Conifer woman trapped by Kenyan violence returns home

DENVER – After spending weeks surrounded by violence that has killed hundreds in Kenya, a local woman had one thing on her mind when she arrived at the airport.

"It's good to be home," Carol Carper exclaimed while greeting friends at Denver International Airport Wednesday night.

Carper had left Conifer for rural Kenya in support of the Health and Hunger Medical Camps organized by the Conifer Rotary Club.

"We were going to do some humanitarian projects, running medical camps in two different locations," said Carper's friend Suzanne Barkley.

Other volunteers were supposed to follow Carper into Kenya in mid-January, but their trip was cancelled, and Carper's cut short, by a violent uprising.

After protestors charged that Kenya's Dec. 27 presidential elections were rigged, violence broke out across the country. The fighting has claimed more than 500 lives.

"I remember one phone call when she was kind of upset," recalled Carper's husband, Bob.

His wife was able to make short phone calls, sporadically, during the three weeks she was holed up in the complex of an African doctor who had been helping with the volunteer medical project.

Once the violence slowed down, Carper and many more in her group made the six-hour drive to the Nairobi Airport so she could finally come home.

"It's nice to be back where you can predict a little more what's going on," said Carper.

The retired schoolteacher says everyone in the compound made the most of their time together.

"We had to scavenge for food, because it wasn't available," Carper said.

She also added that the group had fun, whenever they could, "I sang with the children, and taught the women yoga!"

Carper recalls some frightening moments, too.

"We did have one incident, when the kids went to get water, they were attacked… with long knives," she said.

Despite the violence, Carper says she was never in fear of her life.

"I just didn't believe it was my time to die," she said.

Upon her return, Wednesday night, Carper had already begun planning her return to Kenya for this summer.

"I'm sure I'm going back," she said. "It's a wonderful country with wonderful people."