Digesting all the variety of scenes, from the cows and livestock along the road (and yes, we did see wildlife--Zebras, baboons, impala, and monkeys--now and again) to the economic disparities meant guarding my emotions. As the photo at one of the orphanages shows, the broken glass of the doorway was within reach of the children.
The people made a big difference; we met some of the most caring, gentle, and strong. Many were women. I felt honored to meet Jayne (my sister through our "Mum" Dr. Lillian K. Beam.
Jayne invited me to the exclusive Safari Club where she oversees public relations in downtown Nairobi. Her skilled business sense was as prominent as her caring attitude about the people of Kenya, and to welcome a daughter from America.
There was also Elizabeth, the sister of our host, who designs fashions. At the Sunday brunch in Mua, we dined outside with the extended family in a what felt like private park.
Important Moments: We arrived at night, so appropriate for being in a dark place. I took the black rock that had been among the stash of things Dr. Beam had given me (I'd carried it for the entire 6 months of preparation), and returned it to the ground outside Jomo Kenyatta Airport. All the boxes and luggage were assembled in what was deemed a short travail through customs, and we were home, done with 22 hours in the air.
The next morning we posed in our team shirts. Dominick, Rev. Dee, myself, Tabor, and Rev. William look forward to the culminaiton of our journey and a visit to the village. We were headed to the schools where our water tank purchases would be installed.
What I learned of the land was most surprising; that after walking upon the roads, the rocks and red dirt, was that it "gives back." I felt the rhythm and strengths and ills of the people and most importantly that it was different from walking upon the sidewalks of California. It had meaning. The beauty of its pebbles is beyond description. Everywhere I looked the rocks glistened like sugar and it was easy to understand why outsiders knew about its riches, the wealth of gold and diamonds that rest in Africa's skin. I was mesmerized by the very foundation of human civilization.
A personal comment: Meaning was the hallmark of the excursion. As an academic who'd studied the Continent for more than 20 years, this was my first time in the flesh being in a place I'd often mused about having a tie with. It was real before I arrived, though till now, had occurred souly in meditation over its historical issues, its legacy of greatness and subjection, its myriad cultures and performance on the world stage. Yet in all that time, I'd managed to miss the opportunities to visit. I'd receive grants in the past, and each time was unable to pursue them. I concluded that a "research trip" as the consummate scholar was out of bounds for my purpose; that I needed to travel free of any constraints to produce a report or adhere to funding guidelines that would conscript my vision as something other than a child of this great place.
Interestingly, my vision of seeing Africa as an unencumbered, free person would occur on dates that signify all that liberty might mean to an African American: we left on June 19, the day that freedom from American slavery was announced in Texas! "Juneteenth" is still celebrated with parades throughout the country. We returned on July 4, a mark of national independence from England that is a national holiday. Frederick Douglass lambasted African Americans for celebrating the day when their own freedoms were violated so flagrantly in the nineteenth century. I couldn't help but acknowledge that each of these dates sculpt my own existence, primarily as statements of what blacks in the U.S. have demanded for themselves, and what they have bequeathed for all.
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