Horrible Missionaries Listen To Rufus Wainwright
By: Paul Kist
Tags: Missionary Life, Kenya, Life Lessons, Rufus Wainwright, Evangelism

(Changes marked in Red)

Arrests: 0

Police Searches: 1

Near Death Experiences: 1

Stomach Issues: 3

Bandwidth: 0.9 KB/sec

Kilometers Ran Without Injury: 5km

Violence, But The Work Continues

Busy day today. I went to Yaya (the mall here) to look for some of the guys I know who live behind there. I really hope I can find them; it’s been over a year since I’ve seen one of them. Glad to know they’re alive, I saw one of them as we drove by last night. Gonna try again in a few hours.

It’s been a bit unnerving here, even though all the violence and stuff is happening on the other side of town. This is the first time I’ve ever felt unsafe here, but I’m continuing on as normal.

Horrible Missionary

Last night we hit up a restaurant called Pavement, where I actually had Thanksgiving Dinner last november. We left before the live Salsa music started, we were all really tired. They make a great Dawa (Vodka + honey + lime). Tonight we’re on our way to Mombasa for a few days of relaxation!! I can’t wait, really, I haven’t really had time off to relax in a long time. I am bringing my work with me of course. I don’t know how to sit still, honestly. I’ll try to read a book or something ;)

Going to salsa clubs, going to the beach; many people I know would say , “Paul, you’re a horrible missionary.” I remember telling some one at a gathering where I gave a talk about my experience here last year, how I had been to the coast a few times, and he just looked at me in shock and said “wow, you’re some missionary, goin to the beach and stuff” It’s funny but are you kidding me? The truth is, they’re 100% right! I’m not a missionary; far from it. Being a missionary against my religion. wink

Around Nairobi

Stay Focused

It makes it tricky though when I work at a mission part-time while I’m here, but for me it’s all about the goal, to help people who are living with HIV. I’m working with a few different organizations here, but sometimes there’s a certain expectation to conform to a certain set of beliefs, but I’m definitely comfortable and at peace focusing on the end result and just being myself. I value what a lot of these orgs bring, even if I won’t always agree with the tenants, at the end of the day we all want the same thing.

The work is going well, been very busy, the goal next week:

Update our data model to sync with an SPSS legacy database

Help solve a bunch of network issues. (hopefully that can be done by Wednesday)

Continue learning Flex 2.0

Finish up the Joomla CMS for Seeds For Hope

We’re actually gonna start a campaign I’m very excited about, so keep an eye out for that. We’re planning to go out into mix, and talk to people about education, and see what an education brings, and what a lack of education can prevent. I’ve got the chance to see many sides of this spectrum, so hopefully we can get a solid learning out of this. Basically we wanna raise awareness of how inaccessible a basic education can be for some, and with a few dollars here and there, but mostly with respect, truly a life can be changed.

With that, I’m gonna pack and get ready. Until then, I’ll leave you with the words of my man, Rufus Wainwright: