An Afternoon on the Golf Course

Every once in a while, a day comes along when it's easy to forget that I'm in Kenya, and as much as I love living here, sometimes a break from the norm is quite welcome! Yesterday was one of those days when I felt like I'd left the country behind and entered a whole different world...

The parents of one of my good friends, Joe Heritage, are visiting Kenya for a couple of weeks, and yesterday his dad Kirby took Adrian, Joe, and I out for an afternoon at the Limuru Country Club. We pulled into the parking lot, just a few minutes away from my house, and were immediately struck with the collection of Range Rovers and Mercedes packing the place - I have no idea where those people are coming from around here, but apparently there are much more rich people in the area than I thought! We signed in at the clubhouse and picked up four caddies for 9 holes of golf. If you know me at all, you probably know that I wouldn't consider myself a "golfer." In fact, I haven't played golf in at least 11 years, so I was a little bit nervous as we stepped up to the first teebox. Thankfully, Joe isn't a great golfer either, and my googling of "basic golf swing" caught me up on the fundamentals. We played "best ball," so Joe and I both took each shot and then picked the best one of the two for our next shot - in this way we made it through most of the holes with a pretty respectable score. On the fifth hole I even connected with a solid drive - wow, what a feeling! Even more than the excitement that came from hitting the rare, somewhat good shot, I absolutely loved the golf experience - it was a beautiful, sunny, 75-degree day, and walking around on the grass, laughing with friends and hilarious Kenyan caddies, and soaking up an opportunity to relax all made for an excellent afternoon. At the end of the round, Joe and I were pretty proud of our performance...we were only a few strokes behind Adrian and Kirby, and we'd even pulled out a single-bogey on one par 3 - success!

After the sun went down over the golf course in a beautiful African sunset, we picked up Carmen and Joe's mom Rita for dinner at the Kentmere club. Kentmere is an British club from the colonialist days in Kenya, and you truly feel like you've entered an old-World British hunting lodge, complete with dark, wood paneling and stone fireplaces, when you step inside. It's really the only "nice" place to eat close to Limuru, and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner with great food and lots of laughs.

I got home last night thanking God for such a relaxing, wonderful afternoon and evening. I never expected when I arrived here that I would end up spending a Friday afternoon playing golf, and when the opportunity arose, I was really worried that I wouldn't enjoy it at all, but life is full of surprises! Maybe someday golf will turn into a "hobby" for me, but for now I'll take the rare afternoon on the links and savor it for all its worth!