Yesterday we woke early for another wonderful day.  Every time we are around reliable power and intent access I put everything together on the computer.  I’ve spent hours over the last few days recording our travels knowing that I can leave a DVD back-up of the pictures and journal with Nick.  It was a tight squeeze but we connected to the internet at his office this afternoon.

    At 10:00 a.m. Reuben, Nick’s cab driving friend, arrived to take us down memory lane to downtown Nairobi.  We have such vivid memories of this place.  It means so much for our shared history as a couple.  As young people in love, we dreamed of coming back here with our children and today we realized that seemingly impossible dream.

    I visited Nick in 1989 and spent time in Nairobi finding my way to his village, being hounded by safari salesmen and receiving a general introduction to big city life in Africa.  But despite all these good times this place means even more to me as Heidi’s home in our first year together.  Every other week during my first year of divinity school the New York Times would have an article about terrible violence and social unrest and US involvement in Kenya.  Some of this simply wasn’t being reported in Nairobi where Heidi lived.  Every day I would write her a letter and try to imagine what her life was like here from her replies.

    Today I had my first chance to really reconstruct what her life was like here as an American exchange student.  We saw a few of the places where she lived, where she went every morning for her fruit bowl breakfast at the market, the examination hall, the church she visited, the parks she walked through to get to classes, the fountain where she took pictures and sent them back to men in America and the offices of for her program.

    I feel so badly about all my criticisms about inefficiency and insecurity in Africa.  When we walked into that office everyone dropped everything and treated us like a returning king and queen.  They had work to do but that famous African hospitality came first for them.  I spoke at length with a professor who severely denounced recent US air attacks in Somalia in an effort to kill one of the terrorists who bombed the US embassy in Kenya.  He talked about the other people who were killed and how much it affects global opinion of American policies.  Somalia has been such an important part of our story this time in Africa - Ethiopia invaded at Christmas, war continued into the New Year, the US air attack, and Nick’s close work with the UN country team.  It’s hard to know how much this will affect our life in Ethiopia.  Currently on our schedule we have an important audience with the Patriarch of Ethiopia and will be with him for the Timkat celebration.  I hope that heightened security concerns do not prevent these two meetings.

    We sought out Heidi’s old professors but they had moved on.  Everyone at the university agreed that this was a long time ago.  They gave us more background on the student demonstrations that had closed the university in 1990.  They were concerned both with pro-democracy aspirations and the condition of the students at the university.  It is so competitive to get accepted that these must have been serious concerns indeed.  The students had a lot to lose and there were many others that wanted their place.

    We took photographs at Heidi’s fountain.  Although I shouldn’t have felt this way, I was surprised that the children didn’t have a sense of the gravity and importance of this occasion.  Next we visited All Saint’s Cathedral.  I just learned from the Daily Standard newspaper that they can receive as much as a million shillings on a Sunday.  There are no prayer books in the pews.  Instead they have flat screen TV’s on the pillars in the nave with the words for the hymns and prayers on them.  What a great relatively unobtrusive solution to the problem of wasting paper bulletins and still having a flexible liturgy.  It seems a lot better than one big huge screen.  My Kenyan priest friend Donde is well known here.  He had an office at the cathedral and everyone asked about his family and how he was doing.  Of all the places we visited in Africa, the cathedral was the only place that really seemed new (besides Ushaka Mall in Durban).

    We drove up to Heidi’s dorm, down to the market and were pretty tired.  We went to Sarit Center, the mall where Nick has his mail box and had lunch with Reuben at the coffee shop across the corridor from an uninspiring and expensive toy store.  Reuben took us home to Nick’s house and his dogs Bella and Yonga.  We haven’t been here a long time but it sure feels like home.

    Soon Nick returned home and we set off through the town of Karen (named after Karen Blixen) then up 4-wheel driving to the peaks of the Ngong Hills for a sunset picnic.  The children climbed the first hill but a suspicious looking man hovering near the car sent Nick down with the children.

    It was such a blessing to be alone with Heidi as we climbed up through the green grass and strange wildflowers up to a little rocky peak with the dogs.  I hope never to forget this beautiful place.  Maybe all the nostalgic visiting set the mood, but I felt more in love with Heidi than ever before.  She probably didn’t even notice this as we sat among the rocks with the dogs watching the sparrows and raptors as distant rain showers crept along the valleys below.  The pictures cannot do justice to what this place means to me.

    We soon hurried down the hil pulled by Nick’s enthusiastic dogs and found a crowd of Masai children watching our party from a distance.  We saw Nick’s closest Nairobi friends there.  Thomas, Karin and their five month old child Sophie.  They were delightful and we felt blessed to spend such a special time with them as the sun went down behind the distant hills and the clouds cast shadows on the valleys below.

    Besides their professional commitments they are deeply involved in an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS.  If only we could be with them on Sunday we could go to mass there with them.  Again I regret that we cannot spend more time with our new friends.

    I write this as our plane lands with the blue lights of Addis Ababa below…

    We were fortunate that the rains never came near to us on the top of the mountains.  We drove home in the dark.  I was so surprised by the number of walkers and bicyclists still on the roads.  Nick said that in an hour there would be hardly anyone out.  I’m glad.  It seemed like such a dangerous arrangement.  There is not enough room for drivers and walkers on this road.

    Everyone went to bed early as I typed late into the night.  I slept in the living room and rose early for more typing.  The next morning we had breakfast with Nick’s landlord Jessica on the patio directly above Nick’s cottage.  She has three over-achieving sons and a wonderfully magnanimous spirit.  She used to be a Methodist for years and then a few years ago joined a Pentecostal church that now has 4,000 worshipers per service and multiple services each Sunday.  She asked Nick a lot of questions about his religious life and his intentions for the religious education fo his future children.  Nick held firm.  I think that firmness is another quality that I appreciate in him.

    Next we visited Thomas and Karin’s elegant house and gardens.  It is absolutely beautiful there and showed another side of Nairobi that made it much more attractive to me.  We posted the new website material despite the usual frustrations (the electricity went off in the middle of our work.  Before we knew it, it was time to go.  I could stay in that place for a long time.

    Then we went to the Giraffe Center.