Memoir Reading Blog #2

This section of My Heart is Africa covers the arrival of Scott Griffin and his wife Krystyne in Kenya and their subsequent first few days in Nairobi. After flying to Djbouti from Egypt, Scott finally begins the last leg of his voyage to Kenya. Finally arriving in Nairobi, Scott is immediately befriended by his taxi driver, Michael, whom he keeps on as a chauffeur until he purchases his own car. It is Michael that first suggests that Scott stay at the Nairobi Club, a somewhat shabby hotel founded and built by tradesmen in 1921 as a protest to exclusive up-country white hotels that provided similar services. Michael also offers to show Scott the city, which he does the next day. Scott is shocked when Michael takes him to Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, to visit his brother. Michael's brother, Isaiah, lives in a tiny, sparsly funushed hut with five other men. Unbelievably, more than 55 per cent of Kenyans who occuby Nairobi live in slums like this. This section of the novel also details some of the problems facing the Flying Doctors Service, such as a lack of funding from AMREF and the Flying Doctor's Society, the latter of which raised and controlled the funds meant for the Service. The Society, however, was completely out of touch with the operating requirements of the Flying Doctors Service, leaving the FDS nearly bankrupt.

Scott Griffin does an excellent job of reconstructing the lives of the average Kenyans. Many of them live in slums where, as Scott puts it, "The press of humanity was suffocating to the outsider." However, Scott comments on an interesting phenomenon about African slums. Many of the Kenyans who manage to raise themselves from the mud of slums such as Kibera end up longing to return there. As strange as this sounds, the close quarters of Kiberia give comfort to its residents. Another quotation that caught my interest was when Scott described Kibera by calling it impressive. He says,

"There was something impressive about Kibera. In spite of the dirt, poverty, and unsanitary conditions, there was a social order that I found extraordinary. The intensity and vibrancy of close quarters, shared hardships, and the mix of generations gave Kibera a sense of community. This enormous congregation of people, mired in pollution, without police or government, had a commonality of purpose which focused on day-to-day survival. It was unlike anything else I witnessed in Nairobi during my two-year stay there."

The way that Scott puts it, I think that it is impressive that people manage to survive, and even thrive, in such conditions. The bonds that are formed in such a way are stronger than the allure of material wealth could ever be. This experience changed the way that Scott viewed Africa, and the people that inhabit it. It certainly would have for me.