1st full day: August 15th

(Photo above is our room for the year)

August 15th is a special day for us before and now the date marks our first full day in Diani.

E and I awoke on Sunday pretty early (around 5 am), as our bodies are not yet accustomed to the time here. As many of you might have guessed, we took advantage by going for a morning run. Though I’ve been dreading the heat of essentially living on the equator, it is “winter” here now, and it is very pleasant in the morning and evening, probably in the mid-seventies and breezy. We came home from our run and enjoyed a breakfast of fresh fruit (banana, tangerine, orange, and papaya), peanut butter and bread (left over from the last lab visitors), and the omnipresent chai tea. Chai is served at basically every meal, and as a side note, is also the word for “bribe” in Swahili. The food was all delicious, but sadly, Mungai informed us that the fruit season was ending, and until next year, bananas would be the primary fruit. C’est la vie. We definitely feel spoiled by Lucy feeding us so well.

After breakfast, Mungai invited us to his church in Ukunda, a town just outside of Diani. In addition to being my lab’s go-to guy for everything, he’s also an ordained Anglican minister. Impressive. E and I donned our Sunday best, and headed to church. We turned off of the main road, called the Mombasa-Tanzania road (a two-lane, modern paved road that stretches along the Kenyan coast through much of Tanzania), and started on a deeply puddled and potholed dirt road. Fortunately, the truck we were in was 4WD, as the holes were feet deep, and even with 4WD, we nearly became stuck several times. I commented to Mungai that the road was pretty bad, and he replied, “no, this is a very good road”. We obviously have a lot to learn. We passed very small shack houses with children playing nearby and chickens running all around. After a five minute drive, we arrived at the church. Constructed with cinderblocks and a corrugated metal roof, the church was spartan, but attractive, with open walls to allow for the breeze to flow through. Mungai introduced us to the other minister, and showed us to our pew. The church, like many things so far in Kenya was a study in contrasts: on one hand the church was clearly impoverished with torn and aged hymnals shared among many participants, and on the other hand, there was a printed sign asking people to turn off their cell phones.

The service began with a song led by several of the parishioners, in English, but more of a Swahili tune. Towards the beginning of the service, the minister asked if visitors would come forward and introduce themselves. Oh boy, we clearly weren’t going to get out of this one! E and I walked to the front of the church and gave our most humble “jambo” (hello) and “asante sana” (thank you very much) and introduced ourselves. Had we known this was going to happen, we would have figured out a short intro in Swahili, but considering the impromptu nature of the event, and it being day two in Kenya, I think we did alright. Much of the rest of the service roughly followed a standard Anglican service in English including the message from Mungai. The hymns were sung in both Swahili and English and as we recognized many of the hymns and could sing along. Though still terribly self-aware and standing out as the only wazungu in the church, it was nice to be able to participate. Aside from the familiar, there was much that was different. The Swahili versions of the hymns were beautiful, with much clapping and swaying to the rhythm of the songs. We could sound out a few words of the chorus, but our vocabularies are limited to greetings at this point, so we couldn’t understand any of it.

We have read much about how Kenyans are very welcoming and generous, and so far have been delighted to experience it. During the church offering, literally everyone came forward and gave what they could into the offering basket. The minister said that last week they had collected 19,000 KSH, equivalent to about $250. Considering the meager wages of most Kenyan people (minimum wage is ~15 KSH/day), this was astonishingly generous. After church, we enjoyed some chai and biscuits (again, very generous), chatted some with the congregants, and then Mungai took us back to Diani. The rest of the day we read at home, took a walk on the beach, and enjoyed the more relaxed pace of life in Kenya.

Now back to August 15th. Five years ago on August 15th, E and I met in the Trinity conference room. Right before I entered the room, our boss Dave said to E “oh, you and M will be funny together” owing to our height differences. Little did he know what was to come. If you’d asked me 5 years ago where I’d be today, I may have said that I’d be married or I’d be in medical school but I don’t think I would have said that I’d be in Kenya, with my wife, going to Swahili church services. So, August 15th is now a special day because it’s the day I found my wife and the day I learned to say “mke wangu” (wife) in Swahili.