Edwin Macharia

New York City

We went to New York on Thursday to attend a fundraiser for our friend Edwin Macharia, who is running for parliament in Kenya. We left enough time to see an interesting exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum called Design for the Other 90% and to wander around in Central Park a bit. A very satisfactory day.

I greatly admire Edwin. He attended college in the US, graduating when Theo did, and working first for McKinsey and later for The Clinton Global Initiative. The last time I caught up with him was in Tanzania two years ago. He had been accepted to the Kennedy School and was debating whether to attend or defer. But instead of continuing on what certainly looked like a route to fame and considerable wealth he has decided to run for parliament. I don't know exactly where his constituency is--it's his family home and his mother and sister are the core of his campaign staff. He's brought great energy and charm as well as some clever development approaches to the campaign and reports that he is doing well in terms of name recognition. For example, he is running a soccer tournament in which the prizes will be grants to let the winning teams start small businesses--almost all of the players are unemployed.

It isn't as benign as it sounds at first. He is running against someone who has been in government and accused of massive corruption. There have already been physical threats against his family. When his web site is up and running I will post a link; in the meantime anyone who is sufficiently enthusiastic as a result of this sketchy report can write to him at macharia@gmail.com and ask to be put on the mailing list.

We greatly enjoyed the party, running into old friends from a variety of places and meeting new ones as well. I would never have expected to be the sort of person who attends a party in New York with friends last met in Dar es Salaam and Lilongwe where I would meet someone new whom I would agree to meet soon in Kigali.

The Cooper Hewitt exhibit was quite marvelous; the web presentation of it is excellent. I am particularly taken with the wheel-shaped thing for hauling water, which I had never seen before. And while wandering through Central Park we came across a "safari" playground where Roger captured children disappearing into the mouth of a play hippopotamus. It was a fairly remarkable New York scene--several different take out food services delivered picnics to various mothers and nannys; there was even one mini-crisis when the food arrived before the mother with money. But it all got straightened out.

Garden again

Back home we are struggling a bit with our failure to label things. I've been cranky with Roger because he didn't label the beans and there are two sorts--a very usual American one (Blue Lake Pole) and a fancy French one (Emerite Pole). At first it promised to be quite confusing but as the plants get bigger it is becoming easier--the leaves of the two are really quite different.

But now I am having the same trouble, of all things, with peonies. I bought four last fall--three old standbys: Festiva Maxima, Mons. Jules Elie and Sarah Bernhardt, and one new venture, Prairie Afire. I'm not at all sure which this one is, but have settled on Mons Elie because, of the two pinks, he is the earlier bloomer. He seems pinker than I remember.