thats a wrap folks...

Thats right, 2010 is fresh out of the gate... time to wrap up my trip posting and get on with things.

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I did not leave on our scheduled departure date with Kara... I extended my ticket for four weeks and the chance to see what might transpire from a little more time on the ground. It was good for me to just be after the go-go-going of our travels. Initially I had been totally overwhelmed by Nairobi, but after re-figuring out the matatus (the slightly maniacal minivans that speed through traffic sludge as though being chased by a pack of rabid hyenas, aka: public transportation) and settling into a somewhat routine, it was good. Really good. It felt normal- and to a degree, like home again. Than and I did fun things around the city, met up with friends and managed to get out of town for at least two of the weekends.

I spent two weeks working/volunteering/participating at Amani ya Juu- the same organization I had worked/volunteered at six years ago. It has more than doubled in size and capacity since my previous time there, and I was really interested to understand the nuts and bolts of such growth and the full spectrum of what they do. The director- and the women- graciously afforded me the opportunity to spend time with each department (production, distribution, warehouse, the shop, the cafe, clothing etc.), learning how it fits into the bigger picture and the general flow of activity. The mosaic-energy at Amani is beautiful; each woman doing her part to contribute to the whole, each piece beautiful in its own right-- but spectacular all together. It is a special community, to be sure. I so enjoyed reconnections and new connections and getting caught up in it all again, if only for a short time.

The 'Tye and Dye' area in the foreground, the production building in the background...

Lucy mixing the dyes.

Pettie and Nellie dipping the fabrics...

Pettie, me and Nellie all cleaned up after a day of dyeing ...
Josephine, from DRC, working in clothing...
Working with Doro in the Cafe... oh, such a fun day!

Visiting two of the women, Abigael and her kids and Zipporah at their homes one Saturday.

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The weekend before I left Than and I took a trip to Lake Baringo, a place we often went growing up. Oh, what a weekend it was! How good to be there with my brother. How healing to be in that beautiful place, so rich with memories from childhood... Baringo assailed my sesenses as we descended the escarpment; the air... the hot baringo air, the bright smell of acacia seedpods on the edge of it... the birds- a conglomeration of chatter specific to baringo... The lake. The trees. The colors and shapes and juxtapositions of plant, earth, rock and water... It was that really delicious way of remembering-- not exactly having forgotten, but finding your whole self in it, after a long time away... to remember, to re-know, all senses buzzing, such a place.

The big old beautiful acacia groves near the Africa Exchange project:
One of the many luggas on the road to Baringo

Tea, digestive biscuits and birdwatching with Than
Swimming and ordering Baringo Specials, fruit-filled drinks made with sprite and grenadine.

The lake in the warm, settling afternoon sunlight

* * *

And before I left, I managed to finish up a mosaic project I'd been working on for Mel, a pot that sits in her garden with a birdbath on top.

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Funny little story, my departure from Kenya and the full circle that it somehow brought to my trip. On the flight to Amsterdam, I sat next to two Rwandan sisters, Clementine and Isabelle, one just older than me the other just younger. They were returning to the US after traveling in Malawi for a couple of weeks together, flying Nairobi-Amsterdam to Chicago and onwards. Oh the places and people along the way, with whom we find a most pleasant and familiar connection... Our flight out of Nairobi had been significantly delayed, so we missed our connecting flight to Chicago, but KLM put us up in a fun hotel for the night, gave us food vouchers and fun little 'overnight kits.' There was nothing to do but to enjoy it. So we did... and how thankful I was for fun, kindred spirits to enjoy it with. Sisters. Traveling through life together.

Nairobi

Kara and I had a week in Nairobi before our scheduled departure date... which meant for packed days of reconnecting, meeting up with dear friends and going to a few of those special old familiar places...

Ngong Road out towards Karen.

Looking across the dry dry Kitengela plains towards Nairobi- you can just see the city skyline there under the building clouds...

Going home:
With Steven, Mandi, Azibetta and Mary:
Our childhood house... the shadow of our sandbox in the foreground:
"The Center:"
A few relics still remain:

Speaking of relics, we made a trip to Sno-Cone (you know, down town next to the Hong Kong) for chocolate dips... This poster has been up since my parents were in high school:

Meeting up with Anna for a drink:
Tea with Sarah and the chance to meet Micha Wema:
Sammy!
And Cathy! And a most adorable little Kwezi:
Kwezi, who, I just have to say, I have NEVER met a child so uncannily absolutely like his mother:
Awww.... Sammy and the lovely Irene:
Sammy, me, Irene, Cathy, Jordo and Kwezi

Such good people!

