August 2 – TechnoServe has indeed transformed lives

It just occurred to us this week that you may want to know a bit more about how and who TechnoServe is affecting.  So please visit TNS Projects and go to the Kenya and Tanzania links to see some of the people whose lives are truly being transformed.  We’ve included some entrepreneurs from two Kenyan projects called Upscaling which tries to help growth-oriented micro-enterprises scale up to sustainable, larger economic impact, as well as businesses started by alumnae from the Young Women in Enterprise.  A few Tanzanian coffee farmers’ stories are written up on the Tanzanian webpage.  Rick and I are chipping away little pieces at the corners of the challenge known as Africa.  It helps to remind ourselves, too, periodically that we are making a difference. 

 

July 31 – Following Crosby & Hope’s Footsteps on the Road to Zanzibar

Nairobi to Zanzibar

We could feel ourselves relaxing as we drove up to the Breezes Resort, which reflected the Kiswahili culture, a blend of Africa and Arabia.  The sun-washed hotel with its thatched roofs and native woods looked typically island-ish.  But the interior was definitely Arabic in bright colors, furniture style, brass lanterns and decorations.  As soon as we settled into our room, we walked out to the absolutely breath-taking beach.  Its crushed-coral sand is so fine that footsteps sink very deeply everywhere you walk.  Its whiteness looks like it’s mixed with the native-growing vanilla.  The water is so clear that you cannot not want to walk in it.  After drinks in the beach bar and dinner in the open dining room, we resolved to not move further than the beach until Sunday. 

 

Flashing forward to Sunday

We arranged for a combined Spice Tour and Walking Tour of Stonetown, the oldest urban area on Zanzibar.  Abdullah, our tour driver, stopped on the outskirts of Zanzibar Town to pick up our guide for the day, Moody, then carried on to one of the many “spice farms” privately run but government approved.  Over the next 2 hours, we walked from plant to bush to palm tree, smelling and/or tasting then guessing what spice or herb it was.  Vanilla and clove are still key crops here.  Rick was much better at identifying the spices by smell than I was, but I’m still a better cook…  As we learned about the spices, etc. one of the farm guides wove palm fronds into hats for both of us, a necktie for Rick, a frog necklace for me, and a sack to carry the leaves they gave us to taste.  The highlight was watching another guide climb a 50-foot palm tree--his feet bound together by a rope to improve his grip on the bark--cut off a few coconuts which fell to the ground.  Then another young man cut off the green husk and opened up the coconut for us to drink the sweetest, freshest milk we’d ever tasted.  These were a very different variety of coconut from the small, round, fuzzy, brown ones that we’re used to.  Even Rick who doesn’t like coconut loved it!  At the end of the tour, we tasted many of the fruits grown on the island.  Then I bought $20 worth of vanilla pods, cloves, etc. for $2 or $3 a packet.  It was a bargain for us, and as Rick said, we probably made their daily sales target.

Former Slave Market for all of east Africa

We drove to historic Stonetown which today contains 300,000 people and is the oldest section of Zanzibar Town.  This tightly-packed peninsula represents about 1/3 of the whole island’s population. Some of its history is the typical Arab-African cultural blend found all along the coast.  But its centrality made it the unfortunately ideal location for THE east African slave market.  Unlike the Gold Coast and Ghana on western Africa’s coast, the Stonetown slaves were sent to the Middle East and southern Europe. An independent Sultan ruled the island until Zanzibar merged with Tanganyika in the mid-1960s to form the Republic of Tanzania.  In the 1870s, the ruling Sultan was coerced by the British into banishing slavery.  Only a few years after the end of the slave trade, the Anglican Cathedral was built on the slave market grounds though it preserved some parts, e.g., the chambers where slaves were chained to test their mettle, the platform where the survivors were auctioned, and some original chains.    When we returned to our hotel, Rick and I both agreed that Stonetown’s history made it more important, but was much less charming and quaint compared to Lamu. 

