From the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The
Body comes a travel diary documenting a visit to Kenya. All royalties
and profits go to CARE International.
In the early fall of 2002, famed travel writer Bill Bryson journeyed to
Kenya at the invitation of CARE International, the charity dedicated to
working with local communities to eradicate poverty around the world. He
arrived with a set of mental images of Africa gleaned from television
broadcasts of low-budget Jungle Jim movies in his Iowa childhood and a
single viewing of the film version of Out of Africa. (Also with some
worries about tropical diseases, insects, and large predators.) But the
vibrant reality of Kenya and its people took over the second he deplaned
in Nairobi, and this diary records Bill Bryson's impressions of his trip
with his inimitable trademark style of wry observation and curious
insight.
From the wrenching poverty of the Kibera slum in Nairobi to the
meticulously manicured grounds of the Karen Blixen house and the human
fossil riches of the National Museum, Bryson registers the striking
contrasts of a postcolonial society in transition. He visits the
astoundingly vast Great Rift Valley; undergoes the rigors of a
teeth-rattling train journey to Mombasa and a hair-whitening flight
through a vicious storm; and visits the refugee camps and the
agricultural and economic projects where dedicated CARE professionals
wage noble and dogged war against poverty, dislocation, and corruption.
Though brief in compass and duration, Bill Bryson's African Diary is
rich in irreverent, poignant, and morally instructive observation. Like
all of this author's work, it can make the reader laugh, think, and
especially, feel all at the same time.