So, who really knows the whys of all the little and big things that happen in life, the 'perfect' opportunities that seem to fall from out of nowhere onto our heads. That upon on closer inspection maybe aren't so perfect, but their presence alters the headspace just enough to shift ones course, leading to who knows what sort of ripple effect. Kara left on our planned departure date, but I extended my ticket for another four weeks. A chance to Be. Let it all sink in a little. Live it. See what other sorts of life altering pieces of sky might fall on my head.

DRC...

Been back in the US just over a week now and my body, mind and spirit are slowly coming back into some sort of alignment after the blitz and buzz of warp speed travel. But that is the way of it. Now it is time to slow to a stop and regain a sense of self in one place for a time. Take some deep breaths and long walks and pour back through the many miles and moments of the past 11 weeks... People have asked me what I learned in my travels. And while I am keenly aware that I have come away with a bundle of stunning gems, I am not sure yet how to answer that... with a sweeping, gushing generalization of a glorious adventure? Nonchalantly toss them one or two of the bright shiny stones... "Eh, you know... it was great."

As I look down at my hands full of color and sparkle- I am a bit stuck for words. I don't yet know what the sum total means, or even what each individual piece means. I feel the need- over an extended period of time- to pick up each one of these gems, these experiences, conversations, sunsets and bus-rides, examine it closely, turn it over in my hands, hold it up to the sunlight... and absorb its color and intensity into my being. And at the end of that... I don't know if I will be any closer to grand discovery. But this blogging process, goofy as it may be, seems in a small way a part of this- both for myself, and for you, dear and loving friend. So let me see... ah yes, this small intensely deep emeraldgreen oval one... Congo... Let me tell you a bit about my travels into Congo.

From Lake Bunyonyi Kara, Sarah and I took a boat-taxi-bus-matatu-taxi to Kagando Hospital very close to the Uganda/Congo boarder where Sarah is doing her internship. Kara stayed on with Sarah several days visiting and 'advising' her, while I connected up with a vanful of UCBC folk heading to Beni the following day.

Sarah and I doing mandalas at the Kagando guest house.

Kagando is at the Uganda-side foothills of the Rwenzori mountains:
Crossing into Congo at the boarder: (Our van was loaded down to be sure... but this poor truck, one of many... was REEEEEEEALY loaded down...) Beni is only 80 kilometers from the boarder, but it took us a good 3 hours to get there. Once in Congo... the tarmac ceases and the graded roads are, well... not so great.

Driving into Beni:
Both of my parents were born and grew up in different parts of northeastern Congo... and my sister, brother and I grew up visiting my grandma where she lived and worked in Adi, and my grandma and grandpa at their home in Itendey. I had never been to Beni- though it is not much farther south.

Congo is an immense and immensely complicated county; one of the richest places on this earth in terms of mineral resources, and yet it is that mineral wealth and the exploitation of that mineral wealth by the rest of the world that has kept the country in a constant state of conflict and civil war for the last 15 years. Beni has been/is a fairly stable place; many have fled conflict in other regions to be there. For a little more info on Congo here is one link, and another.

I/we went to Congo, and to Beni specifically to visit UCBC- the Christian Bilingual University of Congo, a university that is just in its third year of running as part of The Congo Initiative (or CI). My parents have been involved with CI since its very small beginnings- it is what has grown out of the dreams and visions of family friends, the Kasalis, a Congolese couple who want to see their country and its people liberated and transformed through the education and opportunity. The university, UCBC, is the first 'piece' of that initiative. In its third year running, and only a fraction of what it will someday be... but there are some 300 students currently enrolled, and it is a glittering pool of hope and optimism and hard work, amongst what are for most students, extremely hard circumstances.

Eventually there will be an Arts center and a Pubic Health center/clinic... so much of our (Kara and my) reason for going was to see, to feel, experience and imagine what could be.

