ATW 2.0: Walking The Earth

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2009-06-05T11:15:00.000+03:00

Full Length Obama Cairo Speech

2009-06-04T22:21:00.001+03:00

Living a day in bedouin style

2009-05-24T15:03:00.003+03:00

Friday May 22nd

The group met in the mighty Arad Canyon, nestled in the eastern heart of the Israeli Desert. This canyon’s rugged attractions included, as one would expect from a canyon, a mcdonalds, supermarket, and the coffee shop that served as our starting point for this venture into a special day with the bedouins.

But first, a few notes:

Shopping malls are called canyons in Israel
A Bedouin is a person of the desert living a semi-nomadic lifestyle, who’s more widely discussed traits include a strict cap of 4 wives per man and a desert estate that must include several of the following: camels, donkeys, goats, huts that only men may enter, a shitload of sand
The backyard, however, can include no more than 1 of the following: legitimate toilets, satellite tv, cell phone reception, shelter made of anything other than metal or dried goat skin, non-bedouin people (we had 7 non-bedouins in our group, so none of the other items were found)

The group that left the coffee shop that morning was led by Mike Gross who has known his Bedouin friend Musa for over 40 years. Mike and his daughter Kimberley were on holiday in Israel for the week from London. Mike served many crucial years in the Israeli army as a paratrooper and has an amazingly intimate connection with the land and its people, both of which he has very generously shared with me and other friends in the time that I’ve seen him in Israel over the past couple of months. I’m always funnily introduced as “my son-in-law’s brother”, which, despite its accuracy, feels like too distant a title from someone who has become a great friend.

The drive to the camp through this rugged desert landscape set the scene for a very out-of-this-world experience enjoying a day with a group of Bedouins in their home. Although less glamorous than the fabricated Bedouin camp made for hundreds of tourists less than 1 km away, this humble collection of metal huts and its dwellers was a much more real and rare glance into Bedouin life.

We spent the first couple hours meeting our hosts over some very sweet aromatic tea and shots of bitterstrong coffee. The two older men wore traditional arabic headdresses, while the younger ones were wearing more modern clothes (and one in full on camo gear). We kicked off our sandals, each found a mattress and couple of pillows, and relaxed our bodies and minds to truly absorb this comforting desert home.

While we soaked this all in the shade, a recently butchered sheep was soaking in the heat from an oven built beneath the sand outside. This “zaarp” cooked goat would be our very special treat for the day. The process of removing it from the sand cave was very exciting for us and the bedouin kids, and quite hot for Musa. The meat was presented on open metal dishes, accompanied by very thin pita-style bread, cut fresh vegetables, hummus, and typical Israeli strange flavored sodas. We grabbed chunks of tender lean meat from the chopped up bones and let the taste of all-natural cooking melt down our mouths like butter. It was an amazingly fresh and unique meal.

We spent some time digesting, while some discussed the apparent unfair crackdown of Bedouins by the Israeli government, others kicked back and stared off into the rolling desert hills.

In typical Mike Gross style, a birthday cake complete with fiery sparklers was given to his friend Eran’s wife to close out the wonderful meal. She and Kimberley spent some time speaking with the Bedouin women, who the rest of us didn’t see once because they were in their own secluded huts. Apparently they aren’t treated very well and aren’t too happy about it, an aspect of this culture that isn’t so pretty. All in all, the bedouins were wonderful hosts, as was Mike, and allowed us a glimpse into the unique place they call home. It was a very special day, one that I hope none of us will ever forget.

Video: Project 10^100

2009-04-11T16:36:00.000+03:00

Change We (and others) Can Believe In: A Different Sort of Endorsement

2008-10-13T17:46:00.015+03:00

Below is an excerpt from Columbia Professor Jeffery Sachs' book, The End of Poverty, which I found particularly relevant given the upcoming election and ongoing financial crisis.

