small updates from nairobi and gusiiland
a photo-journal of sorts
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Hello from a me who is comfortable on a twin-size mattress on the floor, in a room, in Nairobi. I wasn’t sure whether I’d share while traveling this month and ultimately felt called to continue this practice. Here are some quick thoughts on the last three weeks home in Kenya. Read on and see you back Stateside. ❤️
August 7 - 14
Since my Kuan Yin retreat last November, I take the speed bumps of turbulence more easily. I am held in the reverberations of Kuan Yin energy. When the plane rocks I let go and accept my lack of control. So, I arrived in Kenya with ease. Perhaps the smoothest entry I’ve had in all my years of returning. My system is not shocked and everything feels really familiar. The first night, I sleep through 14 hours of jet-lag. When I wake up around 2 pm, Ibe greets me in the kitchen and gives me ground nuts. She says I can take them pole pole or slowly slowly.
I do take everything pole pole. Taking my laptop to work from cafes, bookstore hauls and art galleries, evenings with new friends and a full day watching movies with my cousins (including Insidious 1, 2 and 5). On East African Time my body wants to wake up at 10 am and despite my inclination toward early mornings, I let it. I have nothing to rush toward.
August 15 - 21
The first night on my family’s land, my grandmother asks me to sleep in her house and I oblige.
Time in the countryside passes just as I’d hoped it would. Even, steady, moment-to-moment awareness. What’s missing from all those cottage core images on Instagram is the reality of farm life. When I receive an electric shock from the shower, I remind myself that I have the ability to withstand discomfort. When I am attacked by fleas, I remind myself that I have the ability to withstand discomfort.
The earth here is rich, rich, rich. I imagined that I’d have plenty of time for hour-long nature meditations and this is laughable because my 10-year-old cousins allow me no peace. Instead of silent contemplation, they guide me up the hill to the plants they have discovered and to the forest paths they lead the way through. They give plants new names and I follow suit with their taxonomy even as I discreetly snap pictures to later ID on iNaturalist. This is actually the best contemplation of land I could have received, experienced through the pure joy of child discovery.
August 22 - 27
I enjoy the way I hear my speech patterns change after a week in Kenya. My Swahili (not to mention my Ekegusii) is on the come up. I hear and see and understand why I form sentences and arrange words in the way that I do. But I also butcher pronunciations and easily forget words. Entering the patterns of what is familial / familiar which is home / wound. Hmpfh!
I make it to the spiritual home of the Gusii people and make my offerings. I pick up soapstone in Tabaka. I enjoy one last slowwwwwwwww day on the farm, reading the majority of The Body Keeps the Score and pruning avocado trees with my uncle.
Back through the Rift Valley to end August in Nairobi and safari home.
xo Jessica
Nairobi Favorites
Real Vinyl Guru (and check out this article about the shop’s history)
And many, many others. I now have an ongoing guide. Hit me up if you’d like to receive a full list of recs.
I AM THE EARTH AND THE EARTH IS ME
In the past years, I’ve been exploring the question of how the land we inhabit holds and carries us, all that the Earth offers us in nourishment and care, and what we can offer the Earth in return. Essentially, how can we build a more reciprocal relationship with the land we live on?*
On September 23, I’ll be guiding a workshop at 462 Halsey Community Farm. This is a part of my project I AM THE EARTH AND THE EARTH IS ME, which engages the residents of Bed-Stuy through participatory research and contemplative inquiry. This is also a part of my More Art Fellowship and will be included in a final presentation from this phase of the project.
I sadly don’t have the event registration link yet but please keep an eye out on both my and 462 Halsey Instagram pages. More soon!
*In case you need a reminder of these words.
Being naturalized to place means to live as if this is the land that feeds you, as if these are the streams from which you drink, that build your body and fill your spirit. To become naturalized is to know that your ancestors lie in this ground. Here you will give your gifts and meet your responsibilities. To become naturalized is to live as if your children’s future matters, to take care of the land as if our lives and the lives of all our relatives depend on it. Because they do.
-Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
Work with me.
You can find me weekly at Heal Haus, monthly at Inner Fields and five days a week at Arena.
🌞