Very short, but interesting!

Bill Bryson went to Kenya to write about Somali refugees in the remote south of the country. Along the way he strolls through Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, (in Nairobi) visits some old white colonials and goes on safari. His usual good writing, but I read this book, literally, in a half hour. I wish he could REALLY go to Africa and write a REAL book. He did this one to benefit CARE, the relief agency. It has about 60 pages.

There are a handful of writers whose books I will buy without hesitation, secure in the knowledge that my money will be well-spent. Bill Bryson is one of these: each of his books is a joy to read, chock full of painstakingly researched material, presented in the author's inimitably chatty, humorous and irresistible style. I've read all his travel books (and some of his non-travel related books), so when I finally came across African Diary - which I'd heard about, never seen in a bookshop - I pounced on it.

Bill Bryson's African Diary is aptly titled: it's a short (very short - even less than a hundred pages) diary of an eight-day trip to Kenya. International aid organisation CARE invited Bryson on this trip, escorted by their own staff members, to see the work they were doing in Kenya. The diary is an account of how Bryson spent a whirlwind week in Nairobi and other parts of the country - both urban and rural, seeing for himself the problems as well as the triumphs of CARE, and the people themselves.

This is a quick read, not merely because it's a slim book, but also because Bryson tells his story so well, making this a mix of so many things. There are heartrending and horrifying descriptions of living conditions in the largest slum in Kenya - possibly in Africa - where there are 10 latrines for 40,000 people. There are stories, both far-fetched 'traveller's tales' and all too real ones of everything from dire poverty to crime to shocking corruption (at the time African Diary was written, Kenya was the 6th most corrupt country in the world, with $10 billion disappearing annually from public funds). Bryson writes about all of these - and also of hope, of innovations and developments that help local people stand on their own feet, and better their lot without being dependent on others. He talks about the lives of real people: of a farmer who's been pulled back from the brink, a woman entrepreneur, villagers whose lives were turned around because a well was dug.

And, Bryson being the travel writer he is, there are always the brief interludes describing trips - by road, by air (a harrowing flight in a small aircraft, for example), all peppered with Bryson's superb sense of humour.

I wouldn't call this Bryson's best book; it's far too short for that. By the time I really got my teeth into it and had settled in, it was over. It is, however, very readable and informative. And it's for a good cause - all proceeds from the sales of Bill Bryson's African Diary go to CARE, and towards helping those in need of that aid.

A short insight into the work of CARE International in Kenya. The humour and optimism regularly shown by Bill Bryson struggles to add a little positivity to the life of many refugees and slum dwellers visited here in 2001.
I am sure that things have got worse over the last twenty years for many in Kenya but that should not detract from the dedication of the hundreds of people supporting and working for CARE and other similar organisations working in similar areas of the world.

I finished this book in one day during my stay in Kenya! Amazing people... I ll definetely keep following the charity efforts of Care Int.

Bill does it again. Brining me to Africa, seeing the people and feeling the way one should. I will donate to CARE as soon as I find a way!

I admit that I was disappointed by this small volume written to raise funds for the CARE relief agency - a good organization who respond to major famine emergencies in places like Ethiopia and Somalia and have been doing good works since 1945. Bryson admits, from the outset, that his only sense of Africa comes from Out of Africa (the movie) the Jungle Safari Ride at Disneyland and "Jungle Jim" movies (that he bangs on about for longer than really necessary) — so he's approaching his visit and task of writing the diary from a bunch of unfounded beliefs — and what's more, he doesn't actually visit Africa [the landmass] anyway (as the title of the book suggests) but rather he visits the Country of Kenya. There are some good witticisms here, as you might expect, and some interesting asides: During a visit to Man Eaters Junction he learns that 140 Indian workers were snatched and eaten by two lions. But doesn't this type of story merely reaffirm Bryson's (and the reader's) "Jungle Jim" misconceptions of the continent? The descriptive words used, such as listless and pot-holed, help amplify the prejudiced notion that Africa is not, in any way, a continent fit for the 21st century, but is still stuck in some kind of Victorian Hollywood Daktari-land. I spoke with a backpacker at Heathrow Airport, this year, who told me he'd walked from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, all the way across the poorest and most underdeveloped continent in the world. He told me: "all along my trail there was good, if not great, wi-fi... " The hiker shrugged and said, "Not here in Britain. I can't even get a lousy wi-fi signal at your busiest airport." I would have liked Bryson's African Diary to have ended with a resolution: perhaps something like, "And following these vivid experiences I firmly determined I would return, very soon, to embark on a proper and full exploration of the Darkest Continent..." But, clearly, Bryson's handlers, publicists & bodyguards persuaded him against such nonsense. Pity.

