Sunday, Jan 25- Church and more politics!

The day began by getting up for church this morning. My host parents, Sean and I went to church, which began at about 9am (singing beforehand). The church is close to home- about a 5 minute car ride.

The service took place in an older building in which the church set up probably between 500 and 700 chairs for people to sit- the sanctuary was full. The chairs used are plastic white lawn chairs. Sean included, everyone brings their own Bibles and notebooks in which to take notes during church or Sunday School, which is called Kids Kingdom at this church. I was very impressed by this initiative of everyone and liked the idea that people take notes in church. I have only seen this done in a Buddhist ceremony before, but never in a Christian church in the US. I would be interested to know if anyone reading has taken notes in a Christian church in the US?

We sang many songs and read some Bible verses from Mark, 2nd Corinthians, and Deuteronomy. Leaders within the church lead the songs and read/talk about the scriptures. There are very few instruments (possibly some small percussion instruments?), so a CD serves as background music. However, when everyone is singing, no CD is necessary because everyone’s voices are so loud! After singing and scriptures, one of them focused on tithing, much of the service was spent discussing monetary offerings to the church. My host mom explained to me after the service that not every service is like this, but that this one definitely had a lot of numbers! There was even a handout to explain how donations to the church should be given. People are instructed to give 10% of their income to the church as a regular offering. On top of that, 4% goes annually for mission work and 2% goes for a special project donation. According to the handout, then, individuals are expected to give 16% of their income to the church. My host mom said that the reason for this is because the church is in the process of becoming independent. Currently, much of the funding comes from US sister churches (from Nairobi Christian Church’s denomination- International Churches of Christ), but the church is trying to start supporting itself, especially as many of the members are middle and upper class. The church is also in the process of building a new church in Eastern Nairobi. From what I gleaned by listening, it sounds like the church does much mission work in the community- with addiction services, counseling sessions, HIV/AIDS work, and support groups for co-dependents in these situations. My host mom pointed out another white person to me in the church who runs the non-profit group Hope International, which works with HIV/AIDS. My host brother Sean, 8, knows what NGO stands for, by the way- I was super impressed by this as I didn’t learn this term until late high-school or even college, I think!

After church, I gave my host family gifts I had brought from the US and they were very kind recipients- they sang me a song to thank me! I gave my host brother an Andy Warhol camera and he said that he loved it, but it doesn’t have film yet, so he has yet to take any pictures, despite the fact that he was playing with it all afternoon. I have been spending a lot of time with him as he is talkative and a really smart kid! He is going to help me learn Swahili, which I have started to learn, but which I know is going to be a challenge, especially to speak the language, which is always more difficult for me, even if writing comes more easily. My family speaks Swahili all the time, even though much of their TV and all the store signs are in English. For my host mom, English is her first language and Swahili her second.

During the news this evening, I talked to my host parents a little more about Kenyan politics. Kenya is in the process of writing a revised constitution, which I think I mentioned in an earlier blog, their first Constitution since the British basically wrote one for them in 1963. The main issue is how to divide executive power and really all government power. Some people want the system to stay similarly to the way it is now in which the President is ‘above the law’ (quote from Dad) and has most of the government’s power. My host mom says that the President will continue to be above he law until he is no longer the Commander and Chief of the Kenyan military. He currently does not need the legislature’s approval to command the military as we do in the US and I think can use the military in-country on offensive missions, which can be political in nature. According to my dad, the main people who want to maintain this system are people benefitting from this concentration of power. I also read in the paper I bought on Tuesday (Daily Nation) a quote saying that ‘Kenyans need an individual to follow and that democracy is not Kenyan/Kenyans aren’t ready for it.’

To others, the obvious solution seems to be to split up power between the President and Prime Minister. However, a national referendum a few years ago that proposed this system to Kenyan citizens did not pass. Currently, the Constitution outlines the Presidential system I described above (power centralized in the President), but there is a President and a Prime Minister in office after a power sharing agreement resulting from the 2007 election violence. So, the current Constitution does not reflect the functioning government, which I think is the reason why a new Constitution is being written, although I am not absolutely sure that this is the reason or if there are other reasons as well. My host mom thinks that two heads of state would slow things down if these two individuals are from different parties, but thinks there is a problem with the centralized power as well. She commented that currently, both President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga say different things all of the time and the Kenyan people don’t know what to think! My dad likes the idea of a central leader, but also thinks that power needs to be divided between all government institutions. One of his critiques of the debate right now is that many people are judging the PM and P (my abbreviation for Prime Minister and Presidential system) system by the current system, which isn’t a true PM and P system but is more a temporary fix to a situation in which election results were contested and everyone wanted a piece of the pie (2007 elections). It is an exciting time politically in Kenya!

The news also mentioned another debate concerning the Constitution- abortion and whether or not it should be legalized in the Constitution. Many people on the news and many people in Kenya, according to my host mom, think that life begins at conception. However, my host mom pointed out that laws and customs (Kenyans, like US people, don’t start counting age until birth) support the idea that life begins at birth. Both of them stressed the complexity of the issue in our conversation. Both of them are medical people- my mom is a nurse manager and my dad is a lecturer who teaches medical technicians and who is simultaneously in medical school- and my dad told me a story of an 18 year old girl who came into a clinic and had to get her uterus and small intestine removed after seeking a back alley abortion from a man who did not have a medical license. Because the woman does not have money to take care of herself properly now with no small intestine, she is waiting to die. While legalizing abortion may seem like a good solution to this issue, my dad thinks that Kenyan women may not seek proper medical care anyway in this situation as there is still such a stigma attached to abortion in Kenya. He said that medical records were confidential when I asked but that families would find out anyway as the family structure is tight in Kenya, according to him. I was surprised and interested t o hear that this was a main issue in Kenya and I will be interested to see how the Constitution comes out, although I don’t think that it will be completed while I am in Kenya. Thank goodness for the Daily Nation, whose website is great! If you’re interested in Kenyan news, I would recommend visiting this paper online.

. . . I will be impressed if anyone is actually reading all of these! Thanks in advance if you are and please feel free to write to me about how your life is going on the blog or to my e-mail and I will do my best to respond when I can. I currently don’t have internet access unless I go into town (once a week so far . . .), but I may be getting access at home soon or I will be able to check more often at school soon. Tomorrow is the first day of school, so stay tuned for more news about that tomorrow!