how does it feel … to be without a home … a complete unknown … like a rolling stone ???

omething a little more light perhaps ???

i am back in nairobi … for years i used to talk with pride about being a ‘rural boy’ … but i am increasingly thinking that is b.s. … i LOOOVE cities …

nairobi prolly has all the worst traits of cities … crime (nai-robbery), pollution, noise, traffic, poverty, overcrowding, emotional distance, etc … but i still LOVE it … it’s so exciting, there is so much energy and action and new surprises around every corner … i still love small town life, and hope to find it again when i am older … but i can’t wait to be living in toronto or vancouver in 9 months …

the trip was fun … the schedules coming south from Loki are not nearly as nice as those going north (leave in the A.M, arrive in the P.M.) … after spending a day in kakuma (one of those places where you say … “why does ANYBODY live here?” … it’s literally like the surface of mars … and HOT … so hot that after spending 2 months in the sun in sudan, including walking for an hour everyday within a days drive of the sahara desert … i got a SUNBURN … in kakuma … wierd) … i was forced to take a 4:00pm bus to arrive in Kitale at 2:00am and Nairobi at 9:00am …

it left on time (a huge surprise), but thanks to frequent delays along the way, the trip took until noon … it’s fun spending 20 hours riding on a bus over 3rd world “roads”, crammed into one tiny little spot because the bus has at least 1/5 more people than it is designed to carry … trying to sleep in spite of the bumps that toss everyone 6 inches into the air …

the trip did have 2 hi-lights though … 1. when just after midnight we came upon a river which had gone over the road … they made us all get out and walk through ankle deep water while the bus took a long run at the crossing … then we had to scramble up a hill for nearly a km in the dark to get to where the bus finally stopped … so wish i had a picture of that bus going through the river … i have a feeling that is a once in a lifetime, though i am in africa for another 8 months, so maybe not … 2. the lovely girl beside me … named leah, who (in typical african fashion) went MILES out of her way to insure that i was taken care of , including buying me mangoes, and even spending half an hour with me after we arrived in nairobi helping me to find the best taxi … and she didn’t even ask for money (though i offered) … an african first …

i also THINK i got robbed a long the way … sort of … we made a stop around 5 am in a small city and i had to pee … so i quickly got off the bus and went to find a toilet … i asked somebody and they pointed in a direction, and, walking fast that way, a man started talking to me (as they often do) … he followed me and kept talking to me … something about money and my bag … though i wasn’t really listening to him, as i was trying to find a toilet and get back to the bus before it felt compelled to depart … i was in and out and he was still there, and taking notice of him for the first time, i saw his hands were concealed in his shirt and he looked at me and said “i’m dangerous you know” … i smile at him and said “so am i” and walked back to the bus … when i was back on the bus it set in that he MAY have been trying to rob me … though i can’t be sure and am quite certain that he did not have a weapon … good times …

oh, one random fact from the sudan for you … my greatest helper there was a man named William … he is going to university in Uganda on the generosity of canadians, and he is really a great guy … as i was going to sudan, i was reading this book called “what is the what” … written by/about a guy called “Achak Deng” … who came from a place called Marial Bai, which is only about 90 minutes drive from where i was staying near Wanjok …

it is the story of when the war first broke out in the early 80’s … the thousands of young boys who, with nowhere to go, just started walking towards ethiopia … after settling into ethiopia, the government kicked them out, and 80,000 of them settled in Kakuma, Kenya, in what was the largest refugee camp in the world …

it follows achak from his childhood pre-war through his first year in Atlanta, where he was settled by the U.N. after more than a decade in Kakuma … it is a tragic story, as the walk of the ‘lost boys’ cost thousands of young boys lives by war, disease, starvation, thirst, falling in wells at night, and most dramatically, lions and crocodiles …

one day i asked william about the war in the region, and he mentioned that they had been hard hit and many had gone to ethiopia … i said ‘wow, do you know achak deng?’ … he said “of COURSE i do, he is from marial bai, we lived very close in Kakuma, how do you know achak” … i said “he wrote a book that was Time Magazine’s book of the year, and i read it between Nairobi and Loki, it’s an incredible story, did you walk to ethiopia?” … “yes, achak and I were in the same group” …

it’s rare to read a book that tears your heart out by the story it tells, that makes you question humanity in 100 ways … it’s SHOCKING to realized that someone you know well LITERALLY lived the story that was told in the book, to the letter …

their paths did diverge after Kakuma though … Achak stayed … William returned to Sudan as a young boy of 12 and joined the army … when i was 12, i was in grade 6 and my biggest concerns were playing baseball, making the teacher happy and working up the courage to tell a girl i liked her … when he was 12, William had his own AK-47, was fully trained to use it in battle, and was taking the lives of enemy soldiers …

how could i relate to that ???

ANYWAY … i’m planning to stay in Nairobi for a few weeks … i spoiled myself with an expensive little 4 day safari starting tomorrow … then i am heading north east to check out a small water project in a little community … then i will be back for a few days before i HOPE (pending approval) to be doing 10-day Vipassana Meditation … you spend 10 days in complete silence and interact only with yourself … self-transformation through self-observation … for someone who loves personal growth as much as i do, it promises to be one of the experiences of my life … and since i spent a LOT of time in Sudan pondering the relation between body and soul, it has arrived at the perfect time …

i may be back on again soon, but it may not be until after safari …

peace and love