the beauty of bright colored paint and fabric over rustic frames.   We are refreshed by the friendships and camp style mugs of hot creamy chai full to the brim and we are too full to eat again until the next morning. 

It all seems so normal, natural, and right to my brain.  Even the things I see as glaring injustices are still predictable and understandable somewhat here.  I love life here.  Even when it’s awful and unendurable and frightening I love it and hate it and love it again.  The Man-cub and Little-miss are playing so hard  with so many kids every day here that any remaining baby fat has melted off in the hot equatorial sun.  Their hearts are more than happy doing this life here.  Man-cub asks if we can live here again for another 2 years, or 5. Oh, what about our wonderful puppy back home, the Golden Dog? She at least has a staying power of fidelity and cute and cuddliness that they are willing to board a plane to America for.

Africa has an incredible staying power that undergirds many vulnerabilities.  People come and go and come and go and seasons change, technology and development change but Africa remains.  I read that or a line like that in a Maya Angelou book called “All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes”.  I love wearing my travelling shoes to come back and witness what she meant. If I didn't have the freedom to come and go, I think I would love it less both here and there.

I am impacted by gratitude for the awesome privilege of living a life here in the rich beauty of community and the harsh ugliness of community and also in the safe and sanguine picket fenced yard of my America life.  How did I get so lucky as to have it both ways?!  I can tell you the secret.  It’s because My Father really loves me and He listened to my prayer for a home on earth and then yet for the wings to fly into His wild and wonderful world, refreshed and filled up to overflowing.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.  Psalm 16