Habari,
I know it has been a
very long time since I submitted a blog entry and many of you have reached out
to find out what’s going on. Well, in
July of last year my mother became very ill, which required the attention of
myself, my brothers and members of our extended family. Those of you who know me well, know that my
mom is the most important person in my life.
As ornery and cranky as she is, she’s still mine. Her illness took my focus off of many things
and being halfway around the world from her didn’t help the situation.
I’ve gone back and
forth home much more than I intended over this nine month period. Also during this time, I’ve lost my
grandfather, Irving Stokes, my cousin Annie Williams and my great-uncle Lucian
Ellis, Sr. Needless to say, it has been a trying situation, but my mother is back on
the road to recovery. She has regained
most of her independence and is working hard at obtaining the rest. Hallelujah!
Now my desire to
continue telling the story of my journey in Africa has returned, although it
may be coming to an end soon. I’m hoping
I will be able to extend my stay on the Continent for another year. Yes, I am enjoying the journey that much. This is a good time to be here, particularly in
Kenya. So much has happened in the last 9
months. I will try to hit the highlights
for you.
As you all know, Kenya
held its first presidential elections under their new constitution this
year. As a result of the widespread
violence in the 2007 elections, all of the expats in the country were extremely
tense about this issue. This was a very
eye opening experience for me. As the
Shared Services Manager, it was my responsibility to coordinate efforts in the
event of any violence. Without going
into much detail, it became clear that most organizations followed the lead of
the US Embassy.
Many of us still cling
to images of masses of people being evacuated from Saigon at the end of the
Vietnam War. During a trip to the home
of the American Ambassador for a briefing on the election situation, that myth
was destroyed. One of the first things
the speaker said to the crowd of American citizens was, “There are 8 marines
guarding the embassy and they are not coming to get you.” LOL.
What became very clear
to me was that the American Embassies around the world are ‘Ride or Die.’ Their
level of tolerance for violence is quite high.
You do remember Benghazi, don’t you?
I knew that my safety was my own responsibility and I remember being
told that several times. That’s why it
was surprising for me to hear that I was considered an essential employee and
needed to stay in Kenya. HA! I had to explain to folks that I was the
youngest and only female child of one Rosalie Godfrey and there was no way in
hell I was going to jeopardize my life to prove a point. As sick as she was, she would have burned down the capital of Nairobi if something happened to her baby girl. Needless to say, my ticket home had already
been purchased as I helped with the coordination efforts for the others. I may be accused of being crazy, but I ain’t
stupid.
The good news is that
the Kenyan people stood tall and carried out their elections in a dignified
manner and virtually without incident.
It was a far cry from over 1200 killed and 600,000 displaced in
2007. I believe the Kenyan people
realize their potential as well. Now
they just need to pray that their new president, Uhuru Kenyatta isn’t convicted
for crimes against humanity at the Hague.
Yes, the International Criminal Court has indicted Kenya’s new president
for the crimes committed during the election violence of 2007. The real crazy thing is that the indictment
came long before the elections.
LOL. One thing I have learned is
that you can’t look at things here, or most places in the world, with a Western eye.
In the US, a person
indicted for crimes against humanity couldn’t even get on the ballot. The Kenyan people see this differently. Many of them believe Kenyatta wasn’t the one
who should have been indicted. They feel
the top runners in the 2007 election should be on trial, not their
deputies. The disputes in the Kenyan
elections stem from the tribal divisions in the communities as well as the
history between Kenyatta and Odinga.
Kenyatta is Kikuyu and Odinga is Luo (same as Obama’s father). In the past, there has been a winner take all
mentality in these elections. In other
words, they may not win the race, but they will certainly win the fight. LOL.
Anyway, I’m thrilled that things went off without a hitch.
Shortly after I
returned to Kenya after the holidays, I learned that Master Pu was going to be
abandoning me at the end of the first quarter.
This added to my frustration because I didn’t come here to break in
another manager. SMH. Let’s just say it has been an interesting
transition. I wish I could say more, but
I can’t.
I also found time to go to the beautiful island
country of Mauritius for a little rest and relaxation. Now let me begin this story
by saying I have a lot of respect for men. I grew up with an army of brothers,
so there's very little that surprises me, but while in Mauritius I experienced
something that made me want to say, "Men ain't s*#!" Now bare with me
for a second while I set this up.
During my stay in Mauritius, I had been using the same taxi driver,
because once you find a good one you want to stick with him. Usually he would
take me for a one or two hour trip, but one day we were exploring the southern
part of the island. That's an all-day trip. When he came two pick me up there
was a woman in the car. I didn't mind because his first language was French and
his English was very broken. I didn't want to spend the whole trip with us
trying to figure each other out. This way he could enjoy a conversation with her
and I could just enjoy the sites. We worked it out and had a great day.
At the end of the day, we dropped her off n the downtown area and preceded
back to my villa. Before I could comment on how nice his wife was, he started
laughing sheepishly and announced that the woman wasn't really his wife. He
said she just likes it when he calls her that. I shook my head and laughed, but
then he proceeded to say, I need to go pick up my wife now. WTF! You could have
bought me for a nickel.
Before I could protest, we were slowing down near an office building and
this other woman got in the car. She introduced herself in almost perfect
English, but she was fluent in French as well. Now he clearly told her about me
since we had been driving together all week. She immediately asked me how was
our day. I got a headache from rolling my eyes at him. I could barely look at
this woman and he couldn't look at me. WTF was I supposed to say to her?
I spent the whole day with him and his
trick, joking, laughing, taking pics, and breaking bread. And, it made me
question why he felt so comfortable putting me in the middle of his BS. If I
wasn't in a foreign country that I hadn't travelled to before, alone, and if I
didn't need him to take me to the airport the next morning, I would have busted
his ass! Ain't that a hot mess?!!
Well, I’m going to cut
this short. I will continue the saga
next week. I’m gonna try to do my
posting on Saturdays now. Stay tuned! It’s good to be back.
Asante Sana,
Della Rochelle
Copyright © 2013 by
Della Rochelle Williams
