The Big Apple Baby

         Last week was another very exciting one for the program, filled with several firsts for myself. We traveled to New York, a city I’d never been to, so that we could go through some seminars and visit the United Methodist UN building as well as the United Nations building itself. Getting there was an ordeal, our Megabus broke down in New Jersey, but a little confusion never killed anybody. Pretty soon we were in Times Square, gawking at the gigantic billboards and rubbing our bellies full of pizza from the first shop we saw.

         On Thursday we paid a visit to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the infamous first stop for immigrants coming from Europe in the early 20^th Century. The history there is present at every turn, from the Statue herself to the dormitory hall, it is impossible to look around and not recognize both the symbols of hope and the signs of unfair treatment. There was also the oddity that was the gift shop, where an attempt to celebrate the different cultures that passed through that island was thwarted by a representation of cultures that didn’t. Across the room from the wall of Polish art was a shelf of African art, under the label “Africa,” as if it’s a country just like Poland and Ireland and Germany, and next to it was a shelf for the country of China. Both of these are wrong for various reasons; Africa because an overwhelming majority of the Africans who entered this country certainly weren’t brought in through Ellis Island, they were slaves, and China because not only would they have entered through Angel Island, many of them were coming to work as laborers under harsh laws and rampant racism. Coming to the United States was not a pleasant time for either party, but that history will not be spoken if the gift shop can stand to make a great profit.

         On Friday we heard a great testimony from Kati Lau, a Kenyan American who had a moment of enlightenment in her life regarding who she is, one that ultimately brought her closer to her own extended family. When she was giving her story, it felt so familiar. Everything she described from the great welcoming party to the scenery to the love of the village, it all took me back to my own memories of my parent’s villages of Tengecha and Olenguruone. I think this helped me to understand her story on a deeper level, but I know her message of finding herself and finding her family be heard by all.

Roy Koech

EYA Intern, General Board of Church and Society