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NEW PHOTOS BEOLW THIS POST!!!

I’ve just been watching a tele-evangelist removing evil spirits from some poor old lady. Call 0099996 400998400 to donate. Addictive stuff. If he could employ his skills at beating arthritis, mental illness and even cancer, he could really make a difference in a hospital somewhere……

Anyway, I’m in Nairobi – or ‘Nairobbery’ – now, before returning to Naivasha on Tuesday for FIDA’s half-yearly general meeting. Here are some high(and low)lights of my week…

Frank

I continue to be shocked by the poverty in Kisumu against which people battle on a daily basis. A mother of a young child came to the office this week. She could not afford the travel from her home (at least 3 hours by Matatu) but had brought a cockerel to exchange for a cash travel allowance. She did not want handouts. She was living on 40 kenyan shillings a day as her wage from her hotel job. That is 32 pence per day. We now have a old, yellowing, shabby, hungry and constantly noisy cockerel tethered to the pumping station at the back of the offices. Apparently, we’re going to have it for lunch. I’m not so sure. But according to Luo custom, a cockerel that crows at night is a bad omen and has to be slaughtered, so unless it learns to respect some peace, its withery days look numbered!!

Fortune

I had a chance meeting with a PHD researcher this week. Sometimes, coincidence can really be overwhelming. I am travelling to Nairobi on 14^th December (the only day I can) to visit the Kenyan National Human Rights Commission. I am going to collect a report that they produced after engaging with the local Luo Council of Elders to address the abuse of widow inheritance in the Nyanza Province. By the first stroke of luck, I found out that the Commission is reviewing their engagement project on the 14^th December, so more than just collecting the report, I can hopefully attend the review. By the second stroke of luck, the random PHD guy I met at the office in Kisumu is the very person who has produced the review! He is also keen to look to other NGOs (like FIDA) to expand the Commission’s successful engagement project. As I said, sometimes fortune can really take you unawares! So I am hoping – with fingers crossed – that this could mark a real watershed in my preparations for a strategy to engage local justice systems. I feel a collaboration coming on……!

Strategy

I completed my proposal for a FIDA-wide strategy for engaging with customary justice systems this week before leaving for Nairobi and Naivasha. It’s been sent to the relevant FIDA Counsel so I’m just hoping that it will be read and that there can be constructive debate about the future progress of the informal justice project at the RBM meeting later this month.

Naivasha

I had just the best few days this week in a really lovely safari lodge on the banks of Lake Naivasha. And this was for work too (Kenyan style)! I had a little hut thing with a double bed (bliss) and a bath (heaven). The grounds of the lodge were filled with wild monkeys and hundreds of birds, and hippos in the nearby lakes. I went running really early on the first morning I was there and, at the lake shore, I ended up running next to a herd of giraffe, zebra and water buck! (photos of giraffes roaming wistfully in the distance included in the blog). O.M.G. it was the most incredible morning I think I have ever had! So at every break opportunity I could get, I was down by the lake, on a boat trip on the lake, or persuading the local guards to take me walking in the bush. Amazing!

I was also in Naivasha to work (which was a complete distraction). I attended a pro-bono lawyers’ conference and then spent 2 days training to become a mediator. Once I have completed a written assignment –and despite being a UK citizen – I can become an accredited mediator in Kenya! Woohoo! The training will be really useful for my strategy and for training community peace groups through FIDA’s educative programme. There were about 40 or so of us at the conference, and we ate like kings and drank and danced in the evening. Even for a ‘Mzungu’ I was complimented on my dancing and rhythm. Ha, I always knew I was a pretty hot mover on the dance floor…..!

City streets

I’m in Nairobi at the moment, doing my best to dodge the hawkers, robbers, scammers and touters and spending most of my time fending off offers of goods and services of EVERY variety you could think of…..! So I took a break from the city today and headed out to the Giraffe Sanctuary, Nairobi National Park and to see the Karen Blixen museum (Out of Africa fame). Some greenery and animals were required. I managed my first forest trail in search of birds, warthogs and giraffes. Giraffes are really aggressive when you come near to them. I found out….

I have put a few pictures on the blog. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of juice at the Naivasha conference and I didn’t bring my charger. But I have put a few on that I managed to get. Enjoy!!