Hello all, sorry about the long silence – things have been very busy around here (as usual!) and I simply hadn’t found much time to write. Aside from the excessive running around, life here has been good to me. The fact that I’ve been feeling very settled and comfortable in Nairobi has even been cushioning me against homesickness as birthdays, births and other major events have been transpiring back home.

The big news here is that some of the internally displaced people are finally returning home – though many are refusing to leave, quite understandably protesting that they do not feel secure, as the underlying issues that had precipitated the post-election violence have yet to be adequately addressed. Many people are now in the awful position of having to decide whether to stay in camps that lack hygienic facilities, privacy and security, going back to live alongside the same neighbours that had terrorized them and possibly beaten, raped or killed family members only months earlier, or attempting to start over elsewhere with nothing. As I had feared, the government appears to be mostly glossing over the issues and of unequal wealth distribution, land issues and ethnic tensions that had contributed to the unrest in December and January. But if these issues remain unaddressed, they will flare up again in the future. Meanwhile, some of the IDPs are warily going back to their homes, while others are protesting and refusing to budge.

As Rift Valley was one of the areas of the greatest unrest, and is also where the majority of Kenyan agriculture takes place, many farmers have still not returned home and plants have not been planted for months. As a result, food prices in Kenya remain unusually high and citizens are really struggling just to eat. There was a huge upset this year on Labor Day, as Kibaki was expected to announce a raise in the minimum wage but didn’t, giving government expenses and IDP resettlement as an excuse. I wasn’t even aware that there was a minimum wage in Kenya – I guess that so many people work in the informal sector (known as jua kali, fierce/hot sun, since most of the informal work takes place outdoors) that many Kenyans wouldn’t be directly affected. But still, with the price of living climbing steadily higher, the low wages are a huge issue. Minimum wage still amounts to under a dollar a day. Especially for those living in urban areas, it is simply not enough. I’ve been struggling to balance my own expenses, as the higher cost of food plus the cost of transportation (driven higher by rising fuel prices) were more than I bargained for. The prices of some commodities have nearly doubled since I was last here, even basics like tomatoes and onions.

Of course, Kenya is not the only place experiencing a rise in food prices – the lingering effects of the post-election riots are simply an additional factor, as the food crisis is global. I don’t know how much it’s being covered elsewhere, but here we’re constantly getting news of the prohibitively high food prices all over the world, and the civil unrest that has resulted in some African and Asian countries. In March alone, there were food riots in Egypt, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Madagascar and the Philippines. Some resulted in the loss of lives. As far as I can tell, this is partly due to rising gas prices, which in turn affects the cost of food transportation, partly due to shifting climatic conditions which makes farming more difficult and results in lower crop yields (due to droughts, flooding, unpredictable weather patterns, etc.), and partly due to the increase in biofuel production, which takes up arable land previously used for food production. I think it’s very telling of our desire to find easy solutions that instead of reducing fuel consumption, we turn to so-called clean energy, which ends up contributing to poverty and famine, and which stands in the way of agrarian reform (i.e. land redistribution) in developing countries. That’s not to say that biofuels are all bad news, but that it’s important to examine how and where and by whom any kind of fuel is produced, not just how it burns. After all, we can’t expect companies engaging in monoculture plantation in developing countries to actually have a social conscience, now can we?

In Roots news, the adolescent health program has just kicked off this week. For the past couple of weeks, the organizers of the program have been researching, preparing the curriculum and educating each other on topics such as contraception, STDs/STIs and HIV/AIDS, children’s rights, alcohol and drug abuse, reproductive health, hygiene, puberty and building self-esteem. The few sessions that I was able to attend were very impressive; the presenters really knew their stuff and had put a lot of effort into tailoring the delivery for the age group (which I think are youth between the ages of about 11-14). I wish that I were able to help out in the schools themselves and facilitate some of the discussions, but at least I’ll get a full report on it this weekend.

There may be some more travel coming up for me next month, but more on that when it’s confirmed. In the meantime, I would like to send my love to my wonderful parents and wish them both very happy birthdays. Hope you guys enjoy yourselves, and I’m thinking of you!