Finalionly

That has got to be the worst blog entry title ever. But it works because I have been the worst blogger ever these past 2 weeks. I apologize to all my fans, so sorry Mom, Dad, Mimi and Poppi.

These past 2 weeks have been all over the place there have been great top ten all Kenyan days and there have been days where I’ve felt like a worthless piece of slum garbage. Which I think is good. I’m living life and not on vacation anymore. I’m experiencing everyday struggles and joys. I’m no longer seeing Kenya through the O MY GUI (gui is the Kukuyu word for god) I’m in Kenya!!! I’ve take those lenses out of my eyes that caust the giddiness. This is a good thing. A really good thing in fact. I’m living here now and not just staying here. I think I’m understand how small world is. I think I’m finding out that you can find home just about anywhere on earth (I say this with a cell phone and internet access.

I think though, that since I’m living here and not just here to see the animals (a blogpost soon to come) these experiences are becoming a part of who I am. This life has started to molecularly attach itself to me. It’s more than having a memory or and experience; its much like having a brother or sister (since I know EXACTLY what that’s like). But when you grow older and maybe separate from that sibling, I’m sure there is a deep feeling that part of you is missing. You have more than just childhood memories, but you are physically, emortionally and spiritually a part of you (ok the physically is where you have to stretch it a bit, unless of course you’re Siamese.) So…here’s to you Kenya, brother…or sister.
Here’s a better analogy where I actually know what I’m talking about. Think about a close friend, which for me are my siblings. In college, the group of friends that you make becomes a part of you. They live in you. You have more than memories of throwing tortillas off the Suspension bridge into the Brazos, or watching a lightning storm at the highest point in Waco in Cameron Park, or when you were one time dancing with a friend in San Antonio and pulled a neck muscle; but instead these people become a part of your soul.
I feel a bit of emptiness being separated from my family and friends because they are engrained in me. The same relationship is being developed though with this country and its people. Its becoming more than just memories of blood drinking warriors or mothers of 5 that are HIV+, but Kenya is starting to intertwine with my DNA.
I don’t know if there is a formula or time period for this complex to take place. Maybe if I was as intune with humanity as I was created to be I this connection would develop with every human I came in contact with and every place I traveled to. Maybe these things should become a part of our souls.

But what do I know. I’m just a crazy 21-year-old (as of Tuesday) who took 3 months and a semester off to go see what this Africa/land full of beauty/land full of oppression is all about.

But now,
Onto Simba…(The Simba Village Orphanage for those out of the loop)
2 weeks after I’ve gotten back. It was the thesis behind the lame blog title.

That place is love. Simple as that. I’m determined that Heaven will be very much like that (another preview of an upcoming blog)(whoa, can you even do back to back parenthesizes, this kid must have not been in school for the past 6 months; for all the brains behind this upcoming blog and concept, check out Wine and Heaven, a sermon by Rob Bell…google it or buy it at marshill.org.)
Anyways, back from the ridiculous ride on the mechanics of my brain pattern…Simba was refreshing. Many of the previous posts were a bit somber just because of the sights I was seeing. But Simba was the boost of simple love and simple joy.

UBC, I’m madly in love with you. Thank you for introducing me to Simba, thank you for discovering Simba. Thanks for discovering Heaven on Earth.

I can’t do this. I can’t articulate the feeling of love I felt that radiated off of the kids. I think and many of my experiences of God’s love have come through people. God did bless humans so he could bless others. God did pick humans to be his source of change in the world. But how do kids who have no parents receive this blessing of love? How do they experience the source for life with only 15 staff members for 150 children.
I think these kids maybe feel this great thing called Love with no middleman. They’re tapped into the Source.
And I think that the reasons that the kids absolutely love for people to come visit is so they can share this Love.

So, everything is just a big love exchange at Simba. You go because you thing you’re bringing love but end up experiencing a Love greater than the love that you though you were bringing through the kid’s Love. Don’t get me wrong here, the kids love you coming to love them, and you’ll love loving them, while they love you, and a the same time you’re all Loved. It’s quite a Lovely experience.

