Homework

I've been trying to learn some about Kenya since it's my first stop, and followed the recommendation of our Kenya travel guide and got the book "Unbowed" out of the library. It's a fascinating, enlightening autobiography of Wangari Maathi, an amazing woman born in rural Kenya in the 40s, who started the Green Belt Movement (an environmental action group planting millions of trees in a rapidly deforested Kenya) and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in 2002. She gives both a history of Kenya from colonial times and a scathing indictment of the second administration after Kenyan independence. The amount of harrassment she received from her own government, including multiple jailings and police-sanctioned beatings, gives me not only a big dose of gratitude for our own freedoms, but also a much greater understanding of what individuals in developing countries are up against as they try to shift ingrained cultural beliefs to become a freer and more just society.

It also made me aware of a buried belief of mine that if we just sent enough aid or assistance, or helped to get enough programs off the ground, that social change would naturally follow. I'm seeing how naive and oversimplified that way of thinking is, and that the answers are not only much more complex, but the issues are deeply rooted in a social milieu that one can never truly understand from mere observation, especially from afar.

Having completed that one, I'm now on to "Half the Sky," Nicolas Kristoff's probing look at the status of women around the globe. Filled with personal stories and deeply moving, I highly recommend it for anyone interested in these issues. It's one of those books that I find myself making excuses to go read.

I'll end tonight with my funny moment of the day. I went to see a movie with some friends tonight, and one part of the previews was this beautiful photographic montage of ethereal images from around the world, soothing music in the background. Across the images rolled these words: "What is a journey?...A journey is not a trip...It's not a vacation...It's a process. A discovery... (At this point, I'm thinking WOW! I gotta put this in my blog -- this is SO much what this trip is about for me) "...A journey brings us face-to-face with ourselves...It shows us not only the world, but how we fit into it..." It went on like that a bit longer, then up on the screen pops a picture of a Loius Vuitton handbag. It was their advertisement! Everyone in the theatre first laughed, then booed. I totally joined them -- but came home and found the quote online later anyway, just to share with you.