The Final Stretch - Final Presentation

"Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow."
- Ronald E. Osborn

Preparations for the Final Report
This whole assignment has been living and learning. Some of it will surely come first after we all have taken a step back and the time to observe it all from a distance. But it has changed my life...as it has for most of the group.

After getting the midterms reviews through and confirmation that we were on the right track, despite our rather bold approach...it was time to push the last pieces together and finalize the preparations for the final report and its presentation to the key stakeholders.
After having interviewed the people and feeling the spirits of Nakuru, I was definitely in this with my whole heart. Wanting to get the message across that people were hurt...hurt by the goverment's egoistic acts. Huge damage was done in 2007 and that could not be fixed simply by technology, but it requires understanding the thoughts, feelings of the people.
We were going against all the odds....news headers have stated all this time very strongly that voting in 2012 will be electronic. We are going to suggest to hear out the people first...understand how they feel and gain back their confidence first.

Let us see how it will be received by Dr Ndemo, the permanent secretary of Ministry of Communication and Information. The signs from the IIEC (now known as IEBC) and ICT board representative are positive, but of course Dr Ndemo is at the end of the day the person whose support is needed heavily to get the wheels turning.

Me being me...wanting to stand behind my words, I would not want to take any other direction than what we have taken. Even if we are going to go against the media thrill and our recommendations might not be noted with such a big thrill as what were the head lights in the beginning of the assignment. At the end I still know, I did the right thing.

Final Presentation
On Friday morning our KENET team presented their final report. It was great! KENET even recorded it with video cameras. Brooks, Virve, Andrea and Luigi did a great job and were definitely the super stars of that video, which came out of that meeting.

In the afternoon we had to split into two, which was bit unfortunate. Our team presented at the same time with e-Government Service team (Sugandha, Lynn, Krishna and HwaYoung). The spirits were high as were the excitement. We wanted to share our findings, our recommendations.

The meeting started in rather normal Kenyan way...the key persons were bit late due to traffic. Traffic in Nairobi is not in the control of a man. One day all may be well and next day, at the very same time, it is a pure chaos. In Kenya one learns that not all is in our control and the best is to live by: Hakuna Matata (No problems). No use worrying over things that we have no control of ;o)
After spending the first hour chit chatting and waiting for everyone to arrive...I had flash backs from a training I participated, and nowadays co-tutor...where one plays the impossible client situation as a role play for the fresh consultants. This was just like my final presentation in that training course ;o) Which made me at ease, as I knew that it would not be as extreme than in that training.

Finally the moment was there....all the people were there. This time we skipped the Kenyan custom to drink tea. I had nothing against it, as in the last 4 weeks I have drank more tea per day, than I drink in any business meetings otherwise. Though I love green tea and drink alone that a liter per day...but on top of that in Kenya I drank one liter Kenyan tea after busy meeting days.
One day we had 3 client meeting and in each we drank bug cups of the Kenyan tea. It is a local business etiquette to offer tea to business partners and also in private life, offering tea is a warm gesture. Means that you want to share from what you have and take a moment to talk outside the meeting with the people. I quite liked it...apart from the fact that after drinking so much tea in the meetings after each other....the bubbles on the forehead reach a maximum limit ;o)

So, without any tea we started sharing our findings and recommendations. I am normally cheery, and tend to normally dress my message in a positive way. I did it this time too, but with lot more feeling, pauses and sense of power. It was actually rather amazing feeling, an adrenalin kick took over after the presentation when I realized that I what I had just said to the Dr Ndemo and his team.

The best part of it all was that he agreed fully!
So, our presentation was a success.

Now remains to be seen if agreeing results to actions. As I noticed that having people to agree with you in Kenya is one thing, but taking actions to support the agreement is another thing. Execution is not self-explanatory though people around you would be agreeing on your points and recommendations.

Kenya has no other choice than change, thus I want to believe that in one way or another our recommendations will lead to something, which will improve the confidence of the people towards their government.

After the presentations were all done, and all with great success...we had the last official dinner together. My head was still so in the presentation, that I did not register too much the fact that day later we would all apart our ways.

