OBJ Background

Edith and I lived in Kenya about 25 years, from most of the time from 1971 to 1998. After two initial years in Kenya, we were in the US for about 2.5 years for further advanced studies and training.

We spent all our time in Kenya, except for trips of a few months to a year about every 4 years.  Since 1998 we have spent over three years in Cyprus, and 4 years in Richmond, Virginia.  Our two sons were born and grew up in Kenya.

Hardships?
Sometimes Americans ask us what hardship we endured by living in Africa.  It is hard to think in terms of hardships.  We adjusted to things as needed and raised our two sons there, who were born in Nairobi.  I guess things were more rustic, and we had to make food from scratch.  Phones did not work well the first few years, and then again in recent years the infrastructure deteriorated rapidly again.  I understand it is gradually building back up under a new government that went in after we left.

The cultural differences and expectations were hard to deal with sometimes.  For an American, inpidual and family time for privacy, and space around us, is important, but these are not values in Africa.  So people don't have the same self-limiting values of not imposing on others.  People have to walk long distances to see another, so it is never appropriate to refuse to see anyone, or otherwise inconvenience them once they are there.

On the other hand, hospitality is a great value and people are always congenial and helpful, though sometimes it goes into solicitousness, which is sometimes annoying, as people tell you what they think you want to hear.  We had many good friends among Kenyans of various tribes.

Officialdom
Dealing with government and other officialdom was usually quite stressful.  There are formal requirements and procedures, which an official may often be very sticky about.  But often the informal or whimsical requirements are the ones that get you.  You never know when something else is going to be required.

The growing open corruption in public servants was a challenge, a strong pressure weighing on us much of the time over the last ten years or so.  Then nothing ever goes smoothly or fast in anything official.  And paperwork -- the African governments could teach Europe and America how to do red tape.

A Heart for Africa
Once you are in Africa, it grabs your heart.  You'll really enjoy it, and will thrill when you think of Africa later when you are away.  There is a charm as well as a challenge in the continent and the people.

Media and Language
I first served in media production, including radio and TV programming, music and children's programs, for broadcast and church use.  I had been involved in languages all my life and was asked by the Baptist Mission to become the director of a new language and cultural orientation program.  I developed and managed this, expanding our services to other East African languages, and providing guided learning for self-directed learners in various sites aorund Keny and Tanzania.

I was director of this progam, which came to be called the Cross-Cultural Communicaton Centre from 1976 to 1990.  This centre and its extensions programs became a cultural training center for many missions, learning African culture and relationship-building and gaining cultural competence through the Swahili language.  This program is still operating:  http://www.easternafrica.org/kenya/home.htm

Cultural Research
In recent years my studies in African cultural history, as part of my preparation of missionaries for their work in culture, became a primary focus in people group research.  I was the founding director of the research center for the Baptist mission network of Eastern and Southern Africa, called at that time the Interfaith Research Center (1997).  I developed the Baptist research network, and coordinated with other missions and agencies in developing profiles and gathering information on the ethnicities of the region.  I think the IRC has now been incorporated into the Baptist Mission of Kenya.

I have continued with the latter emphasis, which has led to the websites
http://orvillejenkins.com and
http://strategyleader.org.

Registry of Peoples
My primary project currently is the Registry of Peoples, a standard reference database of the Harvest Information System that provides a unique code for each of the peoples of the world, to enable various databases with ethnicity information to compare and exchange information. I serve as editor of this codeset, which I will continue with from my curent residence near Johannesburg, South African.

Teaching
For several years I was on the faculty for several summer sessions of the Toronto Institute of Linguistics. This special institute was an intense month of training in how to learn languages. The purpose of this month was to provide non-linguistics practical skills in learning language and culture, without formal resources, learning from the people themselves in a community context.

Related to our mission relationships, I taught world religions, study methods, and Islam at the Kenya Baptist Theological College, Limuru, and was a visiting professor at other schools in the area.  I also taught a course in Communications at nearby St. Paul's College in Limuru.

Additionally I have been a visiting lecturer, in the areas of Islam, Cultural Research and Cross-Cultural Communications at in the following Kenyan universtities:  Kenyatta University College, Nairobi, Kenya; Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology; Nairobi International School of Theology; East Afridcan School of Theology.  Additonally, I was on the Borad of Governors of Rosslyn Academy in Nairobi, from which both our sons graduated. I had earlier served as Chariman of the PTA, and worked on the Accreditation Committee.  I have also been visiting lecturer at Eastern College, St. David's Pennsylvania.  My wife and I were both on staff at Hardin-Simmons University during one of our years in the US.

Church Development
I also worked all through the years in various areas of church development and leadership training.  Over a three-year period in the 1980s, I also started pioneer church work among the Maasai (Keekonyokie tribe) in the Suswa area of the Rift Valley in the mid-80s, while carrying on my international responsibilities as Communication Resource Specialist, designing language and culture learning programs in various countries of Africa.

Also related:
OBJ Educational Background

OBJ

This article started with a 4-5 November 2005 response to an email query
Finalized as an article 29 July 2006
Last edited 22 October 2007

Orville Boyd Jenkins, Ed.D., Ph.D.
Copyright © 2006 Orville Boyd Jenkins
Permission granted for free download and transmission for personal or educational use.  Other rights reserved.

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