Opfinger See (Lake) Bike Trip- Freiburg

The title sounds a lot more glamorous than the trip actually was, but it was a great way to spend the afternoon yesterday. The bike path system in Freiburg is excellent. You can “not just survive, but thrive” without a car (the quotation marks are from a title for a seniors’ group seminar at the United Church I worked at). It was a rainy sort of day but we did not let that stop us. There is a town outside of Freiburg that is about 5 kms to the west called Opfingen. Between here and there is a lake (some may say it resembles a large pond more than a lake) and we thought we would go there to check it out. There is a small lake that is really close to where we live, but it is not the swimming kind. It is nice to sit at, but we were hoping for something a little grander. The Opfinger See was not that exciting from a lake prespective but there is a very good bike path which goes all around the lake. If we had brought a blanket we would have sat and read for a little but since it rained earlier that day we decide against it. Then on the way back home we passed a Zoo/Farm which appeared to make up the entire town which was called Mundenhof. To our pleasure there was a really nice Biergarten there where we could sit and relax for a little while. So the cycle was about 15 or so kms long and we used plenty of energy. I think I managed the 1h30m of exercise recommended by Dr. Mai (Wink: Aaron).

Settling in Freiburg and visiting Köln

So it has been almost three weeks since I last wrote on here. Monday morning will mark the end of the third week in Germany. So far not much culture shocking or reverse-culture shocking, but I am sure that will come. The first week in Freiburg was filled with running around to different government offices. Registering as a resident of Freiburg was easy, but that was the only easy things so far. Everything else has been pretty complicated. Most of the people who are working the information desks seem to be clueless and instead have given either wrong information or no information at all. Oh well… things will be in order soon enough.

We were up in Köln (Cologne) last weekend to visit Leona’s brother. We had a good time up there. Everybody in Freiburg bikes and in a lot of cases it takes less time to bike somewhere than it does to drive. We went to a bike fleamarket in Köln and looked for some good deals. We both bought bikes, but for a Canadian we paid way too much for what we purchased. Because the demand for is so high, the cost is also. We have already put them to good use. On the Sunday we went to one of the many parks in Köln to play some fussball (soccer). We teamed up with a group there and played hard for a good two hours. I had not run like that in a long time. I did manage to score one goal in the game, but my team lost 6-4. I have finally recovered and my muscles do not hurt anymore. (Picture: I am in the grey shirt).

So that is the state of things at this moment.

Arrival in Hamburg, Germany.

Well… where to start. We are in Germany now and are presently riding the DB train to Freiburg. We arrived in Hamburg, which is on the opposite end of Germany. Hamburg is one of the most Northern cities in Germany while Freiburg is one of the most Southern. The train left Hamburg at 18:24 and will arrive in Freiburg just after midnight. It is presently 19:50 which means there is still plenty of train riding left for us.

The flight to Hamburg was one of the most bumpy that I have been on so far. On the landing the wings were moving back and forth. Not extremely but enough for me to pay close attention the ground. For those who travel with Airtransat I have a tip for you, “Book your seats ahead and take the first row that has two chairs by themselves.” Leona and I did that and we had more leg room than anyone else and did not have to worry about pumping elbows or people getting up to go to the washroom. It was well worth the 20 dollars.

We had hoped that when we arrived in Hamburg that we would be entering the next day remnants of a Euro Cup win by Germany, but sadly that was not the case. We did see a couple people at the airport who still had their game faces and attire on, but were not in the same mood they would have been if the game went our way. Well there is always 2010. For once our luggage came out right away, but I was stuck in the non-EU line, pretty much the last person to go through. Leona breezed through the EU line and was waiting patiently with our bags on the other side.

We made it downtown without any problems and found our hotel (Fuerst Bismark). The criterion was that it had to be close to the train station and it turned out to be directly across. It looked like it could be a block or two when we booked it, but were pleasantly surprised. We had to wait about 2hours before we could check in so we walked to a bakery down the street and had some coffee and croissants. It is hard to explain unless you have had it, but bread is different in German. It is firm on the outside, yet so soft on the inside. This bakery did not let us down. (BTW: my ears just popped, I think we are near the 300km mark). After we checked in we took a 3 hour nap. Most of the time it is not good to sleep after you travel but to fill out the day as if you had gotten up with the rest of the city, (especially myself as I could not sleep on the flight), but I think it worked out well for us this time as today we felt pretty much on schedule. We got up at 17:00 and went out to see the city. Hamburg is a port city so there is lots of water around. There are a couple advertisements which call it the Venice of Germany. (I will report on whether I think it lives up to that standard after going to Venice, whenever that is). The city was very nice we walked along the shopping strip and to a canal which flows down the centre of the city. We had supper at a nice little place and then walked back to the hotel. We went to bed early enough.

