2.5.09--IU House in the morning

One last day of traveling yesterday started at an exceedingly nice hotel called the Country Lodge in Nairobi. We were told the hotel was on the safest street in all of Nairobi by our driver from the airport... As he nods his head to the high, heavily-fortified wall to our right, "Israeli Embassy, " he says.



At Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, we were able to retrieve our luggage at the sixth desk/office/checkpoint to which we were sent… most importantly, of course, it was retrieved. Outside the ticket office at the airport below. I have always found it challenging to find a balance between taking thoughtful pictures that might convey some sense of place and being intrusive and overly tourist-y. The gentleman in the picture below may have made up his mind on the question.



One final wait for boarding...



And a short, 45-minute flight in a small prop plane...



Bring us to Eldoret.



We were given a brief introduction to a story which Anne & I kept a close eye on for several weeks more than a year ago, promptly forgot but now hope to put in some context. For a quick summary and an interesting post-script, follow the link to a recent New York Times article describing the election and America's role in its aftermath. Anyhow, as we drove into Eldoret Town from the airport, our driver asked if I had been in Eldoret "before the clashes". He described them as "terrible" with "fighting in the streets". To our left were the burnt-out remains of homes along one stretch of the road, to our right was a long dusty strip leading to a still-populated camp for those displaced during the violence. One year later, our driver reports that some 3,000 people still call the camp home for lack of anywhere else to go or due to lingering safety concerns.

On a separate drive, yet another driver named Tony told us that his mother was Maasai, his father Kikuyu. He had married a woman from yet another tribe. He described marriages between tribes as quite common. There was an undertone of pride and perhaps allegiance to his Kikuyu roots, today the largest and historically the most successful &/or powerful of Kenya's many tribes. I imagine we'll find that tribal tensions have not greatly changed since last year but there does not appear to have been any further violence for many months. The fine line between the bloody tribal conflicts of a year ago and the for-the-most-part peaceful, very normal-appearing happenings of a multi-ethnic society is one that I stuggle with and don't understand. Growing up male, white, suburban and Midwestern didn't provide me with the experiences with which to relate. In this case, mark that in the "plus" column of the above four adjectives.

Lastly, one unanimously positive piece of Kenyan news comes not out of Kenya but from the U.S. Kenyans appear to agree when it comes to Barack Obama. Our driver Tony told us he knew Senator Obama was destined for great things. Even described betting what sounded like a huge sum of money on it. President Obama's grandmother's experience at his Inauguration has been front page stuff since we arrived. See Mama Sarah below.



Today, Anne & I head into the hospital for the first time. "Unasikiaje leo?" means "How are you feeling today?" We shall see.

Joe