The Strange Disconnect

Right now back in the US people are flooding the grocery stores looking for those forgotten, but much required items that make Thanksgiving just perfect. Turkeys are flying from the frozen section and landing in shopping carts as if they were flightless birds (wait...), a middle aged man is about to fight an old lady for the last can of cranberry sauce, and every one's asking the stocker boy, "where the heck are the bags of stuffing?" At the same time the temperature is dropping quickly, there may even be snow on the ground, and at every gathering people are talking about the same thing, "what are you doing for Thanksgiving? Are you going home? Do you think the Lions have a shot at winning the game this year?" For my family, I'm sure all the Thalers are planning to hit the bowling alley for their one trip of the year and if I were a little closer I would definitely be joining them.

So what does Thanksgiving look like in Kenya? Well I haven't seen any Turkeys anywhere, I'll bet most of the people around me have no idea what a cranberry is, and very few of them have had the opportunity to ever see snow, in fact it's much more like spring than Autumn or Winter. They may be interested in talking about an upcoming football game, but it features teams like Chelsea and Manchester United. This Thursday is just another Thursday, and if you ask them they may have some things to be thankful for, but they won't know why you're asking them.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining that I'm lonely or missing out on my favorite American Holiday (Christmas and Easter are pretty universal unless you're in an Arabic country or an unreached people group), but what I'm noticing is that there's a strange disconnect as I compare the hustle and bustle of what I know is happening with friends and family back in the US as compared to what's going on here. Over the past 8 years I've been in the US for every Thanksgiving and it always feels like the Holiday is such an event that everyone in the world must be celebrating it. In fact, I actually have an Australian friend who told me one year she was celebrating it with an American family in Australia! But here in Kenya, out side of the American Expatriate community there's nothing.

The disconnect doesn't only apply to Holidays, but to so much of life. Occasionally, I take a moment to stop and actually think of what my life was like before I arrived in Kenya on January 28 and it seems like someone else's life. It's almost like that was a movie I saw and then came into this life. So many of the characters featured in the story of my life in Michigan are little more than occasional Facebook cameos in the story of my life in Africa. I don't mean to diminish the significance of those friendships (man this is a post that could really alienate people if I'm not careful), but really other than occasionally popping in to send a message of encouragement or make me laugh they don't really have anything to do with my daily life. I'm sure in the same way I seem like a distant memory to them much of the time. And I know that when I return on January 26 this life will become that exact same thing.

Even more disconnected is the world. Right now Kericho, Kenya feels very real and tangible. I can smell cooking fires in the houses around me, I can see the green grass in the bright sunlight, and I can feel the soft dark earth in the places that never seem to get quite dried up before another rain comes. At the same time, when I picture Michigan my first impulse, even in July and August, has been to see it the way I left it in January, dreary, snow covered, and -10 degrees. If I really think it over I know that the seasons are changing, but from here even that seems a foreign concept.  Technically speaking we have two dry and two rainy seasons, but for all practical purposes the difference isn't that noticeable.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, but I guess I just felt this was a good opportunity to try and relay to anyone who's interested just how it feels to be so far away. I guess if you've ever spent a long period away from the place where you grew up or where you live, you have an idea what I'm talking about, and if you haven't you're probably not interested in my blog. I guess the reason we feel this disconnect is because wherever we are the world and our lives are already so beautiful and complex we can only sense so much and then to be able to comprehend that AND the other world and life we've been in previously is just WAY too much.

And that brings me to a God thought, think about your sense of strange disconnectedness and then think about the fact that God doesn't have that sense. He is all places, all times, and all knowing. So even as I sit in the Kericho "spring" in November 2009 He is with me and also you in the North American late autumn, or the Australian summer or wherever else you may be. Now consider that He was just as with you in another place you've come from that now feels very far away and strange. Guess what, He's still there right now and knows the weather both there and where you are now. If you can wrap your mind around that, go see a shrink because you're just crazy.

By the way, think of your poor cashier when you set you 15 pound turkey on the belt. He or she has been lifting thousands of these heavy icy things in the past week and is getting very tired, not to mention he/she may have to work the holiday AND will definitely be in on Black Friday as well.