Far {Africa} is Near: May 2010

I wanted to share about some ways that I have been really truly blessed this week! They are small ways but have humbled me and made me question if I am really taking advantage of ways that I can bless others.

I do not know if I have mentioned this before, but here in Kenya, most people have 'house-helpers' which are women who come and help you with house work. At first I felt really silly about hiring someone to do my laundry and such but once I realized that it is giving someone a job, I let down my pride and started having someone help me around the house. It is such a blessing while working to know that your laundry is getting washed, and hung... and I never thought I'd say this but I am going to really miss ending a day of work and walking back to my house as the sun begins to set, drop off my bag, grab my laundry basket and walk out to the grass and pull off my freshly cleaned laundry from the line... ah its the little things like this that I'm going to miss... the simplicity of life.

Ok, so how I was blessed this week... My house-helper has been gone for the past month. I have been able to manage, doing laundry when I can and not sweeping here and there. Two weekends ago I went on one of the most amazing hikes of my life. I left the hike sooo excited about the adventure that I didn't really care how my shoes and I were covered in some brownish-green slimy waterfall water. When I got home, I simply took off my shoes and left them on my porch to dry. Since my house help wasn't here I didn't think much about my shoes staying on my porch. A few days ago I came back to my house over my lunch break. I noticed my shoes were missing but didn't think much of it. As I was doing my dishes and looking outside my front window above my sink I noticed my gate guard walking over with my shoes. I was curious what this man was doing with my shoes so I stayed quiet while he was on my front steps. While watching him I noticed something dangling form my porch... shoe laces....white shoe laces... no longer brownish-green shoes laces! I stared at him as I watched him carefully set up my shoes so that they would properly dry in the African sun.

Blessed.

Humbled.

I had to take a deep breathe as I realized how self-less this man was. He saw that I had dirty shoes on my porch and while his job is not to wash them, he took it upon himself to bless me. I still get a bit misty eyed when I think of that. The next time I saw him I made sure to thank him... he wasn't expecting anything nor held out his hand for a few shillings. He just smiled his big smile and said "Karibu!" (You are welcome!).

Ahh... to bless others this way too... service. What a challenge to my heart.

Story #2 goes as so... Many friends here, and friends who have visited me have joked that one of my unofficial ministries here is 'market ministry' where I minister to all the people at the market selling their goods. Its true, I know tons of them by name and love sharing a conversation with them... but come on, someone's got to minister to them! So what if they sell cute earrings and scarves, right? ;)

There is a particular group of vendors that I have loved getting to know this past year and a half. One of the women is the one who made my beautiful bed spread, Esther. I have enjoyed getting to know some others, share in their laughter, and their warmth. There are probably about 8 Vendors in this one location. Its a peculiar location, the back of a parking lot near a shopping center. I can't remember how I stumbled upon them but I am really glad that I have. I had not seen them all since January and today I decided that I would go into work early so I could get off in time to go sit with them and catch up. As I neared the parking lot I saw them all and was so eager to say hello that I didn't realize they changed the whole order of the parking lot...and lets just say I barely missed a cement pole....

I went up and greeted them all and asked how business was going. Although they all said business was not good since the new construction of the parking lot, they were eager to hear how my life has been, where I have traveled to, and why I have been "lost." (The term Kenyan's use when saying they have not seen you in a long time.) I got to sit with Esther for a long time and hear about her family, her business, and life in general. I love just being able to catch up on these friendships... it had been way too long.

One of the men I hadn't noticed was the flower man who sells me flowers for my house. I went into the shopping center and came back to walk past my friends and say goodnight to them. Thats when the flower man hopped up to give me a bouquet of flowers! Ahhhhhhh! I normally am not the type of girl who needs/wants/expects flowers from people but these were specially because with them he said "Its to welcome you back to us! Karibu, Rafiki!" (You are welcome, friend!).

Once again....

Blessed.

Humbled.

Check out how bright and cheery these flowers are. How amazing and thoughtful of him to do so! And I must say, he is quite the florist to match up such beautiful flowers all together. I love wild flowers and he happened to combine that with some yellow roses...so me! :)

Once gain... to bless other this way too...a sweet gift. What a challenge to my heart.

I'm so thankful for these blessings this week. Sweet and small but powerful. I hope my eyes are just as open to be able to think of small ways to bless others when they didn't ask for it or expected it... to go the extra mile, just because.

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Rain

And this is just to show you what my commute home from work looked like. Yes.. it rained a lot to day (Thank God, right?!) but that meant that there was a river on my path that went up mid calf... insane. As I juggled my bag and computer, I hiked up my jeans as high as they could go and hoped for the best as I tried to not slip in the muddy murky mess on the way home. While moving quite slowly, a neighbor of mine who was smart and had rain boots on tromped passed me giving me a sympathetic laugh....

Knowing she is a nurse I half joked with the question "sooo how bad is it to be walking in here barefoot right now?" Her response being, "Oh yeah... you might get some fun critters from that! Perhaps de-worm when you go back to the states!"

Yikes!

Rain boots would have been an awesome investment...