 

Coral is not soft

On Monday morning, we decided to do what we’d also wanted to do since we had arrived Friday afternoon: walk to the coral reef at low tide.  After renting reef booties (like the girls’ old “jelly” sandals but more enclosed), about 9:15 a.m. we started walking in clear, knee-deep water to our destination about 400 yards away.  At first we were able to find clear paths through the sea urchins and coral growing on the sand bar.  By about half-way to the reef, the urchins and coral were very dense—and slippery.  I fell.  Though Rick helped me get up quickly, my lower arm, calf and tush were punctured and scraped, so we headed back to shore.  

Not believing that anything I hit was poisonous but erring on the side of caution, I went to the hotel reception to request seeing the on-site clinic nurse.  After 10 or 15 minutes, the clerk said the manager was in a meeting so could I come back.  I showed him my bloody arm and leg and he scurried off again.  The nurse arrived, took us to a old-fashioned doctor’s office (clinic), and proceeded to search for the right tools to clean me up.  I stepped onto a stool, put my leg in the sink, she rinsed me with tap water, and then bottled water,  which she had to request from Reception. 

The next step should be filed away for future reference for “when in primitive medical settings”: vinegar is a good astringent, but very painful wound-cleaner.   The nurse then finally applied some anti-bacterial cream and sent me off saying, “you should be fine to swim tomorrow.”

Moral of this story: don’t walk to a coral reef if you are clumsy.  I spent the rest of the day recovering on a beach lounger.  Then we changed and dressed to return to the airport.  The trip home was much shorter than going; it only took 5.5  hours.  It felt good to be home (?) in Nairobi.

 

 

July 27  – Traveling in Africa is Not Like America

Our 2^nd island holiday (1^st was Lamu in April) was to Zanzibar--very fun to say--where many spices including cloves and vanilla are grown.  It was only an hour’s flight, and our travel agent got us a last minute cancellation at the Breezes Resort & Spa on the eastern coast.  One of our office taxi drivers, David, picked us up at our apartment at 9:00 a.m. Friday morning and dropped us at the airport at 10:00 a.m.  Traffic is bad most mornings to the airport, but especially Fridays.  Hence at 20 minute ride becomes an hour.  Anyway, 10 to 11 a.m. or so was spent in at least 6 queues for luggage tagging, weighing, boarding passes,  immigration, hand luggage checking twice, and finally embarking onto the plane.  Boarding the plane from the terminal consists of:  first, walking down a long concrete ramp where a jetway should be, crossing the tarmac, then finally climbing one of two sets of mobile steps into the plane.  Miraculously the plane was not late in arriving or taking off.  The one-hour, snack-filled flight was uneventful, though the landing did consume pretty much every foot of runway.   We disembarked the plane down the mobile steps into lovely balmy weather.  Then the luggage took the next hour to unload.  We finally met the taxi driver who would take us to our hotel.  When we asked how long a drive, we were surprised to hear one hour.  But driving 30 to 40 Km per hour, even on their decent roads definitely took that hour.  We arrived at our hotel after 4:00 p.m. grateful to be on solid ground for the next 24 hours.

 

July 26 – Our Favorite Phrases.

There are some words and phrases that Rick and I have agreed are either great fun to say or have funny meanings:

WORDS
Dawa	famous East African drink, pronounced “DAH-wah” which uses Muddled limes, see below (dawa means medicine in Kiswahili)
Kakamega	city in Western Kenya - OUR FAVORITE WORD
Kisumu	another city in Western Kenya
Mombasa	Kenyan coastal city with strong Kiswahili culture, pronounce “momm-BASS-ah”
Vergelegen	name of 300 year old winery and working farm in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Pronounced “verr-cha-LECH-enn” with the “g”in AfriKaans said “ch” like “challah”.
Zanzibar	Island off Tanzania that when it became part of that Republic, formerly known as Tanganyika
PHRASES
Muddled limes	limes that have been cut and crushed into juice, including for Dawa drinks
Sort it out	figure it out and fix it

 

July 22 – Giraffes do have blue tongues and other Kenya sightings

After being in Kenya for over five months, we finally toured a few places nearby that we had being meaning to visit:  Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, Langata Giraffe Sanctuary and Karen Blixen Museum.  

