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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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...
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Uganda Successes: Cotton Gin Improves Surrounding Communities

In April 2012 Rick attended a TechnoServe East Africa regional meeting in Kampala, Uganda, which also involved a field trip to a successful project: a cotton gin.  Mutuma Commercial Agencies ltd (MCAL) was established in 1998 by Mr. Amos Mugisha as a ginning...
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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...
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Uganda: Modern Capital Kampala to Lush, Mountainous Countryside

Uganda is a lush country with amazing rainfall, soil, and crop diversity.  It has deep valleys, is crossed and bordered by stretches of mountains and dotted with a few huge lakes. In fact Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest with 26,000 square miles of surface (Lake...
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U.S. Snow Country–Winter 2013

National Elk Refuge in Jackson, WY. In January 2013, Rick and Wendy flew to Jackson, WY to spend a week with their son Adrian and his girlfriend Kallie.  While there, Wendy and Kallie visited the National Elk Refuge via sleigh.  It is truly amazing how:  large the elk...
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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...
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U. S. Cross-Country Road Trip

Starting May 31, 2008 in Los Altos, Calif. and ending almost 4,000 miles later on June 10, 2008 in Greenville, North Carolina, Wendy and Garner ventured across the southern U.S. to deliver Wendy's 2002 VW Beetle to Diana (so she could drive to/from her new pediatric...
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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...
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Across NY through Hudson Valley–Breathtaking Colors Everywhere

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...
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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...
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Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

by | Nov 20, 2017 |

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

by | Nov 20, 2017 |

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