Last Day

As I leave for London in abou 7 hours from now it is somewhat unusual to feel that the last 48 hours have lasted longer than the previous 64 days. And now that I am waiting with great anticipation to return home, the hours seem to strectch even longer. I have very little to comment about my recent time in Nairobi, and yet as this the final blog entry to be written from the arid streets of East Africa, it seems most appropriate to conclude with some sort of commentary or reflection.

How do I summarize the 9 days I have experienced the vast plains of Kenya, the urban metropolosis of Nairobi, and the 1,440 hours spent kicking across the jagged sands of the Somalia border? It is nearly impossible to organize my thoughts and impressions into any sort of useful manner and I find that I can only provide a scattered array of loose thoughts. With the same impressionistic blitzkrieg which dominated the descriptions of my arrival, I leave you with these few scattered ideas:

I know nothing about the Somali people. I only understand something of Somali refugees. I am convinced that the standing socio-political framework which dominates their lives has forced a lifestyle of dependency and forelorn apathy upon a proud and determined population. It has done much to undermine the traditional means by which an individual may pursue personal gain and has done great harm to any supportive social networks.

Much activity within Relief and Aid appears to be less about assisting or empowering those who are in need, and instead comes across as an advertisement for a country, or more often than not, is actually a profitable business for the donating entity. Within foreign aid are stipulations requiring that all materials purchased, automobiles used for transport etc., are to be manufactured by the doner nation. As the US is the largest deliverer of aid, it is also makes the greatest profit.

It was very easy to come here and do this project. In mid-March I came up with an idea of going to a refugee camp in Africa to do my masters research, by mid-April I had it arranged, and by the end of June I was here. Although the two months I have spent were certainly exhausting, they were also richly rewarding. I have a greater understanding of International agencies, Islam, Somalia, Kenya, and Africa. I have a better understanding of myself and my own abilities and limitations. It did not cost very much money to come here, and what I did spend, I believe to have been an investment in personal and professional development. I hope that everyone who has read my blog recognizes the oppurtunities for travel within their own lives and begin to consider taking such a journey in the near future. I am not talking about a trip to Italy or the Bahamas, but journey to somewhere in the world where the daily life of each person is a struggle to survive. In many ways I have learned more in the last few weeks from carrying jugs of water, squating over holes, and drinking tea on dirt floors, than I could ever learn in a university class room.

Each time I have ventured into the world - away from my safe little microcosm of Starbucks and Banana Republic - I walk away with a new way of thinking. My time in Cuba was an immersion into the rich melange of economics and culture. Within Asia I began to analyze the philosophic framework in which we all make decisions, and it was there that I began to shift my own personal priorities so that they might reasonate with something greater than myself. And now, I as I near the final hours toward departure, I can only speculate as to the nature of the lesson that I have learned while laboring beneath the equatorial sun of Africa.

I suspect it concerns the acknowledgement of my own humanity, it has something to do with meat, blood, dirt and clay. It has something to do with the sweat, the smell, the brutal elegance of being human. If I had came away from Cuba with politics in mind, and philosophy in Asia, then I suspect that it is from this place that I have come away with the greatest gift of all.

Saturday

So I have left the refugee camp and have returned to Nairobi. I am staying at The Bush House again. Everything is well, I just had dinner with a handful of big deal people from UNICEF and various ngos (Danish Refugee Council, Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE ...).  We ate at a high dollar italian place and then went to some bar afterwards. Had a great time,  and just arrived back at my room.  I do not really have any plans for the next couple days. I will leave here Tuesday night to return home.