Saturday, our last full day in Nairobi

No, Andy, I'm not filled yet. Sometimes my eyes glaze over and I think I can't take any more and then something else happens.

Yesterday was our leavetaking at Huruma. I spent most of the day in the infant room and with the "old dears" as fellow traveler Jim Jackson calls them. I went by and blessed my tiny boy in the handicapped room and said goodbye to Thomas, Baba, Columbo, and Collins.

After lunch all the children from the primary school gathered in the school courtyard and a group of African dancers and drummers from a Dandora parish came and demonstrated their remarkable skills. Again I am at a loss for words. I simply cannot believe what these young people can do with their bodies. Of course, they had some of us join for some of the dancing and I showed them a few of my best moves. :-)

This morning we walked to Kibera, a huge slum about 15 minutes walk from our guesthouse. There we joined several soccer teams of local youth to clean sewers. Yes, I said clean sewers. Honestly, an old woman like me wasn't much help but these young Kenyans worked very hard to get the debris out of the ditches where it backs up and overflows into the streets. They put the solid trash and garbage (it appeared to be mostly plastic and corncobs), bagged it up and trucks came to take it to the dump at Dandora. Julius and a group with him decided to leave the project early because he couldn't see taking trash from one slum and depositing it in another. The dump at Dandora is the only one authorized by the ciy, however. It is a very difficult issue.

Tomorrow we are up at our usual time to go to the airport to the Masai Mara on safari. I may or may not write again until I get home. We hope to rest and reflect and ease ourselves back into the American life. Another difficult issue.

I will be home Thursday evening.