Expecting situation to heat up again

Tomorrow, the opposition presidential candidate is scheduled to hold the 1-million-person rally at the big park downtown that he’s been threatening to do. Therefore, the city (and country) is bracing itself again and is expected to be dangerous in many places. Sarah’s office has decided to officially close, so she will not work again tomorrow, and we’ll plan to just stay inside again all day.

Jane, our nanny/housekeeper, was able to come in today. I called her last night to check on her before her scheduled return. We don’t know what neighborhood she lives in, but she said that two of her neighbors were killed in the violence and that that is scary because you see people in the next house (I don’t know if it was literally next door) being killed and know it could be you next. The killings seem a bit random, although it’s largely one tribe against the other. She said where she lives, members of the two tribes here are killing each other (the current president is a member of Kenya’s majority tribe, and the opposition candidate is a member of another, much smaller tribe; even during good times, Kenyan society is dominated by tribal rivalries). So those who are of the majority tribe are having to carry their national ID cards around with them and show them whenever confronted by members of the other tribe. (The ID cards don’t say the name of your tribe, but it shows where you are from, and in this case, if you’re from the west, the president’s stronghold, you had better watch out.)

Needless to say, we've told Jane not to come to work tomorrow, primarily for her own safety, and because Sarah will be home all day tomorrow, she and I can watch Lexi together.

This morning I was able to go to our regular grocery store to get almost all of the remainder of the items on our list from yesterday. The store was open yesterday when I left Sarah at the other store in the long queue. I was there around 11:00, and it was only slightly busier than usual, and as I was leaving, it was getting much busier. But they had almost everything on their shelves except bread. So Sarah and I are set for a few days with our supply of food should we be home-bound again.