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Will the rich world act to help save the poor? The cynics say no. Why should we? Poverty is not our problem; it is theirs. What can the poor do to us, or for us? When has any country done anything out of altruism for others? How can we fight poverty when we have to fight terrorism? How can politicians ask the public to give more for Africa when the public is already feeling squeezed economically? These are questions I hear daily.
They are also particularly American questions these days. Many Americans do not see economic assistance as having much to do with their national security. For that they have put their faith in the military.
…
The American investment decision to back military rather than other approaches to international relations reflects several mistaken ideas. The first is that we are already doing all that we can do to help the poor. Public opinion research conducted over the past decade illustrates, time and again, that the American public greatly overestimates the amount of federal funds spent on foreign aid. In a 2001 survey, the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland reported that Americans, on average, believed that foreign aid accounts for 20 percent of the federal budget, roughly twenty-four times the actual figure. PIPA found essentially the same result in surveys in the mid-1990s.
…
The second fallacy is a widespread view that the U.S. military can achieve security for Americans even in the absence of a stable world. It is the same mistake that led Americans to believe that the United States would be greeted as liberators in Baghdad, that the capture of Saddam Hussein would stop the Iraqi violence, or that one more assault against al Qaeda will end the terror. Whether terrorists are rich or poor or middle class, their staging areas—their bases of operation—are unstable societies beset by poverty, unemployment, rapid population growth, hunger, and lack of hope. Without addressing the root causes of that instability, little will be accomplished in stanching terror.
The third fallacy is the “clash of civilizations,” the belief that the world is entering a war of cultures. For many in America this is a literal war, the war of Armageddon. Millions of Americans, though just how many is unclear, believe that we are approaching the “end days” of biblical prophecy. This millennial belief has returned in waves in American history, but never before with the United States as a nuclear and global superpower. It is terrifying for those of us who would rather use rationality than scriptural prophecy to determine U.S. foreign policy.
Hard evidence has established strong linkages between extreme poverty abroad and the threats to national security. Poverty abroad can indeed hurt us at home, and has repeatedly done so. To answer the earlier question, yes, countries do occasionally act altruistically, helping other countries to address their basic economic and social challenges. Indeed, they have done so for generations, as with the magnificent U.S. Marshall Plan. Foreign policy strategists have long recognized that acts of altruism—ending the slave trade, supporting countries in their independence from empire, extending assistance for reconstruction and development, providing humanitarian relief after natural disasters—are also acts of enlightened self-interest. That self-interest does not diminish such generous acts. Moral precepts, after all, are riles of behavior that establish a basis for cooperation and reciprocity on which civilization depends.
…
The ideas that failed states threaten U.S. and European national security and that support for economic development is also support for national security are not wild-eyed left-wing propositions. They have become standard fare of strategic analysis. The problem lies not with the concept of linking poverty and national security, but with the follow-through. U.S. development policy in recent decades—in both Democratic and Republican administrations—can be measured more in sound bites than in assistance that is truly scaled to the size of the challenge.
Here is an example of the disconnect between foreign policy rhetoric and foreign police follow-through. In a speech to the Inter-American Development Bank on the eve of the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, President Bush said:

"Poverty doesn’t cause terrorism. Being poor doesn’t make you a murderer. Most of the plotters of September 11th were raised in comfort. Yet persistent poverty and oppression can lead to hopelessness and despair. And when governments fail to meet the most basic needs of their people, these failed states can become havens for terror.
In Afghanistan, persistent poverty and war and chaos created conditions that allowed a terrorist regime to seize power. And in many other states around the world, poverty prevents governments from controlling their borders, policing their territory, and enforcing their laws. Development provides the resources to build hope and prosperity, and security…
Successful development also requires citizens who are literate, who are healthy, and prepared and able to do work. Development assistance can help poor nations meet these education and health care needs."

So far so good. Then, the president introduced a new aid program, the Millennium Challenge Account, that would increase U.S. annual aid by $5 billion per year:

"America supports the international development goals in the UN Millennium Declaration, and believes that these goals are a shared responsibility of developed and developing countries. To make progress, we must encourage nations and leaders to walk the hard road of political, legal, and economic reform, so all their people can benefit.
Today, I call for a new compact for global development, defined by new accountability for both rich and poor nations alike. Greater contributions from developed nations must be linked to greater responsibility from developed nations. The Unites States will lead by example. We will increase our development assistance by $5 billion over the next three budget cycles. This new money is above and beyond existing aid requests—is above and beyond existing aid requests in the current budget I submitted to Congress."

The problem is the complete disconnect between the extent of the initiative--$5 billion more per year by the third year—and the needs of the poor countries (on the order of $100 billion more per year between 2006-2015 to meet the Millennium Development Goals) and with the commitment of the United States to make “concrete efforts” to target 0.7 percent of GNP. The $5 billion represents less than 0.05 percent of U.S. GNP.
…
The failure of the United States to follow up on the Monterrey Consensus has no direct political fallout in the United States, of course, because not one in a million U.S. citizens even knows of the statement. But we should not underestimate the salience that it has abroad, where the terms of the Monterrey Consensus are a matter of life and death not only for other governments but also for their populations. Spin as we might in the United States about our generosity, the poor countries are fully aware of what we are not doing.
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My hope is that America's political leaders and citizens make a critical choice not to lose sight of the importance of solving a crisis that has existed for much longer and is much cheaper to solve than our current financial one.

I believe Americans will make this choice on Nov. 4th whether they know it or not.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden have been at the forefront of the U.S. Senate's effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Obama introduced a bill, now known as the Global Poverty Act, late last year requiring that the President follow through on a strategy to meet these goals, namely that of reducing by half the number of people who live on less than $1 per day by 2015. Through the Foreign Relations Committee, Biden got this bill on to the Senate's calendar, where it sits to this day. By electing Obama/Biden, Americans will be indirectly ensuring that the single biggest factor in world-wide poverty reduction, U.S. foreign aid, will be given a much needed boost in the right direction. I expect Obama and Biden, equipped with a much higher degree of political power, will do all they can to follow through on their previous efforts as Senators.

Click here to read the December 2007 press release from Obama's Senate Office regarding the proposed Global Poverty Act.

Click here to read the full text of the Global Poverty Act - put forth by Biden in April of this year.

OBAMA '08!

Project 10^100

2008-09-26T09:55:00.005+03:00

Just wanted to bring the readers of this blog's attention to Google's 10th birthday. In typical fashion, they are celebrating in an innovative and exciting way: by holding a competition to generate ideas that will change the world.