This is a short little book but basically just chronicles Bryson's trip to Africa. It was really great for such a quick read.

Nice little book, a very brief read. The usual Bill Bryson humour shows through a little, but it's really only a teensy-weensy bite in between.

A very short book about a very short trip to a very small part of Africa. Provides a small amount of enjoyment.

In 2002, CARE International invited Bill Bryson on an eight day trip to tour its humanitarian work in Kenya with him writing it up into this, Bill Bryson’s African Diary (something of a misnomer as Bryson only visits Kenya). The entire proceeds of the short book will go to help the kinds of people depicted inside it - and it’s a wonderful read too!

As you would expect, the horrors of the country’s widespread poverty aren’t ignored as Bryson visits Kibera, a shanty town on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital city Nairobi, with a population of between 700,000 and 1 million people. The conditions are appalling and thousands are HIV positive and yet the place officially doesn’t exist and is ignored by the Kenyan government. He also visits a refugee camp where the people there are stuck in a bureaucratic limbo, stateless, just existing, with little chance of a future.

But the book isn’t all a sobering guilt trip as Bryson also takes in the wonders of the Kenyan National Museum which houses 500 of the roughly 5000 fossilized human bones in existence, and Olorgasailie, an area where early humans made tools for a million years! There are also gently humorous passages in Bryson’s inimitable style involving the dangerous and poorly maintained railways and the nightmare of flying in a light aircraft during a storm.

The most interesting and inspiring part was seeing a bank called Wedco give loans to develop small businesses, helping give some of these people a shot at a real life that they wouldn’t have without it. And the small village of Ogongo Tir where CARE installed a new well for them but gave them responsibility over it underlining that, while they need a hand to get the ball rolling, the people there want to take control of their own destinies rather than depend forever on the West.

I hesitate to use the word but Bill Bryson’s African Diary is entertaining, as well as informative, with Bryson serving as a genial conduit to learning about CARE International and its outstanding work in Kenya. It’s a quick read but a memorable and moving one with an excellent cause at its heart - well worth picking up especially as the purchase price goes to help these people’s lives become a little better.

This is a pretty short travelogue (a week's diary) written as part of an initiative from CARE to bring in visibility and focus to the enormous challenges being faced in Africa, and the stellar work that CARE and similar organisations are doing. Kudos to the thought behind this initiative, inventive and world-wise enough to know the innovative channels to tap to bring in the much-needed publicity. I'm not going to be patting the backs of Bryson and the publishers too much, because no-profit doesn't mean that all costs were borne by themselves (CARE would have still had to pay for all the expenses of the tour and the printing costs), and the no-profit tag is being applied only financially.

About the book itself, it started off breezily in Bryson-esque fashion, and has enough Brysonisms thrown in, in terms of facts, numbers, large-picture observations, that-could-be-me-thinking-that thoughts, and self-effacing humour. There is nothing of the touristy Kenya that I anticipated, with the trip sticking to the various camps and places that CARE is working upon. However, just when I was settling in a bit, the book ended, leaving me to get off the table with just the appetizers served.

So, don't expect Bryson writing about game drives in Masai Mara and watching flamingos in Lake Nakuru, or the typical Bryson research into the fantastic work being carried out, or any comprehensive write-up about the history of the camps, challenges and way forward. The intent is purely to provide a glimpse at what CARE does, without getting into much detailing, and it sure does its job, as it pushed me into doing a bit more online reading about it.