A Few Fun Forays into the Land of Life

Croquet Mallet
On Monday Mr. Bannister and I went on a walk around their home in Athi River. (“Athi” is pronounced as such: The “ath” sounds more like “cloth” than “math”, and the “i” on the end is a long “e” as is the “y” in “Mary”) We walked past Wildebeest, Thompson Gazelle, Grant’s Gazelle, Eland, Ostrich, Giraffe, and Warthog. We were only about for half an hour, and we caught a beautiful sunset and splendid conversation along the way. What a blessing to be in the midst of God’s beautiful creation, as our thoughts and conversation turn to Him and His community; the service He has called us to. Arriving back at the Bannister home, we found the four siblings playing a game of Croquet in the lawn. It was humorous to see the sibling rivalries unfold, especially as the ground made an unpredictable foe, so most progress was pure luck. After Caleb won (the youngest), and we were all cleaning up the field, Cody (the eldest boy, third born) was bringing in some of the balls by hitting them with his mallet. Well, as fate would have it, after one strong swing his mallet detached from the handle and found its way swiftly and conveniently to the side of my head. Luckily, I wasn’t looking so it struck my temple and above my ear, as opposed to my nose and eyes. However, since I wasn’t looking, I first thought I had been hit with a small object, then registered that they had just finished a round of croquet, then thought it was a ball, then ruled it out on the basis that my skull was still intact, then realized my head hurt a bit and I wasn’t entirely stable, then realized that everyone else had realized what happened and was coming to help my side down as they bombarded me with, “Are you okay?” “Are you sure?” “Sit down!” “Oh my goodness!” “Ouch, that must have hurt!” All this happened in the manner of just a second or two. Also as quickly there was a lump on my forehead. Not where the pain was, but out on my forehead. Have you seen “The Mummy”? You know those bugs that crawl under their skin that they have to pry out? Yep. It looked like one of those. We got some sweet pictures of it! That night after dinner I had four Ibuprofen, a glass of wine, and two fingers of Scotch. I wasn’t quite feeling myself, but wasn’t sure what element to blame: jetlag, a blow to the head, or the alcohol…

Dukas
This morning I went shopping for some groceries down at the local dukas. They are quite an adventure to shop in, and I got the most curious looks from the locals as an mzungu bought from their dukas. I hear that more and more of the missionaries are shopping at the local dukas, but the variety is so limited that most of the large shopping is still done in Nairobi. I landed myself with some good-loving bacon and avocados along with some other things and made myself a delicious bacon-avocado sandwich for lunch. Guys, let me tell you. Avocados are 5KSH a piece. That’s about eight cents, American. In the California avocados are a buck a piece and they are so small!! These things are ginormous! I didn’t even use half an avocado for two sandwiches! Man, is this heaven? Anyway, enough of my avocado enthusiasm. On the way back from the dukas I also ran into Susan, who used to be our inside help. Okay, it sounds snobby to say that we have someone who cleans our house and does our dishes, but let me explain. Culturally, it is actually insulting to not provide employment. So rather than it being a show-off of wealth, it is just expected (and in fact even if you don’t want inside help, the school requires that you hire someone) that the wazungu hire the nationals. Their thinking, and I don’t think its too far off, is that How dare the westerners (mzungu=singular, wazungu=plural) come and profit from our economy without contributing to it through providing labor? So it was good to run into Susan who worked for us for two years, and see that she has a business of her own now, sewing. The more I think about my future, the more I think my strength is people, and I am also good with financial management and economies, so it warms my heart to see the local economy here growing, slowly but surely! Though I certainly don’t mind the absolutely wonderful prices of some of my favorite foods!

It is something Mr. Bannister and I talked about on our walk, actually. He made the comment, “You know, I hope you realize just how lucky you are to have lived here when you did. In fact, I think yours is the last generation to be able to wander Kenya with relative freedom. It’s the fastest growing country in the world, and more and more of the land is becoming agriculture or city.”
I agreed, and added, “But you know, when thinking about the billions of people living in dire poverty, I am glad to see the frontier lands become economies blossoming under the direction of honest, hardworking national so that even just a million less have to live in poverty and hopelessness. There are always more places for adventures to be found.”
There was some joking done in regard to the honestness of some of the workers, and though it was said in jest, it is a grave concern of the nation. And though there is still bountiful corruption on every level of Kenyan society, we agreed in the end that empowering the people through economic development is a breath of fresh air for this country and in just a generation or two there will be enough well educated Kenyans who are disgusted by the corruption of their fathers, and then Kenya really will boom. I’ll just have to find a new place to roam on my piki.

He’s Hot!
Also on the way back from the Dukas, I heard racquetballs flying in the courts, and I detoured to see who was playing. Turned out to be a family that I did not recognize, but apparently the recognized me. As I turned the corner and mounted the stairs back towards home, I heard one of the girls say, “That’s Kaben? Man, he’s hot!”
It was really entertaining and rather made my day especially knowing that she thought her comment went unheard by me.

OSC Mania!
These past few days I have what seems to be bombarded by comments and references to Orson Scott Card. I commented about this to Janine, and am serious thinking making a OSC Support Group… I have had some lively discussions regarding several of his characters with several different people, and by and large I am not the one who brings it up!
Oh! And on the inside cover of “The Crystal City” (Sorry Rob, turns out this really is connected with the other five!), under the listing of books in the Bean Series, there is a new book listed after “Shadow of the Giant” called “Final Meetings”. Has Orson written another book about Bean?!? I certainly hope so!