Heading Home
On Saturday we did final shopping....all ladies saying that our luggage was already so heavy...and funny enough, we all found something more on the triangular market.
Among our team we had still the really, really final dinner together...which was so much fun. We joked, sang and laughed together.
When it was time for me to say "good bye" to the team mates....I had promised myself to be brave and not to cry. Yeah right, it worked about few minutes and then the niagara falls opened. I could not stop crying till I took a hot shower, and had the water calming me down.

Yes, in 4 weeks, with people you did not know before...there are ones with whom one grows fonder than "just colleagues". Same sense of humor plays a big role, whether the chemistry matches or not, as well as the values in life.

I did not realize it there though, but every single person left some mark in how I see things, how I feel about things today. Each individual of the team, each character with their own color added to the whole picture their strokes. Luigi on top of color, made his way to everyone's heart by cooking pasta to the whole team (and teaching the hotel cheff to cook proper pasta) ;o)

Here is one funny joke we laughed about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBaPI2AKu2g
Bobby Lee as North Korean Scientist ;o) Sometimes I do....

There is so much, which I have not thought about writing...many details, which might partially overwhelm as well. Somethings cannot be written to such detail as they were experienced. Or maybe I will cherish those experiences few years, till I have found the perfect vocabulary to express them...and then write a book ;o)

There is a lot that I will take with me from this assignment, when going forward in life...some new friends, team colleagues, passion for Kenya...not being unsure to break my own borders, not thinking so much if I should or should not do something, but following even more my instinct. Taking things as they come. Hakuna Matata is carved into my mind and heart. I will spread it, pay it forward where ever I go.

In Kenya we were welcomed. What we did was wanted...our efforts were making a difference and our meetings, presentations did not go to deaf ears, they were active sessions with signs of appreciations. What more would one want?

We went beyond our professional efforts and paid forward to the community.
Being able to make difference and the fact that we were always warmly welcomed, where ever we went....left a warm feeling for working in Kenya. Outside work there is of course a whole lot about the nature, culture and whole variety of things.

Asante Sana Kenya, our IBM CSC Kenya team 3 and Muriuki.
Thank you for the experiences, the moments, the joy and laughter, sharing the differences and cherishing the diversity in our own ways. Man sieht sich immer zwei mal (German saying: one meets always twice)...I believe in that and trust that we shall meet again.

Time capsule to the past - Maasai Mara

Imagine you standing surrounded by people and animal, yet everything reminds you of past time, which you yourself have never experienced.
That is the feeling what I carried from Maasai Mara for many days. The trip was awesome, simply said.

Friday
If I thought the ride to St.Anthony's small home was bumpy...I knew nothing. On Friday we started the journey from Nakuru to Maasai Mara. The drive takes about 5 hours, out of which 2,5 h are 100% bumpy ride. When I say bumpy, I mean that I could feel my intestines tickling my throath during the jumps ;o)

But as I have the skill to sleep where ever, no matter what the circumstances are (my brother keeps saying that he would want to have the sleeping skills I have)..
I was worn out from the work week and felt sleepy. I slept most of the bumpy ride part and felt nice and fresh after that. Sometimes I woke up, being in the middle of the jump. Put my hand back to the handlebar and fell right back asleep.

Sugandha had negotiated a really great deal for us, I have learnt from her great negotiation skills during this trip.This is the best place to practise those skills, as everywhere the price or conditions are negotiable. Sugi's negotiation school ;o)

We stayed in a camp, our huts were partially like a big tent, but inside two proper beds. Bathroom & toilet was solid and over the tent there was a metal roof. Really nice set-up actually.
After the arrival to the camp, we unloaded the bags and jumped back to the car to get more bumpy rides...first game ride was about to start in the Maasai Mara national reserve.

We took photo of each zebra passing by, pretty much every single animal was captured to a photo...the over eagerness of first timers as the locals would say.
The park as such is beautiful and there are plenty of variety of animals.
What bothered me was the amount of safari matatus driving around in queue. It made the first evening's game drive experience feel little like in zoo, but this time the animals were staring at us. Thinking those poor people, who are stuck in those matatus. My team colleagues, who were in the same matatu as I was were laughing during the days, as I was mimicking what the animals would say if they only spoke the same language as us.

