Post Coast

The Friday following my return from the coast was business as usual. I got up, got dressed, made my daily commute (about 200 feet), and entered the Secretariat. I distributed the coconuts I had purchased and after telling my tale of Mombasa, learned of what had been going on during my absence.

I was met mainly by, "Noting really," before mention of the "Mungiki" peaked my interest. The mungiki is basically a Kenyan organized crime syndicate, and one of their main sources of income is from the matatus that the vast majority of the city uses to get around town.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, matatus are privately owned vans or small buses that go around picking people up for a fee. The mungiki are paid to protect the routes of these matatus and, if not paid, carry out the terrorizing of the routes.

During my absence a wealthy man who owned many matatus, paid the mungiki diligently, and who was supposed to be under the protection of the mungiki was killed by a Kenyan Policeman. The Mungiki now afraid of appearing weak, had begun to lash out. What exactly was supposed to be, or was, accomplished remains unknown to me, but many matatus were out of service, and unrest swept through a number of neighborhoods.

One such neighborhood lay between Church Army and one of the intern's, Festus', home. Last Tuesday on his way home, there was a shoot out between police and some members of the Mungiki. Festus, who was sitting in 'shotgun' of the matatu, was inches away from getting shot; the tire below his seat taking the bullet. He eventually made it home safely. He and Suzette have been forced to walk home since.

I guess someone got some message, and power was successfully flexed in someone's eyes, because the violence has now, thankfully, simmered down.

The following Sunday, after church, I visited Bomb Blast park. A small clearing of green space on the edge of the city. It is more famous for how it got cleared than the clearing itself. It is the place where the former U.S. Embassy was located. The embassy was bombed in 1998, the event that irst put Osama bin Laden on the FBI's top ten most wanted list. It is a nice park with a memorial and museum (complete with pictures of Obama's visit) to commemorate the tragic day. Over 200 Kenyans were killed, along with a little over a dozen Americans. It was eerie to see how the events (there was also a bombing at the embassy in Dar-es-Salaam on the same day) foreboded 9/11.

The other main events that jump to mind when I contemplate my time since returning from the coast are first, the reality of my finite time here, and secondly, my believed bed bug infestation.

When I returned from Mombassa, unpacked my belongings, and looked to the weeks ahead I came to the bitter sweet realization that my little stint in East Africa is indeed just that. It was a sobering, but motivating realization, and I hope to make the best of the dwindling time that remains (just under six weeks).

My finite time is felt most painfully in my workings with the Somali ministry. It has been staggering of late, and due to poor attendance has had little opportunity to move forward. I have acquired a number of the members phone numbers and intend to begin messaging the days leading up to the next meeting to try and motivate more to come out. We have met with the head of micro-financing at the Center for Urban Mission, and believe we can greatly help these people. The problem is I have only 5 remaining meetings to do so and they have not yet formed a cohesive unit of beleivers, the first step to becoming financial partners. I ask for your prayers especially in this department.

To the supposed bed bug situation. Once I returned from Mombassa I noticed an extremely large number of bites all over my body; granted I had been feasted on each night of the trip, but these bites were getting more itchy as time went on and didn't seem to go away. I didn't pay too much attention to the bites (other than scratching), until the next day when Lillian informed me she found two bed bugs crawling through her suitcase, and quickly 'insecticided' her entire apartment.

I talked to the maintenance man for the dorms and he inspected my room, but found nothing to convince him of bed bugs. Bed bug bites, depending on the person, can go unnoticed until a day or two after they are received. So it was hypothesized that although I had been bed bug dinner in Mombassa, perhaps they did not make the journey back to my room.

I was to serve as human bait to find out for sure. I counted my bites, 158 (I took a rigorous inventory, noting both number and location), and was to see if more would appear in the mornings to come.

It is very difficult to sleep when any random itch or sensation triggers a thought of being covered in bed bugs, and I would promptly turn on the lights and conduct a thorough inspection.

Every night before bed, I combed my room for bed bugs, but the only bugs I ever found were little gnats that, though they originally gave me a start, flew away when I got near, a trick the bed bug is incapable of, and I knew they were harmless. We always had many in the kitchen, around the garbage, and I didn't think much of them.

A week past and no new bites had been incurred. I had all but forgot about the problem when I woke up on Monday morning with a fresh batch of bites just below my neck.

Downtrodden that I had not escaped the bug, I informed the maintenance man, and we moved all of my furniture outside into the sun (the only successful way to get rid of the pests), ironed all of my clothes and sheets (the only way to kill the eggs), and sprayed insecticide everywhere in my room (one way to kill anything else).

However, as we were moving my belongings outside the maintenance man still claimed that I didn't have bed bugs, stating none of their tell-tale signs, other than my bites, were found. I respectfully disagreed, and then he noticed a couple of the gnats I had mentioned earlier on the window curtain, and stated, "Ah, I knew you didn't have bed bugs." I was confounded, and he continued, "You have fleas." There are few phrases as humbling as, "You have fleas." The so-called 'gnats', never actually flew away, but rather leaped a small distance, still a trick the bed bug is incapable of, but not quite as harmless. I had seen the enemy, but was completely unaware.

Despite the infliction to my pride, the fleas were good news, they are much easier to get rid of than the bed bug (which rivals cockroaches in refusal of eradication). We took more or less all the same measures mentioned above, and I slept on the common room's couch for the week, before reconstructing my room (flea free!) yesterday.

So, I am glad to announce that last night, was the first night this week that I both slept in my bed, and received a good nights rest.

Other news:

Church Army had a community retreat day, and we traveled to Limuru (45min outside of Nairobi) to a conference center, played games, bonded, and discussed the direction and purpose of Church Army as an organization.

The interns finished their study and reading of The Purpose Driven Life, were tested on it, and now we are moving on to study the spiritual disciplines. For which, I have begun reading a book by the scary title of, "The Celebration of Discipline"...

Both the Mission in the City and the Uganda Mission Trailer have been completed and will be posted on the blog as soon as possible.

Also, after a one month hiatus, Amtallah and I have begun afresh my Swahili classes (with no small amount of difficulty). We took the month of April off because of each of our travels; as it worked out, only one of us were in town at any given point during the month.