Off to Nairobi

January 8, 2009

today begins our long journey home, which will be about 50 hours, door to door. we woke up about 630 am, finished packing our last suitcases, and headed to breakfast at 700 am. We said our goodbyes and headed out towards Nairobi. On the way, we traversed the Syro-African rift, which starts at the dead sea and travels thousands of miles down the African continent. it is about 100 miles wide in Kenya and a breathtaking view as we scaled the opposite side. Magic found a restaurant in Nairobi popular with the white Kenyan crowd and it was, by far, our best meal on the trip. We just kept ordering and ordering every possible vegetarian appetizer. Marc enjoyed the best chicken tikka in years.
After lunch, we visited giraffe manor, both a hotel and a sanctuary for giraffes. the fun part is feeding the giraffes, who come right up to you (we were standing on a raised platform) and lick the food from your hand. A few brave Weiss's took the challenge to kiss a giraffe by placing the food between their lips. LICK. And they were kissed by the giraffe as it took its food. The Dollingers were not inclined to be kissed, even as the giraffe guides there assured us that their saliva is antiseptic.
From giraffe manor, we traveled to Mapendo, an NGO created by Sasha Chanoff, nephew of our friend Matt Chanoff. Mapendo offers medical care and legal advocacy to urban refugees in Nairobi. Their staff welcomed the 10 of us, gave us a tour of their facilities and introduced us to two of their refugee families. One from Magadishu, Somalia, escaped both the war as well as religious persecution since the family converted from Islam to Christianity. The other family fled from the Congo. In both cases, there was no father on the scene. One had been arrested for lack of proper documentation while the other abandoned the family. There were 12 children between the two women. It was heart breaking to hear their stories, to understand both the personal and individual pain as well as the enormity of the refugee crisis in Nairobi, in Kenya, and on the African continent. The two families left in time to get to their homes before dark. We stayed and spoke with the professional staff for about an hour longer, to hear their stories, to understand the processes involved. We learned of their efforts to get as many refugees as possible relocated to the United States, which holds 70,000 places each year. We left with heavy hearts and the feeling that this was the right and best way to end our journey to Africa.
We headed to the airport, said our goodbyes to Magic and Aden, and boarded the midnight flight to London.