The only positive thing about the safari cars is that you can pull the roof up and have nice possibility to take photos. Back to the nature....it is beautiful. Huge area of untouched land, animals walking around knowing that this is their home.

After some hours of game drive and taking photos of every single animal ;o) we drove back to the camp for dinner. The food was really good and it was great to get something else than the hotel dinner buffet. After dinner we sat down on the grass, and enjoyed the evening. In the camp we had 3-4 Maasai warriors guarding from sun set till sun rise. This was the animals home, and the park is not fenced all around. Elephants, leopards and other animals pay their visit at times around the Maasai villages and camp villages. The Maasai warriors sat by the camp fire in the evening.
After having talked and sang enough within our circle...we moved closer to sit by the fire and got to know the Maasai warriors better. I was totally taken by what I learned during our discussions (read more about the Maasai's in its own section below).

At 10 pm the generator was turned off, which meant electrisity disappeared. So, time to go to sleep....we needed the rest for the next day.
During the night I was 100% confident that we were safe from the hyenas and other animals, which were holding up a choir in the night. Namely I had to use the bathroom in the night, and as soon as I had set a toe outside my bed and got up...there were on that same instance 2 flash lights wiping our tent and its back like a lazer beam.

Saturday
At 5.30 am wake up call...cold cement floor greeting me, once I found my way out from the blue mosquito net. The day had started and despite only some hours sleep, thanks to the hyenas and their choir practice in the night...I was ready to get out there.
The air was fresh and crisp still...but that would change soon. The difference of the temperature between night and day is amazingly high actually. I had not realized that till Maasai Mara camp nights. During the nights the temperature goes at this time of the year near zero.

When we arrived at the park, there were less matatus...yeiii! It felt now more like a safari drive. Being still rather new to the game drive and the Kenyan animals...we still took quite a load of photos of the zebras, buffaloes, wildebeest, antelopes, gazelles, elephants, giraffes etc.
The wildebeest had migrated from Tanzania, Serengeti, back to Kenya to Maasai Mara. Their migration moves take place 4 times a year. Most of those are in the area of Serengeti.
We were taught that wildebeest itself is rather simple animal and believe me, that is how they look. Their coloring and shape of head gave me the feeling that they were thinking "duhhhh" all the time ;o)
So, though the wildebeest make the migration event so massive...about 2,5 million of them , they are not the ones triggering it. Wildebeest and zebras are "hanging out" together. Zebras are the ones triggering the moves, wildebeest just follow....in masses.
The migration is of course delicacy time for crocodiles, lions and hyenas.

We went later on during the day to the Tanzanian side of the park and saw some dead wildebeest or remaining parts of them in the river or river banks. The crocodiles on the riverbank looked even still quite well fed.

The drive during that day was great...we covered a big area and saw a lot. From 7 am till 4 pm we drove around the park. After coming back we continued straight to visit the Maasai village, where the camp night guards were living. They performed us some of the dances, the traditional Maasai jumps. The son of the chief, who has been selected to be the next chief showed us around the village and told more about them and their life.

After the visit we were definitely ready for shower and dinner. Driving the full day around the park made sure that we were all covered with dust.
After dinner time to sit by the camp fire and relax. We were talking, dancing and having a good laugh. At times it was nice just to lay on the grass and stair at the stars.


Sunday
Another early morning...I think I have forgotten already how it feels like to sleep in ;o)
We left by 6.30 and got to the park the minute it opened. The whole park felt like it was still sleeping and it was chilly as well. Sun wasn't up yet...but it was starting to peek behind the hills. We drove around and saw the familiar animals...some about to start their day, some about to find a good resting place for the day. The amount of pictures taken had decreased tremendously since yesterdays game drive.

Our guides knew the park very well...and we got lucky, we saw a lion herd with 7 lionesses and 2 lions. It was amazing! One of the lions was grey haired, very senior and one was younger one. When we showed the photos to the Maasais, they said that those seemed huge from size compared to the common size of the lions in the area.
The moves of the lions were definitely giving out their grace. It did not take more than to watch them move to understand the power they have.
They had just finished eating their prey and were walking to find a resting place for the day. We followed them for a while, until they found a place to sleep. On the way, they came across a herd of bulls (with lot of young bulls in the group). The old bulls made a barrier as soon as they noticed the lions, started running and chased them away.

