nairobi sky

“We carry with us the wonders we seek without us: There is all Africa, and her prodigies within us.” —Sir Thomas Brown



the landscape sends a rush and flutter through my veins as i look for the first time on the black magic sky of Africa. here and there acacia trees are decorated with verreaux eagles and secretary birds, vervet and colobus monkeys, and the last fainting hints of sun...the earth is different but it goes past geography and almost beyond the soul—it is the primæval land of beginning... and the daylight here is ending...

we drive our van loaded down with luggage and there is this new cool air filling my lungs as we drive the red clay roads...as i stand in the green garden courtyard of the African Inland Mission of Nairobi i feel a presentiment like the opening line of a rudyard kipling story...i know that i will be different when i leave this very spot in 11 days...


song drifts through an open bay window like a net through the twilight—two days travel, malaria medicine and the strange infection of kiswahili music makes sleep dense my first night on the dark and drifting continent...the muse of night whispering her sweet nothings...

this place is a dream but it has always existed...

morning in the place of the wind

Rift Valley—it is early...5:30am and complete darkness reigns outside...my house is on a precipice overlooking the valley...lights flicker and move in the deep center stretched out like a string of torches filing towards ancient volcanic rites...

eye can see three mountain ranges...the old volcano is covered halfway in thick pure cotton cloud...the moon is still high above and visible through a small hole in the clouds...and people call it 'little lune'

i wonder where the lines of headlights are moving—are they all on the same great expedition?

i can sense no wakeful person from where i sit in kijabe...“the place of the wind” in the masai language...

light is coming up all over the place—the sky behind the mountains is green, light green and blue-grey like a pigeon—but no pollution...real clouds...everywhere

the birds have been calling for hours heralding this very event...they are the only pulse in the veins of this long deep and lonely plain...

villages, homes, farms, square plots of land are now visible below me...as if someone was scratching off the dark surface to reveal the colours hidden underneath...

the people who live down there are dying of one of the most horrifying strains of the HIV virus...i will meet them today...

snapshots

visiting a support group for HIV positive patients from kijabe hospital...we file in the open church doors...strange smells from unfamiliar people are all around me...

one boy named milly is singing “refiner’s fire”—he looks very sick and malnourished...his teeth broken and discolored...but he sings full of the love of God...

Purify my heart
Cleanse me from within
And make me holy, holy

this is one of the most disturbing experiences of my life...

i’ve only been here five minutes...God...

a man tear slids down my face...no one sees it...

there is a depth to the spirituality i see here... when he adds in the second holy he knows who he is singing it to...

after the group i meet john...he wants to be a photographer so i let him take some pictures with my camera...we talk about his family...

his father passed away, three brothers and four sisters...he was diagnosed with HIV three years ago but since he started taking the ARVs he felt much stronger and healthier...

i want to send him a camera...

people are starting to move closer to me...at first it’s five...then ten...maybe twenty people...i am getting nervous...

john starts taking pictures...i start showing them around...all these people move in closer...

one of the girls moves right next to me...she says something...everyone laughs really hard...i know why they are laughing but i don’t know what the hell she said...i asked john...

he laughs and says that this girl wants me to take her with me to america so she can take care of me...i give her a high five...and everyone starts to laugh again...

i have no idea how many people are around me now...what a strange experience this is...every single one of them is HIV+...it’s sobering...but surprisingly easy to see beyond that to their humanity and elegance...they all say the word happy a lot...they say i am very happy that—...and they smile...

later back at the hospital i receive my kikuyu name...kamau...all the africans think its a big joke...kamau...what does that even mean...

we are lanterns and you are the light

i am visiting a family at their little farm shack...jerry the mother went to the kijabe clinic for tuberculosis...tested positive for HIV...so did her husband...so did 4 of the 5 children...including the two youngest...twins...jean and solomon...they line up their antiretroviral drugs on the table...and pose in front of them for our cameras...miniature white skyscrapers of pill boxes...

we hand them gifts and pray for them...the oldest son george is 21 years old...he looks no older than 15...a family of sickness and poverty...

they say they are stronger now with the medicine they have received as a result of bush’s faith based initiatives...there are over 1,500 patients on ARVs through kijabe hospital’s project AIDS relief...153 new patients in the past month alone...

the father cannot work—he takes care of the family cow...the mother takes care of the children...God takes care of them all...and they are together...

blanche, the health care worker in charge of the family talks about how she cried when the second oldest son tested negative after everyone else had tested positive...HIV patients within big families have a higher rate of survival...a serious implication for care of patients...

diane from our team gives the youngest girl a ring from her hand...she is holding the girl in her arms...everyone else in the room is lost to me for a while...

we also visit a young man dying of AIDS in his one room house...it smells terrible...he looks like death...he can hardly talk...he has meningitis in his brain...

it’s hard to pray or think...he would be in college in the states...and his life is being snuffed out...the good may die young...but it’s not good to die young...

you should see my view of the rift valley...

yesterday i met over a hundred hiv positive
patients at one of the support groups that kijabe
hospital sponsers...

i made friends with a guy named john...he
wants to be a photographer...i let him take
some shots with my camera...they turned out
really well...

one of the girls there wanted me to take
her home to ohio...so that she could take
care of me...i just gave her a high five...

the hospital here is the most put together
christian ministry i have ever seen...
the program director's name is jonathan...
he's teaching me a lot...it's been really
good...

i love the way they have integrated ministry
and medicine...i felt like coming back to
the states and getting an MD...but that's
not gonna happen...

what they are doing here is amazing...92%
retention rate of their patients...people
aren't dying of AIDs is what that means...


i'm finding out a lot about kenya and HIV
and even myself...it gets kind of lonely
at night cause i don't really have any close
friends to talk to and process all of this
...but thomas merton's book no man is an island
has been keeping me company...keeping me
reflective...

i'm writing some prolific amounts of notes
and travel journal style prose...it's not
too good but there is a lot of it...

today we are heading out to a children's
support group in west kijabe...meeting and
talking with some of the kids here is pretty
soul crushing at times...but they are full
of joy and strength and you should see how
they love jesus...

in africa i wake up at 5:00am and read and
drink coffee and do push ups...

sunrise and mosquito nets

i'm here in nairobi...my new friend sammy woke
me up this morning...

i'm keeping a long journal of what happens here
...i'll probably post it when i get home...not
sure how much internet time i'm gonna have here...

we head out for kijabe in a little while...first
we are going to church...

basically two straight days of flying...
you have no idea how far away from america
this is...

and the coffee is real good...i feel like the
only white boy here...oh yeah i am...peace for now...

sayonara

i'm off to the sub-saharan...to all of you with blog ocd i apologize
that you will be reading this same screen for the next two weeks...

yo holmes smell ya later...