deCoursey, Audrey

DECOURSEY, AUDREY

During seminary, I was part of a solidarity delegation to visit Uganda and Rwanda.  Our flight there had a layover in Nairobi, Kenya, and this happened to be at the peak of some political fighting after the presidential election, in January 2008.  Tensions in Kenya were so high that there was no option for us to leave the airport and see the city.  In fact, our airline had a second stopover in Tanzania, in the very middle of the night, for all the flight attendants to switch over there, because the airline didn’t want its staff in danger going to local hotels to spend the night.  Suffice it to say, Kenya was a tense place right then.When we had our layover in the Nairobi airport, I was wearing a button with Linda’s quote. One of the desk clerks read my button and nodded. She was Kenyan, and well aware of the country’s troubles. She said, “That’s something people here need to remember.”  I took the button off and handed it to her, and she pinned it onto her uniform.  I figured that place was where the peace message was most needed at that moment!