Yesterday went well. I was actually able to make two trips and ended up distributing over 9 metric tons of food to five different slum areas in Nairobi. We were able to reach 2,286 families. Thankfully WFP had their food stocks arrive in Nairobi today, and have already begun targeting the slum areas. They will be in much better position to fill this food security niche in Nairobi.

We are now re-assessing how we can best respond. The large opposition rally that was planned for tomorrow has now been canceled. That’s a very good thing. Hopefully tensions will continue to diffuse. As the political situation is sorted out, stability should continue to return. However, in terms of the humanitarian situation and how much loss has occurred, it will still take months to recover from what has happened. And of course there are even much longer-term consequences that this country will have to face in the realms of the economy, with the international community, etc.

In many ways I think the media went overboard, but regardless of the actualities here on the ground, the damage is done. I have had a few friends return to Kenya over the last few days, and each of their flights were near to empty; most passengers were not tourists (tourism is a huge source of income for this country).

Anyway, I won’t rant and rave too much. I simply wanted to let you know that yesterday went very well, and I’ll try to continue updating you as we try to get back to normal life here. Our office will remain closed tomorrow, despite the rally being called off.

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A non-stop day!

The sunrise was beautiful.

I arrived at our “surprise” distribution site on the northwest edge of Kibera by 6:15am. Because multiple agencies were involved, there was less control, and not everything happened as planned, but it still went remarkably well. I had to do a quick training for the volunteers to make sure that we had an orderly and accountable system (I forgot how nice it is to have a team that already knows what to do!). Fortunately the police arrived and were very helpful in maintaining order, too. All said and done, we were able to get food and supplies to nearly 400 vulnerable mothers; including children that came to 1,850 individuals.

I then went straight over to the UN office and was in meetings for several hours…that’s one of the frustrating necessities: meetings. I made some very important contacts, though, that will pave the way for the next 48-72hours, before WFP, et al, are able to get their pipelines up and running.

Bright and early tomorrow morning I’ll be loading and taking a truck with food and supplies to reach about 5,000 individuals who are deep in some of the insecure areas of the Nairobi slums. They have been without food for days, some having lost shelter, too. I’ll only be able to take it a certain distance before having to hand it over to another group who has quite an extensive and efficient network in these areas. Then, throughout the day they will be doing a stagger distribution, to minimize visibility and any consequent repercussions. Depending upon the security on my route, I may be able to get two runs in tomorrow, but that is an unknown at this point.

I’m off to get some sleep…

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Hey all…just a quick update. As I’m sure that any of you who actually read this, also read the news, I’ll spare this entry from too many details of the current mess here in Kenya.

We have well over 100,000 people currently displaced in the country; the death toll now exceeds 300 by some reports. I (and the organization I’m working for) am targeting some of the overwhelming needs within Nairobi with a consortium of other relief agencies.
One of the main inhibitors to accessing the people without shelter, food or water is the insecurity, primarily in the huge slum areas in this city. Just in the Kibera slum alone, there may be upwards of 700,000 people. That’s the scale we’re talking about. And with such disparity, in times like these, many serious issues come to bare that may often be less apparent or are even dismissed. Violence is a very, very real issue. Mobs and riots, and all that goes with them, are widespread.

I’ll be leading a multi-agency distribution early tomorrow to about 1,800 people. This is small compared to the scale of need, however, we are using it as a test to see how it runs. We are keeping our strategy quiet, and aim to do this very quickly, to avoid any insecurity that can quickly occur when hungry, scared crowds think they might miss out on food for their children. If this goes off without a hitch, we will then begin to ramp up our operations with this distribution style to more of the vulnerable families during these hard times in Kenya.

Will keep you posted as I’m able. Paz.

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!ndia. I have just finished spending a wonderful holiday here…from motor-biking through the Western Ghat mountains of Tamil Nadu, to auto-rickshaw-ing through the bustling bazaars of Bangalore, from tasting so many fascinating flavors of South India’s menu to just hanging out with my parents and their friends, it has all been a great experience.

2007 was a year full of change. I believe 2008 will also be. A year ago, I celebrated the new year in snowy Lebanon. I never would have guessed it would come to a close while playing Rummikub with my folks in India! The twists and turns of time!

Since I left Kenya on 22 December, some major events have happened. National elections were held on the 27th, and they went awry. The country has now been caught up in chaos and violence. It seems the national media in Kenya has since been banned. Many services have been shut down and food and fuel shortages have become a reality. The death toll has topped 100 already. I have heard that my Kenya mobile phone service provider may be shutting down its service by midnight tonight. If my flights happen on schedule, I’ll be landing in Nairobi around noon tomorrow. Hopefully things will have cooled down a bit by then, but I guess, at this point, there’s no telling. Apparently, the opposition presidential candidate is planning a protest rally on Thursday and one million people are expected to come. This unstable situation could be present for awhile.

