Over the past week I have been absent from the blog and from Enoosaen because I took some time off to visit Rwanda (Kigali and Gisenyi) and Nairobi. I got another unexpected stamp in my passport due to an unplanned overnight layover outside of Kampala, Uganda. Thanks to my dear friends Helaina Stein (see her blog about living in Kigali) and Rachel Brown (who runs the brilliant organization Sisi Ni Amani) for taking me in and showing me a good time, a hot shower, and where to eat ethiopian food, succulent whole fresh grilled tilapia, strawberry tarts, and crusty fresh bread and bagels! As you might imagine, this has been a week of culinary bliss.

One of the reasons I was in Nairobi is to welcome a new Advocacy Project Peace Fellow to Kenya. I’ve just returned to Enoosaen with Cleia Noia, who will be joining me on the project for ten weeks. Looking forward to the company!

I leave you with a passage I have encountered  that really resonates with what I feel on the eve of the end of my travels this week, and as I plan further adventures in East Africa:

“The continent is too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say “Africa.” In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist.”  – Ryszard Kapuściński