Sheldrick Elephants

Sir David Sheldrick was the founding warden of Kenya’s Tsavo National Park from its inception in 1948 until 1976 when he returned to Nairobi to head the Planning Unit of the newly-created Wildlife Conservation & Management Dept.  Though he died six months later, his wife now Dame Daphne, founded the Elephant Orphanage in 1977 in his memory. 

Orphaned baby elephants are rescued to live (up to 15 at any given time) at the center near Nairobi.  When they are 25 months old, they are transitioned over the course of up to 10 years into Tsavo Park’s wild elephant herds.  Since elephants are very social, the bab.iesy are only accepted into the family after a trial period and sometimes may need to try different families.  They seem to be most successfully habituated into families where their fellow orphans live.  Sheldrick Orphanage is open daily only from 11:00 a.m. to 12 noon to minimally expose the babies to humans.  After Rick and I watched 2 sets of residents, under 1 year and under 2 years old, I had to adopt a couple of them for Adrian and Diana. Shimba (boy) and Lempaute (girl) are the youngest of their gender in the Orphanage.  Once you are a foster parent, you can set an appointment to visit your child any day about 5:15 p.m.  Who could resist? 

Langata Giraffe Sanctuary

Next we were driven to the nearby center originally started in about 1973 by Jock Melville on his private property to start rescuing Rothschild Giraffes. They are a sub-species of which there were only about 130 remaining on a private ranch in Western Kenya.  In 1993 with some additional funds, Mr. Melville opened The Langata Education Centre for rescued Rothschild giraffes, for which there is now a permanent fund.  Thanks to him, there are now 400 Rothschild giraffes roaming gracefully around Kenya.

Besides education, the most fun activity at Langata is feeding the giraffes from the 2^nd story of the visitor center as well as from the pen next door.  We chose the 2^nd story so they wouldn’t have to hurt their long necks…also to be eye to eye with them!  As soon as I approached one with food, out came the sticky blue tongue through slightly sloppy lips and the food was gobbled up in a couple of minutes.  It took 2 scoops of food for Rick to capture a picture of the blue tongue, with the very heavy giraffe head leaning on my shoulder.  Of course, it was absolutely worth it!  These giraffes permanently live in the sanctuary that is open daily all day long, but they are well cared-for and adorable.  Those big eyes and long lashes…   

 

Karen Blixen Museum

If you picture white colonialist settlers living in huge mansions, think again.  Most of their homes are larger than a typical native’s but more like the size of a normal U.S. house.  The author of Out of Africa and other novels, Karen Blixen also wrote her first stories in 1934 as Isak Dinesen and then under a couple of other pen names.  She and her husband Baron Blixen, then her lover Denys Fitz Hatton, actually lived pretty simply though quite well from the 1914 to 1931 when she returned to Denmark.  Of course it doesn’t hurt to have hordes of servants, cooks, etc.  For movie fans, costumes worn by Meryl Streep and Robert Redford (Fitz Hatton) were displayed in their separate bedrooms.  Very cleverly, the home opened with funding from Denmark (Baron and Karen Blixens’ country of origin) as the Karen Blixen Museum in 1986, between 1985 when Out of Africa was shot and 1987 when it was released.  

 

July 17 – Aug. 1 – Largest earthquake swarm in Kenya in many years

Holy cow, I thought we left earthquakes in California!  Apparently the Great Rift Valley has small earthquakes periodically since that is the site of 2 obviously shifting plates in the Earth.  But starting July 17^th night, over the next week through August 1^st, we had multiple temblors from 4.0 to 6.4 which shook our office building during the day and our apartment at night.  The epicenters were over 100 km away from Nairobi, mostly near Arusha.  When I felt the 1^st one at the office, I rushed to the doorway.  Everyone looked at me strangely.  No Nairobian knows what to do in an earthquake since it’s been so many years.  So over the last week, many media articles have appeared with the tactics with which all Californians are familiar. Unlike California, the U.N. says that 90% of Kenya’s buildings are not “professionally built”.  Hmmm…Comforting… But the strangest communication was the U.S. Embassy’s email alert—which are mostly used to warn about safety issues or invite people to an event:  

