8. Nairobi, Kenya

On Sunday, I was able to experience my first African church service on the edge of a Nairobi slum. Mathare slum is the worst place I've been to in all of my life. It is worse than what I remember from the movie Slumdog Millionaire. It was very compact and crowded. The river running through it was a sewage, trash, and toxin dump. People were washing their clothes in it. Men were using it for brewing the local slum beer. Sewage streams were running down all the walkways. Thousands of people live there, many drunkards, but surprisingly many well-dressed people as well.

Pastor Daniel Ogutu has a church on the edge of the slum called Mathare Outreach Community Church. I didn't realize at the time, but most of the people attending live in the slum.

They sat us in the front row of church and the service lasted for over 3 hours! Luckily, I wasn't really tired that morning. I loved watching them dance and sing in Swahili. The speaker was a funny Kenyan woman. She spoke in English, so I enjoyed listening to her as well. She wasn't the scheduled speaker, though. One of the reasons the service was so long is that they were waiting for the speaker to arrive. To kill time, they introduced to the stage every staff person attending, all the visitors (including us), and all the ladies who had attended the Ladies' Conference that weekend... one by one. And every person who ever sings at the church sung a song: the children's choir, the ladies' choir, the praise team, and the soloists. It was kind of entertaining. The speaker never did show, so they asked Margarate to speak.

After church we walked through the slums and then went to Pastor Daniels home. We discussed a new project he is started in Maseno which is about 6 or 8 hours away to the North. They have been given land there to do an income generation project which would help with the schools Daniel oversees in the slums and other projects. The land in Maseno is very fertile for farming, so they will use the food for the orphans in Nairobi and also generate income through selling the produce.

In the evening, we went back to our accommodations at the guesthouse of Ibrahim and Diane Omondi. I was able to meet them, but not for long. The others will be returning after I leave for home. They will be learning about a possible partnership we may want to form in Garisa, Zambia. We will see what happens with that.

The two girls cooking and serving at the guesthouse were named Mercy and Irene (with daughter Pauline). They were so sweet. Mercy was the most fun person I've met on the entire trip. She is 17 and had the cutest giggle... and she giggled constantly. If you just said "hi" or looked at her, she would giggle. What a joyful young lady!