I'm not gonna cook it but I'll order if from ZANZIBAR!

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My Friends and Family,

Jambo! It's been too long! I'm sure by now you're nearly all convinced that I've been spending the past 3 months in the heart of East Africa serving, volunteering, and selflessly offering my love to anyone who will take it. Friends, I hate to tell ya this, but you've been sucked in to some sweet deception! In reality only 3 days ago I was lying on the powdery white beaches of Zanzibar Island, swimming in the brilliantely teal and almost too warm Indian Ocean, suffering from a brutal headache because I couldn't decide between the fishburger or the hamburger for lunch, and finding sand and seashells in cracks and crevasses that sand and seashells should never be. Life for a volunteer is tough, huh? Now now, before you go revoking your blessings and bitterly taking back your prayers know that one, a jealous heart is an ugly heart (haha!) and two, I'm now back in Kitengela and tired as all heck from a exhausting few days at the hospital.

Much has gone done this past month on my end of the world and I'm absolutely floored to see December....DECEMBER!....dawning on the horizon with its caroling greens and peppermint reds. I'm sure your Novemeber story story has been one well worth telling and I pray that as you all share life together you don't forget the importance of that story. November may have brought you trials and it may have brought you joys but what matters most is that at the table of your hearts, be they Thanksgiving or take-out, you're telling your story. It's what makes you who you are! To hide it leaves the rest of us in the dark to that brilliant joojoo that makes you, you. It may be a novel or it might just be a look but lets you and I leave the stubborn complacency at the door and purpose to share ourselves for once. I for one can't wait to hear how your falls have transitioned into winters and in less than a month now I'll be back in the states to see you again and prayerfully hear those stories! Time flies, doesn't it? However, if you get the motivation and the time I'd love an email or a quite note to know how you're doing and to be encouraged by whats making you, you. Hoping to hear from ya!

As I already let you know, my Novemeber in East Africa has had its share of excitement. First and foremost, and I'm not sure if you've already heard, but on November 8 in the year 2008, Barack Obama became the president elect of yep, you've guessed it, KENYA! Once divided by tribal allegiances, the temporarily unified people of Kenya cried alongside their half Kenyan half American brother (or cousin or nephew or best friend to some) "Yes We Can!" and brought out the vote, quite literally in some places, hoping and praying for change they could belive in. Friends and family, the votes were cast and at the end of the day not one of the three hundred some odd soiled and folded paper ballots supported Senator John McCain. Shocking isn't it? The news spread like wildfire. Hardly twelve hours later November 9th would be declared a National Holiday in all of Kenya, school children would stand at the American Embassy in Nairobi and read prepared letters to the newly elected president on national television, and I think most significantly, countless parties at pubs and clubs would rage through the night and into the next day, into the next week for some! What were they celebrating? Well, I think you should know. They were celebrating the rise of "one of their sons" through the hypocrisy of American racism and into a house finally made black after too many years of white. They were celebrating the fact that with Obama as president immigration between Kenya and America would finally be free and open to all and that, get this, a high speed ferry would effortlessly shuttle citizens of the newfound 51st American state, Kenya, across the Atlantis and into the promised land. They were celebrating the freedom from everything unjust and corrupt, celebrating the abolition of the divide between the rich and the poor, celebrating the attainment of what they've always hoped for but because of oppression been unable to reach. Personally, my 7th and 8th of November were spent glued to a television set. First it was at the hospital, then in a pub, and finally in a host family's living room all through the night and into the nexty morning when at 9:00 AM on November the 9th we watched teary eyed and very proud as president elect Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech in Chicago. Now, you need to realize that while my sarcasm is both truthful and completly necessary it reflects the opinion of the Kenyan minority rather than the majority. Nevertheless, during the election madness it was the voice of the minority that made itself heard and its because of the Barack Obama printed tapestries and the Barack Obama purified water bottles and the Barack Obama painted city buses that I reflect for a bit on what life was like here in Kenya during that time. However, you should also know that the social and political response to the American elections in Kenya is a reality we really shouldn't joke about and that it in fact provides a deeply disturbing insight into a country that advertising stability but, in my opinion, continues to prove otherwise. If you're interested you and I will pick each others minds on this when I get back!

The second thing that defined my November was the brief holiday I took to Tanzania on the 16th. After being picked up by a bus in Kitengela I began my 5 hour venture south toward the town of Arusha, about 2 hours south of the Tanzania - Kenya border. Why Tanzania you might ask? Well, the answer is in the form of two recently graduated Western gals who picked up and went to volunteer in Tanzania for 5 weeks this fall. Allie Waddel and Maureen VanOss, who some of you know quite well, are those girls. Allie I knew pretty well back in Bellingham, well enough to know she'd be traveling to East Africa about the same time as myself, but Maureen I'd only heard about from mutual friends and was thus real excited to meet. After a few phone conversations and text messages my traveling down to Tanzania was set in stone and, getting back to the trip, I arrived in Arusha about mid-day on the 16th. Seeing Allie and Mo amidst the disorienting chaos that is a foreign country after 3 months of living abroad was some serious encouragement! We embraced each other in giant Bellingham bear hugs and began what at the time planned to be 7 but ended up turning into 11 days together. Now, because this trip made up the majority of my November I won't bore you with all the details of our trip. Rather, for the sake of your eyes and my fingers I've posted a good amount of pictures so that prayerfully we'll be able to communicate a bit more efficiently. Hope you enjoy them!