YAHOO.Shortcuts.hasSensitiveText = true; YAHOO.Shortcuts.doUlt = false; YAHOO.Shortcuts.location = "us"; YAHOO.Shortcuts.lang = "us"; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_id = 0; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_type = ""; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_title = ""; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_publish_date = ""; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_author = ""; YAHOO.Shortcuts.annotationSet = { "lw_1185342696_0": { "text": "Nairobi, Kenya", "extended": 0, "startchar": 412, "endchar": 425, "start": 412, "end": 425, "extendedFrom": "", "weight": 0.991253, "type": ["shortcuts:/us/instance/place/destination", "shortcuts:/us/instance/place/ke/town"], "category": ["PLACE"] ,"context": " Embassy of the United States of America Nairobi, Kenya July 18, 2007 Recent Earthquakes The" , "metaData": { "geoArea": "82.2647", "geoCountry": "Kenya", "geoIsoCountryCode": "KE", "geoLocation": "(36.804138, -1.2702)", "geoName": "Nairobi", "geoPlaceType": "Town", "geoState": "Nairobi Area", "geoTown": "Nairobi", "type": "shortcuts:/us/instance/place/ke/town" } }, "lw_1185342696_1": { "text": "Kenya", "extended": 0, "startchar": 808, "endchar": 812, "start": 808, "end": 812, "extendedFrom": "", "weight": 0.821476, "type": ["shortcuts:/us/instance/place/destination", "shortcuts:/us/instance/place/ke/country"], "category": ["PLACE"] ,"context": " like to inform the American Citizen Community in Kenya that recent media reports stating that we have"}, "lw_1185342696_2": { "text": "Nairobi", "extended": 0, "startchar": 2407, "endchar": 2413, "start": 2407, "end": 2413, "extendedFrom": "", "weight": 0.403971, "type": ["shortcuts:/us/instance/place/destination", "shortcuts:/us/instance/place/ke/town"], "category": ["PLACE"] ,"context": " Services Unit Consular Section U.S. Embassy Nairobi Tel: ( 254) 20 375 3704 Fax:( 254) 20 363" , "metaData": { "geoArea": "82.2647", "geoCountry": "Kenya", "geoIsoCountryCode": "KE", "geoLocation": "(36.804138, -1.2702)", "geoName": "Nairobi", "geoPlaceType": "Town", "geoState": "Nairobi Area", "geoTown": "Nairobi", "type": "shortcuts:/us/instance/place/ke/town" } } }; YAHOO.Shortcuts.overlaySpaceId = "97546169"; YAHOO.Shortcuts.hostSpaceId = "97546168"; Warden Message

Embassy of the United States of America

Nairobi, Kenya

July 18, 2007

Recent Earthquakes

The Embassy would like to inform the American Citizen Community in Kenya that recent media reports stating that we have ordered an evacuation are unfounded and simply untrue.

July 14 – WW’s first massage in Kenya

Before Anna flies to Eastern Europe on work and vacation for 3 weeks, she and I got 1.5 hour massages at this lovely spa about 10 minutes from our apartment.  A little oasis of a house tucked in a jungle-y garden, the experience was relaxing from both physical and emotional perspectives.  We picked Rick and Greg up at our apartments and drove to Sierra Brewery and Bistro, a nouvelle cuisine restaurant in Nairobi’s industrial section along the Mombasa Road, not far from the airport.  We had a wonderful late lunch then hunted for a “African and Asian collectibles” store nearby where Anna and Greg purchased 2 items on their list: an old Bao game board and cabinet-sized, Mali-carved, wooden door.  Massage, food, and shopping: Nairobi life is pretty good.