Check out the details here: Project 10^100.

To provide some inspiration, see below for some clever ideas that have already been taken...

Rolling water

Spinning and pumping

Books that can talk

Connecting the unconnected

Cookies!

Tactics of Hope

Do you have an idea worth $10,000,000?

Be wary of matatu takeover [from the "Daily Nation"]

2008-09-25T11:34:00.002+03:00

Click here to see the original article.

Time has come for Kenya to change from singing “Kenya, hakuna matata” to “Kenya iko matata,” judging from the way our matatu vehicles are driven.

And, quite aptly, the matatu culture is apparently, not the only source of “matata,” but that is the subject for another day!

It would appear like either out of every five vehicles on the road at any one moment, three are matatus and all have developed a most detestable culture that has defied the police and all existing traffic rules since the departure of Mr John Michuki from the Transport ministry.

It is as though this transport business is so profitable that most rich Kenyans can afford a few matatus to share the runaway profits.

I am not the only observer who has witnessed many matatus refuse to stop at police roadblocks even after being signalled to do so. One simply wonders, who do those matatus belong to? Why, are their drivers exempted from obeying traffic rules?

A majority of Kenyans must have suffered the agony of driving behind two matatus along a dual carriageway without a chance to overtake any one of them because both vehicles occupy both lanes, and drive at the same speed, continuous hooting by the frustrated drivers not withstanding.

Statisticians will confirm that the recent increase in matatus on the roads has brought their proportion close to 70 per cent of the vehicles on the trunk roads and in all towns.

Congestion in the capital city in particular contributes greatly to fuel loss for no work/movement done, and, as some engineer told me recently, the type of congestion experienced on Thika Road between the Moi Sports Complex, Kasarani and Pangani, calculated at the rate of 4km for a minimum of three or four hours, could result in a loss of enough resources to complete at least one of the proposed bypasses in Nairobi.

BEYOND SUCH LOSSES, THERE ARE lesser but equally annoying public inconveniences caused by the emerging matatu culture.

Just in case the traffic police do not know, at every feeder road junction into a trunk road exists a permanent (but unofficial) matatu stop – no, a matatu road block!

And, along all trunk roads, there is not a single spot that cannot become a matatu stop.

Most recently, some city buses have joined the fray. Properly constructed bus stops are hardly used by commuters in recent times because the matatus drop or pick them at whatever point they want!

In Westlands, for example, matatus have “reformed” all traffic rules so that they can enter, stop, honk, and play loud ear-drum-bursting music inside the town in search of passengers without any sign of control by the traffic police.

Believe it or not, matatus, in their effort to maximise the day’s takings, will comfortably drive on the wrong side. Those going late into Nairobi have to mind not to have their cars “run over” by these matatas.

If the current trend is allowed to continue, the country might as well prepare for a matatu “take over” of all traffic routes in and out of Nairobi.

Where is the bottleneck? Nowhere as far as I can see.

Could the authorities responsible for grading performance contracting re-examine the position of the concerned ministry and tell us whether or not its 22nd position overall during the financial year 2006/2007 was justified, given the nauseating information contained herein.

Mr Nyamu is former member of the Electoral Commission of Kenya.

Sirimon² [Summiting Mt. Kenya]

2008-09-01T14:54:00.024+03:00

Melissa and I left for a small town called Nanyuki - our base of operations prior to beginning our trek up the mountain. We contracted the services of a young man named George [who Melissa met at Hell's Gate weeks earlier] to be our trip organizer. By booking through him rather than a large tour operator, we managed to save around $100 each on the total cost of the trip, and truly got a personalized touch. The three of us arrived late on Thursday night and checked into the Mt. Kenya Paradise Hotel. Although this name proved to be quite deceiving, the $6/night rate was all the paradise we needed. We met up with 4 of George's local friends, and strolled about town in search of a dinner spot that was still open at around 10pm. We found ourselves nestled in a deserted dining room at the back of a long narrow hallway on the 2nd floor of the Joskaki Hotel [see daytime pic on left]. Our dinner [beef stew and tilapia w/ Ugali] took almost an hour to prepare, which gave us ample time to lay back, relax, and watch one of the strangest hours of television I think either Melissa or my eyes have witnessed. It was a inexplicably-captivating Hispanic soap opera with Filipino actors and a plot involving some sort of serial axe-murderer/rapist caught in a love octagon with family members, poorly dubbed in English. The 5 teary-eyed Kenyan women watching with us were quite taken with it all, and are no doubt anxiously awaiting the plot's thickening in next week's sure to be riveting episode. Melissa and I returned to Paradise for a relaxing night's sleep.

