How the Walleighs Found Purpose & Adventure

Rick & Wendy overlooking Lewa Downs' savannah

Boomers Rick and Wendy Walleighs’ book details their inspiring move to Swaziland and then Nairobi, Kenya for a total of 18 months. These are documented on this website and in their book titled From Silicon Valley to Swaziland: How One Couple Found Purpose & Adventure in an Encore Career. It is available on Amazon, all online book retailers, and some Bay Area bookstores. Go to Media Coverage to see all the media featuring the Walleigh’ adventures.

ALL ROYALTIES ARE DONATED TO TECHNOSERVE, the international development organization for which the Walleighs worked, to continue its “Business Solutions to Poverty” in Africa and Latin America, so please buy this book for friends and family!

Meanwhile, enjoy the photos and descriptions of our many travels to nearly 60 countries on six continents.

Namibia: Hunting & Trapping with !San Bushmen

Over the course of their 4 days at Nhoma Camp, Wendy, Rick and Carolyn accompanied the !San hunters as they tracked Steenbok (small antelope), rabbits and African Porcupine. In a clear division of labor, !San women gathered nuts and berries in parallel with men going...

Kenya Successes: Subsistence to Substance to Business Success for Small Banana Farmers & Traders

Many of Kenya’s central and eastern rural poor have a few banana trees in their yards. But despite Kenya’s large overall banana crop, farmers are virtually unconnected to urban wholesalers, retailers, and consumers in cities like Nairobi, Kisumu or Mombasa.* These...

Western New York in Autumn

The Walleighs’ 2013 road trip was with good friends with whom they had traveled in New Zealand. In late September 2013 after traversing Quebec Province (go to Quebec or Montreal, etc. for details on the Canada portion of this trip), they crossed the border into New...

Ethiopia: Suspended in Ancient Times

During the 8 days Rick and Wendy spent mid-September 2007 in Ethiopia, their feelings vacillated among guilt, concern, discomfort and fascination. Ethiopia has the longest, richest, civil and religious history in sub-Saharan Africa yet is one of the poorest countries...

Kenya’s Alkaline Lakes–Nakuru & Elementaita–AND Hellsgate

Wendy and Rick's first day trip in 2007 was about two hours north of Nairobi to the so-called soda aka alkaline lakes, which attract thousands of Flamingoes every year because of these lakes' huge population of fresh-water shrimp (lending the Flamingoes their pink...

Kenya Successes: 2007 Believe Begin Become Business Plan Competition

To kick-start youth entrepreneurship in Kenya, TechnoServe partnered with Kenya’s Ministry of Youth Affairs to launch a national business plan competition across Kenya. In March 2007, Kenya’s Vice President and the Minister of Youth Affairs officially launched Believe...

Backpacking in Sierra

After a two-night trip in the Santa Cruz Mountains earlier this summer, in August, Rick and two friends went backpacking into the Sierras’ Desolation Wilderness for a few days. The lakes were still partially frozen and the trail was still covered quite a bit in snow....

Kenya Successes: Visiting Businesses Started by Young Women in Enterprise

During 2007, Wendy accompanied the Young Women in Enterprise (YWE) staff on a visit to Mukuruto some of the businesses which had been started by a few members of this community-based (non- school) YWE clubs. Mukuru is one of the many “informal settlements” aka slums...

Kenya Successes: Upscaling Program to Grow Micro-Enterprises

As a New York Times (NYT) March 2008 article titled Missing Middle noted, microloans had become an important element in alleviating poverty. For example, the microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, while celebrities like Natalie Portman...

Kenya Successes: Prime Coffee-Growing Region Now Supplies Worldclass Premium Coffee

Across Africa and Latin America, TechnoServe works with farmers to sustainably improve the quality and quantity of the coffee they produce.* It helps link small-scale farmers to specialty coffee buyers who pay a premium for their high-quality beans. The higher incomes...

Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

by Wendy | Nov 20, 2017 | Canada

Our four days in Victoria, the capital of Vancouver Island AND British Columbia (BC) gave us a feel for the history—human, geological, and cultural—of the southwestern-most province of Canada. Upon our arrival into Victoria, we checked into the historic Empress Hotel....

Backpacking in Sierra

by Wendy | Nov 20, 2017 | United States

Hiking with Friends to Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp, Yosemite

by Wendy | Nov 2, 2014 | United States

After many years of attempts by Rick’s backpacking buddy and his wife to persuade her to backpack, Wendy finally agreed to a compromise: hiking to one of Yosemite’s High Sierra camps where breakfast and dinner were included in the price and box lunches were available....

Across NY through Hudson Valley–Breathtaking Colors Everywhere

by Wendy | Jan 15, 2014 | United States

The Walleighs’ 2013 road trip was with good friends with whom they had traveled in New Zealand. In late September after traversing Quebec Province (go to Quebec or Montreal, etc. for details on the Canada portion of this trip), they crossed the border into New York...

« Older Entries

“If you are nearing the end of your business career and wondering what’s next, you’ll find Rick and Wendy’s experience both illuminating and inspiring.”

Debra Dunn

Consulting Associate Professor & Former Senior Vice President, Stanford University, Hewlett Packard

“Rick and Wendy Walleigh are my down-to-earth heroes. At the end of Phase 1 of very successful careers–still healthy enough to spend their retirement days skiing, golfing, lunching, traveling in style–they chose instead to take their energy and considerable skills and apply them in some of the poorest communities in the world.

Bruce McNamer

President & CEO of The Community Foundation for the Nation's Capital Region (Washington DC) & former CEO of TechnoServe

“For those seeking an encore to their professional lives, Rick Walleigh’s account of the adventure he and his wife, Wendy, began is as energizing as it is useful. This remarkable book summarizes the factors they considered before volunteering in Africa to foster economic growth through small business development. More importantly, it records their experience with cultural change, new applications for honed skills, the nature of contemporary economic development work in the face of poverty, and the sights, smells, surprises and encounters found in living and working overseas. This is not a “how-to” book for those of us wanting renewal; it is an “I did this and so can you” story that is unique, thought-provoking and encouraging.”

Ron Boring

Former Executive Vice President, Vodafone-Japan