Today we got up at 9:30 and went to the same bakery as the day before for breakfast. And then check out. We brought our suitcases and put them in lockers so we did not have to haul them around the city. It was money well spent. Then we walked to the Habour front to see the boats. While we were there one humongous ship came in, being pulled by a small tug boat, which seemed tiny in comparison. We had lunch along the waterfront. Overall the day was quite warm, but at the waterfront the breeze was refreshing. We slowly made our way back to the city centre and then waited for our train to come in. The visit to Hamburg was nice and allowed me to see another German city. I will have to go to Berlin and then would have touched all four corners in Germany. Maybe sometime later this summer… Happy Canada Day (I know this is posted a day late, but I wrote it on Canada Day, my first out of the country).

Last Reflections on Kenya

The second indigenous church denomination that we visited was the African Brotherhood Church (ABC). We spent four days traveling to different ABC churches and projects. The first day we went to the ABC headquarters in Machakos. After a brief tour of the property we enjoyed a special tea time with the bishop. The bishop’s wife, Mary, was traveling with us throughout the trip and it was interesting to see her in her home and usual surroundings. The Canadians in the group did not quite realize what it means to be the bishop’s wife until we went to the ABC headquarters. She is very well respected and the only thing I can really compare it with is the first lady of a country. During our visits of ABC projects we were amazed at how excited and nervous ABC members were to greet the Deaconess Mary. To us she was just Mary. After tea the bishop made himself available for questions and we had interesting discussions. I was impressed by his sincerity and openness. There were no wrong questions and he seemed excited about the dialogue. We also visited one of the community development offices near the city which focuses on agriculture. We toured their garden and learned some very interesting things about gardening for the poor.

On the second day we visited the Africa Integrated Theological College (AITC), an ABC college in Mitaboni. The school principal gave us an overview of the school and afterward most of us felt that we knew more about the AITC than about our own schools. The school property was very interesting, there is a primary school on the grounds as well and we enjoyed taking pictures of the kids and seeing them laugh. We were as much an attraction to them as they were to us.

The school has a house at the end of its property called Carey Hall, named after Carey Theological Seminary. We were told that that is where the Canadians stay as there is a joined certificate program at the school which is often taught by Canadian professors. As we walked into the house I thought that it would be so nice if Chris could teach there and we could stay in that house. We will see…
On the third day we drove to Kibwezi deeper into Kamba territory and visited the Agricultural Research and Training Centre (ARTC) of the ABC. The ARTC is basically a farm with many small sections. After a walk through the farm we visited with a Guardians of Hope group and they gave us all Kamba names. That was so fun. My Kamba name is Mutindi, which means ‘the one who stays with us.’ On our last day with the ABC we visited two schools and headed back to Acacia Camp just outside Nairobi. We stayed at Acacia for the remainder of our trip.
The camp is situated in on a large farm that feels more like a national park. We were told that usually almost three times as many animals can be found on this farm as Nairobi National Park. We saw many giraffes, wild beasts, zebras, antelopes and so much more. We were woken up by monkeys jumping on our huts!!! I can definitely recommend staying at this place if you are ever near Nairobi.
I could go on forever about my trip to Kenya. I loved it, I learned so much and I can’t wait to go back.

