Wikendi Nzuri Sana (very good weekend)

Wikendi Nzuri Sana (Very good Weekend)

I had a great weekend this weekend. Friday was Madaraka day and after Swahili, Whitney and I went to Njuhi’s house for a celebration lunch and family gathering. Her grandmother and aunts and uncles and cousins were there and we had chakula kubwa (big food) that was amazing once again. It was cool to meet more of her family, especially her grandmother. There was a family meeting that they have once a month where they discuss how each person/family is doing and what each person wants for the upcoming month or year. So everybody went around talking about recent events in their families and what they needed and who to pray for. They spoke in Kikuyu, so Njuhi translated for us. Then we all held hands and sang songs. It was really great to be able to be there and be a part of that. Despite the language barrier for songs and prayers and the meeting, I felt very included and there was a lot of power and positive energy in the room. On Friday night I slept over at Njuhi’s house.
On Saturday we went into town to meet Tim, Njuhi’s cousin, for the Sawa Sawa Festival, which was a jazz festival in the Nairobi Arboretum. The Arboretum is really beautiful and big and I had never been there, despite it being right on the edge of the Central Business District in the city. We saw some great groups play, including this famous South African guy named Hugh something that starts with an M (Masekele?). Unfortunately I have a bad name memory. He played the saxophone while another man played a trumpet and there was another with a guitar. The sax and the trumpet were amazing. They played one song with a group of little girls who were orphans. They sang a song called “make a change” that made me choke up. They were glowing while they sang, with huge smiles on their faces. It was adorable.
Another man sang a cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”, and while I have always liked that song, lyrics never resonated with me as much as they did when I heard it in Kenya. “Emancipate yourselves from slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds…How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look…” Those words just seemed so much more powerful in a country where slavery is so recent, and in some cases still present. The white man may not officially be the power holder anymore, but after Independence white men are still the ones who run major companies and live in the big houses with gates right outside the city. Many people are killed daily because of corruption and poverty is rampant. I can now see why Bob Marley is so popular here-he sings about the oppression Kenyans, and many people in other developing countries, face constantly. The oppression that their current states were founded on through colonization and then through the power the European continues to hold.
Afterwards, Tim, Njuhi and I went to Tim’s house for dinner and then we went out to a few clubs with three more of Tim and Njuhi’s friends. I had a really good time hanging out with them and dancing. I was the only white person at the club we were at, but for once that didn’t attract unwanted attention and was able to just hang out, so it was nice. We got back to Tim’s house at 5am and I slept until almost 12.
Sunday I went home and showered and did laundry. Then Monica and I went to the hospital to see my 3 week old nephew. He was at the children’s hospital because he had gotten a bacterial infection, but he was doing much better when we saw him. I held him for a while and he was so beautiful-warm and sleepy with soft little tight curls of hair. I wanted to hold him for hours. But alas, we headed home.