Molly to Kenya: Welcome to Msambweni!

I’m in a different world. Msambweni is 8 hours from Nairobi but they may as well be on different planets. My bedroom has a concrete floor, a bed, and that’s it. No dresser, no mirror, no chair. But there’s so much life in this house, the spirit I kept trying to feel in Nairobi is here so clearly.

My birthday celebration ended up being awesome. Msambweni is an hour and a half away from Mombasa and by the time we arrived in Mombasa it was too late to make the journey, so a friend and I spent the night in a hotel in the city (and MSID paid for it!). We ended up going out for my 21^st, after all! This morning I woke up to watch the sunrise over Mombasa and then headed off bright and early for Msambweni.

Baba (dad) took me on an hour long piki-piki ride this morning. We went to go visit Fahseil and Mariam, two of my siblings, at secondary school. As the wind whipped through my hair and the sun beat down on my shoulders I thanked God for bringing me to Msambweni.

It’s going to be hard to adjust to rural life. All my guilty pleasures from Nairobi (I’m looking at you, Cadbury’s chocolate bars and free wi-fi) are gone, leaving a more raw experience. The hospital will take lots of getting used to, as well. As dozens of mothers and their babies sat in the sweltering waiting room the staff was taking their sweet time and struggling with the manual record-keeping of immunizations that they told me wasted so much of their time.

But the beach, oh, the beach! I can see the Indian ocean from my house, and an endless, private, white-sand beach awaits me. I can’t believe life can be so simple so close to that much beauty. Mama Meggi just set me up with a straw mat on their front porch. I’m watching the ocean through the trees and thinking maybe I am strong enough for rural Kenya, afterall. Anifa, a 6 year old cousin who speaks only Kiswahili, is watching me write (and giggling uncontrollable after I pointed out her name to her just there). Fatuma, the 13 year old housekeeper, is sitting with me as we communicate with my broken Swahili. Sulie, my 2 year old brother, is wearing an Islamic cap and dancing to the Swahili music blasting from inside. Goats and chickens are meandering around. There’s even a cool breeze.

Today was full of adventures. Mama dressed me in a traditional outfit and sent me with the gang to go buy ingredients for dinner at the market. When I came out of my room in Swahili garb there were laughts and high fives all around. She then taught me how to grate coconuts for tonight’s coconut rice. I’m learning the names of everyone, which is both fun and challenging—new cousins/siblings/aunts/etc. keep living here everytime I enter a room! It’s an atmosphere filled with plenty of love to go around and such a welcoming spirit. In Nairobi I was in school mode more than family mode. In retrospect, this helped prevent me from getting homesick. In Msambweni, however, the emphasis is clearly on family and the connections forged between hearts. I’ve already had pangs for my mom and dad.

I’m so happy to be in Msambweni and to see what adventures the future holds. As Walt Whitman said, “Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.”