in comparison

its been a few days since my last update because things have been a bit hectic lately.

last thursday we didnt end up doing too much, but a guy named matthew who works for SNV (not sure if thats right) was visiting the church. he is the guy who connected one laptop per child (olpc) with city harvest in pokot. after morning devotions we talked to him for about two hours, and learned a lot about how loans and contracts were given out for construction. apparently anybody under 40 does not have enough collateral or security in order to get a loan. so a lot of people who may have entrepreneurial ideas, cant get the money to do it. also he said that contracts, government especially, normally go to whoever offers the most kickback, so the cost for buildings is often almost twice what it should be.

on friday we spent most of the day in south b. first at the slums and then with a ptc group there. we were late meeting with the ptc group because mercy, the women who was meeting us and taking us to the group's meeting place is super social and was talking to people all along the way. mercy is not much older than me, has aids, and is about the most hopeful person i have ever met. the hope which these women have once they come to grips with having aids, and realize that they will not die immediately is amazing. mercy is going back to school, at a grade 8 level now and talked about going to university once she graduated. a couple of the other women in the group were also going back to school, some of the women much older than mercy. i think mercy is possibly the most vivid example of the hope and joy which they have, however it is very similar with all the groups.

as sarah is quick to point out on her blog, any problems which we (and we means mostly sarah here) have encountered the last couple days, pale in comparison when we think about the lives of the people who we spend most of our week interacting with in the slums. however, to sumarize, sarahs allergies have been incredibly bad, and her computer crashed yesteray. so bad breathing, plus bad sleep, plus bad computer isnt a good combination. the days havent been all that much fun for me by virtue of feeling bad for watching sarah struggle and not being able to feel like im helping. i think skype last night with ben, marshall, and carly didnt hurt though. i was also thinking how much more amplified the feelings have to be for those with aids, whose friends are struggling with aids, when somebody is sick or dying. thats so much worse than a stuffy head and throat, and much more prevalent in their lives as well.

going to a second straight 4 hour service was a little different today, it didnt have the newness of last week's service. but the conversation with pastor edward on the way back from church was really good and made the whole experience worth while.

for my mom, i swear a post with pictures and explanations of people will come eventually.