After some morning food-shopping, sleeping bag-renting, and muffin-buying [muffin = wool hat], the three of us, accompanied by George and 9 other locals, jumped aboard a matatu to make the 30-minute drive from Nanyuki to the Sirimon gate, where we would begin our Mt. Kenya Trek. Although we'd only need two others, it seemed like George was soliciting the lowest possible bids for our porter and cook, as Melissa and I were desperately confused trying to figure out why there were 9 guys coming to the gate with us, instead of George + 2 others as we anticipated. They were all apparently such good friends with the guards at the gate, that they simply wanted to "say hi". After picking up some charcoal on the way and bumping our heads on the ceiling of the van a few times, we made it to the gate. George did some form of einy-meeny-miny-mo, and the rest were off, leaving Samuel the cook and Peter the porter/asst. guide with us on our journey. After a quick lunch at the park entrance and some negotiating over who would carry what, off we were! The hike to our first stop - Old Moses Hut - was up a fairly steep dirt path with patches of elephant dung. We saw a a large group of Baboons in a tree playing/fighting and breathed heavier than expected as we got our first taste of the high altitude, which would only get higher. A nice leisurely hike turned into a drenched skirmish up the muddy path as the trickles of rain amassed into a torrent of cold downpour. We reached Old Moses before nightfall cold, wet, and hungry. Some tea, popcorn, and biscuits lightened the mood just in time for the clouds to clear as Melissa and I looked out over the expansive valley with rolling hills leading back down to Nanyuki in one direction, and up to the mountain peaks in the other. We saw a wide range of birds and a jumpy antelope called a klipspringer.

I soon realized that my clothes were not going to dry without some man-made assistance, so I joined the 3 boys around the cooking fire to dry my belongings. It turned out to be a fun bonding session as we all watched in amazement the speed and dexterity with which Samuel prepared dinner for the 5 of us, given such limited cooking space and supplies. We ate tialpia filets, irio, stir-fried veggies, as well as some bananas, mangoes, oranges, and passion fruit for dessert.

The hike from Old Moses to Shipton's Camp began at around 7am the next morning after a quick breakfast of toast, eggs, sausage, and some more passion fruit et all. We were blessed with a perfectly clear day, offering great views of the main peaks - Batian and Nelion - as well as some pleasantly warm and dry conditions for the bulk of our hike. Apart from a few quick breaks for snacks and lunch, the day was dominated by uninterrupted hiking through some spectacular terrain that is best described through pictures. The fields of cacti were extremely bizarre - at times seeming like something from an alien planet due to their enormity and odd shapes and colors. Also, given the amount that it rained (at least one heavy downpour a day) and the fact that we were on a very cold mountain made it an extremely odd place find cacti, which represented the vast majority of the flora in the area. After a full day's hike we arrived at Shipton's camp in the late afternoon. The camp was nestled in a valley surrounded by the highest of the mountain's peaks. The beauty of the location made up almost entirely for the symptoms of altitude sickness, which regretfully began to take hold given that we had crossed the 4000m threshold. The toilet became a close friend of mine, as did a crazy Irishman whose stories provided great entertainment and distraction from what otherwise could've been a painful experience. He had been traveling for quite some time through Africa, most notably in the "Democratic" Republic of Congo where he passed off as a missionary so he could traverse the guerrilla-filled jungle and live to tell about it. He's now attempting to trick the rival Sudanese factions to let him cross from Southern Sudan into Northern Sudan, before crossing Northern Iraq via Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Other notable characters included a Finnish gentleman who relocated to Kenya to work on some environmental program for the UN and is married to an American who runs a safari company called Virgin Bush, a couple of English bankers on holiday, and a group of old Czechs whose struggles with altitude sickness were apparently much more serious than mine.

Everyone at the camp woke up to make the final summit up the mountain at around 2:30am the following morning, in the hopes of making it up to the peak just before sunrise. The Irish and I thought it wise to leave at 4:00am, since we were going at a faster pace and didn't want to freeze our asses off at the top for too long. It was a perfectly clear starry-night as we raced up the gravel path that was eroding beneath our feat with every step we took. The view from the top, perched high above the clouds, surrounded by small lakes, and with quite the mighty wind, was a triumphant moment. The sun gracefully emerged from the clouds, we all rejoiced in its warmth, took a few photos, and made our way back down the mountain. The comforting trek back was a slow descent back to Shipton's for some breakfast and a little rest before we continued on back to Old Moses. We got sleeted on during the last leg of the hike, and the constant downhill pounding started taking its toll on my knees, but we made it to the hut, and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon/evening before waking up early the following morning and making our way back to Nanyuki.

The Mt. Kenya adventure lasted 4 days and 4 nights via the Sirimon-Sirimon route, and was memorable from start to finish. Melissa and I returned to Nairobi via Matatu both exhausted and refreshed - me ready to contunue soaking in all that Kenya has to offer - Melissa making the most of her final few days before returning home later that week.

See the webalbum here.

-dk

Karibu Kenya

2008-08-21T10:57:00.004+03:00

Jump to: Part 1...Part 2...Part 3

[Part 1: In the beginning there was…sensory overload]

Aug 2 2008: The plane touched down at Kenyatta Airport midday Saturday, where I was met by David, my driver not only for this ride, but who works for TechnoServe [http://www.technoserve.org/] and will be a close acquaintance of mine over the next few months. As we made the ~30 min drive through central Nairobi into Westlands – the section of Nairobi in which I’ll be living and working – the conversation revolved around the ramifications of the recent post-election violence [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/africa/2008/kenya/default.stm], miserable driving conditions in the city, the status on the other Volunteer Consultants (“VolCons”) currently working for TechnoServe, generic chit chat as we made our way through heavy traffic interspersed with rows upon rows of walking street vendors (on a major highway mind you) whose primary items were food (peanuts, bananas, oranges) and media (local newspapers, maps, bootleg porno dvd’s), and my fascination with what seemed like scores of 6-foot-tall flying penguins swooping among the trees [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabou_Stork] as we weaved our way through this smog-filled and perpetually chaotic city.

