06 February 2015

Do-gooder, sub-category Christian Evangelical: Y No Poor People?

I like US American Christian Evangelicals, I really do. I mean, not necessarily in person, but in principle: They are so very easy.

This is what the internet just coughed up on my door mat: Jestidwell’s blog piece ‘It didn’t happen like I thought it would’. Wife of one, mother of four goes on missionary trip to Kenya and is deeply disappointed when, upon arrival in Nairobi, she finds the Junction, a bloody mall of all things:

‘My heart was prepared for dirt floors.

For dirty laundry hanging everywhere.
For kids that were half naked and covered in bug bites.
People who couldn’t speak English.
not this’

Insert pictures of very well fed mzungu guy in Nakumatt looking at shelves of mayonnaise (possibly her husband?). The mayonnaise was, I admit, an element I appreciated.

Then she writes this without any apparent sense of irony:

‘But this girl from the states expected Nairobi to be like what you see in the movies. Or on Feed the Children commercials.’

Seconds after I posted that blog piece on Facebook, I was convinced that it was a spoof. So I went back to her blog. Apparently not. There’s this:

'I will never be able to accurately describe the feeling of love I experienced when we stepped out of the airport and onto African soil.
The smell.
The sounds.
The breeze.
Almost ocean like but without the ocean.'

I feel cheated. How come I never have such mystic experiences when getting off the plane at JKIA? JKIA, Y U cheat me? Is it because I don't bring the love? Here goes Jesstidwell:

'But most of all, I prayed for Nairobi. That the people here would know Jesus. Not because we stand on a street corner and preach for hours on end and not because we pass out bibles and tracts, but because we show them love.'

Sure. Because Nairobi doesn’t have enough of the love of Christ already. Is Google blocked in the US?

Stand by for pictures of her and many grateful, small, black children. They are happy with so little! They are just like us!

Gold-star comment from the Focus Group: ‘What is wrong with the American education system? How can they generate so many, but just far too many under-educated ignorami (plural for ignoramus)? And why do these particular lot afflict us with their presence? Dear God what wrong did we ever do to deserve such as these? Why us? Why them? Why us?’ (Yvonne Adhiambo)

1 comment:

  1. But i give credit to the missionary for being candid and open about her her first impressions based on her initial expectations. Africa is not supposed to be a good place and everybody knows and that is what some people are shocked.

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