what TIA has taught me

I think my favorite and most frequently used term used since coming here is TIA or time in Africa. It got really popular from the movie Blood diamond, but here it’s an every day thing. You might use the term in reference to what we call “African time”, which is when you’re supposed to start at one time, but several hours past the original time, you have yet to start. Like on Sunday, I went to a church and they had a car to pick us up, it was supposed to pick us up at 8 am, but did not get there until 9 am. We went to a crusade right after the service that was supposed to start at 3 pm, but started at 5, we were supposed to be back before 6, but we did not make it home till after 10 pm that night. TIA. But it can also be used for when something goes wrong. Today as I washed my very dirty clothes, a thunder head filled the sky and poured rain non stop, again TIA, but it was not over, as the rain poured, my clothes line broke, dropping all my clothes. TIA. So this happens quite a bit, and sometimes it sucks. Like when the internet won’t work on a computer it always worked on or when your matatu breaks down when you’re trying to make it home before dark. Kenya teaches you a lot about life but even more about your faith. You can’t put your reliance in anything but God. You can’t plan for anything either, video chat dates get interrupted by the annoyance of no power, dinners get pushed back because the kitchen is not cleared of people, and the lesson you want to teach a class gets pushed back due to classes flooding with water. But that’s life. And to be honest it makes the good moments better. Its one thing that I kinda enjoy about Kenya is the unpredictability. I like setting times and dates, but it takes the surprise out of the moment. Here its fun to have the element of surprise and being unsure of what will happen in that day.

Kenya teaches other things though that makes life harder at first but grow accustomed to as time goes on. Washing your clothes takes time and energy and is nothing like it is at home. At home, you toss in the clothes in the washing machine, put in the soap and crank the knob. Here it requires 2 buckets and a bar of soap and a lot of water and of course a clothes line. Most of the time as your clothes dries on the line, they will fall off and land in the dirt, and you must wash again. This would be annoying to most, but it teaches you patience and to work hard for the simple things. Showering used to require a bucket and cold water and a wash cloth. Bathing was a chore, and cold water sucked during cold nights and cleaning yourself was a lengthy issue. But I learned again that these simple tasks take more energy to most people around the world. I get to experience what it would be like to be someone who lives their life doing these things. It enhances the life I lived back home. I kick myself now for mocking the food served at camps, because now I wish for that food. There is always that person that comes back from a mission’s trip and says “it really makes you thankful for what you have”, though it’s a cliché, it’s true. Everything that we have is a luxury, eating steak for dinner is not needed, but it’s wanted over eating ugali and beans. Showering in a nice heated shower is a luxury, when your option is pouring water over yourself with an empty sprite bottle with somewhat unclean water. It’s one of those things that everyone must do at least once in their life. I know I have changed because of it. And I realize that I have become the person I make fun of that comes off a 2 week mission’s trip and says their life is changed forever. I used to look at those people as wannabe missionaries and philanthropist who only want the fame, but not the work. I was that person for a while, after I came back the first time, I thought of how cool and good it was that I went, but now as I sit here waiting for the power to kick off at any moment, I realize how small my contribution is to the world. when I think of other missionaries who devote their lives to one country or area, and work everyday to make it a little bit better, I can only realize that I devoted not my life to Kenya, but 4 months. I’m not saying that this trip is nothing, because doing work for FMP and teaching the kids is hard work. But it’s not me alone doing the work. I am a very small fish in a big pond when it comes to FMP, and I am one of many teachers and volunteers and missionaries who have devoted time to helping these kids. I think the transformation that is really taking place happens more to me then the world. That alone makes the trip worth it. My faith, personality, breaking point, and ability to love and understand people has changed, which I think is the greatest thing I could ever learn. So in short, I love Kenya not because of the food, or the buildings and living conditions, but for the way God can work through a land and people that have little material wealth, but can love and need love.

p.s Bin Laden being dead is not as good as it sounds when your over seas in a place that was once attacked by friends of Bin Laden.