Karibu Kenya.

We arrived at the Volkers Gardens apartment complex in Westlands (just a few km nw of the city center) to my overwhelming delight in seeing my one-bedroom apartment complete with a personal kitchen, tv, fridge, internet, and, most importantly, bathroom with a hot shower. I quickly met Jelena, a very friendly Serbian-born VolCon living a couple doors down from my unit. She just finished her MBA at Harvard and is getting ready to move to London to start working for Bain Consulting. I made plans to join her and a few others for dinner and a movie later that evening.

The journey with David continued as we made our way to the Westgate Nakumatt (Westgate = shopping mall; Nakumatt = popular city-wide supermarket chain) to pick up some groceries. The comparison of the painfully under-developed city-wide infrastructure (“paved” roads filled with massive potholes and a few imaginary dividing lines with no enforced traffic laws, seemingly non-existent sanitation standards in most areas, lack of traffic lights, routine power-outages, etc…) and the interior of the mall was a much bigger culture shock than I could’ve expected. The inside of the mall is extremely modern – just like in the states – with boutique luxury designer shops, a stadium-seating movie theater, fancy restaurants, and this giant Nakumatt grocery store (very similar to Target), which, in addition to an extremely diverse range of groceries, sells electronics, beauty products, furniture, and, the most surprising to me, had an end aisle display for New Orleans Cajun Creole Sauce. As I wandered through the aisles picking out all my various U.S.-priced food items, I began to rationalize the reason for the existence of this seemingly inexplicable contrast in infrastructure standards. The shopping mall stores are packed with the relatively wealthy citizens of Nairobi – those well-educated few with high-paying jobs who live behind layers of intimidating barbed-wired gates and security guards protecting their apartment complexes or homes. These wealthy citizens, like myself for the time being, have cars who can create a barrier between them and the conditions on the outside. They don’t feel the need (yet), or have the ability (yet), to walk the streets in relative comfort, only the aisles of the shopping mall and other similar venues. The mall attracts a heavy influx of shoppers, and thus can (and must) afford to maintain a high level of quality for its patrons, who might otherwise choose one of the other similarly luxurious malls around Nairobi. The streets and other public utilities, run by the government, are extremely far behind this private sector investment, a disparity which seems to be a great indicator of the huge void in between the wealthy few and the overwhelming majority of the country’s residents who live in conditions so different that one would expect that the laws of space-time travel cease to exist here. Over time, I expect many aspects of the situation will improve as the private sector grows and the government is able to collect and invest additional tax revenues, as well as the through the continuing (and hopefully growing) influx of international aid which hopes to lift various sectors of the economy and assist those at the very bottom of the food chain. But, issues beyond my current understanding are sure to provide road blocks along the way, including wide-scale corruption, an unstable economy (inflation is appx. 30%), a somewhat fragile political situation, and many many other factors that are hindering the development of the country and the vast majority of its people. But, I will likely have become numb to all this contrast in the coming weeks. In any event, I followed suit by spending my Ksh 3000 (appx. $50 usd), buying my nice groceries and feeling very comforted by the friendly smiles of my compound’s security guards as I returned to my beautiful home.

Later that night, Jelena, Louisa, Nicole, and I had dinner in the same shopping mall (Westgate) at a really nice restaurant. Just for a bit of background, Jelena is working on the East African Dairy Development program (“EADD” [http://www.technoserve.org/press_room/eadd.aspx]), Louisa (American with Finance background completing Int’l Development Master’s degree at Georgetown) is working on TechnoServe's Young Women in Enterprise initiative, and Nicole, an Australian-born actress with Austrian roots who most recently lived in L.A. and is now volunteering at an Orphanage just outside of Nairobi [more on this later]. Very intriguing and fun cast of characters. I had a pizza and a Tusker (the most popular Kenyan beer – note: when ordering the beer I was asked if I’d like it served warm or cold, not because there’s any price differential, but because if it is cold outside many Kenyans prefer the warm version). After dinner we went and saw Batman (2nd time for me), and then called it a night.

The next morning I woke up bright and early to meet Kelvin (taxi driver) who would take Jelena, Nicole, and I to Hell’s Gate National Park (appx. 1.5 hrs nw of Nairobi) for the day. We rented bicycles and rode amongst the zebras, antelopes, baboons, and warthogs. This park is unique in that there are no lions or elephants, allowing the opportunity for humans to roam around freely on the park’s many trails. We dismounted our bikes for a 2-hr hike through a gorge with hot springs and great views, led by a Maasai guide [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasai]. He then took us to the local Maasai village where we saw a demonstration on how to make fire, toured inside a few of the dung huts, argued with the local scholar on whether or not they should modernize, etc… We had a great meal on the banks of Lake Naivasha on the way back home that night. See the webalbum here: [http://picasaweb.google.com/djklein16/HellSGateNationalParkKenya]

The preceding statement was a brief summary of the first one and a half days…
And now for something completely different.

