[Dialogue] A Great Life Completed

Fri Apr 11 13:32:54 EDT 2008

 A Remembrance:

You might say John
Rupert worked for me as I was the Co-Area Director for Area  Nairobi from 1980-86 which was kind of a joke
with Slicker, Rafos, Kay Hayes, Wiegel and Lingo..they were all extremely
gifted and impossible to manage. 

With John Rupert I periodically went on fund raising calls
with him as he seemed to know everybody. I can remember once he wanted to go
visit the first Kenya
Attorney General under President Jomo Kenyatta. We trudged out to a huge coffee
estate right outside Nairobi.
The former Attorney General gave John Rupert a huge hug. As I remember the
story, and it may be hard to separate story from mythology, John Rupert had
moved from the UK to Kenya to become
a farmer. It was just after the Mau-Mau period of Kenya freedom fighting. But for
whatever reason, John Rupert was set upon by two Kenyans who tried to kill him
on his farm. They left him for dead but John Rupert somehow was able to find
help and eventually survived the attack. After his recovery, John Rupert
discovered that the two Kenyans had been caught and were sentenced to be
hanged.  John Rupert was horrified and
immediately charged off to the Attorney General’s office.  John Rupert somehow was able to get in to see
the Attorney General and he pleaded with him to spare the lives of the two men
who had tried to kill him. I can remember the former Attorney General saying it
was the most amazing thing to see this white man who was almost killed by those
two young men pleading for their lives. They were spared.

I am full of John Rupert stories….it is like he was an incarnation of our ‘Iron Man’ stories. 
“ After making coffee, Iron Man set out on his journey…” were he ran into the garbage truck of reality…
He was brought back to the 'Now' by the sound of a large diesel engine and  the  screech  of  rubber  on  black  top. 
He looked up to see the Garbage Truck of Reality bearing down upon him."

John Rupert was a Kenyan citizen and this sometimes made it
difficult for him over against us foreigners. John Rupert was our front man for
starting new locations so he was always visiting people to get authorization to
work in a District. But the upfront job did make for difficulties. As I
remember this story, John Rupert was out West doing set up and thought he would
do some fund raising for the new project area and started visiting businesses
for their support. He was stopped by two policemen who wanted to see his
permit- probably just a ruse for chai (bribe) as we never had permits. They
took him to the police station and he was sitting there when he suddenly
realized he had an appointment with the Church of the Providence (CPK-Episcopal) Bishop. He was not
going to stand up the Bishop, so he proceeded to walk out of the police
station. The police caught up with him and dragged him back. They then went
through his backpack and discovered the book we were then studying, The Art of War. Not the best thing to
be carrying around Kenya
at that time. Things then took a nasty turn. John Rupert was not one to shy
away from making a point or challenging people’s views. All this is to say, the
police used a garden hose on him and damaged one of his ears. We finally were
able to get John Rupert out of jail by sending a lawyer from Nairobi to spring him.

   "He got up and brushed off the dust of despair and picked up his pack. It had  peanut  butter and jelly oozing from 
one pocket, but otherwise seemed  O.K.  Iron man  wiped  up  the  mess with some napkins he had in-kinded at
 Burger King and strode off to his philosophy class. He'd be late, but he'd already had more than enough 
philosophy for one lifetime. "

Now John Rupert was never shy about asking you to help him
out or to give a lift. He was famous for waving down cars for rides by standing
in the middle of the road and moving his arm up and down. He was also a great
in-kinder. I remember one time he in-kinded a rental car for a week to do set-up
in one of our Kenya’s
distant districts. The problem was usually that after you got off the tarmac,
the roads were dirt and many times as rough as a washboard.  John Rupert had a great strategy that if you
went fast enough you would fly over those ruts in the road. One could not go
slow if one was to set up 1,500 villages. So, after a week on the road visiting
villages and chiefs John Rupert brought the rental car back to the car dealer.  The car looked to be in great shape, from the
outside.  John Rupert left the car with
them. About a week later I had a call from the rental car dealer saying that
they had just checked the underside of the car and it was ruined. It was so bad
that they were going to have to trash the car. 

Iron man's mind left the present moment and drifted back to Chicago where a "We Shall Build the Earth" session
 was in progress. He reflected on the fact that the notion was not quite as easy as it had seemed back then in the day
 of a new era. John Rupert was a unique and unrepeatable spirit who made possible one of the most exciting adventures I have ever participated
 in. It was very clear we were not “shoveling shit in Louisiana”.  He laid down his life for the rise of local people, and he did it every 
day.

Dick Alton

Richard H.T. Alton
International Consultants and Associates
'building global bridges'
166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N
Oak Park, IL 60302
T:1.773.344.7172
richard.alton at gmail.com

Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back 
   Babe Ruth

Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:56:50 -0700
From: gharper1 at mindspring.com
To: oe at wedgeblade.net; springboard at wedgeblade.net; Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
Subject: [Dialogue] A Great Life Completed

Colleagues --

Just a brief note at the moment.  We'll want to pause for a moment to
celebrate the completion of a wondrous life, that of John Rupert
Barnes, who died yesterday in Kenya.  I just had word of it from
daughter Elena.  

Ah, the stories we'll tell . . . .

Gordon

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