It’s been a bit of whirlwind since I came back to church on Sunday! A Transition Team last night, Leadership Team this evening, getting ready for the Annual Meeting which will be integrated into worship on Sunday, along with a few pastoral concerns, attendance at Food Bank, a United Churches for Dartmouth meeting, and so on. It’s ALL good stuff!
Karibu (pronounced caribou) is a Swahili word meaning welcome, and this was written in a bowl of soup at the safari camp where three of spent the last few days in Kenya. Welcome is what I experienced and felt the entire time I was there. From Church World Services who were the hosts of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank Learning Tour to the many projects, villages and guest houses we stayed in, welcome and hospitality was genuine and ongoing.
The first thing I noticed after going through customs etc. in Nairobi and getting connected to the drivers who had been assigned to pick us up, was the absence of traffic on the highway. When someone asked about it, we were told that traffic was light because it was Sunday. Kenya is a highly Christian country and people place a high priority on church attendance, so there is not much open on Sunday. Believe me, the other days of the week, traffic is something to behold, there are few traffic lights and the streets are shared by cars, motorcycles, bikes, people, animals, and somehow it all works. I would NEVER risk driving there.
I have wanted to go to Africa since I was about 10 years old and I every day I pinched myself that I was actually there. I left a piece of my heart in the beautiful, complicated country of Kenya and would go back in a minute. Over the next little while, you will undoubtedly get tired of hearing about it from me!
Here is just one short story: This young woman’s name is Raefaela; she lives in a village called Lapendara, which is suffering from drought. Her father was the elder who welcomed us, and in Kenya, welcome takes a long time. In this village, the men stand to speak, they each have talking sticks to lean on. The women must ask the elders permission to speak and they don’t normally stand. Raefaela asked if she could address from a standing position and permission was granted. She spoke English, had been to school to the equivalent of Grade 11. She reiterated what some previous women had said about the training they had received from Church World Services about kitchen gardens, they had received a few chickens and beehives. And had assistance setting up a VSLA: Village Savings and Loans Association.
A Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) is a group of people who meet regularly to save together and take small loans from those savings. The activities of the group run in cycles of one year, after which the accumulated savings and the loan profits are distributed back to the members. The purpose of a VSLA is to provide simple savings and loan facilities in a community that does not have easy access to formal financial services. https://www.vsla.net/the-vsla-methodology/
The box below is literally the ‘bank.’ There are three locks on it, with three keyholders. The women identified who were the counters, who were the ones who recorded the deposits and withdrawals and loans. There was evident pride in this undertaking. It definitely empowered the women of the community in way that had not happened before Church World Services become involved. You can see CWS on the box.
I spoke with both Rafaela and her father later that day and what was astounding to me was how proud her father was of her for her education. My sense was that he was chief among the elders and yet here he was, a product of a very patriarchal society, so very proud of his daughter’s achievements.
That is just one small story out of dozens that you may hear from me in the coming days and weeks!
St. James United Church Dartmouth 