As I continue to rack up interesting
experiences and memories in this ever fresh environment that I work in, I need
to mention that part of my work involves dealing with a kaleidoscope of
visitors to the camp. These include the media (local and international),
filmmakers, photographers, researchers, government officials and donors. And
not to forget, celebrities! Yes…again, story for another day.
These visits are usually referred to as
missions and at any given time, I can be dealing with as little as one mission
per fortnight or as many as three per week. It can be quite daunting to juggle
all these visits from varying calibers of people and entities especially if you
are rather wet behind the ears as I was when I first got here. But with time I
got the hang of it. Forget the fact that sometimes I would find myself
completely awestruck by some of the people I had to work with; other times I
would want to just curl up in a ball and forget everything because of the sheer
exhaustion that would follow a day of running up and down like a headless
chicken.
Needless to say, it’s always interesting
meeting all these people and getting to interact with them; some I would get on
with like a house on fire and of course there have been the expected ones that
are just...well...
But in all honesty, if I was to rank my
top favorite missions over the past year and a half, the visit by the Awer
brothers would be high up on that list.
See, it isn't often that refugees who are
resettled to other countries come back to revisit their past and give back to
their fellow refugees. Of course there are those who will send remittances to
support those who they left behind in the camp. But majority leave and start
their lives afresh and then...life just happens. Despite all good intentions,
somehow they don't all get that opportunity to return.
So it was a refreshing experience to
meet A and his brother Awer Bul as they returned to Kakuma to launch a
powerful initiative called “Barefoot to Boots”
Check out my personal encounter with the
brothers and their inspiring story here:
I'm loving: Hey Brother - Avicii
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