April 13 – Meeting government V.I.P.s lands WW on Kenyan TV—twice!
In the last 2 weeks, I’ve accompanied TechnoServe colleagues to meetings with Kenya’s Vice President, the Minister of Youth Affairs, and Permanent Secretaries of Youth Affairs and Education Ministries. Strangely I have now been seen on Kenyan TV TWICE!!! The second time was during the formal launch of Believe Begin Become, hosted yesterday by the Minister and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs. All the TechnoServe people present were shown on TV. There was a bevy of media with lots of young reporters from radio, print and TV. My first appearance was as a result of serendipitously sitting between a Board Member and the Corp. Social Responsibility Director of Kenya Commercial Bank during the meeting with the Vice President. 2007 is Kenya’s big election year, so politicians want visibility wherever, whenever. And big corporations want to ensure continued favor so find many opportunities to hobnob with the important politicians. Sound familiar???
I was particularly impressed by both the Vice President and the “P.S.” of the Youth Affairs Ministry. And the Minister of Youth Affairs was very knowledgeable and quick-thinking when responding to questions from the press. While listening and watching the VP, I felt as though I was in the presence of a venerable African chieftain who truly wants the best for his people. The P.S. is incredibly bright, articulate, suave, politically astute and very accessible to “us common folk,” sort-of an African Bill Clinton. I can absolutely picture him as President of Kenya someday.
April 9 – Weekend in Aberdare includes a night in the Princess Elizabeth Suite at the famous Treetops Hotel
Our boss and family (including adorable 2 and 4 year old boys) very kindly drove us up to Aberdare National Park. The 3-hour ride to and from the area once again starkly contrasted the poverty along the way vs. our hotels, safari drive, amazing animals, views of Mt. Kenya, and lush landscapes.
The roads were only partially rattling, but the poverty we saw was truly rattling. Sidewalks and side roads are dirt. Bicycles, donkey carts, and walking are the main modes of transportation. People are generally dressed in clean but extremely worn-out clothes. Flip-flops and bare feet are prevalent and not because it’s hot out. In one typical town, we briefly stopped by Nyala Dairy, a TechnoServe client. Despite the heavily pot-holed main street, the busy citizens were teeming at the local market. The Nyala Dairy contributes greatly to the town's economy, so the people have relatively better living standards / conditions compared to other places in Africa...maybe living on $2/day rather than $1.
On the outskirts of Aberdare National Park, we stopped for lunch at the Outspan Hotel where our friends spent 2 nights and we spent our 2nd night. Then Rick and I were driven to the famous Treetops Hotel which resembled a rustic, old game lodge that could have been in a mid-1900s movie on colonial Africa. We were upgraded to stay in the Princess Elizabeth Suite (Royal Family pictured on the paneled wall above our bed). In 1952 Princess Elizabeth of England stayed at the original Treetops--before it burned down later in the 1950s. It was the night her father King George died. According to Treetops' P.R., she climbed up a Princess and climbed down a Queen. I hope her suite was bigger than this one named after her because it was only a few feet wider than our bed. I had to stand in our bathroom to take a picture of the “suite” which really only deserved the name because it was one of the only rooms with an “en suite” bathroom. The majority of guests had to wander down the halls for toilets and showers.
Within 20 minutes of our arrival at Treetops, we decided to take a safari drive rather than wait with 90% of the other guests for the animals to visit the water holes on either side of the hotel. Boy, we were glad! Not only did we have the car to ourselves, but we saw some sights we had never seen or been so close to before. This park was thickly forested and more jungle-like than the typical savannah and sparsely-covered bush. Early on the drive we were delighted by 4 black & white fluff-balls called Colobus monkeys leaping from tree to tree. We saw very close to the car some elephants eating and playing in the mud. One sat in the mud then rubbed his sides and butt very noisily against a nearby tree to relieve what we believed were his itchy hemorrhoids. We were also really lucky to photograph our first elephant fight where one elephant charged another, locked tusks, and butted heads. Boys clearly will be boys.
Our big highlight, though we were not fast enough to take a clear picture, was seeing a leopard in full view less than 25 yards away! That was our best and closest view ever of a leopard in the wild! And finally as we drove back to Treetops, we viewed some rare Giant Forest Hogs that we had never seen before though we’ve seen many of their smaller cousins, the warthogs.
From our room’s balcony at Treetops, as well as from the garden at the Outspan Hotel, we were lucky to see Mt. Kenya in the distance on all 3 days we were in Aberdare. Normally mist and clouds cover it, day and night. The snow / glacier at its peak is melting and unfortunately may disappear in another 20 years. But there’s no such thing as global warming…and no impact from the choking fumes of Africa’s poorly maintained old trucks and cars everywhere…
April 2 – Tree-planting at Stanrehe Girls High School
Even nonprofits have “corporate social responsibility.” Arranged by a few TechnoServe colleagues, about 20 of us were driven out to Stanrehe Girls High School on the outskirts of Nairobi to plant the first group of 300 trees we purchased for the girls. As is typical of my experiences in schools and youth activities, the TechnoServe staff was greeted with singing. Then each of us was assigned to a Form One student (14 or 15 years old) who dug the hole and helped us plant our individual trees. One of the women I work closely with is Chair of Kenya Girl Guides (yes, the whole country) and she is a founding member of this 3-year old school. Virtually all its girls are disadvantaged so their tuition is partly subsidized by sale of the school garden’s vegetables. The school’s milk is supplied from their own cows. The school staff continues to seek innovative ways for the girls to take responsibility for themselves. Again, the young girls and this school are some of the reasons we have hope for Africa.
