Tuesday was a really wonderful visit. Kadeghe came along to a village that he had never been visited before. The hospitality was immediate as always but a little different as he was treated as a guest as well. I asked him why the Masai love guests so much. His reply was simply that guests are very important people. I like this. The fact that there is no great reason suggests a great reason. People are simply important. The things that are closest to us are often hardest to express. Why did you fall in love? Why do you want to work in your field? These are the hardest questions to answer, and this is a very profound thing. People just matter. That is all. Wonderful. Tuesday was also very special as I really spent almost the entire time speaking in Swahili. We sat with Mwangelisti Philemon and talked about his work and soccer and Obama. It is good that we are now able to piece things together and respond fairly well. Nothing has helped like sucking it up and talking to people. It is really good. Worship was so hot. Some of these churches are like easy bake ovens with window light bulbs. I know you are all suffering from the cold at home but here it is stinkin hot. I kind of like it until typing a blog draws sweat from my brow at 730, an hour and a half after sundown. The four Americans along with Pr. Hafermann are being called the Obama five wherever we go. And yesterday we became the Wartburg kwaya. We all knew sanctuary so we just sing that and Peter goes over the top of it after Sara sings it solo. It's amazing what no practice can do. We sounded surprisingly good and got a lot of the wonderful quick tongue movement squeel noises that we are all trying so hard to perfect. After service, we bought Philemon a goat. What a good guy. When the evangelists come in December for the conference, we are going to play futbol with him. Well, Steve is well the rest watch. If Pr Hafermann plays, I am in.
Today we experienced very purposeful hospitality. It was even more immediate than I think we have ever experienced. In every village, people come from everywhere when they see the car come to greet us and welcome us, but this place had tea waiting which was new. We bond so well over the meal. In some more awkward visits, we kind of wait and pray for the tea to come so we can have table talk with people. Thus, today was quite a relief. It is funny, time here is so laid back, until it comes to welcoming guests. We get welcomed so quickly and ushered around everywhere with an urgent excitement. Sitting around before the service, talk turned to Obama as always and we listened as Pr. Hafermann explained the two chamber legislative system. Ha. very nice. Then we made friends with this kid, maybe 4 years old and Kadeghe, speaking Kimasai, tried to convince him to come to America with us. He promised him nice wazungu friends like us and candy. Ha, creep. But I got the opportunity to play with the kid during service a lot, I think his name was Zaitoi. The Kimasai names are very hard. I wish it was as easy to make adult friends. That we could just make faces at people and hide their money and tell them how strong they are. Oh well. It was nice to get him in trouble during the service...he he he. But I have noticed that older kids are more drawn to me. Who we would consider middle school aged in the states. There are always a bunch of boys that crowd around me to talk about soccer and school. So there you go. The others are way good with the other kids. Fair enough. Ok.
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