Time in Kenya is like honey. It is viscous and fluid to a fault, sweet and golden at its best. It is flowing for sure but one must keep pace, not with the impatience of hurry, but appreciation for the sweetness that comes with slowing down. Here, the thoughts have time to catch up. The mind can defragment by walking instead of running. We are brought back down to earth by experiencing the strength of all 5 senses once again and finding our tiny place on earth.
There's a hot little technique in counseling called "grounding exercise" in which a person re-orients from anxieties by naming 5 things seen, 4 things felt, 3 things heard, 2 things smelled, and 1 tasted. I will take a stab at a little grounding not to overcome anxiety here but because its a way to organize sensory overload. I won't complete the 5-4-3-2-1 for sake of time today. ;-)
Sight1 : Early in the morning, looking out the window at an angel trumpet tree, its quiet beauty is blaring out the glory of its Creator. Holy, Holy, Holy. The visiting neonatologist in her white coat comes down a staircase behind the tree to go up and see her baby patients first thing in the morning.
Sight 2: Our big bright green bag was packed up here with some things that are more useful on this side than at home. One of those is a gaudy bright pink dress I had made here. Another is the electric tennis racket that is used to hunt mosquitos at night. I love this big bright green bag because it holds a little place for us on a storage shelf while we are away.
Sight 3: Gigantic black dog. We are dog sitting a Great Dane puppy named Nova for friends this week. The sight of this dog is pretty amazing. Also we are keeping a Golden Retriever named Rugby and a little fluffy dog named Maizie. We like having the sight of good dogs around us. Rugby reminds us so much of our dear Dandy dog back home.
Sight 4: My favorite sight is of the 25 or so house helpers gathered together who came for afternoon chai last Thursday. We just wanted to sing a few praise choruses in Kipsigis and thank God together and share some words of encouragement with each other after the long time of distancing. Everyone was really happy. They told us how the house churches popped up when the buildings were closed and large groups became 2 or 3 family groups. They told how the church never stopped meeting, they just multiplied under the pressure and adapted. But they remained faithful. What a precious sight.
Sight 5: Daktari coming home with the medical ward team of 8 for lunch one day. They are Kenyan trainees that are the sight of hope for the bright future.
Touch 1: You feel your feet molding over the stones in the road. You are aware of where you step and take not for granted the fact that the path will be smooth. The dust swells up under heavy feet. The dust of the dry earth swells up and finds a way to touch every part of you again, reminding you from whence you cometh. We get re-grounded literally.
Touch 2: The kids and I went out to pick beans with our local friend when she had only 1 day to harvest. We got to experience a few hours of being field hands. The neighbors who were there the whole time helping were happy to have us join and they popped up from bending at the waist, smiling, heads wrapped up, welcome to the field. Toughened by time and tenderized by gathering the spilled beans. The rains did not come so the plants became brown and dry. We learn to uproot the plant from the soft dry earth. They are gathered in large gunny sacks and even the weeds are gathered up for the time being. She just wants to get those beans out and will sort the useful from useless later. Our blessed job is just picking the beans someone else planted and helping a little to complete a task. But there are also burrs in the field. They cling to all the cotton clothing and make me look like a porcupine! They feel like they look too. Tiny straight quills prickle through the sleeves and legs of our clothing. If we stayed on doing this, imagine how in tune we would be with the earth and its needs and appreciation of each and every bean. But as time flows on we turn to our chai break and lunch break and time to go back home- sore and scratchy and plum tuckered out.
Touch 3: Cold L-shaped door handles loudly squeaking betray early morning sneaking through any bathroom door. The doors are heavy and solid, no hollow core will last here.
Touch 4: The touch of clean water is noticeable. We used to have silty river water in the tap. A new water treatment plant has made it possible to even drink from the tap now. (I'm admittedly a bit too chicken to try it still so we drink from another filtration system). But the feel of the water is different. It's clearer, and cleaner.
Sound 1: Ka-wonk u-wooonk! Ka-wonk u-wooonk! 2 magnificent crowned cranes trumpet praise for being alive and flying. They wake me up and call me out of the house to look for this oddly large and graceful bird and its life-mate. They fly in with head hunched down and perch atop the tallest tree around. "It looks like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree" she says. And there is a pair of haloed angels balancing on the droopy tip top. I watch them a while but they are quiet now that they've landed (and think, I might have totally missed them if I had had AirPods in). This regal bird is a lavish display of God's handiwork. It's golden plum crown makes me think of a holy saint. This icon of Africa adorns Uganda's flag.
Sound 2: But it's the lower, tiny birds who sing the loveliest songs. The big birds are awesome but the small ones give music to make the heart happy.
Sound 3: Chainsaws. The music of Mordor. They are the sound of developing farmland and much needed housing. They buzz and whine through the day in the distance where Eucalyptus trees are taken down to stumps. This is not the good sound I want to hear but it too reminds us that we are here on planet earth only for a short while.
Smell 1: Trash burning. Too sad to describe. Noxious even in the memories.
Smell 2: Rain. They love it. Best smell is rain. He used to run home racing the rain. This time he just sits here and enjoys it and texts his friends at home.
Taste 1: "It's different. Not bad." I tell her the foods just aren't what she's used to. They don't have to be the very best or our most favorite foods, but they are different. Everyone loves the taste of mandazi that we eat with chai. It's like a beignet or doughnut hole shaped like a triangle or square. The taste of friendship shared. We met with 6 different friends in Narok yesterday to eat a meal, drink chai, have mandazi, or just a soda. This tastes of friendship and weight gain.
That is quite a sensory overload for week 2. Thank you for reading and helping me feel back "down to earth".