Jump to: Part 1...Part 2...Part 3

[Part 2: Life on the job]

The [typical] workday begins at 6:15am to the sound of my charming old-school nokia cell phone’s (courtesy of TechnoServe) alarm and dream-shattering violent vibrations. The gym I’ve joined is just a quick smog-filled jog away along the narrow dirt sidewalk of Rhapta Rd. After some time on the treadmill (hopefully without any power interruptions – appx. 20% likelihood of at least one) and some weights, I head back to listen to a fresh NPR, BBC, or ESPN podcast while I cook a few eggs and veggies. After a surprisingly piping hot shower (no way to control temperature), I change into corporate-world attire and await a txt message from David at around 8:30am to indicate his arrival.

The TechnoServe office is located a chaotic but quick 10 minute drive from my apartment, past the Somalians lined up to enter the UN's refugee agency [http://www.unhcr.org/] , down Rhapta Road (i.e security guard lane), playing frogger through the Westlands roundabout, past the matatu stand [more on this later], through energetic Westlands proper, and past the Holiday Inn and recently robbed Mayfield Casino, into the beautiful Sclater’s House – 2nd Floor. The permanent staff is made up almost entirely of locals, with the exception of Brian, a former VolCon who is now here for good as interim manager the EADD project in Kenya. The other current VolCons have already left, or will be leaving in the next couple of weeks – back to school or their new jobs.

The office is made up of a very friendly and laid-back bunch of people – many of whom are typically away on assignment at some dairy/horticulture-producing region of the country. Everyone brings in their own laptops, whose internal batteries come in handy during occasional power outages (3-4 per week). There is free delicious coffee all day with fresh warm milk, and the inexpensive lunch gets delivered on request by a very shy and industrious young guy named Sammy (who also makes the coffee). Apart from a few special occasions in which I’ve typically gone out and gotten tremendously tasty and authentic Indian food with a big group of other expats, I will normally get delivered a fruit salad ($.75; very generous portion of cut fresh fruit: bananas, pineapple, mango, watermelon, and oddly enough, avocado), and either rice & beans & cabbage/kale ($1.25; huge portion) or meat ($1.25; fried fish/roast chicken/bbq’d beef with ugali/chapati and cabbage/kale). In any scenario it’s a great $2.00 lunch.

On to the fun stuff - my project involves selecting 20 entrepreneurs from a pool of several hundred (gathered from last year’s Business Plan Competition [http://www.technoserve.org/work_impact/developingentrepreneurs.aspx#BPCs]), advising them on how to refine and refocus their business plans so as to be in a good position to receive start-up or growth capital and be operationally successful, and create a template for such similar work to be done by others in the future. To date, I’ve selected and gotten in contact with all 20 and have begun conducting initial diligence calls to asses the current state of business and map out a plan of attack. So far, it has been a great challenge and a wonderful opportunity to work with some promising entrepreneurs, most of whom live in rural areas, to help spur business growth, employment, and overall improved living conditions in Kenya. The high degree of responsibility I feel – both to TechnoServe and to the entrepreneurs - can be a bit burdensome at times, but I truly enjoy the work and cannot help but be excited to learn a great deal everyday about how business gets done in a variety of industries (hospitality/private sports education/it consulting/medical device manufacturing/dairy farming/tampon production/stool sample collection/etc…) in regions all across this extremely foreign environment. More details to come as the project progresses…

The workday typically ends around 5:00, but given the presence of free internet at my apartment and the heavy workload I’d like to tackle over the next few months, I’ve spent quite a few nights excitedly reading business plans and doing a lot of work from home. Other weeknightly activities have included Tuesday-night jazz night at K1 (really cool bar/restaurant with live jazz on Tuesdays), reading, watching a bootlegged copy of the HBO series Rome (on loan from Jelena), and a variety of random nights out on the town.

N.B. Sadly, Jelena left for London on Monday [three days ago]… but happily, I quickly annexed her apartment last night as it is much more spacious and has free (for the time being) satellite tv with 200 channels – so, this may slightly alter my weeknight activities. See webalbum with some fresh pics of the new apartment here: [http://picasaweb.google.com/djklein16/NairobiApartmentV20]

N.B.2. There is an avocado tree in the courtyard of the complex and the security guard I’ve befriended will hopefully continue to pick me an avocado every week until mango season arrives, when the courtyard’s other tree (yes, a mango tree) will bear fruit at which point I’ll see if I can negotiate two fresh picks a week.

Jump to: Part 1...Part 2...Part 3

[Part 3: A Map for Saturday…and Sunday…and Wednesday]

In this, the final part of the initial blog entry, I’ll briefly touch on the experiences I’ve had during the two weekends since my arrival (and a Wednesday Orphanage excursion), as well as a brief of my plans for the upcoming weekend.

