Whenya backin Kenya Benya?-Now

I finally can cut the façade of fibbing once again. The blog title has regained its legitimacy. Benya is back in Kenya.

How could I commit such a crime to not only leave you hanging with a story of such sorrow but then to skip over all the good parts of Rwanda. So I shall not..

While we had our knee’s cut out from under us when we visited the scene of hell right next to the church, the following day not only gave us hope, but shined a blinding light into our darkening hearts.

Paul Farmer. Even the name isn’t a household name, then perhaps one might need to up the humanitarianism (and by that one person I mean me…how humble eh?) Paul is one of these sexy humanitarians along with Bono, Bill Gates, Don Cheadle, Jeff Sachs, and everybody else that been’s in the One Campaign commercials. He’s doesn’t sing how bloody the Sundays are getting, attempt to outdo that Jobs market, pretend to rob Casinos or concoct brilliant economic theories that will end extreme poverty, but instead just practices his trade: medicine.

The day after we walked through streets that had been far too bloody for this dear earth to ever see, we walked through a place where the streets had no name; a place that was truly heavenly.

Paul Farmer brought a revolutionary hospital to Haiti about 20 years ago, and recently just finished his next great creation in a small town in the middle of Rwanda. Dr. Farmer’s approach to medicine is what he called the horizontal approach. Unlike the vertical approach, which many hospitals and NGOs take, where they only address one need such as HIV or malnutrition or orphan care or well drilling, Paul took this horizontal approach: addressing everything. This hospital didn’t just exist to circulate the sick in and out only to let them return to another painful place where there was no clean water or no food, but to serve the sick and PREVENT the sick. He didn’t do this by billion dollar Kantian project research that manipulates nature, but instead by intentional, communal, and incredibly beautiful community development.
For example, at the hospital there was a malnutrition ward. The doctors didn’t just treat and feed the patient, usually a child, but trained the parents how to prevent running out of food by more sustainable farming techniques, while they also fed the families, and gave the family a 8 month supply of food. If there wasn’t a well in their area, they’d drill one. If the family consisted of mostly children (who raised children, a common occurrence after so many lost their parents in the genocide) then a social worker from the hospital would be sent regularly to check on the kids. The hospital also had an HIV ward, a TB ward, a pediatrics center, an emergency room and pharmacy with more medicine than a Wal-mart. The patients, families and surrounding community weren’t the only ones shouting joy and new life, but also the beautiful green earth. The hospital wasn’t stacked in a doldrumming tower of flouresents and scrub-robots, but instead was spread out by buildings, and in between each there were more flowers, more fountains, more life than I’ve ever seen at a hospital. Paul, this liberation theology believing and practicing truly understood horizontal, holistic life living and life giving.
Rwanda may have peaked at that point, for it was the following day that we went to the Genocide Museum. Here is where the greatest number of mass graves lay: over 230,000. The museum was beautifully done, yet terribly difficult to experience. It deserves its own post, so that it shall receive.

After spending sometime at a resort 2 km from the Congo, where civil war continues to rage, Nick and I split from the team and here we are inya Kenya.

One thing I did bring which I definitely should have left at home or at least in Rwanda was expectations. I’m only here for 9 days, so time is so precious. Unfortunately, we are running on Africa time, and are in Africa, so always expect the unexpected, or may your only expectation be unexpectations.

I’m going to Pokot again tomorrow. With Nick and Peter, the church driver. No Edward. For Edward left to go to the states for 21 days yesterday.
Yesterday was a national holiday, and Sunday Church lasted for 8 hours. One of the biggest objectives was to help prepare and accustom Nick for his 3 week Mirco-Finance internship. The car we were to use also is in the shop, so our means of travel is very slow. Yet after our 3 day trip to Pokot, and after 2 days of sitting, We’ll have only 2 days in Nairobi to get Nick into tip-top shape…and, Nick doesn’t have the father of the Micro-Finance program to work under.

I’ve only been back for 6 months in the states, but I can see the devil of rugged individualism, its all about me and my time, rat-racing tendencies have again seeped in.

I was a bit frustrated my first month in Kenya last year too. I didn’t feel like I was doing anything. Perhaps one musn’t attempt to do anything at all their first month out of the West, for maybe it takes that long to realize that many times all our western doing, is doing nothing.