Bujumbura-Kigali-Kampala-Nairobi-Kampala-Kigali-Bujumbura

I'm writing from Kampala, where I'm spending the day on the way back to Bujumbura. It's pretty low-key here; I think people are still out of the city for holiday. Still, I'm enjoying the architecture and being somewhere a little more manageable than traffic-choked and sprawling Nairobi.

The bus ride was long and character building, but it was fascinating to watch the changes in development from Burundi to Rwanda, whose capital has an actual traffic light, to Uganda, where there are greenhouses and commercial agriculture, through to Nairobi, which is bright lights and big city. Crossing the Rift Valley in Kenya was a definite highlight: the landscape changes almost instantly as the bus plunges down from the dusty brown and flat to the lush and hilly.

I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's, visiting with Anna, my former coworker at the Quaker UN Office, who's now working for the American Friends Service Committee in Nairobi. We were joined by an all-star cast which included an AFSC Burundi employee, an Earlham grad from Kenya who just finished a stint with the Quaker UN Office in Geneva, a friend-of-a-friend who's working at a home for street kids north of Nairobi, and an International Labor Organization who made his way to Nairobi from Pretoria. A brainy and peaceful collection.

We took full advantage of her pool, and spent most of Christmas day lounging, though we did manage some carol singing. I spent the rest of the two weeks nursing my sunburn, cooking good food (appreciating the fact that one can get good cheese), and meandering around the city. We spent New Year's eve with Yvette's family and then the beautiful people at Carnivore, a notorious Nairobi club. All was well there until Bon Jovi and System of a Down made unwelcome intrusions into the playlist.

We spent January 1st in Hell's Gate natural park, looking at zebras, giraffes, warthogs, impalas, and baboons. Often all at the same time. After that we hiked down to a hot spring where you can literally boil an egg.

I also got to go to unprogrammed meeting at Friends Center in Nairobi, which was a nice change of pace after the celebratory and programmed meetings I've been attending in Bujumbura. Afterwards, there was a nice coffee with some expatriate meeting attenders.

Nairobi was a wonderful mix of exploration and relaxation, and I definitely appreciated all the amenities. But as I plod my way back to Bujumbura, I also feel excited about digging deeper into the work and getting grounded there again.