Canadians are Coming!

Canadians are Coming!
So for two weeks, we are hosting a group of twelve Canadians, further confusing the Maasai perception that Canadians and Americans are the same. We will be sure to not wear any Maple-Leafed attire to help clear up the confusion.
The trip is primarily to record for a cd made by MCC to raise support for the Generation at Risk (GAR) program which helps people prevent HIV/AIDS and life positively once it has affected their life. This will be the fourth such cd, the first three have raised almost $750,000. (I would put a link here if I had one, but look up “Hope Is” “The Light Shines” and “To such as These” and if they’re through MCC, those are the cds. Anyway, we’re recording live in Najile to help connect the GAR program here and the listeners of the cd. We’ve had a mass Maasai choir (Mass-ai anybody?) and two individual choirs record already and it’s going pretty well.
Personally, Steph has been organizing/planning/running the trip which has been teaching her a lot and been lots of fun (though tiring). We are hosting a family of four at our house and generally our place is the home base. For people who aren’t part of the recording project, or during off-days, we have been visiting local sites, showing the group some of the people GAR supports and we’ll be going to market monday. Later next week we’ll be heading off to Kisumu where there’s another GAR site and Maasai Mara (elephants and rhinos please!).
It’s been fun having people here. It’s a little strange trying to straddle two cultures, sometimes feeling to western to be Maasai and other times too Maasai to be western. As much as it’s hard, it’s where I want to be. I like how I understand some of the deeper issues going on here, not just a tourist looking for some closeups of the jumping dance. To really relate to people in a different culture somebody needs to bridge the cultural gap and feel a little uncomfortable. If that’s what God has called us to at this time, than thanks be to God!