Hand Grenades, Handicuffs, and Stay to the Left

This week had some up and downs. I’d like to say mostly ups. So I’ll leave the general description at that and go into my weekly summary!

Tuesday

Tuesday was a normal day. Went to St. Benedict’s primary school in the morning. Taught them how to draw. I don’t know anything about drawing. So I started teaching them shapes. These are all the shapes they know now!

Wednesday

Our friend Eleanor from the Amani Center came to Street Children with us. She’s a real artist, and she was a huge hit. She’s a wonderful old woman from Australia whose husband passed away a few years ago, and she’s been traveling around the world doing mission work ever since. She’s really great.

Thursday

Thursday began as a typical day, but the problem is that no day is typical in Africa! I was leaving the Street Children around 3:30pm, and I decided to stop by the Mogra Star Academy which is financially supported by the Trufant family who I’ve worked for a couple times as camp counselor in Brevard, NC. I walked in and identified myself, and they got so excited! They immediately brought me around, and then they decided to drive me about 40min away to the Rescue Center. Many of the kids at this center walk over an hour every day to the school and then back in the afternoon. The center is really great. They house around 115 kids at a given time. They also have a nursery and a farm. It’s pretty awesome. Also, the school has around 800 students. It’s a solid place. Oh and I forgot to say I had to walk back from the center. It was a long walk.

Friday

I made another friend at Amani from Australia. He’s an evangelical pastor, and his name is Conrad. He was invited by a church here in Mathare to speak at a conference. He’s a truly great guy. Anyways, he invited me to go listen to him preach at this conference. The specific talk was about small groups and spiritual multiplication. I had literally heard the same stuff when I was working FOCUS. The people there were very devout and incredibly nice, but I could tell they were a little perturbed by my being Catholic. Maybe one day we’ll have unification, but that day wasn’t Friday. I had to walk back from there to Mathare. It was a long walk, so I decided to take my first motorcycle ride. They call them boda bodas or pickipickis. I feared for my life, but it was a ton of fun. Then I got to Street Children, and for whatever reason God thought it necessary to throw me into a fairly large debate with the people who run the center. It’s apparently a pretty big controversy between Africans and Catholics as to everyone’s position on polygamy. Anyways, they all want multiple wives, and I didn’t necessarily get support in certain areas which I would have liked. We all left still friends, but I don’t think I accomplished much other than maybe to push people to think about something other than their own personal beliefs. I’m getting a little tired of “personal” beliefs. For me to justify anything I do, I gotta imagine there is something bigger than myself with which to compare my actions. If I can’t do that, then I don’t have anything really.

Saturday

I went to visit the girls, and, during this act of going to Karen, Kenya threw a wrench at me. I was walking down a fairly large avenue in downtown Nairobi, when two guys came up to me. They claimed to be policemen, and then told me they were taking me to jail. I was a little perturbed by the situation to say the least. They then led me to an intersection and pulled me aside. They said they could help me if I could help them. They forced me to take out my wallet and give them all I had. Unfortunately for me, Mike had just paid me for internet. So I had more in my wallet than usual. They took 6100 shillinsg from me! That’s like 75 bucks! I kept my head up though because they hadn’t found the couple hundred shilling I had in my back pocket. So I continued on my way to see the girls. They bought me pizza and wine to make me feel better, and the sisters here have been very nice to me. It’s not the end of the world!

Lessons I've learned:

1)     All in all, I'm well. I've heard that when people pray for patience or humility, instead of being granted those virtues they're actually given occasions and opportunities to be humble and patient. Well, I prayed for support for my faith in tough circumstances, and instead of getting exactly what I want I think I've been given a situation for me to learn to just rely on God for my needs and stop looking for exterior reasons to follow him. I'm in a state of learning. As always.

2)     Even though I didn't pray for it, God is teaching me humility. I went to High School in Northeast DC. I've been in inner city areas. I've been taking to the worst parts of slums. I've seen the wrong end of guns. I've been in wrong crowds before, but I've always left those situations completely unscathed. I've never been robbed. Today was humiliating for me. It helped me to realize that I'm still at the mercy of the elements of my circumstances. It's a little daunting and scary to say the least, but I still have confidence that I am where I'm supposed to be. I can't always rely on myself for EVERYTHING. haha and that's OK! Still in good spirits.

3)     On a lighter note. Multiple people have told me that a special and particular way with children. This has affirmed that with kids is where I'm supposed to be. I'm looking forward to delving a little more into my abilities in this regard so that when I come home I can utilize my talents appropriately and well.

Keep me in your prayers!

-Harris

PS

Here's a group of children singing. I got brought to an evangelical mission school in probably the worst slums that I've seen since I've been here. 40 kids. 2 rooms. Still great work. Enjoy!