Homecoming

David, Oren, and I at the Kenya National Museum.

I apologize for any haste in writing this entry and delay in getting it on line, but it is late now and I am dead tired. We had a line of visitors today, some making social calls to welcome us back after a long vacation, and others to help pull together last minute plans for our SALTers who are arriving tomorrow (Monday)!

As we are coming to terms with the reality that 3 new workers doubles the size of our team, and consequently our responsibility as well. At this point all of our host families are in place but we still have 3 sets of orientation guides to print and copy, as well as some shopping for food.

Jodi was with us this weekend and suggested that they do a 4 day Kirundi intensive and cultural dive-in at Burasira, so we may be there early next week. A trip to Kigali in the near future is on the docket as well.


Right now, though, it is good to have about a week without any travel. We returned from our vacation and got into Buj late Friday night. We were supposed to land around midday but we had some trouble at the Kenya airport. I will come back to that after I catch you up on the early part of the week.

We returned to Nairobi from the coast on Monday and checked into the Mennonite Guest House there. The guesthouse is simple, but very nice and the large back yard has some great swings for kids as well as opportunity for some excellent bird watching.

We had dinner with some friends of Dave and Jean (from their Bangladesh days) then said our goodbyes as they (Dave and Jean) were going to catch a plane about 5 the next morning.

On Tuesday we had visits to the pediatrician for Oren and David. It was nice to find such modern doctor’s offices that had all the vaccines they needed, and the pediatrician was excellent. We were also a bit taken aback by the price of the visit which was about the same as what we would pay in the US, and not the $5 to $10 doctor visits that we had become accustomed to in Burundi.

Wednesday was dentist day and all of us went to the dentist. This was probably the most modern, high-tech, dental office I have seen anywhere in the world, and was located in a very upscale mall. Again, we were quite shocked by the very high cost of a check up and cleaning for Rebecca, Oren and I, but were glad to see that there are places here where one can get very good dental and even orthodontic care.

We spent the rest of the day shopping for supplies in the Westgate Mall. This mall lacked nothing that could be bought in the US, and it was honestly a bit surreal to remember that we were in Kenya. Just to illustrate my point: we treated ourselves to lunch at a very nice Japanese sushi restaurant, and later had Greek food for dinner at the food court.

On Thursday we took in some sights, namely the Kenya National Museum, which has a ‘snake park’ attached to it. We chose to do the snake park only and had the chance to see many of the venomous snakes that live in East Africa up close. There are some very scary snakes here including, puff adders, Gabon vipers, cobras, and the dreaded green mambas, and black mambas. They also had crocodiles and turtles. (Although unlike Burundi, you can’t jump in the cages with crocodiles and pull their tails or feed them guinea pigs.)

We visited the Kenya MCC office for lunch on Thursday and later had dinner with a young MCC couple, Jonathan and Marti, who have two kids about the age of our own. He is an artisan and works to build the capacity of local artisans in Kenya, especially to help them develop design ideas, and quality control to be competitive in a world market. It was great to meet them, (they were good friends of Zachee, Bridget and Tim, as well as our predecessors Doug and Deanna Hiebert.) We had dinner with them and shared an Ethiopian meal at a restaurant reputed to have the best Ethiopian food in Kenya. I would have to say it is probably true. The food was awesome.

Jonathan also confirmed to us what we had been told by others, that Nairobi was becoming a very dangerous place to live due to banditry. Many expats have been mugged, car jacked or had their houses broken into. The former MCC country rep was even shot in a robbery. This is very sad as, to me, it is indicative of the rapidly growing and expanding upper class, and worsening maldistribution of prosperity in the country. This is a trend that is reflected elsewhere in Africa and much of the rest of the world.

In Nairobi it is quite astonishing to see people desperate in slums and shanty towns in such close proximity to the luxury malls I described above. I just don’t think this type of development is sustainable, even though many would argue that Kenya is a model of the African free-market model. If wealth is not redistributed in some way, I think there will be a continued and worsening trend of violence and rebellion. The first hints of this emerged in the elections a year ago.

I would add, however, that having come from Burundi, I was struck by the pride of the Kenyan people. There is something about them that is evident on a psychological level that I do not see among Burundians. There is a confidence, a spirit of entrepreneurship, hope for the future, and a sense of self worth that I think the years of trauma and civil war has bred out of many in Burundi. I think Kenyans see themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the world. This is reflected in their producing of champion marathoners, their country which is arguably one of the most beautiful and exciting tourist attractions in the world, and even the personal pride they seem to take in Obama’s presidency.

When we talked to Kenyan, be they doctors, or taxi drivers, I really noticed that they were very friendly and polite, but not self effacing. We were not stared at because we were Mzungus, or really seen as anything particularly special in Nairobi. In Burundi, I feel I am treated somewhat differently. There is far more undeserved deference and a sense of awe that I seem to experience in my interactions with many Burundians. I have no doubt that this is due to the different histories of these two countries. Kenya has been a bulwark of stability and peace in the region and Burundi has been mired in violence due to ethnic division.

I am generalizing here as there are certainly exceptions to this rule on both sides, but it was interesting to notice this, having spent time with people in these different countries.

We prepared to leave Nairobi on Friday morning. It was sad to have our vacation end, but we were ready to get back to our home in Bujumbura at this point. We got to the airport with our many bags (including an extra one that Papa Dave and brought with him of supplies for us.) and got through the ticketing process with minimal difficulty, although we were a bit late and only had about 30minutes before the plane took off.

I had a slight pang of suspicion that something was not right when the agent sent us to the gate area but told us they had not announced a gate yet. He did tell me that the plane was not listed as delayed though. We got to the gate area and waited for an announcement or listing for out gate, but as the time for departure came and went, it never appeared.

Not only that, but the departure board subornly did not acknowledge that it was delayed or cancelled. I did notice, however, (it was noon now) that every single flight on Kenya airways since 7 am had been delayed or cancelled. In essence nothing from Kenya airways had taken off at all the entire morning. I looked outside to see if there was a storm or other weather problem--nothing, I speculated that maybe there was a bomb scare, but surmised that there was probably a strike that began that morning that was trying to be kept quiet by the airport authorities.

This was confirmed when Rebecca went up to ask and got a sneak peak a memo to that effect on the info desk. Interestingly enough, no official at the airport ever said a word about it, and seemed to be trying the strategy of keeping everyone in the dark about it as long as possible.

With our flight in limbo it was hard to know how to proceed. It was not delayed or cancelled, but it was not on time either. We waited for several more hours and were trying to see if they could rebook, but they did announce our flight for a later time that day. We had no confidence that it would leave but no choice but to wait and see.

To make a long story short, after many more hours of stall tactics and shunting us around to different places, we did get on our flight that evening and got home about 9pm, 12 hours after we had arrived at the airport in Kenya.

It is sad to have such a great vacation come to an end. One thing I value about a vacation is the opportunity to reset. Even more than the great sites, was the chance to put back into practice, good habits of self care and spiritual discipline. Rebecca and I were able to swim most every morning, read the Bible, and eat healthily. I am coming back renewed and refreshed, and committed to trying to be more wholistic in balancing work, family and self care. This first week back we are already having to break some of those resolutions as we frantically get ready for our new team members arriving.

That said, we are glad to be back, everything here is coated in a thick layer of dust. I am looking forward to the rainy season here!