Zanzibar

So, we had a weeklong retreat on the beautiful island of Zanzibar. Coming from an East African country where people will happily show you around town, but become very angry if you don't pay them afterward, we were welcomed to the island and shown to our hotel by a few guys who were just walking the same way. We stayed in lovely St. Monica's hostel, atop old slave chambers, two below-ground stone rooms where up to one hundred fifty slaves were housed before being sold in the adjacent market. The market, closed in 1863 at the urgings of Livingstone, is now a church of coral and lime. Made over a period of many years, the unskilled workers who began by installing some columns upside down, finished the cathedral with a clever, complex, arched roof. This was visible from our window and our balcony. Arab features accent many of the buildings there, swoops at the top of walls and keyhole-framed doors.
We had various activities--a spice tour, a round table discussion about Christian/Muslim relations on the island, a tour of the cathedral, and swimming with dolphins. They were all valuable experiences. The ITC group did prove to be good resources as we went. Having done some research, their special interest in HIV/AIDS was a keen aid to our discussions. They were all intelligent. We went our separate ways for most of the trip, but it was good to have some new people around to bounce ideas off of. We got to see and taste many spices at a spice farm. Cinnamon bark, cloves, jackfruit, peppercorns, and many more fruits and spices overwhelmed our tongues for an hour and a half as we walked around in the humidity. We then saw the sultan's baths, created for the sultan of Omar, who moved the capital to Zanzibar because he liked it so much. I probably would do that too. It was just a relaxing, welcoming place. Every beach we saw was picturesque, and most people we met were personable and easygoing.
More peaceful still were the dolphins. There is a place on the coast where dolphins are rather common early in the morning. So at 6:30, we left Stone Town, drove for an hour (on the way seeing some red colobus monkeys, the island's only "African wildlife" of note) to a beach on the southeast side of the island, grabbed some snorkel gear and two people to man the boat, and motored out into the blue Indian Ocean. Josh, with a year on the swim team, was in our boat as was Whitney, who doesn't usually like to touch water with anything higher than her calf, and Nicole, the one who had been pushing to "swim with dolphins" all week. We drove for a long time before seeing one fin peeking out of the water. The guides told us not to jump in yet. It was just one. Soon, we found a few. We saw them coming up for air together. Two or three fins broke the surface and dove again just below the surface. The guides said "This side!" and we jumped. Except Whitney. She watched. But she entered the water later. It was magical to swim ferociously, assisted by flippers, behind a dolphin lazily scooting through the water. A few times, I followed them as long as I had breath. I was not a huge fan of the snorkel tube. I just used the goggles. We came back tired and exhilarated by a powerful experience.
The islanders have not had power since December. All the businesses which need it use generators or have closed for the time until the mainland repairs the line. There were cheap places and touristy places side by side, and the touristy ones had lights on.
The lights stayed on all night the second night we stayed in Dar es Salaam. Having just returned from Zanzibar, we were tired, and we were grateful they left the generator on at the Kurasini Catholic Retreat Center--the heat was oppressive. The fan was only a minor consolation, but it was a help. We packed and prepared for return bus ride on Sunday Jan 17, which turned out to be not quite as long as the 16 hour trip we had endured on Monday. The next morning I left early for Gatundu to teach again. It is good to be back with our friends.

Zanzibar was great!

I have posted some pictures on my flickr, but don't have enough internet time to tell you how wonderful and restorative Zanzibar was.

Time to eat

Happy New Year from Kenya! School has begun--we went back Wednesday for three days of remembering students' names, rejoining the company of our fellow teachers, sharing stories about holidays, and even a little teaching. But now we are back in Nairobi, preparing to leave in the morning for Zanzibar! Tomorrow is our first retreat as a YAV group. We go to Zanzibar in conjunction with ITC, the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, GA. They seem like a cool bunch so far--we worshiped with them this morning and had dinner with them Friday. They will be good resources on this retreat as we discuss how God is working and study the structures that we have seen. I heard two of them preach this morning, and wish to commend to you some of the things I heard (but I cannot reproduce all the magnificent alliteration of both speakers. props to them).

Today we remember Jesus' baptism, and ours too, hopefully. Baptism is an inauguration into a new way of being. We are anointed into the presence, the purpose, and the power of God--the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through a path Christ walked, with the approval of God the Father. Not merely to heavenly peace, but to power through the indwelling of the divine. As in, the God of the universe, holy and mighty, who has come to us as a person, comes in us wandering people to make us new and air out our dank spaces. The purpose of baptism is not merely to enrich a single person, but the whole body of Christ. Growth is no isolated incident. It must be systemic.

The second message encouraged us, like Naaman, to humble ourselves to God's transformative power. It comes to us through simple means of grace that can seem simultaneously too easy and too mystical, and obedience is the way to healing. Pride will keep us unclean, as we refuse the gracious gift of God for our well-being.

Both sermons pointed me to a Gospel that was vital and relevant. Encouraged by Pastor Edward Furi of PCEA St. Andrews (among others), the Gospel's immediate importance has been on my mind recently. Obviously, the promise of God is not merely for the life to come. It is life here, too, but in FULL. It is prosperous by God's sanctified definition--not necessarily by your own or your boss's or professor's incomplete longings. It is for peace and joy and justice in God's good world, not just in heaven or in the new earth. The Gospel is now. God gives peace today. And all we have to do is jump in.

Take the plunge. Seek the light. Be anointed again in Spirit and Truth this New Year. Take up wholeheartedly the means God gives you to know and to love God and neighbor. May the one by whose help we have come empower you for his life-giving mission. Today.