However, definitely worth noting is the one experience that defined my 3 brief days in Arusha before we flew out to Zanzibar. I'm not sure if you know this (I sure didn't), but for the past 13 years Arusha has been the site of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 (ICTR). It was decided in 1995 that Arusha, TZ serve as the neutral location where the trials for war crimes against humanity in the genocide be held, so this means that since 1995 Arusha has been the place where the 800,000 murdered and several million displaced persons of the 1994 Rwandan genocide have been given a voice. However, it also means that Arusha is the place where the men and women who commited those crimes have the opportunity to make their voices equally heard, be they laced with guilt or shaking with innocence. Allie, Maureen, and I had the opportunity to hear those voices. All together we sat on the viewing side of the tinted glass for three separate trials but really invested most of our time in only one of them. This trial, from what we gathered after 2 days of watching, purposed to identify the role of a particular military commander in the genocide and define his role in the killings post April 7th 1994 (this was the date that the Rwandan presidential airplane was shot down from the sky). While we never actually saw this commander, it was in the witness accounts during that time that a truly grotesque and vivid picture was painted for us what genocide actually looks like. The three of us sat in absolute silence, the unemotional voice of a UN interpreter mediating the language barrier in our provided black ear pieces, and at times we would look at each other only to exchange glances of disbelief at what we were actually hearing. We were filled with questions we may never be able to answer. Why did these killings go on for so long without being challenged by the international community? How can human beings act with such disregard for other human life? How does all of this relate to the Darfur region of Sudan? And finally, among many others, what and who were actually behind all of this. Its to that last question that this particular trial was concerned. I didn't realize this until we listened in on the trials but even today, 14 years after the killings stopped, very little is known about exactly what factors and series of events actually caused the genocide. Crazy huh? You'd think different, wouldn't you? Now, I don't want to share more than I'm able to without a rather lengthy explanation, but on the second morning we watched the trail a piece of evidence was discovered and presented by the prosecuting team that, if confirmed by the other hidden documents said to accompany it, would completely change what we know to date about the Rwandan genocide. This piece of evidence was a letter marked 8 of 11 between two French commanders stationed in Northern Rwanda just before the presidential plane was shot down and, according to the prosecutor, "would completely transform the way the world understands this 'supposed' genocide". Like I said, I'm not able to give you a ton more information as it'd take quite a while to hash out, but look for articles in the Times and other notable papers for updates which are most certainly on the way. As with everything else, my vagueness and lack of detail will prayerfully be cleared up when we're able to chat back in the states. Sorry!

Well, with that I think I've pretty well wrapped up my November. I'm now back in Kitengela for the next 3 months before I spend Christmas in Kisii (western Kenya) and then catch a flight back home on the 27th. My trip down to Tanzania, while incredibly relaxing, definitely helped me realize how much my heart is invested in the hospital and how, being renewed for a bit, its now time to get back to work! On Friday I helped stitch up a guy's knee who'd fallen off his motorbike and come to the hospital bleeding everywhere and in need of some serious assistance. The cut was so deep you could see the knee cap, patella, everything! It was awesome! So glad I'm back!

I miss you all a ton and pray that as the Christmas season gets you knee-deep in shopping and a burnt tongue from all those Starbucks peppermint lattes you don't forget the joy that's shared in living life together. Keep loving like you know how!

Peace to you

kyle

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Photos

Mr. Bean
Classicly titled boat that shuttled people from Stone Town, the most populated part of Zanzibar, to Prison Island where tourists feed giant turtles and snorkle the vibrantly colored reefs. We, as good tourists, did both of these things.

Stone Town
This is Stone Town as we returned from Prison Island. Little fun fact for ya: Prison Island was originally intended as a holding island for slaves during the slave trade but quickly, as the need demanded, tranformed into a quarrentine island for sick sailors both leaving and coming into Zanzibar.

Swimming at Dusk
I took this picture from the porch of a restraunt in Stone Town. Every evening just before sunset you could find a bunch of local kids swimming in the ocean, flipping off spare tires on the beach, and gathering older kids to start up a game of beach football (soccer for us Americans). It was beautiful.

Spice Tour
Zanzibar has a huge assortment of spices as it was a crucial player in the spice and textile trading during the 18th and 19th centuries. On our spice tour one of the guides made hats and neckties for the guys and crowns, necklaces, etc. for the ladies. Oh, and did I mention FLY lookin' sunglasses. They were my favorite piece.

Spice Tour 2
Allie, Maureen, and I looking great like always.

Sunset at Kendwa Rocks
Allie and I just before dinner on the beach in front of our hotel.

Tuna and Rockfish on the Beach
We walked by this place for dinner one night and thought that eating dinner by candle light with sand in our toes was the best kind of eating we could think of. We were right.

Last Night on Zanzibar
This is the view from the hotel restraunt. Gorgeous, eh?