A few cool things going on here in Nairobi

We Can’t express quickly time is passing over here. There were days in January and February when we thought time could not inch any slower. Now, things have changed and June 29 (our departure date) seems to be a blink away. Here is a brief snapshot of what is making time pass haraka haraka (quickly quickly) these days:

Frisbee:

As many of you know, we have played ultimate frisbee with a group of people here every Friday and Sunday. In February, we began planning for the 3^rd annual Nairobi Ultimate Frisbee Festival, a tournament to promote the game and activate local youth. We have been involved with planning the tournament and are coaching a team of former street kids that are connected to one of our partner organizations. The guys at Dagoretti 4 Kids have been awesome in picking up the game, practicing hard and using this as an opportunity to show how far that they have come. We practice, ½ times each week, have regular scrimmages against a team of kids from Mandy’s school and will play in the tournament this weekend. We have received sponsorship from the tournament from local sources and are excited to report that all proceeds from the tournament will go to Dagoretti 4 Kids. We will keep you posted on how the tournament goes this weekend!

Masters:

Setting up a masters program thousands of miles away from the source, in a place where computers are few and far between and in a very different academic context is a lot of work. We have worked hard to help 25 people apply for a CTM/Bakke Graduate University and Carlile College Masters program for grassroots leaders serving in the slums. There are few systematic ways of doing things over here. While it would be nice to have everyone simply go to a website, fill out the forms and send them in, it doesn’t work that way here. Instead, we print all of the forms, have a meeting with everyone to go through the application, have them handwrite their responses, hand them in, scan the documents and send large files (that take 10 hours to send) to the US via email. Other kinks present themselves, such as only having access to 1 computer for 25 people, not being able to find the correct textbooks here in Nairobi, coordinating with Kris and Jeff how to set up scheduling issues, etc.

Kris and Jeff’s Visit:

It’s one thing to plan for a family visit, but when visits are related to CTM functions, it takes a bit more time and energy. Kris and Jeff will be arriving in Nairobi next Tuesday night. During their time here, they will be facilitating an intensive training for 150 people and will be launching the Masters program with 25 people. We will also spend time visiting various communities, visioning with CTM Nairobi, etc. It will be fun to have visitors again…although the reality is speaking clearer than ever: when they leave, we have three weeks left!

Transitioning:

With our time here coming to an end, we are making sure that our work here this year doesn’t come with us. Equipping Gideon and others with helpful ideas and systems has become important as we think about leaving. Mandy is also transitioning from her work at ISK as her school year finishes in less than two weeks. We can’t forget the practical steps of moving and making sure that we can fit our year in Kenya back into 3 suitcases to return home.

So, those are a few things that are going on over here…others include a photo project in mathare, continuing to explore some partnership opportunities locally and abroad, hanging out with friends and members of the CTM network here, figuring out what we will come back to in American politics, taking Swahili lessons and learning how to cook Kenyan food.