Home now, changes and reflections

Hey everyone,

Gina and I arrived home at 440 or so on Christmas Eve, tired and ready to enjoy the holiday season. Since my last post there have been changes with the school program. Firstly, our guide to the camps, Izzo Macharia, could'nt calm the nerves of the teachers from the Elderot camp, i.e. they still felt threatned by Kimau at the Fumilia Narok camp. So, Izzo suggested that we wait for the completion of Southern Cross, a new school at the idp camp that is funded by Marafiki. I agreed to this because Izzo assured me that it will be mostly done by the end of January or shortly thereafter. The money already donated, and the money to come, will pay for the teacher's respective salaries when they teach at Southern Cross...so the money will go to further the education and empowerment of the camp residents.

Reflection

Kenya is racked by corruption and one can not go out at night without feeling vulnerable, for good reasons. It is frustrating that Kenyans keep electing the same politicians who divide tribes, inflame hatreds, then promote violence. I look forward to the prosecution of Kenya's leaders by the ICC-they are perpetrators of war crimes without a doubt.

Kenyans may well be the friendliest people I've ever met and they are strong and spirited in the worst of times, but they blame too much on the west and not enough on their corrupt leaders, their own destruction of their environment, their own decisions to take up arms. It is my humble suggestion that aid be distributed not through the government, but through competent ngo's and self-help groups at the idp camps and elsewhere. Aid should be given as microloans and other closely monitored and performance-dependent sources of aid. Simple aid gets pilfered by government officials as was the case when Britain's millions were stolen recently instead of going to the state's stumbling free-education program.

The trip renewed again and again my urge to help others and helped me see the underbelly of displacement, helped me become a better person and activist. Now, my work begins- I'll need to type up the data and use it to fundraise at WSU and beyond... Somewhere in Kenya, a women is prostituting herself to pay for her child's school fees, a child is dropping out of school for lack of money, a man sits idly by-a result of the countries abnormally high unemployment-let's think of them today and everyday and use that contemplation to promote resiliency in them and others in similar situations.

I can't wait to head back to Africa, she is in my blood.

Join the fight with me...

With hope,

Cameron