After that weekend I can gladly say, BIG FIVE is definitely seen and captured in photos.
Good way to close the last weekend in Kenya. After the morning game drive time for breakfast, pack and have a long jumpy ride back to Nakuru.
The final week ahead and the last push to get the final report done and present our findings.

Maasai
Maasais are probably the best known of the Kenyan tribes. They have the reputation of fearless warriors, who do not fear lion, nor white people with their guns. Maasais were pretty much the only tribe in Kenya, who did not end up as slaves.
Their daily rhythm of life still today follows the same pattern like centuries ago...herding the cattle to areas, where there is grass and securing the water for the daily consumption.
Maasai are clearly different from the average Kenyan profile; thin and tall. They walk in the nature, up the hills...with grace and zero drop of sweat.

Their cattle has such a high importance in their life...the young cows get to sleep inside the clay huts. Also when getting married, the traditional marriage arrangement is that future husband needs to pay certain amount of cows to the family of the girl, who has been agreed to marry the Maasai male.
Instead of asking how the other Maasai is, the more common greeting is: Is your cattle well? Bit like in Singapore one asks: have you eaten yet?, instead of asking "how are you?". Greeting shows in different countries what is the driving value of that culture.

The modern variation is to the marriage deal, in case the young Maasais male does not have cows, he will trade his sister. The village and family, where he or his parents find the wife candidate, will get his sister as wife to one of the son's of the family in exchange.

Maasais are incredibly tightly bond with the nature as well. They have an old belief, which explains little bit the bond to cattle and nature; God of the sky, Enkai, was once one with the earth. The day that earth and sky was separated, Enkai was forced to send all the world's cattle into safekeeping of the Maasai.

The western explorers came to learn the fearlessness of the Maasai and their fighting skills very early. Henry Stanley wrote; "take a thousand men with you, or write your will".

Maasais live mainly from milk and to certain extent from meat.If times get tough its milk and cow blood mixed. That mix is drank even when its 5 days old. I learned from my brother, who to my surprise knows quite a bit about the Maasais, the Maasai warriors don't eat during the day. While running their belief is to eat the wind.

The village where we visited had about 120 people, the adult men of the village had all the same grand-father. Wives are searched from far away villages. The neighboring villages are often related to each other.

The son of the chief showed around and we got to visit the clay huts.
The current chief has 6 wives and from his sons he has selected the one, whom he believes to be the best one to lead people after him. If I recall correctly, the chief's son had roughly 24 siblings. He had 2 watches, one in each arm. They were presents from western friends. He also used a mobile phone. We saw a kiosk not far, which sold services to charge the mobile phones. Must be a hit in that area, since hardly anyone has electricity there.

In the Maasai culture women work hard; they build the clay huts, care for children, go every day and collect the wood from the hills. Help to herd the cattle, cook, etc. To me looked like women had most of the tasks to do. They also do necklaces and other items, which can be sold to tourists or sent for selling in the shops.

Young Maasai men "go to bush", this is a time when the according to old traditions would leave their village for 5 years and stay in the nature, alone. They would get a wiser, senior Maasai to accompany for teaching about herbal medicine, about animals, nature. But the main purpose is for them mentally grow to become a warrior. You can recognize the younger Maasai men from their long hair. After returning from the bush, and after having killed a lion, their hair is shaved and they keep a short hair / bold from there onwards. The Maasai cannot return from the bush till he has killed a lion and showed his warrior skills / strength.

The Maasai are amazingly unaware of the modern life. Had nice discussions with our night guards and they asked if I also live in a clay hut and how many cows do I have. For them the idea to have a wooden house, fully equipped with electricity was a weird concept.