The main building at UCBC: Unfinished, but complete enough to hold all classes.
Looking down towards the community center that is being built at UCBC, which will eventually house the art program:
The grammar II class I taught for a few brief days(yes I did say grammar II, you can chuckle if you must...). And yes, most of the students know more english grammar than I do. Hmmm, I wonder how many grammatical errors are in this post?? I like to call them liberties, bytheyway.... An intentional breaking of the rules, AKA artistic license... :)

Driving to Oicha, a town about an hour away where my mom was born.
The beautiful Rwenzori Mountains coming through the clouds:
Dinner with Aline and Justan: We knew Aline from growing up, she is the daughter of Mandro- a dentist who apprenticed with my grandpa at Itendey. Justan and Aline are both doctors working at the hospital in Beni, and were recently married. Dinner with them was not only DELICIOUS (see all the fried bananas, boiled bananas, chicken, fish, avocados and pineapple?? Oh, what a generous feast...!) but one of those beautiful moments of connection and belonging with good people.

The big skies of Congo:

After ten days, we bumped and bounced our way back to the boarder in a speed-demon taxi car, where we got on one of the local buses bound for Kampala. We left Beni at 8 in morning, and arrived in Kampala around 11 that evening. The roads in Uganda are pretty good, but it is far and the bus stops what seems like every ten minutes to pick up and drop off fellow travelers. We spent a day recuperating at friends' in Kampala before the next 12 hour bus ride from Kampala- Nairobi.

The Akamba bus to Nairobi was maybe the best bus ride yet on this trip of never ending and endless bus rides... We had the equivalent of bulkhead seats- RIGHT behind the driver, so lots of leg room and a panoramic view of the road ahead *which, was lovely except that Akamba busses have a bit of a reputation- a most accurate reputation (we had front row seats to the show!) for being road hogs/bullies... barreling along at break-necking speeds on 2-lane highways where there is no shoulder, passing other cars and busses with impossible margins... ah but we lived to tell the tale... another day another bus ride. And actually, this first of our two drivers was incredibly sweet... he reminded both of us of our friend Greg and the prayer he prayed (every bus we rode in east africa took a moment for a prayer before departing)- was one of the very sweetest prayers...! I was instilled with great confidence, and despite all craziness rather enjoyed the ride.
Driving through Kericho (see all that glorious Kenya tea??) and a drenching rainy season rainstorm:
Passing Lake Elementeita around sunset... not much of a lake there at the moment sadly, but hopefully the rains will change that:
And... ahhhh, the comforting familiar outline of Longonot coming into view. It was the delicious feeling of coming home after a long long journey.

Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda...

In the corner of southwestern Uganda, right on the border with Rwanda, is a big freshwater lake (the second deepest in Africa- though the actual depth is apparently unknown) called Lake Bunyonyi. Our destination after a few days in Kampala: Kara visiting her advisee, and me enjoying some peaceful down time at Bensons while also getting a bit more acquainted with Kampala while trying to obtain Congo visas for Kara and me. A day long venture of walking to the embassy, finding the embassy, filling out the forms but being told I must go to a bank downtown to to pay for the visas, ok now to another bank (that accepts my atm card) to get extra cash out to pay the exorbitant cost of the visas because they were more than I was told initially... but ok, so then back to the first bank again to pay, and then to find an internet cafe--oh not that one-- another one where I can actually log onto mac.com to then print out our letters of invitation, and THEN back to the congo embassy to be told that our visas will be ready in 24 hours... unless we want to pay double! Um, no thanks. All this while riding boadas (zippy little motorcycle taxis) on the ONE day the police decided to crack down on helmet wearing. So yes, we got whistled over by a police man, but rather than get arrested for not wearing a helmet, my boda driver STEPPED on it, swerved, ducked out of reach-- while I'm on the back hanging on dearly and ever so slightly concerned for my life-- rammed into the back of a car and had to make aNOTHER speedy, zippy getaway... but, phew we made it and I did not end up splattered all over the road or someone elses windshield...)

So we opted to wait the extra day- which was a bit of a welcome thing for both of us, before we got on the Post Bus for a lovely 8, 10, 12 hour (?) ride down to lake Bunyonyi. And ok, bus rides are busrides, but it was absolutely brilliant countryside we were treated to along the way! And a numb bum is a small price to pay for such visual delight to be sure!

We met up with the three students for a few days of R&R at a little island camp place. It was a few days of early morning sunrises and gentle sunsets, and walks and lots of sitting and talking and reading and drinking tea and watching the rain and eating delicious food and using composting toilets all in view of the ever-so lovely lake bunyonyi. And in the good company of the many many spiders that also reside on that peaceful little island.

The three students: Sarah, Megan, Bree and Kara and I before heading back...

We boarded another bus then a matatu then a taxi up to Kagando Hospital, further north in Uganda and very near the Congo boarder. I was there one night before heading in to Congo, while Kara stayed on with Sarah for her intern visit.