WV Executive

There’s a common saying in Africa that Americans have all the watches and no time and Africans have no watches but all the time. As a member of River Ridge Church’s mission trip to Kenya in August, the relaxed timetable was just one of the many cultural differences I found difficult to deal with.

Visiting a third world country was an eye-opening experience to someone such as myself who has spent her whole life living in the United States. Some of the differences between our lifestyles and theirs are too hard to explain while other aspects are so similar that it reminds you that people are the same all over the world.

Cultural Differences
When you think of visiting a large city, images of busy sidewalks and crowded streets like those in New York City come to mind where people mind their own business and, in large part, ignore the many tourists taking in the sights around them. One of the things that stands out in my memory is the friendly nature of the Kenyans, especially in the large cities. During our time in Nairobi, the capitol city of Kenya, everyone was friendly and helpful even with the language barrier.

While the language was not a huge obstacle, communication was definitely a challenge. There are 43 tribes in Kenya and each tribe has its own tribal language. Everyone also speaks Swahili and is educated in English. While in Africa, our mission team learned to speak and even sing some songs in Swahili. Aside from the many languages spoken there, Kenyans also speak very softly, adding to our communication challenges.

Another difference that really stood out to me was the Americans’ need to be efficient versus the laid-back lifestyle of the locals. Given that we only had two weeks to accomplish a lot of work at several locations, we strived to be as efficient as possible. Whether we were filling water glasses or passing buckets of cement, we were always looking for ways to do things better and faster. The Kenyans have a more relaxed take on life and understand that it will all get done eventually. For the Americans, this was a hard system to follow.

One of the most interesting aspects of traveling to Africa was some of the Africans’ reactions to our skin and hair color. Walking on the beach or down the street, people would shout out “mzungu,” which is Swahili for white person. If one of the Young Life Africa leaders, the local missionaries that we worked with, wanted the Americans to do something, they too grouped us together by the term mzungu. By the end of the trip, we were also categorizing ourselves as mzungus. We had some children who were frightened by us because of our different looks and other children who loved to play with the American girls’ hair because of the different texture. These were certainly some of the most unique experiences we had while in Kenya.

Rewarding Experiences
During our trip to Kenya, we had the opportunity to experience a great many things and help others in ways that warmed our hearts. We worked not only with the Young Life kids but also with two different orphanages.

To be able to spend time with these kids that are living in poverty was a wonderful but sad experience. “Our second day in Kenya was spent at the Christ and Children Orphanage in Nairobi, where we remodeled a kitchen,” recalls Chad Cobb, pastor of River Ridge Teays Valley. “Bringing my western mindset with me, I thought that we would be taking out old cabinets, installing countertops or possibly a minor plumbing project. When we arrived, though, we saw that their kitchen was a wood-burning stove in the middle of a dirt courtyard, and our remodeling consisted of leveling out the dirt floor of a donated shanty building, mixing concrete by hand and forming a bucket brigade to pour a concrete floor for them to move their stove and tables onto.”

Later in the trip we made an eight-hour, overnight trek to the coast on a road that at times dwindled down to nothing more than a dirt path. Once we arrived in Mombasa, we were able to spend a couple of days with the children at the Jehovah Jireh Children’s Home where we were welcomed with songs and dancing. While there, we helped clean the children’s rooms. The beds were shared by two to four children, depending on the age of the orphans. We had hoped to be able to scrub the rooms but we were unable to get any water. Realizing the children’s home’s dire need for accessibility to water, each member of our group gave $10 so that we could buy a water storage tank and have a plumber come hook it into the water system so that when the water is turned on once a week they can fill up the tank.

“Going into the orphanage and seeing how they were living without water really changes your outlook on how we take necessities for granted in America,” says Bonnie Wynn, a pre-school teacher at Fort Hill Child Development Center at Shoenbaum Learn and Play in Charleston. “Buying, delivering and setting up the water tank so this family could have something as simple as water on a daily basis made me so grateful for what I have in America and how much I want to help support this family who is giving everything to raise children who have even less than they do.”

In addition to helping the needy orphans, the Kenyans and Americans were all excited to be able to meet new friends. “We were so glad to have visitors and have fun together,” says Charles Kigs, one of the Young Life Africa leaders from Kenya. “To me, it was great meeting new friends and exchanging ideas.”

Favorite Memories
We met a lot of wonderful people and had the chance to spend time in conversation learning about each other. As we would sit and talk, the Kenyans would ask us a variety of questions about life in America. It was startling to hear the impressions Kenyans have about us.

One afternoon in Nairobi we spent some time in small groups talking about cultural differences. My sister and I were talking with a group of about 15 Kenyan girls. One of the leaders in the group was Alice Mwangi who is now my Facebook friend. I asked her to share some reflections of our visit.

“My favorite part of your visit would be at the farmhouse where we had lunch and the brainstorming about the U.S. and Africa,” explains Mwangi. “The surprise, especially, when you told the girls that even in the U.S. there are poor people. My favorite question was when one of the girls asked, ‘Is it true that in the U.S. people only wear their clothes once and then they throw them away?’”

After the 10-hour bus ride back to Nairobi where we would be departing for home, we were able to arrange a safari. The safari took place in the middle of the capitol city where approximately 29,000 acres of land make up the Nairobi National Park. While driving around to look for zebra, giraffes, warthogs, rhinoceroses, cheetahs and hippos, we were still surrounded by the cityscape of Nairobi. It was awe-inspiring to be so close to the wild and unusual animals and to see them in their natural surroundings.

I brought home from Kenya not only beautiful souvenirs that showcase the culture of Africa but also many memories of people, places and moments where I witnessed a need much greater than many of us ever see. I miss the friends that I made during my two-week trip. The people that we were able to meet and build strong relationships with, whether American or Kenyan, will not be forgotten, and neither will the beautiful landscape, the tasty pineapple nor the life lessons learned.

I wanted to give a special thanks to everyone that donated clothing and food items to the orphanages in Kenya, specifically the University of Charleston, Marshall University, Appalachian Bible College, West Virginia Junior College, West Virginia State University, Mountain State University, Glenville State College and Sportmart Superstore.