When we talked, I felt like there would be the past I don't know and the future they are not aware of talking to each other. It was mind opening to realize that year 2011 means to some people exactly the same thing, what it was 300 - 500 years ago. By no means do I think I would be more fortunate. At times during our discussions I thought that having some of it back, what used to be, would be rather healthy for the modern world. In Finland one is very tightly one with the nature but that is not a common thing to each country. Also the concept of time, would not hurt if the it wasn't a constant race but one would have the day...and at times, there would be time to sit down, and do nothing for a while. Pole pole (slow) like one keeps saying in Swahili a lot. At least I have been hearing the expression from day 1 repeatedly. Pole pole ;o)

Serious work & Midterm review

Despite the feeling, what all the excursions and community days might give...we have come here to do pro bono work. That means in IBM terms; to deliver. This week is short but demanding, mid term review is ahead. The final report needs to get all the input we have received from the various interviews conducted with the Kenyan citizen with various background. Also the final report presentation prepared.

Thursday we presented our midterm report to the stakeholders. Luckily we managed to agree to present to one of the stakeholders via phone instead of traveling to Nairobi. Not that I like presenting via phone so much, but traveling from Nakuru to Nairobi is always a full day trip...which means one day worth of good work lost. We went to present in person to the IEBC (Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) in Nakuru. Presenting happened by us sharing the computer screen with their representatives. They don't have a beamer or flip chart in their offices. It was a good session. We got confirmation that we were totally on the right track. Big part of our report, findings and recommendation, is away from the mainstream and more to the change management direction. It was great to get confirmation for that.
Later on, on the phone, we presented the mid term review to ICT board stakeholder. He also confirmed that we are on the right track.

Tuesday through Thursday lot got done and midterm report got support from client. We are spot on the track, wuhhhuuuu!

When working hard, one needs to ensure proper nutrition....
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. ~Voltaire

On top of that our Italian colleague, Luigi, who loves good food and wine...took over the hotel kitchen again and cooked us some pasta. It was absolutely delicious. He taught at the same the local chef how to cook pasta in the proper Italian way. Thanks to Luigi, Sugandha who is vegetarian...has gotten at least few times excellent food here. Kenya and vegetarian eating are bit like an oxymoron.

Now a weekend break in Maasai Mara and then the final push.

With a smile one can go far...all the way to the heart

When one receives a genuinely happy smile...nothing more is required. It does not matter, whether one speaks the same language, the big smile tells everything. Smile rockets straight to one's heart.

On Monday we had our third community day. We went to St. Anthony's Small Home in Kiptangwany , which is the home for mentally handicapped children.

In Kenya there prevails an old belief that if the child is handicapped, it has been touched by the devil. The parents are often the worst ones when it comes to how they treat the handicapped children. Some of the children are sent to the street to beg, as their parents think that they are not fit for anything else. Other parents lock the handicapped children into a room when ever guests come. These children never get to go out of the house either, as the parents do not want to show that their child is in one way or another handicapped. Abuse, mistreated and ignored - that is rather normal in those cases.

Others just dump their kids somewhere to a street...and then comes Father James and his team to rescue some of these children. The St. Anthony's Small Home lies by local terms "just outside" Nakuru. If one has a pick-up truck that is the case, but going with our matatu...it took us 2 hours of a very bumby ride. The road is literally something between holes in the street and half done. We were jumping those 2 hours in the van and I felt sorry for our driver, John and his disco matatu. But we were on a mission, there were children waiting for us...so the bumps became a minor things on the list of things.

After the weary drive, with all the bumps giving an intestine massage, we got to meet the children who permanently live at the St. Anthony's Small Home. The place is really isolated from anything.
At the Small Home there are currently living 12 children in the age between 6 - 16.

The children greeted us, each in their own way showing that they were happy to have us there. One of the younger kids was purely jumping out of joy and shaking our hands over and over again...and already all of us had forgotten all about the bumpy ride.

The children didn't speak much English, but that did not stop us from socializing.
They sang us songs and we sang also our team song (Jambo Bwana).

We went to see the school, which is short walking distance away from the home. The kids were showing proudly what they are learning. We had puppets with us and they were a hit. Burst of laughter was in the air, when we were playing with puppets.

Junko, our team member from Japan, had again her great Polaroid camera with her. She took pictures of each child with one of our team members. That itself brought a big smile to the children's face...to see their own picture.

