Westgate Shopping Mall:
Westgate mall is still closed, reopening TBD.
I'm not much of a mall person, so there was probably no danger of being in the Westgate shopping mall at noon on a sunny Saturday afternoon in September. We were busy that day....Sam had soccer practice in the early morning, Lily was headed to her "service learning" project at school from 9-12, Will and I were trying to figure out how to get some exercise before we all had to be back at ISK (International School of Kenya) for a back to school picnic by 12:30pm or so.
Will had received a call from his banker on Friday and she wanted him to return to the Barclays bank at Westgate to re-sign some documents because they didn't like the signature on a wire transfer. We realized we just didn't have time before the picnic so we decided maybe we would get it done afterwards....Will had to head to the office later anyway because he had a special project happening there and we would stop at Westgate on the way....
The Westgate mall is very similar to the Providence Place Mall. Three levels of shops, but only anchored by the Nakumatt, which is the Target of Nairobi. It really has everything. I probably went to Westgate about 3 times a week in the first weeks here....Not because I like the mall, but I could get all of my "stuff" done in one stop. Banking, grocery shopping, get Will's almond milk at the health food store, and buy pretty much whatever I needed. I was furnishing a pretty empty house, and needed kitchen, bathroom, bedroom accessories, etc. We had been in Nairobi for about 4 weeks and I was finally feeling like I knew where I was going!
So, the week before the attack, we had dinner on Wednesday night at the Art Caffe in Westgate to celebrate the signing of the new lease for our new house, moving on Thursday. Will had a meeting with someone on Thursday night there, and I was there on Friday afternoon, back at the bank, etc.
While the craziness was starting at Westgate, we were about 5 miles away enjoying the picnic at ISK. Lily was singing with the chorus....
After the performance of the Middle School Chorus, the head of school told the crowd that there was a disturbance at Westgate and we should avoid the area....Most people were whispering that it must be a bank robbery....So, we enjoyed the rest of the picnic. The kids both went to friends houses afterwards because we were heading to the office. But we decided that the bank document signing would have to wait.
Will and I headed to the office and there was a group of teachers there, judging the essays for the eKitabu digital essay competition. The International Nairobi Book Fair was taking place the following week and we were planning on announcing the winners and awarding the scholarships to the winners as part of our event promotion. eKitabu was sponsoring the first ever digital pavilion at the event, which was taking place at the Sarit Centre, about 2 city blocks away from Westgate Mall.
While in the office, I decided to send a brief note out to my US friends on facebook that we were fine and that there was nothing to worry about. Then, I started seeing people contact me saying that the US news was caling it a terrorist event. That is not how Kenyan news was handling it at all. So, I told the group in the office that the news outlets in the US were viewing the Westgate situation in a very different light. So, we stopped the judging and gathered in one of the conference rooms and hooked up a TV feed and watched for an hour or so. Our office is not that close to Westgate, but as we realized exactly what was going on, we figured out that Lily was at a friends house that was quite close to Westgate.
At that point, I saw a friend of mine on the TV, running from the mall. She is a beautiful Swedish woman whom I had met about 2 weeks prior at another friends house. She has an 8th grade daughter. They were stuck in the parking lot of Westgate for 2 hours, hiding in their car. They were able to escape because they were patient and brave and they stuck together.
We left the office and retrieved Lily and went to a friends house for dinner, mostly stunned at what had taken place that day.
We found out the next day that a 9th grade girl and her mother were victims of the tragedy. She was with Lily on Saturday morning at the "service learning" project, helping kids with autism play games, etc. Although I did not know her, I knew that this 9th grade girl was beautiful, a great athlete, and a fabulous student. Apparently she was half Muslim....
So, there is no rhyme or reason to any of this senseless violence. We know it exists in many corners of the world. I am sad to read in the news about the LAX incident and the NJ mall drama that took place a few weeks ago. I struggle with the idea that these people have a religious faith that mandates such drastic measures, or that violence is the answer to any of our issues today. I do know that living through these things is not easy and I wonder what effect it really has on my children.
Lily and Sam both understand that this craziness exists but both Will and I know that they believe they are safe with us. The school has been tremendous with all of the support and care they have taken with this situation. They opened the school Monday thru Thursday that week, just so kids (and teachers) could be together and commune. They closed the school that Friday because everyone was just fried and we all kind of took a day off to enjoy our families, etc. They had a beautiful commemorative service for the victims and the girls JV basketball team cheers for their fallen teammate at every game.
We made this move to Nairobi with the knowledge that anything can happen on any given day. We have discussed this with our colleagues here and US embassy people and friends that work for other embassies as well. I have attended meetings at school and the US embassy regarding the incident at Westgate and what the future brings....But we have made Nairobi our home for now and we are happy and secure here. It's kind of like the Washington DC of Africa. There are so many interesting people here who have a global perspective....We are learning so much every day, and we are committed to building our little company eKitabu.
PS: Lily's chorus is no longer wearing the scarves you see in the photos for their costumes....They were dropped because they looked a little too much like el Shabaab. They are now going to wear beautiful hand beaded Masaai necklaces for their next performance. Sometimes change is good!
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