Cream Crackered

This week has been knackering, I spent most of the mornings in Kibera with some of the older girls. Spending time in Kibera in general is great because most of the time is just about spending time with people, joking around; playing with the kids or greeting the people involved in the microfinance scheme who are usually very happy because things are going so well for them. However some of the time is spent dealing with more difficult situations, trying to figure out what is the right thing to do, trying to explain things to people in a different language who don’t see things the way you do because of their crazily different life experience. That side of the job is what I find tiring and it all happens under a blazing hot Kenyan sun.

On Friday, a group of 10 people linked in various ways to Wycliffe came to visit the project so I took them down and around Kibera. Some of them had never seen such a place and were quite impacted by the experience. Their reactions reminded me that Kibera isn’t normal, it’s an outrage, it’s unjust and it’s disgraceful that the rest of us allow it to exist.

Lillian and her brother joined us afterwards as we went up to the food court of a shopping centre just up the road from Kibera. It’s literally a 5 minute walk from Kibera but they had never been there before. We went to wash our hands in the toilets before we ate and Lillian had no idea how to use the soap dispensers or the hand dryer. Peter said ‘this place is wow’ he says everything is ‘wow’! Lillian said she couldn’t go there on her own because people would ask questions. She is from the slum and she’s not welcome. That ticks me off so much.

So after work on Friday I was upset and angry with a million questions in my head and no idea what to do, I was exhausted. One thing God said to calm me down was to remind me of all the stuff I wanted to do when I was making choices about uni and stuff. I had so many options open to me, options many of these kids may never have. Think of all the stuff I could have done but for now I have ended up in a slum! I may not have been very good at the stuff I tried to do but chances are I wouldn’t have ended up in a slum. But what I chose to do was follow Jesus wherever He would take me and although some days are absolutely gutting I flippin love being here and I flippin love being with God wherever He wants me to be. So basically, I had all sorts of opportunities and these kids don’t but the one thing that really matters to me is knowing God and being with Him and that opportunity is open to everyone whether you have everything or nothing.

I’m not sure I’ve explained that very well! I had a bit of an Ecclesiastes moment, everything in the world is worthless except knowing God and enjoying life with Him and that thought chilled me out a bit.