Kakamega to Eldoret ... Cycle for Life

Mostly sunny, quite hot day. Lots of gentle hills ...lush, lush green. Immense poverty. People everywhere. They wave at us. They make eye contact easily. The odd person shouts something like ... what are you white people doing here. But most people are friendly, curious. They shout "hellos" (jambo) from the roadside and wave, and when we stop, the collect quickly around us and then, quite often, a Peace and AIDS Awareness Raising event begins. Today, at the Matete Center, a market place by the side of the road, as soon as the loudspeakers came on, people began to gather. We and the leaders of Lari Peace and AIDS Programs and others spoke, a small group improvised a skit about anger and violence ... at least 150 people surrounded us. In the middle of the circle we had surrounded a table full of tomatoes being sold. They threw none of them at us. Very receptive, affirming audience, even through translation.

The big truck they are using to transport the cycles also follows the last cyclist (me, most of today) closely and with the amps, they talk about Peace, AIDS, MCC, Lari, and intersperse this with loud, loud music. But then suddenly "Take Your Place" came ... it followed me up yet another hill, but what a lovely, powerful set of songs that CD is, and hearing it sung on these giant amps today, while trying to keep up with the cyclists that had left me behind... was wonderful.

At the school we visited after lunch, about 200 high school students listened and sent a "wave" to Canada and Canadians. Nice. This school has one of the peace clubs formed by Lari, and they have 8 of the computers sent by donors from N America a couple of years back. They are being used to connect with young people in neighboring communities. Social Networking. And when we hear about the things that provoke violence and killing, we are hopeful that young people who meet and get to know each other, will find ways to stop the intertribal distrust and will change history. The students wanted to serve us drinks but had not had time to get them, so they gave us cash... asking us to use the cash to purchase soft drinks for ourselves.

Images from the day: Sunny. Hot. Green. Hilly roads. Mostly good roads. Cyclists behind the lead van. Half a dozen Cyclists, at a stop, dancing beautifully to the local radio music. They can't help themselves. (So wish I could move like that.) Faces. Rain at the end. More faces. People walking. Dangerous traffic. The Governor talking and waving his flag, welcoming us and officially launching day 2. Several local media at the opening event, interviewing cyclists and others. And the story of the erupting violence that happened here in 2007.