July 13 – Edith Piaf documentary at Alliance Francaise

Rick, Anna, Greg and I left the office about 4:45p.m. on Friday the 13^th to our apartment where we could have snacks and gin-and-tonic sundowners (despite the dreary, gray skies).  This was the first official entertainment I had in any of our houses in Africa, a testimony to my actually enjoying the new apartment.  We then headed downtown to Alliance Francaise, the French cultural center established in many countries across the world. This was my 3^rd visit where this time we’d see a supposed documentary on Edith Piaf, France’s famed chanteuse nicknamed the “little bird”.  The documentary was written, directed, starred in and promoted by Raquel Britton, who was in attendance at the showing.  Dead giveaway.  It was an almost 2-hour ego massage for her, not a full tribute to Piaf.  However, I did learn a few facts.  For example, her mother birthed Edith on a street on top of a passing policeman’s cape then abandoned her shortly after. Growing up, Edith was transferred back and forth from her drunken father to her grandmother who ran a bordello.  Thus, all the pain in Piaf’s story-songs was based on her experiences and observations of Paris life.  Adequately performed by Britton, the songs were more recognizable to me than I had anticipated.  Between scenes of Britton-singing-Piaf were Britton sucking up to Piaf’s former-friends and paying homage to a sad display of Piaf’s personal memorabilia, collected by an obsessed man in his Paris apartment.  Most unfortunately, Piaf’s most famous tunes, including La Vie en Rose, were poor, melodramatic imitations of her old recordings.  Lesson learned:  vanity publishing pertains to movies as well as books. 

 

July 9 - Carnivore

TechnoServe’s new VP and Senior Director of Marketing visited the Kenya office and projects for 3 days before heading to Uganda and elsewhere for 3 weeks.  They really seemed interested in understanding our needs, perspective, and preferences for interaction with HQ, which has sometimes been at odds, as is typical of “corporate vs. field tensions” in any company.   By the time a group of us finished dinner at Carnivore that evening, I felt that we would be having a strong, clearer relationship with the Marketing and Development team in the U.S.  I was particularly encouraged by their being open to re-positioning TechnoServe from the very-analytical approach influenced strong by McKinsey Consulting to a broader “entrepreneurship” position will integrate the current Value-Chain thinking into a softer set of messages, yet still supported by hard data and metrics.  I may be the only one, but I applaud these attempts.

 

July 7 - Yahrzeit for my Father in Africa’s Cycle of Life

Rick and I were dropped off mid-day on Saturday, July 7^th, in time for me to begin a late “memorial” to my father on his birthday, where I light a candle for 24-hours on his birth and death dates.  I actually feel strong symbolism that I will have lit 3 6-month cycles of memorial candles in Africa each for my mother and father.  I attribute my own fascination with Africa to his stories and pictures from his approximately 2 years’ military assignments in Africa during World War II. Adrian says he has always wanted a pet monkey because of my father’s Africa pictures showing he had a pet monkey at one of his military bases.  I very consciously wonder if Daddy were here when I visit different places, and what he would have seen differently.  With the candles, travels, and my frequently wearing the heart pendant he gave my mother before leaving for Africa (with their pictures from 1937), I do feel a closer connection.  It may be melodramatic, and sound like Elton John’s song from The Lion King, but somehow I do feel the cycle of life in Africa a bit more when I light the memorial candles here.

 

July 5 - 7 – TechnoServe Kenya Offsite in Nyeri

Not being a morning person, it was tough to be ready to leave the office at 7:00 a.m. for a 2 to 3 hour ride over bumpy roads to the Outspan Hotel in Nyeri.  But our TNS Kenya office had planned at the January 2007 offsite for this 2^nd offsite in June.  Thoughtfully, Fred waited until I returned from the U.S. because the projects I would support for my remaining Kenya assignment were definitely going to change.  The 7-car caravan arrived at the hotel in time for mid-morning tea.

 The next 2 full days were typical of any past review + forward strategy offsite (from Rick’s and my “industry” experience).  The main difference was that several current projects might not have future funding.  So different futures for those teams were being proposed, and understandably, the affected people were concerned. 

Over the course of the 2+ days, I became acquainted with TechnoServe staff most often in the “field,” i.e. Western, North Central, or Coastal Kenya.  Particularly during the evening pub visit, we got to know each other in a less formal way.  This breaking down of industry “Silos” within offices is an important element for TechnoServe, all of which may be more focused across regions (East or Southern Africa) and practices (coffee, dairy, nuts, etc.) due to new funders.  I think those attending the offsite returned home more energized and clear what their activities must be.