dancing to the next song (5 Jul 2007)

it’s news to no one, i’m sure, that white folk can’t dance. but how about this: on a recent work trip, my kenyan friends joked that it always seems like we mizungus are so out of sync with the music that we must be thinking ahead – dancing to the next song.

it fits, right? in fact, the more i mulled it over, the more i recognized my own tendency to do this in many other aspects of life.

think about it: aren't we always getting ahead of ourselves in the west? always thinking ahead, planning our next step...dancing to the next song instead of grooving to the music playing right now. thereby missing out...

deep thoughts on a thursday morning, folks, best explained by the second cup of coffee steaming next to me.

in other news, i spent the past week in the western province of nyanza, one of kenya's less-developed areas and thus far my favorite. it took us an entire day of tooth-jarring travel over increasingly awful roads to reach the far-flung fishing town of mbita, our first stop. we arrived just in time for me to catch the slow sunset on lake victoria and for my kenyan colleagues to marvel at my propensity to stare endlessly at bodies of water.

the next morning i was taking a quick pre-breakfast dip in the water, feeling very glorious and close to nature when a large pair of eyes, followed by an even larger snout, broke the surface not far away. suddenly i felt a little less nature goddess, a little more "small defenseless human faced with enormous scary lake monster." every hippo horror story i've heard since arriving here replayed in my mind within about 2.5 seconds, resulting in a rather ungracious scramble back to the beach and a lengthy ribbing by my co-workers.

the rest of the week was spent moving from town to town, meeting with local NGOs and community groups to establish strong partners for the commission's national human rights policy and action plan (NAP). NAP holds public hearings in most of the districts of kenya in order to determine what the specific human rights issues are in each corner of the country and then incorporate them into a kind of policy guide for government protection of human rights.

it's critical to reach as many people as possible, since the challenges surrounding the lake, such as fishing disputes, differ vastly from those in the border areas (child trafficking) or the plains hosting sugar and tea plantations (unfair labor practices, child labor). but there are also very specific tribal, land-based, and even political issues on the ground that could be overlooked from our perch in nairobi.  hence the need to identify key kenyan organizations that can help mobilize wananchi ("the people") to come and share their concerns, either verbally or in writing. plus it gets KNCHR's name out there as the go-to for redress involving violations of your rights.

it was exactly the element i'd been missing thus far at the commission...all that village time in togo made me a stickler for grassroots impact, and until last week i'd been wondering how a nairobi-based human rights commission can claim to serve the entire country.

once again, i was getting ahead of myself - tuned in to that next song again! turns out KNCHR is planning to open offices in nearly every province in kenya. currently, there are two new offices in the northeast and west, with more in the works. besides the specific goals of NAP, we were also building contacts for KNCHR as a whole.

now back in the office, i've volunteered for the decidedly unglamourous task of compiling seemingly endless binders full of contacts into a database for the entire commission. it's not the most mentally engaging work, but i'm excited to at least be contributing to future local-level outreach.

the trip was also wonderful in that i spent seven solid days in a car with three very cool kenyans. staring out the window at the amazing scenery while listening to the rapid-fire conversations between carol, vero, and kamura taught me more about kenyan politics and differing views on the upcoming election than i learned through months of cautious inquiry in togo.

the openness and fervor with which kenyans discuss the issues and their dissatisfaction with the current regime actually made me nervous at first. after years in a repressive political climate like togo's, where my friends would lower their voices and glance around furtively before making even the most benign statement about then-dictator eyadema, it was startling to hear such lively and critical banter. startling and, of course, completely thrilling for my ever-political mind.

after talking to a few more folks, it seems the feeling (at least among some educated, urban people) is that kibaki's a good guy, he just runs with the wrong crowd. he lets his MPs get away with murder (literally, in some cases) despite the anti-corruption rhetoric that punctuated his election campaign in 2002.  the opposition has the same issue it seems to have in the states, and the world over, for that matter: they can't seem to get their act together.

so, it seems, kibaki will most likely be re-elected in december as the lesser of several evils. regardless, it's a fascinating time to be here, as parties struggle over whom to nominate and MPs trade insults on the evening news. just the other day, 30 ministers complained publicly that they're "bored," endemic of kibaki's increasingly bloated administration and another contradiction in terms. in 2002, he pledged to clean house and strip government of unnecessary fat, but has instead done precisely the opposite.

i'm now more than halfway through my time here in kenya and, predictably, i feel like i've just hit my rhythm. here's hoping that i'm dancing less to the next song and more to the one playing now...