October 5, 2008

As usual I met up with my friend Anna to go to church at Holy Family Basilica in downtown Nairobi. We arrived at the church pretty early so we walked around town for awhile. We took some pictures of downtown so we could show people what the city is like. We've both gotten a lot of questions from family and friends about what Kenya, particularly Nairobi, is like. The Parliament is near to our church so we walked around the area. We asked the security guards but they wouldn't let us take a picture with them or Parliament. Kenya is very secretive when it comes to government buildings. The State House where the President lives is a huge complex that is about a mile long with a huge gate. Every 10 feet or so there are huge signs that warn about taking photographs.

When we got to church, we found out immediately that it was going to be a huge celebration. Archbishop Njenga from the Archdiocese of Mombasa (on the coast) was celebrating Mass because he was releasing his biography. The Mass started with a very large women's choir marching around the outside of the church. The children's choir was all dressed up and lined the main aisle of the basilica. The procession contained over a dozen priests and several deacons. The Mass ended up lasting over two and a half hours which was quite longer than the usual hour-long Catholic Mass. After Mass Archbishop Njenga saw Anna and I (being the only two white people in the congregation of 600+ people) and blessed us and smiled. When we were walking in the parking lot we encountered the procession again as it was walking around the basilica. Archbishop Njenga saw us again and personally welcomed us to Kenya.