Every cloud has a silver lining . . .

And every lake should have a pink lining, like Lake Bogoria. It's a small body of water in the Rift Valley that is salty and hot. Honestly, it's hooooot. The temperature reached 39C in the shade and was unchartable in the steam of the hot springs. You can boil an egg in 5 minutes flat on the edge of the lake.


Given that description, one would think the lake would be a barren wasteland. But it's not. It's filled with pink flamingos. Millions of them. Apparently they enjoy a slow roast. It was a truely incredible sight.




Since I'm on the topic of animals, here are a few others that I've seen on my short sojurn. If you have delicate sensibilities you may want to avert your gaze. Unfortunately I don't have a super quick camera so there are a lot of animal derrieres as they turn to run from the girl trying to take their picture.

If you were a rock star, I would be a groupie

Naana to Hillary Mabaye, a gynaecologist who specializes in vesico vaginal fistula repairs. I had seen him do one VVF repair and was in total awe. Then, he came in to help us with a particularly difficult vaginal case and I was blown away. He was completely inspiring: humble, kind and with amazing skill. When I grow up, I want to be a surgeon like him.

Like a bird in the tree tops

I flew into Nairobi on one of the biggest birds the world has seen: a white breasted, blue backed Boeing 747 that nests in Amsterdam. The next day, I flew to Eldoret in Western Kenya. Upon landing, I discovered that I was higher in the sky than I had ever been. At 2000m above sea level, Eldoret is perched on the edge of the Rift Valley with a view of the history of humanity.

Indeed, humanity in all its depth resides here: from the gentle touch of a nursing sister to a patient dying of cancer in hospital to the torching of 50 people seeking refuge in a church during the 2008 election aftermath to the physicality of the long distance runner. This quiet dustbowl of a town betrays little of its stormy past on the faces of its people. Quiet and reserved unlike my kin the Ghanaians who are boisterous and bold.

One of the night watchmen said that Kenya is like the mother of East Africa who welcomes the children (the refugees, the displaced, the homeless) of her troubled relatives who surround her (Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia).

It’s hard to know what to expect when one travels somewhere new. Hopefully, I will be welcomed by mother Kenya too.