The Shrining

Today the entire Nindi family piled into the pick-up truck and took a field trip to “the shrine”. On the first Friday of every month, local Catholics gather at this shrine, which was created in 2005 by an Italian priest. It’s on the top of a hill and you can see the farmland below in all directions…very picturesque. At the end of the event, the priest was making announcements and spotted us in the pews. “we have visitors here sent from Obama”, he said, and asked us to stand up and make a speech. We introduced ourselves in Swahili with our Kamba (the majority tribe in Machakos) names, Muende (Shira) and Motanu (Abby). This got us a big round of applause and cheers from the crowd of over one hundred Kenyan churchgoers.

We thought that the ride to the shrine had been squished (with the two of us, twelve kids, Betty, Lilian, Vivian, and the teacher all packed in) until the ride back, when we found out how many can really fit in the back of a pickup truck. Not only were there those from the way there, but we added in two other kids, another woman from church, a woman with her son, and another woman, the only one who wasn’t actually invited in but somehow came along anyways. The total count was twenty-four people in the back, with another three riding up front. It was so tightly packed that complete strangers who we picked up on the side of the road were holding kids in their laps. Everyone, led by 6 year old father Charles, was singing songs in Swahili. One of the most uncomfortable/fun/memorable car rides of our lives.

The photo below shows just one corner of the pick-up truck!