Get me to the airport...

This exercise takes courage and it is not for the faint hearted.

After two days of been sent from one office to another, a phone call came; I can come an get my letter, from the Commissioner, which gives me permission to go to the camp (perhaps the Winston Churchill letter helped!).
This meant; booking tickets arranging transport - armed guards etc in one hour. I even packed! Then we had to endure the traffic...this included being stopped by police (Wilson, the driver sorted that out), going through walls of very big lorries spitting and spewing the blackest smoke and other traffic like the matatus and a camel
He got me to airport with a minute to spare - exactly a minute! Now I am on my way to Kakuma.

Hopefully the transport is awaiting me there.

Yesterday, while 'waiting' I went to the Commonwealth War cemetery and had a respectful look at all the graves of fallen soldiers in East Africa. Wilson commented: There are all the people here; Christians, Muslims, and one Jew from all over. They came here? that is brave. I told him about the war and Winston's role in it. He looked at me with an open mouth...'I shall tell that story tonight to my friends!'he said.

Nairobi and the 60 dollar story

I have been traveling for three days, of which I have spent either at an airport, and/or bus stations...waiting; or going from one official building to another. This took the whole of yesterday. I need formal (official) permission to go to Kakuma. Then only to find out that the one person who needs to sign my permission letter is: "still not in his office" and "please can you come back tomorrow". So, I wait again.
This waiting consist of being taken to several places in Nairobi by the taxi driver, Wilson, where many people live, work and survive on a daily basis. At one stage I heard a story from an individual; who on his first night here spend $60 on accommodation - a hotel - before he found a much much cheaper place to stay. That meant he spend half of the amount of money he saved to come here; to safety, in one night. For him there is a very long wait still to come.

Thank you...

I am grateful to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for this chance to experience new horizons. I am to follow in the footsteps of the great man as he also traveled the trajectory I am embarking on. It is in this spirit that I ask that anybody who takes a look at the blog, also have a look at the Trust fund's website on www.wcmt.org.uk. This makes for enjoyable reading.

Leaving for Nirobi

The preparations has been fun and stressful at the same time. Juggling many little things (which all takes time) and dealing with the waiting has been the mainstay of the last few weeks.
But now I have booked the flights, and got some email answers from connections in the cities I am planning to visit, have some accommodation in place and are packing my bags.
I shall leave the UK this weekend and emerge on the other side of it; in Nairobi. Strangely it will entail some waiting (airports) some stress (to be on time and not miss transport)and lastly ...some fun (the trip has started)!

I have seen my friends in the community in Teeside and they wished my well. This went with lots of descriptions ans explanations of places, transport details etc. They have been very exited for me and have been very helpful in making the connections in the counties I am visiting.

Introductory post: getting ready to leave

Working in Teesside in the North East of the UK I met some remarkable people from the asylum seeking and refugee community. Over the years I have listened to them telling their stories and witnessed the effort by them to integrate in to the host community. There are some parallels to my story but also sections in our narratives that are not similar. Listening to the stories, I tried to imagine the village/town and family life in the household of the refugee in the hope that I can assist in some small way to make things a bit easier and/or better for them to integrate in to the North East. For telling their stories are important: they need to establish their presence here to have a symbolic place in this society in Teesside. If people do not know where they are from and what they did, they do not fell that there is place/space here where they can fit in They need to explain they are teachers, mechanics, dentist, nurses etc. which would place them in a status level in the society. Perhaps the same level as ‘back home’, perhaps not; as they are unemployed here (asylum seekers are not allowed work). This means that they have find a different path up the social status ladder. In other words: start all over again.

This process includes a lot of explaining and also, as mentioned, narratives. With this journey I am embarking upon, I hope to be able to at least take in the geographical environment so that I can relate in some way to the stories and be able to understand it with an insight which will be constructive in the interaction with asylum seekers and refugees from East Africa. Then my friends and I can compare our stories.