Jambo (Hello in Swahili),
Under the starry sky, I think of you because it is so beautiful that I feel not worthy to enjoy it all for myself. Thus I remember you in my prayer.
I am in Karen, Kenya. Karen is a big farm land well known because of the book and movie Out Of Africa. Karen Blixen wasa Danish woman and moved to Kenya with her lover. They started the coffee plantation, hiring native workers. She loved the land and remembered the place later.
“Here at long last one was in a position not to give a damn for all conventions, here was a new kind of freedom which until then one had only found in dreams!”
The book is well loved because of the beauty of life in East Africa and the last British empire. However, her love ended up separation and divorce and then her second lover died of the air crash in the Ngong Hill. She left Karen and then wrote the memoir Out Of Africa.
Now Karen has more than thrity religious organizations, Benedictine Missionary Sisters where I am staying is one of them.The land was given to the government and the government sold it very chiefly to the religious congregations. So I feel at ease and home here. Everything is slow and soft. Green is everywhere. The trees are so tall and wide that I often look at the sky.
Night in Africa is more beautiful than any places I have ever been. Because there is no artificial lights, instead the night is full of natural sounds such as insects, birds, animals and even winds, and lights like stars, the moon and unknown lighting bucks. I find myself carefully listening to the surroundings without distraction. Peace comes with pure sight. I understandmore easily I am walking, I am praying, I am eating. It is hard to describe the smells and sounds untouched. It is so natural that I become more instinctive like animals. I have seen that animals never get bored because they are perfect in a way that they only focus on living. What we need to learn from the nature is only one thing—to live fully.
The people here in Karen live with the nature. I helped out Sr. Lidhia to feed little chicks and to get milk from a cow. Maybe the immigation in the United States does not like this for sure. Lambs eat peacefully and dogs lazy. The sound of the sisters’ evening prayer is heavenly.
As I prepare to leave for Madagascar tomorrow, I cannot take all my heart from Karen. There is a primitive emotion in this soil—rough, undescribable and wild attachment that might be the similar one Karen Blixen had. I just want to stay here and live without ambition. I may come back later as a missionary and you could visit me someday.
I think of you because my broadened heart miss you badly. I pray that everything is well for you. You remain in my thoughts and prayers.
Hakuna Matata! (Don’t worry in Swahili)