Hakuna Matata

This is the Nairobi Orchestra rehearsing an hour before concert, thus the casual dress style.

Hakuna matata means "no problem" and needs to be an adopted attitude for us here in Kenya. Last Saturday we managed to get to the Oshwal Centre in northwestern Nairobi to hear the Nairobi Orchestra, only to discover we'd been told the incorrect weekend. Keep in mind, transportation to/from this hoped-for event took 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

This past Sunday afternoon we were able to go to the concert (and of course, spend more time traveling). The orchestra is composed completely of volunteers, but the guest conductor was flown in from England courtesy of British Airways. Their program was Brahms Tragic Overture; Khachaturian Violin Concerto (soloist was a local missionary); and Dvorak Symphony No. 7. Quite an ambitious program for a volunteer orchestra. In case you're curious, about 16% of the orchestra was African--with the audience about the same. In other words, this was mostly a white event.

Regarding the relaxed attitude--this past Friday we caught the 5:30 a.m. bus to Nairobi. Our HEART driver was to pick us up in Nairobi at 7:30 a.m. When he didn't arrive, we discovered after several phone calls that he had misunderstood and had driven to Athi River for us. He finally arrived in Nairobi to pick us up at 10:30 a.m. We felt badly, but hadn't been the ones making the arrangements, so we weren't sure where the breakdown occurred.

We struggle with getting places on time (for church, classes and events) only to discover the event is late in starting. We haven't yet become African and continue to arrive on time :-).