Talk to Wooster
Winter 2006
Blessings From God
Learning to accept the enormous generosity of strangers
Nairobi, Kenya
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Story
TRAVEL CAN BE HUMBLING. Arriving in Kenya for a semester of
study, I learned some important lessons right away. I waited in the Nairobi
International Airport, with no other students and no one to pick me up, until
I realized that I had arrived a day early. I got in touch with my program directors
in the States and learned many ways of paying lots of money to make international
phone calls that never go through. But the next morning at the same time, I
met program
members at the airport and felt
better for a good nightÕs rest in a hostel.
I received as many insights during my next six months in Kenya as I had in those first few days. I learned that I knew more than I thought I did about how to make friends and observe well. I learned that I could live in a desert for a month and that I could sit attentively through conversations I did not understand. I also learned just how little I knew about the world or life and how small my definitions of generosity and hospitality were. The Kenyans told me that guests are a blessing from God. My white skin made it quite apparent that I was a guest, so I frequently received hospitality.
As part of our program with the School for International Training, we were required to do field research. I chose to study migrant workers’ health care in Meru, a town four hours north of Nairobi. On my first trip to Meru, I sat next to Evelyn Mbaabu, who invited me into her home, fed me, introduced me to everyone she could think of who might help me with my project (they also fed me), translated for me, and sent me back to Nairobi with honey, papayas, and yams from her farm.
My first evening in Evelyn’s home, her son brought a tub of hot water for me to wash my feet. I put my dusty feet in, but quickly withdrew them when they clouded the water in which he put his hands. Evelyn reprimanded me, “He’s washing your feet!” Then, as he worked the soap into my grimy toes and calloused soles, she explained, “He’s doing the work of Jesus.” Loving and welcoming strangers is work that Kenyans embrace.
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