"Visual Quotations"

Photographs by Richard Freeman

Nairobi

I stayed with a friend who lived outside of Nairobi. I did spend some time in the city but honestly, I did not find much that interested me. Perhaps if I stayed a few nights there I would have had a better sense of the city. The last three images are from Bomas of Kenya, a local attraction that has set-up several "native" villages, and there is a performance of indigenous dances, mostly Massai. Their vision, as stated on their website is: "To be the leading custodian of Kenya's cultures for cultural tourism." It was also interesting that most of the "tourist" audience was Kenyan, as seen by the class of school boys that were there on a field trip. The woman in the shop (in the image on the top row) had some questions for me. Her daughter was off in a few months to the US to start college. She was extremely worried for her safety. I asked where she was going. It was a small college in rural Minnesota (or Iowa, I can't recall). I told her she had absolutely nothing to worry about. She was very, very happy to hear that news.