Growth Relationships

"Our Wedding"

I mentioned in an earlier post that recently there was a wedding in the community. The wedding was for one of David’s nephews who has become his adopted son. Over a thousand people were in attendance and when I arrived the community was still recovering.
An interesting thing about Kenyan weddings is that it is not the couple’s wedding. The event, the celebration, is seen as a community occasion. The couple actually makes very few decisions about the day. In fact, they don’t even really decide who to invite. Word-of-mouth combined with a few cards that are mailed, spread the news. There are no RSVP’s and no indication of who may be coming – not just for the day; but the groom’s family may also be expected to hosts unannounced visitors both before and after the event.
The reason it is viewed as a community celebration is because every other thing in the person’s life has been viewed as a community event. If someone moves into a new house, the community brings everything that the person needs – food, dishes, and other household goods. When the person gets married, the community provides what they need. As David shared – it serves as a reminder that someone else picked the flowers which are adorning you. Someone else sewed the material to create the dress. Others were responsible for the food preparation and service. Each member of the community provides their contribution; and the community honors that. Within twenty-four hours of the wedding, all the dishes that the community had gathered from various homes were washed and returned to their rightful owner. The idea of community celebrations may seem foreign, but at least here in Kipkarren, it’s definitely efficient.
As I learned about the wedding traditions of this village, I was reminded of the passage in Acts 2. Truly everyone here shares and they have no possessions that are their own. Everything that a person has is available for the benefit of the community.

PS – I hope to post pictures soon.

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Growth

No Hurry

There is a saying, “there is no hurry in Africa.” That saying pretty much sums up my experience yesterday.
Upon arriving in Eldoret yesterday, Juli and I learned that our ride had a broken down car in Turbo, which is about 10 minutes away from Kipkarren (our destination) and an hour away from Eldoret. The Kipkarren network was soon at work though, and another man, Ezekial, who happened to be in town that day, agreed to pick us up and take us into town so that we could wait there for our original ride. Having made it into town, Juli and I went to lunch and learned that our ride was still stuck in Turbo. We then walked around Eldoret for a while where I learned two very valuable lessons 1) Pedestrians never have the right-of-way, and 2) you have to have no fear in order to drive in Eldoret. There are no traffic lights, no real rules or regulations, and absolutely no parking strictures. The cars stop wherever they have the opportunity and the drivers make their way into the shops where they have business. Combine that with people setting up mobile stores along the street (they are mobile because they are illegal and they must quickly pick up their goods with the authorities come) and it definitely is an experience that most Western drivers are not used to. For sake of comparison, its similar to the poor areas of Mexico except even more chaotic.
In the midst of this chaos though, there are throngs of people; people who live in the moment and do not worry about keeping to a schedule or routine. After walking for a while, we learned that our original car still hadn’t been prepared, and so Ezekial kindly agreed to let us ride back with him to town. We spent some time in ELI’s office, ran “a few” errands with Ezekial (which probably took about an hour and a half) and finally made it to David’s house. I originally planned to be in Kipkarren around noon. We arrived around 6:00.
It was a good day though. I enjoyed the spontaneity of the moment although Juli would have preferred a quicker route home. The day ended with dinner at David’s house consisting of some other American visitors, and various members of his immediate and extended family. Before everyone left, we closed the evening with prayer, watched Allison open an early Christmas gift (she was so excited about the CD, Josh and Jodie) and so ended by first day in Kipkarren.
Postscript

A few other things that I already appreciate about Kenya:
– There is always music. Whether we are hanging out, cooking dinner, or having some type of meeting, there is always music. Spontaneous outbreak of songs are totally acceptable.
– You greet everyone. Regardless of whether you know the person, or you are just walking by them on a path, you stop and shake hands with nearly everyone you pass by. On the rare occasion you don’t shake hands, you wave and say “hello.”
– People want you to feel a part of the community. When I meet someone, they often invite me to make this like home or they say “you are part of us now.” There is an amazing amount of inclusion.

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