Village Market

Today I tried to go to the U.S. Embassy to tell them I'm here. The place has pretty heavy security, of course with uniformed officers and machine guns (always the norm here). I was told however, that I have to come between 8-10 a.m. on Friday....um do these people work or what??! Anyway, Victor and I went to Village Market instead. It's totally muzungu land...super posh. lots of classy stores, a bowling alley, movie theater, etc. it's always wierd to see places like this here b/c they don't fit with everything else. but it was a good chance to get to hear about Victor's life. He was orphaned around age 6 when his mom committed suicide. and shortly after, every relative he's lived with has died or left. we was in many different cities and finally finished school in Kibera. It's crazy how strong his faith is and how focused he is on doing God's work in Kibera considering what he's been through.

A really cool thing happened yesterday that i forgot about until last night. Me, some MSTs and Peter were walking to catch a matatu into town yesterday. and this car pulls over and peter tells us to get in that we'll actually be on time to town. i assumed that peter knew the driver until he said, "Hi, I'm Peter." so this man, Garrett, just randomly picked up 3 white people and a Kenyan. he said it seemed silly to him that he drives an empty car to the city everyday. peter had a wonderful conversation with him. this man group in a family of 27 kids (from 3 wives, 1 dad) and managed to overcome all that when some canadians helped pay to train him for some computer job. in return, he spends a huge part of his time starting youth programs around the city, training workers to equip them with skills for employment. so peter ended up meeting with him again last night to discuss training people in kibera.. So Garrett is essentially going to come and do some sort of training with them for free. pretty sweet. such a wonderful example of kindness. i'm reading this max lucado book on love, and it goes through 1 Cor. 13, the passage on love. Love is kind...and I think this is really being lived out through what Garrett is doing.

Sidenote, another fun cultural thing are the people who sell all sorts of things on the drive home. people walk up to the matatus as they're stuck in traffic and try to sell the most random things like blow up spiderman figures, fruit, bandanas, kenyan flags, and my favorite--huge world maps. i wonder what would inspire someone to want a world map on their way home? you can't even make eye contact with these vendors or they think you want something and will come right up to the matatu window and try to make a deal.