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8/4/03: “Today ended up being a great day in terms of both work and enjoying being in Africa.  It started out with Shari and I going to the IOM compound. I ended up getting a lot of good information there.  By far the best, however, was sitting in on two cultural orientation classes. It just so happened that the groups were learning about the role of resettlement agencies in the US, so the trainers pretty much yielded the floor over to me.   I didn’t feel on the spot or anything—as usual I felt more comfortable around all the refugees than I would have in a meeting of people ‘in charge’.”

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“The other good part of the day had to do with experiencing another part of ‘Africa’.  Right across from our hotel is a really big market area which I have discovered is called the Westlands Triangle…It is actually nearly a hundred stalls in an almost maze-like pattern with tons of wooden carvings, beads, batiks , and other African curios…Every shop owner was yelling ‘Jambo! Karibu!’ (‘Hello–Come in/Welcome!’)  to me as I walked by…The funniest thing to me was that as I would talk to one shop keeper and give my name and such, the others just down would be listening and actually call me in by name before I had even met them!”