The African Christian Church and Schools

The Africa Christian Church and Schools (ACC&S) is one of the two indigenous church denominations that we visited in Kenya. We visited the ACC&S for three days and really got a good overview of their structure. On the first day we went to their headquarters and bible school. The moderator (highest position within the denomination) and some other leaders met with us and made themselves available for some questions and discussions.
On the second day the ACC&S development director, Henry, took us to a village called Maai Mahiu in the Rift Valley. Even though the people in the town were not directly affected by the violence following recent elections they hosted internally displaced peoples (IDPs) in one of the church yards. Some of the pastors and post-elections violence victims met with us to tell us their stories. On January 2, 2008 around 7pm people from nearby villages started coming to the town looking for shelter. People in the market did not know how to help them but directed them to the African Inland Church (AIC). About 40 pastors from the area and all different denominations soon met and mobilized their congregations to bring food to the AIC in Maai Mahiu. The area in general is very modest and I am sure people did not have all this extra food just lying around. At the end the churches of the region hosted this IDP camp for over two months including children’s programs and daily adult devotions. Two of the post-election violence victims told us of their story. They were sisters-in-law and both families had lost everything during that time. They had recently travelled back to their homes and found everything destroyed. They were quite certain that they would never be able to return. This was an incredible testimony of Christians coming together and helping those in need.


On the third day we travelled far into tea country to visit some of the ACC&S Guardians of Hope (people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS) programs. I was very impressed by how hard-working these people were and how much they could accomplish with so little. The ACC&S gives a cow to each family in this program and I could not believe the difference one cow could make. The first born calf is returned to the program but that is all the family has to repay. The manure from the cow greatly increases crop productivity in their gardens, the families receive milk and can breed cows. It was really interesting to visit these families in their homes. The landscape of tea country has also burnt itself into my memory. It is absolutely beautiful.
I will try to write at least one more reflection on Kenya before we leave Canada…so stay tuned.

Reflections on Kenya

Since my return I have been surprised how many people ask me about more information on our blog, specifically about my trip to Kenya. So I have decided to write some more detailed reflections concerning my time in Kenya over the next couple of days.

The last Kenya update was about Garissa and after reading my update I feel I left out so much. We arrived in Garissa during the late afternoon and I was a bit oblivious to the safety issues that a big group of white people represented in this place. I just wanted to walk out of the gates of the hotel that we were staying in and see the market and meet people. Garissa is just so different than any other place I had visited, a city in the desert... so exciting. But contrary to my hopes we did not leave the hotel, instead Mohammed, a young Muslim Somali/Kenyan man met with us in one of the hotel meeting rooms. Mohammed shared his story with us... his mother was a Somali Muslim and his father was a Kenyan Christian. You can imagine how complicated his childhood was. He grew up Christian but later converted to Islam. His life story does not make us Christians look good. Well his story was very insightful into how deep the divide is between Christians and Muslims in Garissa and that conversion from one faith to another is not always an individual decision. Mohammed joined us for dinner and I sat next to him. I had so many questions and tried hard not to overwhelm him. We had a nice talk about the differences and similarities between Christianity and Islam. At the end there were many things we did not agree on but I think we both felt that we had learned a lot about each others faith.

The next morning in Garissa had a full schedule. First we went to the Tuberculosis Clinic that Mohammed is responsible for and then we visited an elementary school.

The TB clinic was very interesting, wee did not get to visit with any patients as the size of our group would have been too overwhelming but we got a tour of the property. The buildings were more than modest and the kitchen looked like it was from the Middle Ages. The purpose of this clinic is to provide patients with food as the medication to treat TB, which is provided by the goverment free of charge, must be taken with a good meal. Mohammed and another woman administer the medication and provide healthy meals.

For the school visit the Praxis students were split up in groups and we had to preprare lessons for each class room. Most groups told a bible story but replaced overtly Christian symbols. The purpose for the visit was to teach these mostly Somali children good morals and thereby show that Christians have good values. We had learned that Christians are perceived very negatively by many Muslims in this area. We had a great time with the children and I think they enjoyed our visit as well. We left Garissa right after the brief visit at the school.

Many of the Praxis students felt that the visit in Garissa was too short. I think one of the strangest things about the Garissa visit was that because there were so many white people in our group we represented a security risk. Our leaders did not feel that it was safe for us to stay in Garissa any longer than we did.

I will try to write more tomorrow.

More Updates Coming

Just so you do not think we have abandoned the Blog, I am leaving this message. More updates about what happened throughout Leona's trip to Africa will be left shortly. Since it is less than two weeks before leaving for Germany we have been a little preoccupied with making final arrangements.

One thing that really complicated things is the hail storm which we had in Pickering on Monday. We were supposed to hand over our car to the people who are taking over our lease on Tuesday. The car was hit so badly with hail that we were unable to do so. At this moment our car is in the shop getting fixed as it had around 100 dents because of the hail. Luckily we have good insurance. I love these little lessons about trusting in God to work things out.