6/30/98: Bill, and his assistant, Edward, had to go into Nairobi today to pick up some new folks, so I joined him and attended to some errands of my own in the city…
6/30/23: I was hoping that running errands back in Nairobi would be a helpful distraction to the gloomy mood that I was struggling with in Kijabe, but in some ways it just led to additional frustration.
NOTE: The photo above is me getting ready to head into Nairobi to run some errands.
I stopped in at an Apple Computer dealer to see if I could get the power converter for my Mac PowerBook 3400 replaced under warranty. It had cracked due to overheating. The shop owner was non-committal, which I could understand since we were far away from more expedient conveniences of the US. But he did promise to look into it. When I asked if there were any internet cafés nearby, he immediately introduced me to a fellow named Patrick R., who had “just opened up his own internet café upstairs…” When I followed him upstairs I found that his “new office” didn’t even have the wall studs covered with drywall yet, and the “café” consisted of a single computer in the room that he had to bump his secretary off of in order for me to get online! He was a nice guy though, and the price was fair at Ksh300 per hour (about $5.25 in 1998).
After catching up on email, I went to the Indian Embassy and picked up applications for a visa, since that was our next country to visit. Bill picked me up and we all ran a few more errands and stopped for lunch at the Yaya Center, a pretty American-style shopping mall. But that didn’t lift my mood either.
Melancholy can become a cycle that repeats and grows. I had so much to be thankful for, but I was stuck in a funk for a while there, with a distorted perspective on what matters. I was reminded then, and now, of the song “Some Folk’s World” by Mark Heard:
Some folks’ world is wartorn, some folks’ world is fine
This planet makes no sense to the untrained mind
Some folks hope for fortune, some folks hope to die
Each man sees his fate through his own two eyes[Chorus]
And when it’s day to me
It’s night to someone
And when it’s night
You might not want to go onSome folks eat what flies leave, they get what they can take
Hunger has no heart and it will not wait
Rain can ruin your weekend or rain can spare your life
Depending on who you are and what your thirst is like[Chorus]
And when it’s day to me
It’s night to someone
And when it’s night
You might not want to go onAll folks’ days are numbered, but most folks do not care
And no man calls his coin while it’s in the air
Some folks taste of Heaven, some folks taste of Hell
And some folks lose their taste and they cannot tell, no[Chorus]
And when it’s day to me
It’s night to someone
And when it’s night
You might not want to go on
A friend from my student days at MBI once taught me a simple song to pray that still comes to mind when I’m gloomy:
Thank you, Lord, for the sunshine
Thank you, Lord, for the rain
Thank you, Lord, for your lasting love
That always will remain