Faces of Kenya

As the plane left Amsterdam for Nairobi I found myself out of luck - squeezed between the aisle and the window seats, but as it turned out, squeezed between two faces of Kenya.
By the window was Florence, a rounded Kenyan grandmother, returning from a Seventh Day Adventist conference in Atlanta - we quickly fell into conversation, and equally quickly she wanted to share her joy in Jesus Christ her saviour. Twenty minutes later her efforts were only renewed when I admitted to being a lapsed Ulster Presbyterian, however in the 21st minute I made it clear that the newspaper and world news were now demanding my attention, and she turned hers to "Singing with Jesus" which she'd picked up at the conference.
In the aisle seat was a younger man of Indian descent. Born and raised in Nairobi, he now works for HSBC in Birmingham, and was returning home to a traditional Sikh wedding, actually to a young woman from Kakamega, the very Kenyan town I was heading too. His future father in law is a prominent businessman in the town.
The Christian missionaries certainly found fertile ground in Kenya, and today religion abounds with church on Sunday being an established part of the culture as Florence ably demonstrated. The Indian community is a part of the British legacy when many were brought to Kenya as indentured workers to build the Mombasa - Nairobi railway and subsequently to become a successful business class. Faces of Kenya.
Some days later I'm in Kakamega, western province, and I'm meeting one of the girls sponsored by CHES (Canadian Harambee Education Society - see post 1 for info). Christine M is bright and ambitious. Although she comes from a poor rural background, thanks to CHES and a Canadian sponsor, she's been able to attend a good girls boarding school for 4 years and is now within a few months of writing her final exams. Christine hopes that her marks will be good enough for college/university, and if this is so, then she will be eligible for government grants to make this a reality. The immediate reality is that she's going home now for the school holidays, which means working with her family to harvest maize, sell some at the local market and dry the rest for family use, till the land and plant a new crop. Another face of Kenya.


Christine M - CHES house, Kakamega, 31/07/10