Easter in Loki (Apr 22/03)

Happy Easter everyone!! Hope you all had a good one, and is spring starting yet in Canada? I hear some Torontotonians are getting sunburnt already!!

Easter was a bit different for me - spent it in the desert! However my ideas of desert life were crushed - it rained like the devil and we were mudded out! The desert in question is Loki again - I managed to arrange a business trip so I could spend Easter with Anthony. Of course that meant I also had to work all weekend, but it was worth it :)

On Saturday night the UN base camp management had a bunch of Burundian dancers and talking drums come in to entertain us humanitarian aid folk.. They all wore white, green, and red shukas (sheets) and danced around, drumming and jumping through rings of fire, and generally being cool Africans. They're refugees from the civil war in Burundi - Kenya has two major refugee camps, mostly filled with Sudanese and Somalis, plus Rwandans and Burundians. These ones were from Kakuma, about an hour's drive from Loki, and in fact the place where my Sudanese friend Ruth (in PEI) stayed for a while.

Easter dinner was pretty abysmal - most people leave the camp for the holidays, so those that were left thought it was strange for me to choose it as a vacation destination! Mess food, nothing special... But most of the time (when it wasn't raining) Anthony and I rode around on a motocross bike... how utterly cool, to be flying over the African desert in the shadow of the craggy mountains together on a motorbike (sorry Mum, but he also rides!!). Went through the manyattas (villages) where we were greeted like movie stars - kids chasing the bike for all they were worth, grinning and trying to touch me, shouting "how are you" from behind fences... they're so cute!

Also got to visit a few of my co-workers' homes. Asha is our cleaner, a very kind Turkana lady who lives in the smallest house I've ever seen.. I gave her 250 shillings (about CA$5) and I'm sure she and her family had a wonderful Easter because of it! I also went to Alice's place - she's about my age, and is the lab technician for VSF's rinderpest eradication project. I wondered how she had become a lab tech - this Turkana land (the tribe around Loki) is still a pastoralist community, without much education - and certainly not for girls. I had noticed she limped a bit when walking, and I found out why... First of all, her father had been killed in a cattle raid - that's what some of these traditional tribes do, make war on neighbouring tribes and steal their cows. She was still very young, maybe 2 or 3. In the sling on her mother's back, they went to care for the cattle at the watering hole, and then her mother was shot.. the bullet first went through Alice's leg and then into her mother's back, killing her.... I stared at Alice open-mouthed, and she laughed like it happens every day... which I suppose it does... Alice was also left for dead, but later rescued by a neighbour. After a few weeks the wound still hadn't healed, and a Dutch lady happened across her. She ended up sending Alice to hospital, raising her, and sending her to college. This lady is also sending Alice's husband to university right now, while Alice stays in Loki with a few kids that she herself has taken in, plus her own daughter. Wouldn't you know I didn't have my camera with me that day, but this 3-year-old is incredible! She already knows Turkana language, Kiswahili, and even some English.. smart as a whip! She called me Auntie Joan (that's what Kenyans call me, pronounced jo-ahn) and recited the alphabet in three languages! She can also count to 100 (well, if counting includes twenty-ten, twenty-eleven, etc!). So even in the face of adversity, this child called Dust is obviously beginning a new wonderful life....

So... back to mzungu life :) The previous weekend we had a farewell party for our Head of Mission, Sally, a very cool Australian lady who in a lot of ways has been my mentor here.. But I'm sure she'll keep in touch - she just bought a laptop running XP - even if she's in France or Rome I get calls like "Johanna, I've hit/thrown/beaten my computer again!!"

Last Saturday I was invited to another wedding - I was seriously debating whether to go since the last one I went to was from 7:30am until 11pm, but also the last one was the "rich" type of Kenyan wedding - and this one was in the slums. So I couldn't resist. I brought Catherine as well - she's the HR manager from Brussels and all these HQ-types stay in my apartment building, so I always hang out with them. I knew she'd appreciate the cultural experience, and I was right! Of course we showed up on time, but the wedding party was an hour and a half late.. we were entertained by a children's choir, plus all the kids we had wrangling to sit next to us mzungus!! I nearly fainted from heat, lack of food, and BO, so went outside for a coke and a banana. We were finally fed around 3pm - next time I'll skip the church stuff and go for the food!! Things warmed up then too, with Ugandan dancers, choirs, and lots of festivities. The photos are of Josephine, our office assistant at work, and her kids dancing for the bridal party..

Then on Sunday a bunch of us did the typical Nairobi touristy things - went to the elephant orphanage (baby elephants are SOOO cute!!), giraffe centre, Karen Blixen house, and the butterfly centre. Catherine was the organizer, and we had my next door neighbours Charles & Alistair, who are both consultants for VSF, plus Alistair's pregnant Liberian wife Will, Apollo the taxi driver/accountant from VSF-Suisse (he hates accounting but loves driving) and his son Nicolas, plus Joseph, our Turkana storekeeper from Loki who's doing his driving license in Nairobi. We capped off the evening with a digital picture show featuring my camera & Alistair's TV, and then watched Out of Africa. The book was better, but the movie wasn't as boring as I feared! It was cool to hear Kiswahili in a Hollywood movie (actually, I've heard that the Kikuyu tribal language is featured in Star Wars! Must watch it again :) Great day, and lots of cool nature shots coming your way!

Otherwise, things are going well at work, my leg is completely healed, and mostly what I'm doing now is planning for the big trip to Canada in August, studying for my African History exam, continuing Kiswahili lessons, and applying and interviewing like mad so I can stay for another year or so! There's far too much to see here to do it in the time that I've had... During his next R&R, Anthony and I are going to either Kampala or Kisumu - definitely somewhere on Lake Victoria. It's rainy season now so everything's green and beautiful.. of course this is when we may need a 4x4!

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and well wishes - I've sent many of your messages to Anthony and he's looking forward to meeting all of my friends and family in Canada!! He's starting to feel part of the family already :) Keep in touch :)

Photos coming next, also posted on http://photo.epson.com (visit album johanna@istar.ca) once Dayna &/or Ang put them up.

NOTE: I'm finally getting rid of my johanna@istar.ca address so please update your address book to the same at ca.inter.net. *

Miss you all, and happy spring!
Johanna

* note - I have been trying to avoid typing my address in on these pages because of spam - those bastards search webpages for email address formats and stick 'em on spam lists! Also I'm not sure if my photos on Epson are the old or new address... try both!

 

Copyright Johanna Voerman Khisa, 2002-03. Reprinting or reposting without permission is prohibited.