- "No”
- "But you do believe in God?”
- "What exactly do you mean?”
- "You do believe that God created you and everything?”
- "…”
The inquisition of Nils in Kikuyu
Instead of the usual sitting and staring into the void, we decided to do something special for one Saturday a couple of weeks ago. When conversing with our friend John in the computer lab at the Chiromo Campus, we got the question if we were doing anything special for the weekend. He really wanted to invite us to his home town of Kikuyu, the city with the same name as Kenya’s biggest tribe, located just north of Nairobi. They were going to hold some kind of social event at his church, and they were going to slaughter a goat. Even though I am more and more turning vegetarian, I have never gotten such an invitation before and might not get one again. So I thought, “when in Kenya, do as the Kenyans”, and since the church is apparently the place were a lot of Kenyan youngsters spend their weekends, the location would just hit the spot..
So, said and done, Saturday morning came and me and Nils got into a taxi heading for Kikuyu. After even more confusion than normal, a traffic standstill, and the issue of not being able to make contact with our host, we finally made it into Kikuyu and also managed to find John. We got a nice walk through the centre of Kikuyu, which felt a lot smaller than I thought it would be after consulting the all-knowing oracle known as the internet. Nevertheless, I must say that it is a very pleasant place. A nice, friendly small town with everything you need. I’d much rather live in Kikuyu than in Nairobi, since you get the benefit of a smaller town and the adjacent nature, without the car fumes, noise and hustle of the big city. Should you still need to head into Nairobi, it is only some 20 minutes away. Speaking of the nature, it was like no nature we had come across in Kenya so far. It was almost like stepping into the garden of Eden, with all of the green leaves, open fields and a clean river making its way through the landscape. The same river that we have outside our window in Kileleshwa, but which here is brown and completely overflowing with rubbish. We made our way walking through the small centre, and out onto a field. John wanted to show us something special that he had described to me earlier in campus, but which I had not really understood. He talked of a “bouncing ground”, but I could not perceive it no matter how much he tried to explain it to me. Now we got to experience it. After walking a very small trail sometimes only consisting of some planks and surrounded by a swamp-like ground, we reached what at first looked like a normal grass field. But when you stepped on it, you quickly realised that it was something very different. The only thing I can describe it as, would be to walk on a huge trampoline! Whenever you jumped and landed again, the ground followed you on the way down, only to rise again half a second later. Me and Nils were like two ten year-olds as we stood there jumping up and down on the bouncing ground. Apparently this is a place where John and his friends often come to drink beer. I can only imagine how fun the bouncing ground can be after a couple of Tuskers or White Cap beers!
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| Nils with our host John in central Kikuyu |
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| Balance act |
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| A more shady part of downtown Kikuyu |
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| Yesterday's building |
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| Nils walking the plank |
Maybe it was a good thing that we actually had a time to keep, so we could not waste the whole day just standing and jumping on the spot. The get-together at the church was about to begin very soon, and we had a long way to walk. After making our way through the fertile lands and gravel roads surrounding Kikuyu John expressed his concern about the time. So he thought that the best, and most normal thing apparently, would be for us to take a “Boda Boda”, or in other words a motorcycle taxi. These are scattered all over the countryside and are the most usual mean for the common man and woman to get around on. Cheap, reliable and fast. But how would we all three guys have room on one motorcycle? Before I even had the time to ask John had already gotten an eager driver to stop beside us, and just a moment later all the three of us were sitting behind the driver on the relatively small bike. That, making four of us in total. But despite my scepticism about how it would be, it turned out to be a super smooth ride. It actually felt very safe, and the suspension on the bike was just as excellent as the skills of the driver making his way on the sometimes very rocky road. Before we knew it we had arrived at our destination, S:t Pauls Undiri Parish Church.
Since we had missed the actual slaughter of the goat (I am actually rather grateful for this) and the activities were still some time away, we decided to take a walk around the premises. We got to see a very different part of Kenya to what we had seen before. It is obvious why the white people were ready to kill for these farmlands. The land in this place was so fertile that you only had to spit on the ground for something to start growing there. After just a short walk John thought it was best to head back to the church grounds. We got there just in time to join what we in Sweden probably would call “aerobics”. A quick warm-up and exercise for the humble worshippers. We had already greeted the vicar and introduced ourselves, but now that there was some spare time we all thought that we might as well have a longer chat with the spiritual leader of the church. The man was very interested in coming to Sweden to do study theology, so we were brought in to his office to discuss the matter and to write in the guest book of the church. Then came the questions of faith. Since Sweden is a very secular country it is very rare to be asked to explain your faith, or rather to “praise the lord” and proclaim your Christian believes. Nils got in to some trouble when the vicar popped him the question of his Christian faith. When he proclaimed that he was not a Christian, the vicar really could not believe what he was hearing. He rephrased the question and tried again, but did not get a better answer. Nils could not say that he believes that God created everything and that he is a descendant of Adam and Eve. Despite the fact that the vicar was anything but impressed by our answers, and that he seemed to have lost all interest in ever coming to Sweden to study theology, he let us go.
All in all it was a very fantastic and also strange day. Kikuyu surpassed all of our expectations and turned out to be a beautiful little spot in the huge land of Kenya!
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| Fertile lands |
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| Lush garden outside Kikuyu |
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| The house of one of John's friends, just next to the church |
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| Nature reclaims |
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| Just before the "pep-talk" |
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| The Kenya-Ugandan railway in Kikuyu |
