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February 7, 2021Sundays in the “Hood”At 7am on Sunday mornings I begin to hear the music from the many churches in the area. Most are places built out of sheet metal, filled with plastic stacking chairs and loudspeakers. The Swahili praise and worship music fills the air. The church services are active with plenty of dancing and clapping of hands together. The services go on anywhere from two to four hours each. Sundays are set aside for church and the gatherings most of the time keep people for eight to ten hours.
I decided to take a long morning walk, so I advanced along the two mile stretch toward the beach. As early as 7am the streets are busy with people journeying to church services. There are four churches within one hundred yards from my house. Most shops along the roads are closed, but a few ladies are frying potatoes, mahamari, and chapatis along the roadsides for people to eat as they walk. As I reach the main road the matatus, motorbikes, and tuk tuks are racing up and down filled with passengers transporting them to church.
I cross the main and take the first left where I come to a place where many drug addicts gather early each morning looking for the days fix and any food they may beg for. Last week I noticed a syringe hanging from an arm of one of them walking next to me. As I moved along, I came across more churches and loud music. Cattle, goats, and sheep move up and down the road as I dodge the many piles of waste they drop behind.
My next turn leads me to very dusty and uneven dirt paths which then brings me to a cobble road. Along the way I pass many youths, legs covered in sand from the morning beach exercises. I stop to greet a motor bike driver whom I gotten to know over the past couple of months. He followed the US election and enjoys disturbing me as we talk about politics.
Within another mile I access the beach. It is filled with youth playing football (soccer) and exercising. It is a beautiful and breezy walk along the Indian Ocean. As I near the end of the beach and begin exiting, I hear a boy yelling from the ocean, “Mr. Mike”. I went to greet him and found it to be the head boy from our school in 2019. Always so nice to see past students.
Then I proceeded to the “City Mall” to do an errand for Rich, another missioner who lives on the other side of the city. Being Sunday most store open at 10am, it was only 9:40 so I decided to have coffee at a nice bakery. I went to the Apple store to get the information for Rich, but they were not yet open. I then went to the second floor to a stationery store looking for a pen, but they were not open as well. I asked at the next-door shoe store to see if they open on Sundays and they said yes at 10am, but they are late. I waited until 10:45 and gave up. This is how Kenyan’s operate.
It was a nice seven mile walk in the 90-degree sun and a great way to end the weekend!
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