Death, by arrow or otherwise

Killed by an arrow?

Man, that idea is so foreign to me - death, by arrow or otherwise, is inconceivable for the young in America - but apparently it's all the rage in Kenya. Of course, I say that with the blackest of humor possible (puns notwithstanding), but the NYTimes mentioned today reported that there is renewed and vigorous enthic fighting in Nakuru, one of the biggest towns in the troubled Rift Valley. And gangs of young people are walking around with clubs and machetes and bows and arrows, attacking people from rival groups at will; people are being maimed and killed, homes and shops destroyed:

Kenyan Gangs Clash in New Trouble Spot
By Jeffrey Gettleman
Published: January 26, 2008

And you read these sorts of accounts of far-off lands by Western journalists - mostly good folks trying to present the situation accurately - and you can't help but wonder if this article presents a proper version of "reality" (nebulous in definition itself, sometimes, I know). I mean, I'm sure there is plenty of fighting in Nakuru (and other Kenyan towns), and machetes are out in full and horrifying force, so what I really mean to say is that I question the commentary around these sorts of episodes: the "whys" around the political unrest, ethnic tensions and eruptions of violence. Yeah, and now that I say that "out loud", I realize that I will never know "the truth"..

In any case, as you may have heard, my sister was discharged from the Peace Corps last week, but she's back in Kenya (from Tanzania), sticking around with a few friends in Mombasa indefinitely until she figures out what she wants to do next. Hopefully, she'll be able to get back to her town in Western Kenya to continue some work on her own, or, at least, to tie up some loose ends before moving on (eventually back to the US after some traveling), which would imply that there was major progress in the political situation in the capital, and that violence had mostly subsided.