FINALLY!

From the BBC:

"Kenya rivals agree to share power,

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga
have signed a deal to end the country's post-election crisis.

At a ceremony in Nairobi, the two men put their signatures to a power-sharing agreement brokered by former UN chief Kofi Annan. "

We hear there was big celebration in the streets of Kisumu today. I am happy, but guarded. We'll see what happens now. It's one thing to agree on things, it's another thing to implement them.

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!

Well the opposition called off their mass action slated for Thursday, just in the nick of time, but not in time for the embassy to say we can go home. We can’t. We are staying in Nairobi. Another month. Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh! Although it is possible we may go back sooner than 30 days, I’ll believe it when I see it.

At the same time, today we hear from the embassy that we are supposed to leave our Kisumu house by end of February. The embassy decided to wait til the very last moment to remember this fact. So I don’t know when they will pack us out. I don’t know exactly where they will put our stuff. Or our animals. It might be to the house down the street. Much much smaller house so all our stuff won’t fit, they’ll have to find something to do with a lot of it. But it’s fine.

Article Published!

So our neighbor in Kisumu, Danny, has written a story about his experience being exacuated to Nairobi and it has been published in this weeks Sunday New York Times Magazine.

Out of Kisumu can be read here

The Party's Over

CDC told us yesterday that we would no longer have access to the a car
and driver. The government giveth, the government taketh away. It was
one of those perks that has helped make our stay in Nairobi palitable.
This will severely diminish our mobility. Taxi seems the only option
right now. Fare round trip from home to CDC offices will be 40 USD and
its out of our own pocket. Not to mention having to pick up kids at 12 and
3pm. Might be working from home a lot next week.

Well we have one more week before the embassy decides if we have to
stay here another month. The politicians seem to be close to a deal so
that is good. But every other day there is news of a falling out so
thats bad. And actually the opposition is so annoyed that the
government has been stalling they have called for another 'mass
action' on Wednesday. If that actually happens I doubt we will be
allowed back next month.

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile mobile.google.com

The Latest Here...

So in was during our hour and half commute home yesterday when I
looked up from my newspaper to see Conde Rice's motorcade go by. I'm
not sure what good her visit did. The news today is that the
government has taken a step backward in the talks.

Kenya has mostly remained quiet for the last few weeks. Everyone has
pinned all their hopes on there talks. If they fail you will probably
see the entire embassy leave. Things will get ugly here. I really
don't see that the politicians have much choice. They have to succeed
or there will be nothing left to govern.

Meanwhile we are waiting to hear from the embassy as to whether we can
go home next month. They will probably meet next week to decide if we
have to stay here another month

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

Our Nairobi House

Here is the compound where we are living in Nairobi:


View Larger Map

Snake Man!

We're good...really, we're fine.

Hi everyone. Well I haven’t written in a while, mainly because there really isn’t much to tell! This is a good thing, actually. Over the weekend we visited the elephant orphanage, ate fabulous sushi, sat around the pool, yada yada, you know the usual. CDC has allowed us the use of one of their vehicles along with a driver so we are being chauffeured around everywhere. We are really spoiled now. With an hour commute to the office we are able to do work in the car.

Kenya is quiet, the political talks are going well, and politicians are preaching non-violence which seems to be taking hold. Kisumu has been quiet for almost two weeks now. Tuesday the embassy decided that it was ok for a small number of essential Americans to go back to Kisumu for 3 days. That is were Kayla is tonight, she’ll be back on Friday night.

The kids are really doing remarkably well. Although the ‘we’re on an adventure’ spin is starting to wear thin with them. They are missing their animals and toys and friends in Kisumu. Kayla is exhausted and so am I really; we have our good days and bad days.

So Nairobi has a big game park attached to it. And in that game park is located the elephant orphanage where they accept elephants from all over Kenya. They care for them until they reach adulthood then set them free. If you pay a little money you can actually adopt one of these elephants. It give you privileges to visit them on a more intimate level. We decided to adopt one. We went with some friends in the evening. Seems they are herded out to the bush for the day then they are brought back to their barn for dinner and sleep in the evening. We arrived just before they came back from the bush. They are so cute! And every bit as mischievous and playful as any child. We hung out with them while they ate dinner. We adopted the littlest one, her name is Didah. She’s about 4 feet tall. The kids had a wonderful time. The trainers (some of them have to actually sleep in the barn with these babies so they won’t be lonely) were wonderful; they even allowed Max and his friend Bennie to go into the barn to pet the babies. Man, what a life these kids are having. I’m so glad I’ve been taking photos as I don’t think they will believe they have done all these things in Africa when they are older! All the babies loved having their trunks petted. And if you blew air into their trunks they would remember your smell so they would remember you the next time you where there.

One day when the elephants were coming back from the bush a baby rhino followed them in. Turned out that this little baby was totally blind. So the orphanage adopted him too. They named him Maxwell, whose name of course was a big hit with us.

Hello from Pleasantville, Kenya

Hi everyone, it’s been a while since I’ve written. We have been busy setting up a household here in Nairobi. Starting from scratch…again, even working to locate a school for the kids. All very stressful. And even depressing as every step along the way seems to feel more and more like we are entrenching ourselves here in Nairobi.

We spent almost the whole day on Monday at the embassy filling out papers and learning about what level evacuation we are in, DefCon1? DefCon2? Whatever. Ok, this is actually complicated; I am not sure I even understand it all but we are ‘officially’ evacuated from Kisumu now and other outlying areas of Kenya as well. Oh, the kids are officially on Authorized Departure, We, are on Temporary Duty Assignments in Nairobi. Seems it’s unusual that the state department evacuates people to somewhere inside the same country. They evaluate the situation every 30 days so we may be here for 3 more weeks or…. Until they reverse these orders no one is allowed outside Nairobi without notifying the embassy and no one is allowed in Kisumu without the ambassador’s permission. We are hoping to start a rotation of the Americans to go in and out of Kisumu every few days, if things stay quiet around here. We have to manage the affairs of our house and the field station by remote control from Nairobi, which isn’t so easy, especially with work.

Also at the embassy we were all asked to be in a ‘meeting’ with the Regional Psychiatric Officer. Now THAT was interesting. You could have cut the tension in that room with a machete! What, ME stressed? No way, man! No, actually he seemed like a nice enough guy. And he had some interesting information about Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome to share.

Do you remember the James Bond movie Goldfinger? The part where they drive into Fort Knox? I think of that scene every time I ride into the American compound which is where we are living right now. HUGE security. There are about 40 homes, they look exactly the same; it’s really Pleasantville! Very weird and not our style. ALL Americans live here. You’d hardly know you were in Kenya at all. Even the restaurant at the clubhouse only takes USD. The kids think we are on yet another vacation, they are doing really well so far. Kayla and I are frustrated; we are hoping our stay in Pleasantville is very, very short.