Piles of smiles and other Random thoughts.

But first I just love Giraffes!!

Hey!!  can I get a lift to town.... I have a sore neck and the damned sunroof in the Mercedes is broken again!.

Hey can I get a ride - I'm buying a new bike and want to charge it.

Each day on the way home from work I get to see animals alongside the road. And this is right in the city making it even more weird and fortunate in my view! Now what I have come to understand is that the Lions don't really care for the sound of traffic so stay away from the fence-line. The animals have this figured out so hang there instead of ending up as dinner. Love it! There's a Rhino to the left (2 actually) and in the same view were Giraffe, Thompson Gazelles, Buffalo and Zebra.That's about $150,000 worth of Rhino horn right by the road. Clearly the Rhino haven't figured out that roads mean poachers. Did you know that an elephant if poached every 15 minutes in Africa.  Shame on us.....

Jesus Chris Super Star the musical

Someone from work brought Bananas!

I went to a really great performance of Jesus Christ Super Star last night. It was well performed and also took me back to my early teenage days when I played the trombone in a band that played these sheets.  Ahhh .....Andrew Lloyd Webber.... where did all this great music come from!!

I thought it funny... at the National Theater.... when I bought a beer after being assured good naturedly that it was just fine to take my drink in while I watched the performance. At the door, the Usher stopped me and said "Hey  where are you going with that?" Hmmm I thought and then said - "the guy just there said it's fine". "oh yes" said the usher..."he's marketing - of course he's going to say that" Ha! That's Kenya! Of course we drank it after the house lights went down. :)

There were some stand out performances particularly  Jesus and Mary Magdelene. In my view, looking at the social media, the wrong folks are being recognized for strong performances .... Hmmmm - is it just me? Don't know how to love him was absolutely brilliantly performed by Mary.....bringing me to tears! I'm a sucker for musicals...though thought I might get through this one with out a tear. Nope. 😂

Hmmm the box was on backwards and had to be turned...

Nice work by Mombasa Port to put this can on backwards so the doors couldn't be opened. Thanks guys.!!!!  The MSF work team had their sleeves rolled up to deal with this instead of having Easter dinner. On board are important life-saving vaccines and associated medicine that can never be left for later... another example of the MSF team devotion to getting shit done! Well done guys!!!!

Pure joy.... worth hanging on to.....

I also travel through the Kibera Slum each day on my way home from work. It's about 15 minutes of winding through narrow streets ducking and dodging kids, fruit stands, chickens, goats, cows, motorcycles and of course Matatus (the highway pirates mentioned previously). The river is highly polluted and stinks, there's mud everywhere, it's just a really rough crappy place and home to nearly half a mission.

For interest sake I watched to see the number of smiles and have to tell you that most people are smiling despite there obvious challenges in life. They smile as you pass, they smile broadly at one another and the kids are almost always laughing and playing. I'm not sure that would be the case traveling down Wall street... or many others paths throughout the developed world.

So the revelation for me is that my travels and work have exposed a serious flaw in my character (one among many would be more accurate 😄) and understanding of the world. It stems from Human Rights which are becoming increasingly more important as I continue my work in the humanitarian context. There is no question that it is challenging for the developed world to take an interest in the affairs of less developed countries. It's just not in your face.The level of suffering is as severe as it is largely ignored by many of us including myself until more recently in my life.

So that said, there must be rules that maintain a minimum level of humanity and dignity for fuck's sake. And unfortunately the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not binding nor does it reflect many of the basic cultural beliefs of the people it purports to serve. How do you reconcile North Americas need to harvest and manage the environment with South Americas need to protect it and nurture it.

My revelation is a greater appreciation for the First Nations people of my own country, Canada. My well developed attitude of scorn and derision now embarrasses me deeply. I'm very proud of my country. We get it right in so many areas but in this, we have failed in spectacular and magnificent fashion.

Thank for reading ....Layno!!