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I’m a resident of Kenya! It happened today. I have the two important stamps in my passport: one for residency, the other for re-entry. The process has taken nearly five months, but that is record time considering that one of my friends has been working on his for a couple of years. This means that I can now work in Kenya…ehem…cough, cough. It also means that I can now travel in and out of the country without paying the whopping $50 visa fee. Another perk is that I can also visit the national parks in Kenya and not get hit with the tourist price. I’d say this is cause for celebration!

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contain the wave
track it
try

the harbor becomes the sea
the water. its place defined
not by its being or quality
by its opposite — its eternal jacob

building nations, failing states
boundaries, borders — ink on paper
drawn by strong, young hands and a revolutionary mind
sketched by an agéd, shaky hand; interests and mandates
erasable ink, populations as pawns

the tides and their inhabitants
sometimes pounding the shores
and at others, coursing
returning to unknown depths
oblivious to the bobbing bouy

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Kory and Chris flew in Sunday night with Kilimanjaro AND Mount Kenya in their sites. Last night, with their gear strewn around my living room, I realized that very soon David and I will be doing the same thing! They left early this morning for Tanzania and should summit Kili next Monday or Tuesday. Then they’ll be back at my place to regroup before heading up to Mount Kenya later next week.

Over the weekend I went camping with some friends from the Mountain Club of Kenya (which I became a member of last week). We had a smashing time at a lodge overlooking the Great Rift Valley, and we managed to find some rock to do a few climbs as well. Below are a few pics.

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Interesting fact for the day:

An ultra-prominence is a peak with a prominence of 1500m (4,921ft) or greater than its surrounding topography. There are 84 ultra-prominences in Africa.

The total ultra-prominence count for the continent is:

1 - - - 5,885m
0 - - - 4,000-5,000m
9 - - - 3,000-4,000m
22 - - 2,000-3,000m
52 - - 1,500-2,000m

The top five ultra-prominences are (note: they are not ranked by elevation):

Peak ———————- Country ———- Elevation ——— Prominence
1 Kilimanjaro ————– Tanzania ———– 5,895m/19,342ft — 5,885m/19,309ft
2 Ras Dejen (Ras Dashen) — Ethiopia ———– 4,533m/14,873ft — 3,980m/13,058ft
3 Mt Cameroon ———— Cameroon ——— 4,070m/13,354ft — 3,931m/12,898ft
4 Ngaliema (Mt Stanley) — Congo/Uganda —– 5,109m/16,763ft — 3,951m/12,963ft
5 Mount Kenya ———— Kenya ————– 5,199m/17,058ft — 3,825m/12,550ft
6 Jebel Toubkal ———— Morocco ———– 4,167m/13,672ft — 3,755m/12,320ft
7 Volcan Karisimbi ——— Rwanda ———— 4,507m/14,788ft — 3,312m/10,867ft
8 Mount Meru ————- Tanzania ———– 4,565m/14,978ft — 3,170m/10,401ft
9 Piton des Neiges ———- Reunion ———– 3,069m/10,069ft — 3,069m/10,069ft
10 Pico Basilé ————– Equatorial Guinea — 3,011m/9,879ft —– 3,011m/9,879ft

Mount Kenya rates as the fifth highest on the continent when it comes to measuring its prominence, though second in terms of total elevation.

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Congruence [kŏng'grōō-əns]. What a great word. I’ve been realizing how much I value this trait in people, in living life; recognizing how much I seek it in my own identity, though often unconsciously. I wonder how much of who I am matches what I’m doing, how I spend my time, where I find myself?

Take this blog for an example. Why is the title Wayfaring Wagner? The ‘Wagner’ is self-explanatory. I’m not so sure about the ‘Wayfaring’ part. It might have been true, to some extent, as over the past five years I have lived nowhere longer than nine months. But in June of this year I began a job that locks me into a place and role for at least the next two years. One place to stay unpacked. 24 months. That is wayfaring no longer in my mind. So I may be purporting something about myself that is no longer true.

Also, now that I think about it, even when I was more actively traipsing about the planet, the term wayfaring still remains an external modifier and not truly congruent to who I was. My frequent border traversing and continent criss-crossing didn’t reflect my inner me, which was actually quite fixed on certain goals and desires that simply brought that lifestyle to life.

Hmm, maybe I’m taking this too far. Choosing the term “wayfaring” did provide a nice alliteration with my surname.

On the other hand, I may now decide on a more congruent name for my blog…one that more accurately reflects my direction, ponderings and self; not my passport pages, flight itineraries or job responsibilities.

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Following up from my blog post on 07 November, I am now officially back in Kenya!

When Chris flew back into Sudan last week, I sent my passport with him, along with the Kenya visa forms already filled and signed. I am not sure which or how many hands it had to pass through, but upon his return, my passport now bears a current Kenya visa and entry stamp…and it’s even dated for when I flew in several days before! I’m not asking any questions, so you’re likely not to hear anymore about this from me.

Also, this morning I spoke with a South African guy who seems to be a rather motivated climber. That’s good news for me! He told me tonight (every Tuesday) the Mountain Club of Kenya meets. So that’s where I’ll be this evening!

Things just keep looking up!

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