Quickly, before my connection dies!

In this issue: a quick update and some talk of politics. Read on if you dare.

We're still waiting for the announcement that we can live life with some level of normalcy. The government made Raila's rallies illegal, and its been pouring rain for the past couple of days, so the ODM protests have been rather unsuccessful. We didn't go to class at USIU on Wednesday since we weren't sure what was going to happen, but we were able to have Kiswahili class in Westlands on Tuesday and Thursday. So although our movement is restricted, we haven't been imprisoned in the apartments. We're free to move about Westlands this weekend, so we'll be able to go out for a bit of dancing and shopping over the next couple of days.

We've still been spending a lot of time meeting with people from the businesses where we can intern. I'm holding out hope that we'll have access to the public health clinic in Kibera where I wanted to work, but there's also a great microfinance group we can work with that would allow me a lot of contact with families in the slums, as well as some fantastic experience.

We returned to volunteer at the refugee camp at Kurura on Thursday, where people who fled the violence in Rift Valley Province are staying. We arrived later than planned and didn't need to help with lunch, but we played with the kids for a few hours. I took some great videos and pictures... and the kids took plenty for me too. Haha. I wish I had a fast enough connection to upload a few photos. Maybe when the internet cafe on campus opens I'll give it a try. Anyway, I hope I can go back to see the kids sometime soon.

The other night we headed over to the US Ambassador's residence to swim in the heated pool and smoke shisha. Mark, the ambassador's son, goes to USIU and hangs out with us quite a bit... it was pretty fantastic to get to chill at the residence. Friday morning we went to the US Embassy for a town hall meeting, where a lot of caffeinated American missionaries harassed the Ambassador about their safety. It was interesting hearing the Ambassador's thoughts on the conflict, though. The Embassy is even less worried about the situation than KJ – they don't consider evacuation a remote possibility, so I'll likely get to finish my semester (yay).

So on to politics. I'm sure you've been seeing reports coming out of Nairobi and Kisumu about the latest outbursts. The fast of the matter is, the rallies this week were relative failures. They were fairly small and didn't attract a lot of attention, even here, thanks to the heavy rain and police blockades. We're all sort of feeling like things could calm down from here, although Raila will lose face if he backs down. I just don't see any other solution. Kenyans (except the extremists who are throwing rocks in the BBC videos) are tired of the violence, tired of not being able to ride matatus to work, tired of losing money because tourists have stopped flying into the country. Raila can't possibly hope to continue calling on his supporters to rally for him and die in the streets.

It's increasingly obvious that Kibaki probably lost the election. Raila appealed to pretty much all non-Kikuyus and spent a hell of a lot more time campaigning. That's not to mention the problems with ECK's tallies and voter turnout reports, which were 95% in some provinces. The problem is, a recount is impossible (because it's Kenya) and a revote would throw the country into chaos. Kibaki will never give up power, even if over half the country supports Raila. ODM has a lot of power in Parliament now, so if Raila will calm down and accept a political settlement in the next couple of weeks, things should stabilize a fair amount.

It's difficult to watch the news reports, knowing that Raila's supporters probably did have the election stolen from them (not that they didn't try to stack the deck in their own favor). The slums of Kibera and Kawangare, the cities of Kisumu and Eldoret in Western Province, and Mombasa on the coast, are all ODM strongholds. The worst videos you see on the news come from there. The burned church, the tear gassing, and the “shoot to kill” orders have all come from those pockets of violence. Unarmed protesters have been shot with no provocation, but all you can say is, “This is Kenya.” It's absurd that a country this developed would revoke the right to peacefully assemble, but what can you do? The government is behaving pretty horribly, but they have the military on their side. Raila isn't helping things by being inflexible, either. It'll be interesting to see what happens after the failed rallies this week...

Anyway, back to the real world for a few days. Talk to you all soon! And yes, I'll stay safe.