Sunday January 28

 On Sunday I went to four churches.  It was a long and exhausting day, because I had to stand up and talk at each of them.  Usually I just said my name, where I was from, what I was doing in Kenya, and said I brought greetings from my church in Canada.  Then they would clap (receive the greetings), then clap again (send greetings back to Canada).  SO warm and welcoming...  BUT, I don't love talking in front of big groups when they expect me to say something profound, so it was mildly stressful.  Wherever I go people expect me to say something.  Whether it's a shamba, a church, or someone's home.  Visitors bring blessings to a place... and are believed to have worthwhile things to hear.  The best part of Sunday was hanging out with the kids, teaching them a song from home, and having them teach me a new song.  They thought it was pretty hilarious watching me trying to follow along to actions of a song that I totally didn't understand the words to.   The favourite activity of the kids was having their photo taken and looking at it in the digital monitor.  My battery drained pretty fast :)

The last church I was at was the annual regional meeting for the 'Africa Israel Ninevah Church'.  It looked mildly cultic as all the women wore long white dresses and headcoverings (looked like nuns of old fashioned nurses?) and the men wore muslim-style kanzus (long white shirts) and caps, but the theology seems pretty sound.  The music was provided by drums (below) and extremely sonorous metal rings hit with another metal thing.  At a smaller church earlier in the day the sound was so piercing it made me want to jump out the window next to me (ground level- don't worry).  I could only imagine my mom and her pre-disposition to getting headaches- she would have had a migraine all day from that service!  The funny thing was, when I looked around at all the people I seemed to be the only one affected by it...  Since I was a guest, I sat up front each time.  No dozing!!! No matter how incomprehensible the language is!!! (I do get the gist of what is going on... my kiswahili is bumbling along)

The people in this small community were super friendly.  Everyone wanted to greet me... all the kids hung around, though few were brave enough to approach until I waved them over.