Khalil's Family

Today was another good day. A very good day. We slept for 12 hours straight after having skipped a night's sleep on the buses from Kisumu to Nairobi to Arusha, so we woke up quite content and well-rested. We settled on our safari plans with Godfrey and negotiated on a fair price. This happened to be within the AICC (Arusha International Conference Centre). We saw all kinds of billboards and displays concerning the Rwandan genocide and then discovered that this very place was the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. It's slogan was the 'Geneva of Africa'. So we thought, 'This is very interesting that we are here. We might as well stick around.' We met a lawyer from Montreal who was working there as a defense lawyer for the perpetrators of the genocide. Talk about a horrible job! He explained how hard it was to defend someone that the whole world was against. It was a very strange meeting just to talk to him. We then discovered that we could go in to one of the court rooms and listen to the proceedings. So we did. The curtains had to be drawn on the witness who was testifying concerning a man involved with the genocide and there was a point when we even had to leave the listening area because of more sensitive information. It was really a crazy feeling to have stumbled into something so interesting and historical. It's still a bit surreal even 12 hours later. We grabbed a great lunch and went to a cafe for coffee later on. At this point we phoned the brother of Khalil (close friends from Peterborough should remember Khalil from a couple years back. Trent Univ. friend now living in Montreal). We asked the cafe owner to phone him, gave him the number and when he had finished putting it in his cell phone, he said, "Oh, that's Jabbir. I know him." Arusha has about 1 million people within the GAA so this was a great (sic.)coincidence to meet someone who know him. Jabbir (Khalil's brother) came and picked us up right away and brought us to his home like old friends would. Jabbir, his wife, Sukaina, his father, and their children Hasanain, Kulsum (who pronounces her name Kuuuuullllllsum as I forgot the 'L' the first time, and the baby Jawad (in the photo here) have been so welcoming. We've talked everything from the beauty of Arusha, to Khalil and Fatim in Montreal, to politics, to religion, to safari prices and back again and they made the best meal we have had yet on the trip with three types of meat, ungali (a maize product), french fries, salads and sauces. What a treat to have been welcomed so warmly into someone elses home! Our prayer would that we would become good friends with them here and that we would be a blessing to their home as they have blessed us so much already.

We are leaving for a safari tomorrow morning and should have some crazy photos for you in about 2 days time.

Much love,

Michael (Andrea is fast asleep already)

p.s. - Thank you Khalil