When we were asked to speak to our yearly meeting, we faced a quandary: how do two people give one address? We decided that we could best relate our experiences in a series of alternating stories. Stories, because they are the most interesting and meaningful part of our memories of Kenya; and alternating, because that mimics the way we worked together during our time there. Our jobs in Lugulu were very different: Tom is a physician and had a clear role at the hospital, while Liz home-schooled our two sons, held the household together, assisted in many administrative tasks for the hospital, taught computer skills, and responded to various emergencies. Although we rarely worked side-by-side, our labor was truly shared. We hope that our stories and narrative styles will complement each other here, just as our different work roles complemented each other in Lugulu.
Each story is introduced by a passage from Scripture. This too seemed true to our experience in Kenya. Quakers there are steeped in the traditions of the Bible, and they often see the events of their lives through the lens of Scripture. Although this at first seemed foreign to us, with practice we also found that our lives began to interpret Scripture, and in turn Scripture helped to interpret our lives. Seemingly mundane events came to possess an unsuspected spiritual significance.
These are stories from a different place: a place where the infant mortality rate is ten times higher than in the U.S., per capita income is $300 per year and falling, patients routinely die for lack of proper medicines, and staples like sugar and milk regularly disappear from the marketplace. It is also a place where the people are grounded in the deep soil of tradition and community, where there is always time to welcome visitors graciously, and where the daily struggle of people�s lives is imbued with a joy and meaning that can be difficult for us to comprehend.
