Re-entry from Kenya

Spoiled by the technology I’ve come to take for granted, my hopes of “blogging” from Kenya were dashed immediately by the inconsistency of Internet access, even at the four-star hotels and resorts where we stayed. So here’s my first entry three days after returning from two weeks of photo safaris and relationship-building in Kenya, East Africa

 

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Our wonderful tour lead, Nderitu Mahinda, (we call him Mahinda) is Kikiyu, the largest tribe in Kenya and the one with the most political and business clout. Since he and his travel business live in Hercules, CA, this trip was also his trip, which was a bonus for us. We met many family members that, in turn, led to many of the highlights of our trip, such as golf with a potential business partner, a live TV interview, dinner parties, and a moving visit to a rehabilitation center for homeless girls. That’s a few more blog entries.

This was another transformational vacation. By transformational, I mean a shift in my consciousness and worldview. Every trip to a new country changes the way I see the world. I saw Christian and Muslim co-existing in small villages and big cities while the headlines were full of the ugly politics, violence, and displacement of what is called tribal conflict, but is really just the games of greed and power. The Kenyan government is not unlike the Bush administration. The poverty I saw on the outskirts of Nairobi looked no different than the favellas of Rio, the townships of South Africa. The villages of poor people we passed through as we journeyed to each safari lodge looked like those in Baja, Mexico. The transformative revelation was realizing the common aspects and aftermath of European colonialism around the world and throughout history; seeing it continue to play out in Africa. First seeing South Africa and now Kenya, countries that were not free until the close of the 20th century. A lot of things must change and there is so much promise and abundance.

Instead of getting angry or depressed, I instead asked what lessons have we learned, what lessons can we share? And that was extremely uplifting because there is so, so, so much we can do.

Although Africa is home to most of my DNA, the only sense of “going home” is being in a place where the majority of people are black. Notice I didn’t say “look like me” because they don’t. All of us (Ed Valeau, Jesse Williams, Patrick LaSalle, and I) stood out as foreigners as much as a white person would, although everywhere we went, people welcomed us warmly and curiously lis ça. They loved to see us coming! We were from “America”, we elected Obama our President! Kenyans love Obama. But the irony is that if he ran for office in Kenya, he would probably lose for two reasons – he’s half-white and he’s Luo, Kenya’s third largest tribe and most contentious in the fight for power with the Kikiyu in the political arena.

What We Did While in Kenya

OK, I could go on and on about the personal reflections of this trip, let me tell you about where we went, what we did, and what we saw. The map above shows just about everywhere we went. We flew into Nairobi, spent the night there at the Safari Park Hotel where the Kenyan Members of Parliament where meeting about the “Waki Report”, a sealed investigative report on the connection of some elected officials to the tribal violence that occurred during the recent elections. The next morning we headed for Mt. Kenya. On the way, we stopped in the Nyeri area where Mahinda’s parents still live on a large farm where they grew coffee, bananas, and other small crops. Nearby, one of Mahinda’s uncles has a beautiful second home and when we passed through we found his cousins, Brian and Jaambee, kicking back with a two other friends. They joined us for the drive to the Mt. Kenya Safari Club and the reception dancers. The next day we played golf on a beautiful course, the only distraction being the occasional baboon argument.

Mt. Kenya is on the equator and standing on a spot along that demarcation was pretty special. We stop at a tourist trap and got demonstration of how the earth’s gravitational pull changes direction north and south.

Next stop was Lake Nakura where we began to see the animals – more baboons, zebra, African buffalo, rhino, and flamingos.

From Lake Nakura we headed to the Great Rift Valley Lodge for a one night stay. Ed and Jesse played golf the next morning and we were off to the Maasai Mara.

Leaving Mara, we headed to Amboseli. More thoughts and pictures later.