Yesterday morning we headed to the Tuigoin Church of Christ
for a cluster service. We took a
car with two other women from the Sang’alo Church because it was an hour car
ride away. This was probably our
first true cluster meeting. We
arrived around 11:20, which was earlier than most people. The service started around 11:50 (I
think they started it because the Americans were here haha) although many
people were still not there.
Throughout the service more and more people came in, and you could see
by the expression on their faces that they did not expect to have wzungus at
church J. Finally a bunch of children sat in
front of us, but I highly doubt they heard any of the service because they were
staring at us the whole time. I
mean, we are used to being stared at, but most people in Sang’alo are used to
us so it isn’t as severe. I had
forgotten what it is really like to be stared at until yesterday haha. The greatest part of the staring is
that you can stare right back at them and it doesn’t phase them at all, they
just keep staring. I should
clarify that most of these children have never met a mzungu in their lifetime,
so we were quite the spectacle.
After service we ate lunch and talked with the teens for a
while. They were all very nice and
asked us to sing a song with them, so of course we did. They were the most youth we had seen at
a Church of Christ since being here.
It was actually really encouraging to see all of them praising God. They of course couldn’t help but ask
about the U.S. and differences between it and Kenya. One of the funniest questions we got was “what would happen
to your skin if you didn’t bathe?”
Evidently they wanted to know if our skin changes color if we don’t
shower…and maybe it eventually would if we left all the dirt on it haha, but we
told them we would just smell really bad if we didn’t bathe haha J.
Eventually the little ones started crowding in again—the
teens got away fast (maybe they knew what was about to happen). The kids started playing with our hair
and then touching our skin, especially our faces so we’ll all probably break
out from it J. They were very intrigued by our skin
and the fact that we have hair on our arms…what a phenomenon! They were interested in our piercings,
bracelets, and watches—anything and everything! We were like the main attraction at a zoo.
The best part about the whole day was when we left the
Tuigoin Church of Christ. The kids
went crazy…like little teeny bopper girls after Justin Bieber. Katy and Abbie made it into the car
before I did, and some of the kids instantly started trying to crawl in the
car. The kids outside with me kept
shaking my hand over and over again.
I had a few more hands to my face…they had to get one last feel in
haha. Eventually our driver told
the kids to back up so I could climb into the car. Finally the doors were shut and we drove away. Never in my life have I felt more like
a celebrity. I totally expect this
to occur when I get back to the U.S. J.
No comments:
Post a Comment