Going back to where I came from!

The last few days of my journey are to my birthplace, Nairobi in Kenya.  It's the place my parents loved, lived and worked and which they eventually had to flee with literally the clothes on their backs.  As I landed at Jomo Kenyatta airport yesterday it was impossible not to be overcome with emotion.  I remembered a phrase that I heard a lot as a 6 year old in those early days in England -  " Go back to where you came from!" And here I was - finally.  My initial thoughts were about how it must have felt for a young couple with three small children to leave their home and livelihoods destined for a place 4000 miles away with no home, very little money and no jobs to go to? And then to be faced with such hostility as was becoming the case in the Britain that they had loved from afar for so many years.  At a time when they should have been enjoying raising a young family they were thrown by circumstance into a life they never really recovered from.  I met a family, similar to mine who were making the journey back after 40 years.  The daughter a similar age to me and born in the same hospital as me, with her mother.  As we reminisced together, we shared similar experiences of childhood as a foreigner, about growing up without any real sense of where we belonged and about how our lives had turned out "back home".  It was interesting how we were both very clear about where home is now! 
I had a few memories of the country but it has changed beyond recognition.  38 years on it could be any major city in the world.  All the major companies are here with a road network that has encouraged car ownership so that traffic jams are reminiscent of the M62 at commuter time!  The big difference here is the level of security that this apparent wealth has necessitated.  I'm told this is because of the vast unequal distribution of wealth.  Gated estates back onto slums and children beg on the roads as you drive your 4 by 4 into the local air conditioned shopping mall for your KFC.
It's not all consumerism and greed though.  What's good to see is that for some this wealth has meant that Kenyans are able to respond to the cry for help from their own and neighboring people - "Kenyans for Kenya" have raised to date 5 million dollars and are working tirelessly to supply aid to the regions suffering from famine.  It is heartening to see that their recently acquired wealth has not erased from their memories the feeling of hunger that no doubt they have experienced nor their sense of duty to their fellow man. On the contrary - the ordinary people of Kenya, who have "made it" are determined that they should manage without the aid that politicians are arguing, politicking and scoring points over.  They are an organisation that just wants to feed - and they are succeeding.