Going where the action is

I spent a good part of the day today outside the house, and it was wonderful.

I spent it with a staff member and a group of volunteers from the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church distributing relief supplies to people who have been forced from their homes by the post-election violence. The morning was spent in one part of the city fairly far from us across from one of the city’s major slums on a small patch of grass at the gate of the air force base. More than 300 families have taken refuge there since Wednesday or so last week after gangs of the opposition party went through and hacked people to death with machetes, raped women, and pillaged and plundered houses and businesses. So the church is distributing emergency relief supplies – blankets for mothers with babies, flour, salt, cooking oil, vegetables (tomatoes, beans and carrots), feminine hygiene items and a few clothes. I was there to gather some information to write a feature article for my former employer (ACT in Geneva), which will supply funds for more relief supplies to be distributed, and to take photos of the distribution of relief supplies.

After that we went to the other side of this large slum to a large housing compound for police where another 300 or so people have taken refuge, where, like at the air force base, the slum’s residents felt they could get some measure of protection. This group had already received some food and other supplies, so we didn’t need to leave with them as much as planned, and the KELC was going to take that food to another place where it was needed.

On my way back into downtown, where I had arranged for Sarah to come meet me, I passed the now-infamous Uhuru Park, the designated site for this on-again, off-again demonstration by the opposition party. Every entrance was blocked by ten or so armed policemen, but I don’t think I saw a soul inside the park. So the downtown area, for a Saturday afternoon, was more or less normal, as far as I could tell. For today, at least.

Not only was it good to spend an extended period of time out of the house, but I got to be with other people (even if I didn’t know them), see some more of the city, and see where some of the action from the past week has been. Oh, but wasn’t it unsafe, you may ask. I did not feel unsafe at any time. I was right outside the gate of a military base, after all. And although these slums are still very dangerous at night, from outside the slums during the day, things are fairly calm. So I felt I could go out and do this, both for my own mental health (to keep from going stir-crazy), for my personal benefit of seeing and experiencing what has been happening in the city this past week, and to do something productive work-wise, which I’ve been eager to get started on since we arrived here.

After I write my feature article and send it to Geneva, I’ll post it here, and it will tell you more about what I saw.