Formal handshakes and a lot more

We'll we've arrived at our final destination: Labao, Kenya. It was only 250 mile or so trip from Nairobi, but the road here are horrendous and the trip took ten hours. There are no lines on the highway, and the bus goes back and forth over the whole road trying to avoid potholes. We're staying at the peace center in Labao, where we just went though a three day alternative to violence program with 8 westerners and 20 Kenyans. It was a really interesting experience, hearing especially from the Kenyans about the violence here at the beginning of the year. One of our facilitators actually had to be hidden underground for a few days before being flow to Tanzania because of his tribal identity. Passing through the city of Kisumu you could see the burned out building that still haven't been reclaimed by the owners, since most are still in displacement camps. On a happier note the people here are some of the friendliest I've ever met, and the kids are amazingly curious. When they see a 'muzungu' (white person) they will follow you around trying to practice their English. If you have a digital camera, they want nothing more to have their picture taken and shown to them. We walked down to the river last night after the alternative to violence sessions, and we managed to pick up about fifty children under 10. Amazing! Tomorrow we start the actual work at the center, building and plastering a new administrative building that servery need. The work done at the center was acutally highlighted in one of the national papers, so the demand is greater then ever. Once again, I'll promise to try and get pictures up soon. All the best.

Ahh right, the tittle speaks to formal handshakes. Here, if you really want to express respect to someone, you place your left hand right below your right elbow when you shake. Try it out!

Day One..

We’ll we’ve spent the last night and day in Nairobi. We landed last night around 9:30, though it took an hour or two to get threw the visa lines. Customs was a non issue, most of the group just walked past the booth without even interacting with the agents. We’re staying at the Mennonite Group Home, which is in one of the nicest sections of Nairobi. Most places here are compounds, with security at the gate and high fences with electric wire, and our camp is no exception. In their defense, Nairobi is referred to as ‘Nairobbery’ in many of the guide books. We walked into town today, which is about a mile walk down dirt paths on the sides of a really busy road. The disparity of income here is amazing, but seems to be more accepted then in the states. I walked past a brand new BMW whose driver was buying bananas from a woman on the roadside; the vendor lived in a strapped together metal box next to the stand. People definitely dress formally here; most of the men you pass walking on the roadway are wearing at least a collared shirt and slacks, and most have a sport coat on. Women also dress more formally, and one of the girls in the group got lots of sideways looks for wearing a skirt that fell at her knees. Lastly I bought a cell phone. Apparently over 80 percent of adults here have one, and call time is relatively inexpensive. It’s a strange thing; for a country where the average person makes one dollar a day, and forty percent are unemployed, I bought the cheapest phone in the store for nearly sixty dollars.



Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon, and entries won't be this regular once I'm out of the city.

AGLI in Burundi

Andrew Peterson has a blog about his experiences in Burundi, with some great insight into the country and the general conditions in Eastern Africa:

http://quakerfront.com/

Safety in Kenya

From the reports coming from the AGLI staff members in Keyna, things have setting down tremendously since the beginning of the year. Reports like this one initially made me somewhat nervous about how in-flux the situation was, but things seem to be a lot more stable now. Here's a quick excerpt from David Zarembka the founder of AGLI, who currently lives in Kenya:

"Here in Western and north Rift Valley provinces, upcountry Kenya has returned to the normal pre-election bustle. The roads are full of vehicles, the matatus (mini-buses) are full, and people are scurrying about their business as usual here in Kenya.

"The Government is pushing to have the remaining 150,000 internally displaces persons returned to their farms, which many of the displaced people are reluctant to do. Except for President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga visiting the camps in the Rift Valley (which resulted in a farce about whether the Vice-President or the Prime Minister was "second" in the protocol pecking order), almost no work has been done to bring about any kind of reconciliation between the folks displaced and those who displaced them. Politically of course, if the internally displaced people (IDP) can return, then there will less need to support them, but one of the questions is how are these folks going to get back on their feet? Then, the question is, what will guarantee that this violence will not re-occur again during the next election as it did in 1992, 1997, and 2007? Tough issues."

Where I'm heading

Just some quick information about the program: I'll be working and staying in a town called Labao, Kenya. It's about an hour bus ride north of Kisumu, which is on the shores of lake Victoria in the far west of the country. It's a ten hour bus ride from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya (where we'll fly in and out of the country). The red blob in the picture above is the area I'll be working and staying in.

The programs website is:

African Great Lakes Initiative

The site has a lot more detail about the project sites and the goals of the organization. Check it out.