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.