Continuing the Journey

The group photo was taken at the end after several people had already left.Eating our picnic lunch of nyama choma (barbecue), chicken, ugali, etc.Some my students posed near the fountain. They are (from left to right) Nehemiah Bogale from Ethiopia, Mary Kabondo from Congo, John Mungai and Peter Ngugi from Kenya.

Nehemiah is in Kenya with her husband who is pursuing a Master's Degree at NIST in order to return to Ethiopia and train pastors. Nehemiah also takes some classes in the diploma program.

For quite a few years I've been a Kirk Franklin fan, an American Gospel musician. Well, he came to Kenya. So Jordan and I went to Kasarani Stadium on the northern edge of Nairobi (about 10 miles from our house) to see him perform. The concert began at 3 PM and finished at 8 PM. First, there were several Kenyan Gospel singers: many doing hip-hop. several dance troups, and a few more traditional. Then the King of Kings Skateboarders, who are a troupe of well-known Christian skateboarders, performed. Finally, around 6:30 Kirk Franklin and his group came on stage. It was very good. He was very enthusiastic, and seemed to be delighted to be in Kenya. He even made up a song in Kiswahili on the spot from some Kiswahili expressions given to him by the audience. Jordan and I had a great time. It was very different than any concert that I've been at in the USA. People were dancing everywhere, almost everyone in the stadium. People like to dance together in groups in a coordinated manner. So there were groups of people, sometimes including total strangers, dancing together all over the stadium.

Then today (Sunday) I went to a choir competition at Christ the King Church in Kibera, which is the world's largest slum. Choir competitions are very popular among some churches in East Africa. There were 6 choirs and each one performed 3 songs; one of which they composed and wrote themselves. I'd been invited by a former classmate from our language school. I didn't know until part way through the competition that I was the 'Guest of Honor' and expected to make a speech and present the winning choirs with their trophies. I gave a two minute speech in Swahili, exhausting nearly all of my vocabulary. The whole experience was very enjoyable. The choirs were simply excellent. The judges gave some constructive criticism, and one was particularly entertaining and funny as he spoke.

While I was at the choir competition, Cindy took Alia to a birthday party at one of her classmate's home. There was a bouncing castle, two clowns and a magician. Needless to say, she really enjoyed herself. Cindy says that the family owns a catering business. Now Cindy is a little hesitant to invite Alia's friends to our house for a humbler party.

Here are a couple of photos from that seminar.