Nanyuki

Br. James approached Simon and I yesterday after work. He was aware that Simon wanted to visit a monastery close to Mt. Kenya and told us that we could go at any time. He had called one of the monks up there and found out that they had some rooms available for us. We decided to leave Wednesday.

It turns out the monastery is more of a retreat center than anything. And when we walked through the front gate it all seemed, familiar. Grassy fields surrounded by pine trees with actual wooden houses and some of them had porches! It was pretty cool and Simon and I immediately took advantage of the treeless, grassy field and pulled out our dinner plate errr frisbee. We play back at the Amani Center, but the field we use is spotted with randomly placed trees and vines and buildings. We got a bunch of looks as most people here have never seen one before, let alone two white people playing with one.

The first night was rather interesting as we had no idea what was going on save the little schedule posted on the back of our door. The monk who was told we were coming was away for the day and wasn’t going to get back until Thursday. So we have been walking around nonchalantly for the past day or so. We ran into the receptionist this morning and she found a monk to give us a tour of the Bible on the Ground, which is retreat-like path that goes through the story of the Bible in the context of African values. It was pretty interesting. There aren’t any pictures though, not allowed.

Also, we are not quite sure if this little retreat deal is free or not. The way it was presented to us sounded like it was going to be gratuit, but it seems expensive here with the quality of the food and some of the services. I guess we’ll find out at checkout. Also, we are above the mosquito line at the current elevation so there are no bugs! It is amazing and also the first time that I have not slept under a mosquito net in over 6 months.