The Nairobi Arboretum is just a short distance from the city center and is a good place to hibernate to for a while when one is looking for a little quiet. It is a recommended venue for a person who seeks a perspective of issues, especially if what you are looking for is the end to the thread with which to tie events together. There are numerous paths through a wooded area that at first appears like a maze especially if you are visiting for the first time. But I suppose it is by finding your way through it that you are able to figure out whatever other puzzles there might be in your life. As you walk along the paths, you easily become distracted by the sights, sounds and fragrances of the trees, the flowers, the birds, the insects and an occasional monkey. There are also strategically placed benches that you can relax on as you trade in the noise in your head for the silence of the park.
It was while I was sitting on one of those straight backed benches made from bamboo that a troop of school children approached like tiny soldiers on the move. They had a maroon and blue uniform and were all around 10 years old. From the bubbling excitement and stars and flowers painted on their faces, it was easy to assume that they were on a class field day out. They were being led by their teacher and as they approached where I was seated, she asked if I knew where the water tap was. I told her no. With that, she instructed the children to walk no further as she disappeared around the wooded path in a solo search for the water point. The children looked lost for just a bit, and suddenly, they began to congregate around the bench on which I was seated. I guessed it must be their training that kicked in, to look up to a grown up for directions. I was surrounded by about 100 little faces of boys and girls whose hullaballoo suddenly hushed as if waiting for me to address them. I was bewildered for a moment but I decided just to keep quiet. In that little while, there was total silence but for the jostling of impatient feet and I remembered the email conversation that I had earlier with a friend who is about to start teaching class 1 pupils for the first time in her life. In part it went:
New challenges are coming up my way next year. I begin my life as a class teacher for Standard One and that will be a huge milestone for me. I am really anxious but I know that this is one thing that God keeps bringing me back to and that quote from the Apple CEO is so true:
“You’ve got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
It is quite interesting because this week I am leading devotions and what we are discussing is pursuing excellence God’s way. The stark reality is that I will never pursue excellence in my workplace for instance if I do not have the right attitude and that will only come if I know that I am in the right place… I sincerely pray that I have found that, for what I do gives me so much joy and satisfaction despite the fact that it does have its downsides to it too. Yet it is those very challenges that make it all the more beautiful… all the more worthwhile!
And continued….
Do you marvel over the monumental task of being able to raise a child, and impart the values that are going to guide them for the rest of their lives? Now that you will be a teacher of young brains, do you realize that your role in shaping the future of Kenyans will even be greater than that of the parents? Do you realize that you have a chance of having every single dream that you ever had for this world come alive through your interaction with those children for the amount of time that God will grant you? At the same time, you will have the opportunity to make friends for a lifetime – valuable friends. I would have to say that the friendship of children is similar to the one that a person would make with flowers. No one quite understands what it is with human beings and flowers, and yet the connection cannot be denied.
So, what makes us be able to do the ‘little’ things what we do despite the scorn and skeptism that often comes from ourselves or that might come from those that think we should do different things; such as channeling energies to efforts that translate into a fat bank account or an executive position in a big company? The belief that we are not doing this for our own sakes, but for a more profound reason that we might not yet understand. That, rather than you or I being the architects of our careers, we have accepted to become vessels through which God can reach out to others. We become like a trough that God daily fills with water and all sorts of creatures have to come for a drink. That takes sacrifice, takes submission, and might even require for God to bring us on our knees. The many ‘bad’ things that have happened in life might just be that; God bringing us to our knees.
And at that moment, the teacher came back and the children were given fresh instructions on where to go next. I had just learnt my first lesson of what it would take to become a school teacher; a strong conviction of being at the right place at the right time doing the right thing.