I made it back to Nairobi, but I learned an important lesson along the journey: never sit in the far back of the bus. I took an overnight bus from the coastal town of Malindi to Nairobi. I was able to fall asleep right around the time we hit the really bad stretch of road between Mombassa and Nairobi. When we did hit the bad part I found my self waking up sort of hovering about two feet above my seat. Seems that the further back you go in the bus the harder you get hit by the bumps. There were a few big ones that managed to shoot all of us in the back out of our seats and into the air.
Young kids playing football near the beach in Malindi.
In Nairobi, I took a quick shower at the guest house and headed straight to the headquaters of the United Nations Environmental Program. The group I’m working with – Energy for Sustainable Development – was part of a Carbon Finance event going on in parallel to the annual Council of Parties (COP) meeting for the Kyoto Protocol, the Climate Change treaty. Unfortunately any shmo off the street can’t get into the COP meeting, but I did get to meet a lot of people that were involved in the meeting.
I was taken aback at all of the Wazungu suddenly congregating in Kenya. I got a good laugh from Isaac’s cousin Mary asking me once in Lamu if I new of any of “my country men” whenever we would see a group of wazungu. But sure enough there were so many of them at once at the COP meeting that I happened to already know one of the one’s I met in the evening. It was Rob Balis, an ERG student that graduated with his PhD at the same time that I graduated from ERG. He did his research in Kenya and is now a professor at the Yale School of Forestry. He had also come to Kenya as a Peace Corp volunteer so we spent the entire evening comparing notes. He also took me out to a fantastic Ethiopian restaurant that is very close to the ESD offices. Anyone that makes it out here should remind me to take them to it.
Ths scene sort of captures what I have seen in Nairobi: beautiful scenery with an underlying sense of fear that forces people to put up some of the scarriest fences I have ever seen. this one is your standard razorwire others go with electrcit fences or shards of sharp glass cemeneted onto the top of the fence.
And in a few days Sam will be here. We will take a week to get from Nairobi to Mombassa through two big national parks. I ran around downtown Nairobi today looking at tour packages. There is a lot to see in this country! We’ll get just a little snippet of it. It looks like you need at least two weeks to see all of the highlights, but with luck we’ll get to see a lion or two along the trip.
Ah, the fence in Nairobi ran a shiver of fear down my spine. It looks like Dad and I will get a chance to see the fences for ourselves, as I have just booked tickets for this Christmas! Until then I will browse through books about lions...........the library had something about what to do in case of an encounter. Lots of love to you, Andrew!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you came across Rob Balis at the conference! Is he the one who's Phd work was lost in the fire and had to be rewritten? Small world at any rate... Funny how Mary thought you might know other of your "country men." I suppose from her perspective, Wazungu are such a small group, even at the conference, that meeting friends there would be no surprise.
ReplyDeleteYou're sure doing a great job of keeping us in tune with your adventure. Thank you for the effort. Can't wait for our visit.
Your last riddler is certainly the toughest so far, since it deals with human factors and our inter-relationships with the material world. I see similar situations at work with fire management. It's always a challenge to find that middle ground between frightened rookie and complacent veteran, agitator for change and defender of institution, nuerotic who has to pick apart every detail and slouch who likes to say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Best of luck seeking resolution. You're the man!
Hi Andrew - & Dave & Chris too. I enjoy your comments too - & finding out you have tickets. Sounds like you more sure of going now. For Andrew - I am impressed that you can take the Zen phylosophy and still help the people relate from the desire for a better inner attitude to how to use the care & motivation to what these traits would mean in getting something done that works for the possitive results needed on equipment. And then to read Dave's similar experience with people on their needing balance in these inner attitudes. The condition of what's on the inside of us as it relates to how we live outwardly is my "big thing". That is the first thing to care for to really effect the outward. Love you all. Aunt Naomi
ReplyDelete