It was a Friday morning during May when we visited the primary school in Turbi, Northern Kenya.At that school the terrible massacre that left more than 80 people dead, started on 12 July 2005.
The dark clouds hanging over the area contributed much to the somber mood between us three AoH team members.
Early morning on the 12 July 2005 twenty two pupils left home to go to school. They never returned home. Their blood stained the Africa dust and soil.
On the one wall was the school logo: ENDURE THE PAIN TO EMBRACE THE GAIN
What motivates a person to keep on loving a country, a continent, enduring the pain for a gain that may realise, or not?
That night in Moyale I looked through my photographs. I took a picture of an old Kenyan man at a roadside shop a few days earlier. He sat in the shade, contempt. His hands were folded on his lap. His smile never left his wrinkled face.
One of the photographs was of his left hand. I noticed an engraved word on his ring. I enlarged the photograph to read the word.
LOVE
And then I realised why I cannot leave this continent.
It is the love to this piece of earth where I was born.
It is the love shown to us by many strangers we've met during our long journey up to Egypt.
It is the love shown to us in Sudan when people offered us food, water and sheltering without expecting anything in return.
I hate you I love I hate you I love you because you are my home.
Thank you Africa, thank you for bringing us home safely.
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