After two long flights and one layover we landed in Nairobi a little after 2am local. We spent most of the day on Tuesday getting acclimated by relaxing and sharing lunch together as a team before meeting up with our friends from Nairobi Chapel. Our driver today continually encouraged us to take our time and not be in a hurry. I am so enjoying the different pace of life. It is refreshing, though it does take some conscious adjusting on my part. One of the things the driver said to us is that, "you have all the watches but we have all the time." The Kenyan culture is so relational and the time value shows that. They take time to spend with the people they are currently with instead of rushing to the next thing.
Another phrase that stuck out to me today was shared by one of our hosts, Nick (I hope to introduce you to Nick and Julia in the coming days). Once again it focuses around the value of relationship. He said that the invitation to us to come and speak at the conference was just a good excuse to get us here so that we could spend time together and get to know one another. And that is exactly what we did. We we spent most of the evening hearing Nick and Julia's story of marrying outside of their tribe and the challenges that went along with that. They also shared some of the history of Kenya and the causes of the tribal tension that seems to surround many of the elections. Today I all look forward to hearing more stories, learning from the speakers and attendees at the youth leaders conference and sharing what I have learned about building bridges across cultural divides.
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