So what is this Simba Village place?

Simba Village: where you can kick a soccer ball for 4 hours with the equatorial sun beating down on you with flys and mosquitos swarming all around here, yet you still say, “there is no other place I’d rather be that right here.”

Simba Village: Where you can have a conversation with a four-year-old about how 2 gallons of soap is good for a bug, then 1 minute later have conversation discussing deep theological issues and how creation happened.

Simba Village: where its Africa, THAT’S NOT NAIROBI. No Smog, No sleezy
politicians, No crazy Mutatus. You’ll never understand the beauty of that.

But what exactly is this organism called Simba Village?
Its an orphanage for about 150 kids, however I only got to see a third of the kids because the rest are at boarding school, the cheapest and most orphan negotiable boarding schools. The majority of their funds come from sponsors and support. They seek to be independent and more self-sustaining, so the kids can have a better life and so that there will be more of that Love thing going on for more kids.
The biggest project: the farm
They have cabbage, bananas, green grounds, zucchini, tomatoes, cows, sheep, goats, and pigs as well as many other fruits and vegetables growing on about 5 acres. This farming has some great multidimensional blessings radiating off of it.

Radiation One: The farm provides food. 150 kids is a lot of mouths to feed and can be quite expensive if they’re eating 2-3 meals a day. So the farm feeds the kids, and the dinero is used for school fees instead of food.
Radiation Two: The farm provides jobs. Local familes who are barely making it have oppourtunity to send the man of the household to come work the land. Not to mention the Love experiences they get to encounter through the kids, a luxury no on would pass up if they ever stepped foot on this holy ground.
Radiation Three: The kids also get to work the land. Instead of just sitting around or getting bored with the same games and few toys, they get the opportunity to Do Something (just like UBC!) And not just something, they get to be a part of a whole system that’s gone out for thousands and perhaps millions of years, the process of agriculture. Planting, harvesting, growing, learning, soil, wind, rain, vinyard; go read the prophets of the OT and see what language they use to describe heaven
Not to mention the self entitlement knowledge they gain. They learn the beauty and necessity of working; and they better understand scripture and Jesus’ parables.
The scriptures say if you don’t work, you don’t eat. I think there is more to those words than just the literal meaning. I think work is not only a physical thing, but also a communal, emotional, spiritual thing (if you don’t already see those four words as synonyms for spiritual). If you don’t work, you don’t get to eat the bread that is life, you don’t get to grow and lean and experience process, you don’t get to learn what it means to eat of the spirit.

This catalog of radiation could go on and on.

Another project they’re working on is a biogas project. To put it simply, they drain or scrape all the people/cow poo into a big drum, and the methane gases that are emitted over time as decomposition happens are converted into electricity. Lower electricity bills, again, means more opportunities for the kids and schooling, and less western dependence.
A new boys dorm is also almost finished. You can check out some pictures at the flickr sight that’s linked to the left
←----------------there.
They also just finished a new multistall outhouse unit. And the waste runs strait to the biogas. Not to mention the piglets that are popping out of the sows faster than you can fry bacon.

The place…its good.

The joy you receive grows exponetially when you hear the stories of some of these children. One example is of a 17-year-old Masaai girl. Her parents died when she was 12 and her uncle sold her off as a wife to an old man to be one of his many wives in exchange for a few heads of cattle. She ran away to the police, who brought her to Simba. She made it before they could do anything to her. The police brought her to simba, where she has truly fould new life, where she has found resurrection.

More on Simba is to come, but I couldn’t give it all to you now. Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Office are all in full swing from what itunes tells me. The cliffhangers are pleantiful, and Benya in Kenya is no different. More accounts from this heaven are coming.

If this thing was 1800 words long this time I can’t imagine what it will be after I spend a week out at Simba.

So stay tuned for a special 2 hour episode next time.

And next week…Karen come backs to Scranton…AND SHE’S PREGNANT.

Yea, the drama will be that good

-bc