No Internet access at all available anywhere I have been between between July 13 to July 20. I am quite knackered but doing very well. Between July 12-13, I had travelled more than 1700 kilometres all across the entire country of Uganda and right into Kenya on very difficult terrain.
The bus ride from Kampala, Uganda to Kisumu, Kenya was awful - the worst I have had here in Africa. More than 8 hours non-stop on the worst and most rugged terrain imaginable. And the weather was equally trying - torrential rain, floods, cold winds and then the scorching heat. The driver refused to stop for almost the entire journey. The land crossing from the Ugandan border into Kenya is unimaginable chaos. Hundreds of people - confused and mad queuing. (And on the way, our driver hit a young boy on an old bicycle carrying large crates of bananas - he was fine, just shaken but was left by the roadside crying all alone. So terrible.) As we drove all across Easter Uganda and into Western Kenya - town after town - I saw countless coffins all lined up outside (some in funerals, others on display for sale.) I myself saw and counted more than 200 coffins - both for adults and children - along the roadside during this portion of the trip. Did not feel like taking any photos. It was surreal and haunting and it was a sight I wish I never saw.
Arrived in Kisumu on July 13.
Zaddock was out of town but I had a wonderful conversation with him on the phone. He could not stop giggling the entire time we spoke. Very funny fellow. [Amanda] I dropped of your stuff for Zaddock at The Port Florence Hospital in town. Very nice place and people.
Ann, Joe's sister, was my tour guide and most trusted guardian during my 2 days in Kisumu. There is a very strong and publicly visible animosoity between the differrent tribes in Kisumu, and we saw fighting and shouting all day long between groups of men belonging to different local tribes. Twice we were caught in this frenzy of infighting and public funerals between these groups - about a hundred or more men, some with old handguns and semi-automatic weapons, carrying the coffins of their dead, gesticulating and screaming madly. A few saw me with Ann and tried to frighten us by pointing their guns at us. All we could do, of course, was to just stand still and try to be as cool and polite as possible. The Maasai tribesmen, though, were very friendly and warm in manner. They are the only tribe in Kenya that still wear their traditional tribal wear. All in all I liked Kisumu very much - except the riots, but it certainly made our day interesting. Oh yes, went to Tilapia Beach for lunch. (Hmm, very interesting and unforgettable, indeed. Now I certainly understand why the ever-so-adventuresome Amanda loved this place.) And finally, everyone agreed that Cindy's hand-drawn map of Kisumu (from memory at that) - like the very girl herself - was quite remarkable.
The best part of my visit to Kisumu, without a doubt, was meeting Joe. What a gentle, gentle man, but with the fiercest of kind conviction and compassion.
I visisted the Kisumu Provincial Hospital and Patient Support Centre. Walked around and visited several homes and families at the Kaloleni Slums. Met the orphaned boys of the slums. These boys have a darkness and tormented suffering in them that I have not seen in any of the other African children I have met. They certainly suffer in poverty like the rest, but they live in such sordidness and torment and darkness that they seem to have almost lost any sense of being a child within them.
There is no innocence in their eyes nor joy in their countenance. They are all victims of child prostitution, substance and drug abuse, criminal and domestic violence, seemingly every imaginable abuse and human transgression. There is an almost unbearable measure of suffering and and horror here. Joe and I spent the entire day, walking and talking - he is a remarkable young man, wise beyond his years, and what he is trying to accomplish here, with these abandoned and tortured orphans, is not only courageous and compassionate, but also makes very much good and sound sense given the lives and circumstances of these children. He is their only hope. The young boy who had inspired Joe to organize the Kaloleni Centre for these children died of AIDS just a few days ago. The entire place is in mourning - the Muslim women of the community all still wear white - and the boy's blind, ailing and very old grandfather, whom I met and visited with, could not stop weeping for his dead grandson.
It has hit Joe hard too - very clearly. I have grown very fond of Joe and his almost boyish gentleness and affection. But it is his fierce conviction and drive that makes him extraordinary and that has won my respect and admiration. At their kind and generous invitation, I dined with Joe and his entire family at their home - his wife Joyce is lovely, and equally kind and wonderful. Afterwards, Joe refused to say goodbye to me. He insisted that I say "See you later, Joe - when I come back to Africa and to Kisumu." Cindy and Amanda are absolutely right about everything here.
Off to South Mombasa, Kenya. -G.