burnt houses and hope

We arrived back from our safari to Western Kenya yesterday. The trip is pretty terrible (8 hours, bumpy roads, a lot of dust) even when one is still (relatively) young so I have to congratulate my parents for being such good sports. The trip was good. There were no problems but we did see a lot of evidence of the violence in the recent past- burnt houses and cars, material by the roads that was probably used for roadblocks and the military presence was more than I've seen before. Seeing the people I don't remember from when I was two, people I've only seen in pictures, was amazing. (Perhaps more explanation is necessary). My aunt (a nurse) and uncle (a doctor) worked in Kenya at a Quaker hospital in Western Kenya from 1976-1979. My parents and I visited them in 1978 when I was two. This time around we were lucky enough to be hosted by they playmate of my cousins from 30 years ago. He was 7 years old when they left and now has a family of his own (in one house: Alex, his wife Christine, their 2 daughters Elizabeth-9 and Cynthia- 7, Alex's mother Jenipha, Alex's sister, Mary and her son Memba- 14). They made wonderful dinners and showed us all around to the places my parents and my aunt and uncle were before. We visited the hospital (we were warmly welcomed and 2 women there were working back in the 70s- Timina and Alice, and remembered my aunt and uncle). Timina worked in the 'kitchen' at the hospital and insisted that my uncle hired her and extracted promises from us that we would greet him and thank him again. We also saw the lab at the hospital- which my uncle tried in vain to put in place while he was there.

Best of all though was a trip to the shamba (farm) of the woman who was my cousins' caretaker. Her name is Ridah, she's about 67 and now runs her farm by herself since her husband has died and her children are often seeking their fortunes in cities. I have a weakness for elderly women and this woman makes you happy just seeing her. When we got to her shamba she was not there. We were unable to reach her beforehand so she didn't know we were coming or even that we were in the country. The neighbors and our guide and driver (James and Godfrey) went off in search of her, found her at the village center and brought her back telling her nothing about who her visitors were. When she got out of the car she was shouting for joy and ran over and hugged me - I can't even explain how happy that moment was. In fact, she didn't know exactly who we were- I think she thought I was my cousin for a time but she was SO happy and we were also so happy... We went through pictures with her and explained who we were (there were pictures of my aunt, uncle, cousins and even me on her wall) and she seem to be beside herself with joy. Before we knew it she had sent someone to fetch sodas and slaughtered a chicken for us to eat. We spent the next few hours on her farm, relaxing on the grass, eating, talking with her. It was one of the best experiences I've ever had.
I hope to go back once more before I leave. I also hope that Alex's children can perhaps come as exchange students to the U.S. sometime.

My parents leave tomorrow which is sad- we've had such a nice time together and it's nice to have people to help show around this beautiful country.