Sunday

Just sitting in the office, checking email and keeping my friend here company. I don't have too much of interest to write today, though!

Yesterday I did my first research - I had to interview people about initiation rites. I sort of realized after that I had just spent the whole of the afternoon talking to young single men about circumcision! And at the time, it didn't seem at all strange because it's such a big part of life here. But come to think of it, I would never sit around at home and talk to 25 - 30 year old single men about circumcision! Anyways, I learned a few things, and it was good. I was supposed to go and talk to a family today, but just as I was setting out on the matatu journey, I got a call from my field assistant saying that the family had had an emergency and couldn't meet me today. So I hope it doesn't throw my whole schedule off for research. I'll have to go and do some kind of research on Tuesday, which is supposed to be our one day for writing up our work... but I'd rather have a Sunday afternoon off and work on Tuesday, anyways! We'll see who my field assistant can find for me to talk to. Otherwise, I might just have to talk to some of my buddies here in the office... which defeats the point of having a field assistant, and they were very adamant that we make sure our field assistants work for their full 4 hours per session... so... not sure what to do about it. But now I'm rambling about really boring things, so I'll stop here!

I did go to church this morning to a different Baptist church from where I usually go. That in itself was an interesting experience, and I might be able to write it up as research. It was a nice building, and most of the folks who go there are Kenyans. But the service itself seemed very un-African to me. The pastor was a Brit, and the other pastor is an Indian. The Brit led the singing - some old hymns with no music! There were 200 Africans gathered in this church, and not a single keyboard or drum in sight. It was very strange. Everyone was just standing so still and singing these hymns. We also sang two hymns in kiSwahili - they were English hymns simply translated into the local language. It was all very sterile, actually, and just seemed to be so un-African!

The preaching was really good, and it was a really good, solid message unlike any I've heard in a while. But there was no time for the visitors to stand and bring their greetings, there was no time to shake your nieghbor's hand, there wasn't even any clapping in the songs. Really, very odd. And I wonder how much of that is the expat leadership, or how much of it is just because that's what the congregation expects of church, or how much it is just that the personality of this particular congregation is different than some of the more charismatic ones? Anyways, I'll mention it to Florence, my field assistant and see what she thinks about it...!