How the Walleighs Found Purpose & Adventure

Rick & Wendy overlooking Lewa Downs' savannahBoomers 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.

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Download our entire book for free! Or click on the image above to sign up here to get a free preview of our book, From Silicon Valley to Swaziland: How One Couple Found Purpose and Adventure in an Encore Career.

2011 Walleigh Travel Journal Part 2: East & West Coast of U.S.

JUNE 16 – 30, 2011 --  DR. DIANA BECAME A PEDIATRICIAN and MOVED TO PHILADELPHIA. The main reasons for this trip were: 1) to watch our daughter Diana officially become a Pediatrician and 2) to move her from NC to PA.  Rick and I were delighted to find that Bryan, her...

Kenya Successes: Canan Garden “Upscales” Its Honey Products

A pharmacist and his wife successfully ran Neema Pharmacy and Chemists in Embu, a large central Kenyan city surrounded by farms.  The wife had grown up in a nearby farming village and saw how difficult some of her neighbors’ lives were, particularly grandparents...

Rural Kenya Starts on Edges of Cities

Though the Walleighs spent lots of time working and living in Nairobi in 2007, during their many visits to Kenya, starting in 1997 and into 2012, they passed through many rural areas of the country.  It fascinated them how rural zones merge with the edges of most...

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...

April 26 to May 8, 2012 Botswana Experience

It is always challenging to coordinate two people flying from different places to then fly to a third, but imagine doing that in Africa! After a week of visiting and working in Nairobi with friends and colleagues from the TechnoServe Kenya office, Wendy flew to...

Kenya’s Blue-Tongued Giraffes, Adopted Elephants and Tsavo Park’s Man-Eating Lions

Langata Giraffe Sanctuary: Even without U.S. visitors coming to Nairobi, Wendy and Rick wanted to visit the famous Langata Giraffe Sanctuary on the outskirts of Nairobi near the town of Karen (named after Karen Blixen of Out of Africa Fame).  It was founded in the...

Kenya Successes: Hospitality Growth at Mountain Top Institute

Establishing this institute in 2002, Patrick Mwangi’s business had grown to several ventures in Hospitality Services, including a beauty institute, guest hotel, restaurant, college hostels and catering. In 2007 this growth-oriented business was on a US$142,000...

Uganda Successes: Buikwe Dairy Cooperative

Starting late 2007, TechnoServe Uganda significantly expanded its country projects to include dairy, horticulture, cotton, and women entrepreneurs. In the fall of 2008 Wendy and a couple of TechnoServe business advisors drove 50 kilometers for 1.5 hours over battered...

Botswana: Birds Galore

Maybe the U.S. has as many different varieties of birds as Africa does but the ones typically in urban, suburban and even typical rural areas don’t seem nearly as colorful and diverse as the birds in Africa.  Botswana alone has over 600 species.  Below is just some of...

Uganda: Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth National Parks

Each of the two national parks Wendy and Rick visited--Murchison Falls northwest of Kampala and Queen Elizabeth near Uganda’s southwestern border—had wonderful animals as seen on the Uganda Animal page.  Plus each had unique geographical elements.  Along the way to...
Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

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....

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Backpacking in Sierra

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....

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“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