Weekend #1 (Aug 8 2008): After work, I met another American expat named Kristina who is here working for the Undugu society and has quite the interesting blog of her own [http://www.advocacynet.org/page/rosinsky]. We had a few drinks at a cool cuban-themed bar called Havana’s in Westlands, followed by dinner at the supposedly best Indian restaurant in Nairobi called Haandi (pretty damn good, but Open Table is better – both are in Westlands), followed by a few more drinks at a small two-story bar called Changes, at which point my stomach felt the effects of something too spicy and forced me to call it a night.

The next morning I woke up bright and early to venture out on my first Matatu experience [http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=matatu&um=1&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title]. If done properly, these claustrophobic roller coasters can fit about 15 people in a beat-up minivan that, according to the overly-cautious owner’s manual, should comfortably seat around 7. With some help from Kristina, I navigated my way on the #23 down to the city center (20 shillings = ~30cents), with several frenetic stops along the way to shuffle people in/out as quickly as possible so as to maximize the number of routes that can be completed in the day. You see, unlike public transportation that I (and I assume most of the readers of this blog) am used to, these public buses do not run on a schedule in which they depart and arrive at specific pre-determined times. Instead, they go on a specific route over and over again, at the end of which the driver is required to pay a flat rate to his boss regardless of the # of trips/customers taken, thus providing incentive to cram as many passengers into the vehicle for as many laps as possible. So, it’s like a perpetual city-wide race. The customer reaps several benefits from this system:
1) A no-dilly-dally approach to driving, ensuring that one will reach his destination at the quickest rate possible (or not at all in the rare occasion of a fiery crash, but the news reports and eye-witness accounts of such occurrences have been proven false time and time again by the famed matatu union).
2) A wait time of less than 5 seconds on average at the matatu station, since there are an abundance of matatus all day and night eager for business. As evidence of this eagerness, some proud matatu owners have gone great lengths to be spotted first amongst the horde of matatus, most of which have so ineptly chosen an exterior color of smog-white with a mild dose of rust and have kept their factory installed interior amenities. The clever few have instead elaborately painted their matatus in decorative and festive colors, complete with logos, signature designs, advertisements, and pictures of rappers/celebrities/athletes or the like. Further, they have completely overhauled their interiors, choosing to add flat screen tv’s, neon lighting, and sub-woofer laden sound systems that have been known to scare away rival matatus. The customer pays no additional price for these luxuries.
3) All food, drinks, and animals (domesticated or otherwise) are allowed on board.
4) There is no surcharge for adventurous driving – or the thrill of having to guard your pockets at all times.

I made my way through the city-center, and into another nice shopping mall called the Ya-Ya center in Hurlingham, which is the sw area of Nairobi. I ventured out in search of a harmonica to serve as replacement for my non-traveler-friendly saxophone. After a stroll about the mall and a lengthy discussion with the music store owner about where I could actually find a harmonica given that this particular store was sold out, I returned to the matatu stand to find my way back to the city center. I befriended a local woman who showed me around a bit, helped me find the harmonica dealer (who set me back $12 with a harmonica that I have since discovered doesn’t have all of the notes I need), and I made my way back to the Westlands. Later that afternoon, I met up with Brian, Chi-Chi (a VolCon who is based out of Kigali, Rwanda), and Simien, who runs an NGO that directs a school/day-care center for children in Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibera]. Simien took the three of us on a 5 –hour journey through the slum, describing in great detail many of the complexities of life for so many of its residents. His efforts are focused on young children, many of whom would be left to fend for themselves during the day as their parents (or more likely single mothers) go to attempt to earn money somewhere in the city. Although his facility has capacity for 100 students, his current resources only allow upkeep for 60. Simien is planning on moving to a larger facility, in which he will have the infrastructure to implement several income-generating projects so that his organization can eventually be self-sustaining rather than perpetually relying on outside donors or the meager tuitions that some parents are able to afford. His story is a compelling one, and Brian [and perhaps I] is planning on working with him to secure and allocate funding for his expansion plans.

There are so many shocking aspects of slum life, some positive, but most of them negative. First, a few of the more disturbing aspects that I learned of on this trip.
1- Although government-installed fresh water taps exist around the slum, it is apparently mob-controlled and overpriced (appx. Ksh 5/liter). International organizations have attempted to install new and more taps with cheaper access (appx. Ksh 1-2/liter), but, due to the mob, these pumps are ripped out of the ground, taken over by the mob, or, even worse, never even allowed to be built due to tactics of fear.
2- Mothers have adopted the babysitting practice of filling up their children’s milk bottles with a homemade alcohol solution in order to keep their children sufficiently subdued during the daytime, thus providing a cheap and reliable (albeit horribly dangerous) method of babysitting.
3- Due to the absence of any sanitation or waste management standards, residents have adopted the practice of going #2 in small plastic baggies, tying them up with a string, and launching them like a foxtail to land on someone else’s hut (or face). All around town there are giant piles of trash haphazardly strewn about.

As I’ve read more about the slum, I see that there are countless other underlying problems, most of which are difficult to get a grasp of through a one-day visit.

