China and Africa

This week finds me in Kenya, where I and other family members are visiting my niece who works in Nairobi. She has been in the country for 10+ years and we are now getting to see and experience a bit of her life.

On our 2nd day in Nairobi, we visited the city’s little Chinatown. It’s not a neighborhood like other Chinatowns around the world, but rather a walled compound, inside of which are several rows of shops and restaurants catering to the growing Chinese population in the city. China is heavily invested in a myriad of development projects all over the continent. For a primer on China’s relationship with Africa, I commend an article published at ChinaSource, titled China and Africa: An Introduction. In addition, please check out the Fall 2019 ChinaSource Quarterly about how God is working through African Christians ministering together.

We found a little restaurant and enjoyed an amazing meal of my favorite dishes. I wish you could have seen the shocked face of the owner of the restaurant when this white lady walked into her place in Nairobi and started speaking Chinese!

On Saturday we had the opportunity to travel the 300+ mile journey from Nairobi to the coastal city of Mombasa by a Chinese-built rail line and train. Called the “Madaraka Express,” the line was completed in 2017 as a replacement for the Uganda Railway built and which had been built by the British colonial government in the late 1800s.

As someone who spent three decades riding trains in China, I must admit that everything about the journey was weirdly familiar. It was a delightful ride and provided us with an opportunity to see the gorgeous Kenya countryside.

Next stop: a safari!