Memories

twenty years ago this week i landed in a strange land...

me, who had never been on a plane, never needed a passport, arrived in kenya for a year's teaching at a bible college in machakos - a small town an hour's drive south of nairobi.

aged 23 i was fearless... of course the stranger i'd met the year before at a international prayer conference in london was who he said he was - the vice-principal of a bible college; of course there was a teaching post waiting for me; of course i wasn't going to get sick - i'd had all my injections...

indeed this was to be one of the best years of my life - i had my own little house on the temperate, shady college compound - with a 'proper' bathroom - the water came on twice a day for an hour; i learnt i could make up a curriculum from scratch in a week; i travelled the country on buses and in the back of a friend's pick up - lake victoria, mount kenya, the tea plantations of limuru; mombasa - three times!!; mount kilimanjaro; and numerous small villages i never knew the name of, but i knew the humbling hospitality of students' families who always put on a feast - and sent me home with armfuls of gifts...

and to top it all off, i met nick - all the way from california working with a water charity... all very Out of Africa... could it really be twenty years ago????

i bought this oil painting from a street vendor in nairobi the last week of my stay. i nearly didn't buy it - the cost would keep my kenyan friends in food for a month... but i knew i needed a reminder of all those market days in the town - all the colours, smells, noises... and yes, the money would keep the artist's family in food for the next month!

it hangs in our front room - as it has hung in all our front rooms both in california and in england - a daily reminder of the adventures we both had that year, all the beautiful sights we saw, all the precious friends we met...

and a reminder that everyone knows whose been to africa - whether you contract malaria or not (thankfully we didn't!!!) - africa gets in your bloodstream, and it is with you for the rest of your life...