On a happier note, there are some other aspects which were surprisingly positive.
1- There exists a functioning and vibrant economy in many sections of the slum, primarily those which benefit from the presence of electricity. This marketplace is complete with fruit&vegetable stands, butchers, barber shops/beauty salons, movie theaters, pubs, health clinics, schools, and a variety of random stores. The close proximity of Kibera to the central business district of Nairobi makes this a convenient and affordable place to live. Many people seem to live very happy and productive lives within the slum walls, at least a lot more than I would’ve expected.
2- Apart from atypical times of deep conflict (i.e violence surrounding tribal disputes associated w/ this year’s election), there normally exists a great sense of community among the slum residents. They closely rely on one another for goods, services, friendship, and in some cases, survival. So this is another side of the mob mentality, in which the community does not put up with acts of malevolence such as theft, rape, murder, etc…. These crimes do not go punished by the Kenyan police, but rather, the residents themselves. I don’t know the broader crime statistics of the area, and I don’t know if anybody has or can accurately calculate such a thing, but at least my initial perception seemed to be that on the whole, thing are relatively peaceful inside the slum walls due to this sense of community. The majority of the problems stem from an overarching lack of basic necessities i.e. healthcare, education, sanitation, etc…, rather than by rampant incidents of wrongdoings.
3- If any of the residents aspire one day to become country-club golfers, they are provided free daily tutorials by the adjacent President’s Golf Course. Yes, that’s right, the president’s golf course is literally a bag of poo’s throw away from the border of Kibera, and, since that section of the slum is elevated, you can watch golfers teeing off at the same time as a bag of poo flies over your head into the crowded mess that is Kibera. I don’t mean to poke fun at the situation, but I can’t help but find this irony somewhat comedic.

Take all this with a grain of salt, as it’s based off of what I was able to see in a day’s visit and after talking to a few people who are knowledgeable about the conditions, but it’s a very large, dynamic, and complex place, so I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s really going on inside those walls.

Moving right along…

That night we ate at a restaurant in the Westlands called the Phoenician, which has a tasteful menu comprised of Japanese and Lebanese dishes. Don’t think too hard about this – there’s no logical answer. I later met up with a group at the popular downtown nightclub called Florida 2000. The 6 of us were the only white people in the whole place, and I think that prostitutes outnumbered everybody in there by a margin of 4 to 1. We had a few drinks and left to a much more refined venue (prostitute margin of 1.5 to 1) called Casablanca. This place has an expansive outdoor area covered with sand and features several outdoor fire pits with comfy chairs and an outdoor bar. The interior is divided into an authentic hookah lounge and a dance club. Great place.

The next day I went to the free Mau Mau film festival presented by the Kenya Human Rights Commission at the Alliance Francais to see a film about Kenyatta and the independence movement [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jomo_Kenyatta ] followed by an interesting documentary about the overlooked Cuban 5 [http://www.freethefive.org/] .

Weekend #1.5 ([Wed] Aug 13 2008): I took a day trip to visit Nicole at her Orphanage in a village called Cura, appx. 30 min outside of Nairobi. The complex typically houses 50 children aged 3-13, but, since August is a holiday month, half of the children went “home” to spend some time with their relatives. Apparently many of the children don’t enjoy doing this as living conditions in the orphanage are much better than those which their relatives can provide. At the orphanage, they are provided with food&shelter, and are in the loving hands of the resident house mothers and lovely volunteers such as Nicole. During typical days they attend the primary school in Cura, but, since it was a holiday, we spent the day painting, jumping on the trampoline, and drinking donated bubble gum flavored milk. The project is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Kenya and is only a few years old. Unfortunately, the oldest orphan is 13 years old, and at the age of 15 she will no longer be housed by the orphanage. She does not yet know this, only that she needs to do well in school so that she can be sponsored by the government or some other organization to attend secondary school. She will be the first to be “kicked out” of the orphanage, and I suspect that this will have a substantial impact on the rest of the children, who all are very close friends since they spend so much time with one another. I plan to make another visit out there to visit the other half of the children, and perhaps accompany them on a field trip to an animal orphanage. More on this later…
See the Cura Orphanage webalbum here: [http://picasaweb.google.com/djklein16/CuraOrphanage]

Weekend #2 (Aug 15 2008): This past weekend was highlighted by a marathon of Rome episodes so that I could finish seasons 1&2 and return the discs to Jelena prior to her Monday departure. Great show – highly recommended. On Sunday, I was joined by Kristina and Melissa (volunteering for the Acumen Fund [http://www.acumenfund.org/], just graduated HBS, about to start at Boston Consulting Group in NYC) on a day-hike up and around the Mount Longonot Crater [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Longonot]. Very fun hike with great views of the Rift Valley. See the webalbum here: [http://picasaweb.google.com/djklein16/MtLongonotCrater].

This evening [Thur Aug 21st], Melissa and I depart for Mt. Kenya [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kenya]. We, accompanied by a guide, cook, and porter, will attempt to summit Pt. Lenana (4985m) on a 4-day trek up the frigid mountain. I’ve never attempted such a journey before and am highly stoked for a great adventure. Hopefully I’ll survive my first bout with altitude sickness like a champ.

So, in summary, the first 3 weeks in Kenya have been incredible. More pictures and stories to follow in the upcoming weeks…

Please keep in touch!

-dk

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