Time for outside games...football, throwing ball, rope skipping and singing. One of the boys had such a strength, when he kicked the ball...it flew far. He was also showing his happiness by giving a big hug. Krisha, our team member from Australia, was the target of his hugs most of the time.
Each one of the children showed their happiness and affection differently...but they showed it.

We were told that one of the girls, who we were playing ball tossing with, does not speak, nor smile. With us, after a while, she reacted to the ball and she smiled!!!
I had one little fellow holding my hand most of the time. He talked non-stop in swahili and I replied in English. We had discussions about everything possible...probably not all the time about the same subject, but that is a minor thing. The whole time when he held my hand and talked, he had a big smile on his face. That is what was important in my opinion. It is a good reminder that it is not only words that make the social communication, gestures, facial expression and singing even works just fine, if one does not have common words.

Sugandha, our team member from India, showed a whole new side of herself. She formed the other schoold kids into a circle and started singing along with them. Must say, I could not tell who was enjoying more, Sugandha or the kids ;o) It was great to watch.

After playing under the hot sun, it was time for lunch. The water bottles we had taken with us became a big hit. The kids gulped them in one go. Had we thought about it, we would have taken some more. Bottled water tastes of course different than rain water.

Despite the sad nature of the children's story, being abandoned by their parents and the perception that to outside the home did not look much more than a storage building at someone's summer cottage...but the fact that they had a home where they are loved, they get proper meals and they are able to play, express themselves and run outside, that made me really happy.

Father James and the caretakers are doing a great job. The meal we got for lunch was great and the kids emptied their big bowls of food.
We agreed to help them to get proper bedding for the kids...which we did. Imagine this for 20 euros from each person, we managed to get (thanks to Krishna and Dave negotiating with the local super market) each one of the kids a proper mattress, mattress protection, pillow, blanket and sheet. That will help to keep the sunny smiles on the children's face when they can have a good night sleep.

Father James said to us that he wanted to offer us soda before we go. One does not say "no" to that...even if it meant that he actually walked to the village shop and bought two cases of soda, which the local "courier guy" delivered on his two wheeler and then went back to get Father James as well. Such does not exist anymore in the modern cities that someone would want to offer you a soda and walks to get those. It was the best Coke I have drank.

We left again bags with toys and books to the children and they got a football as well.

In the car on the way back...the atmosphere was again filled with mixed emotions and that was not due to the very bumpy road. To know that you have made a difference to someone's life made me happy...but at the same time to acknowledge that those children were abandoned by their parents...that brought tears to eyes.

Luckily there is at the moment lot of education being done by the church to the adults about handicapped children. They are trying to gain the parent's understanding that those children are to be treated just like a normal children, they deserve a happy childhood and the possibility to go to school.

I will never forget the joy those children posses and gladly share if one is ready to take it on ;o) The image of my little friend holding my hand, talking to me about everything between the earth and the sky in swahili...and most of all having this big, big smile on his face...what more could I ever ask for.

Great News Update Friday 22.7.2011:
On Friday we got the news that from Egerton University, the Eucossa team got inspired by our community days - us going around on top of the assignment work and sharing our know-how, time and what ever is needed to make a difference. Eucossa team has promised to develop and host a website for St. Anthony small home and they will also work with New life to revamp the website.

This enables that more and more people become aware of the great work they are doing and the fact that both organizations are not following the path of the well known big charity and aid organizations, where the admin costs are already so big that from the donation one does not get much to the target itself.
Thank you Eucossa for catching the ball and continuing what we started.

(As usual, just as I get the story done and want to add photos...the connection is getting slow...so - more photos will follow. Will try to update the photos tomorrow morning)

Balancing Weekend

Hard work requires...total relaxation ;o)

Friday Evening
After hard week of work and emotional challenges...we decided to let the steam off in Nakuru on Friday. There are 2 good places (that we know): Taidy's and Enigma. Taidy's is more like relaxed sports bar / reggae kind of place, where as Enigma claims to be the only lounge in Nakuru.

The evening was fun....we had our regular matatu driver, John, with us with his "disco matatu". We have named it disco matatu, as he has disco light inside the car and he always plays good music ;o)I was dancing, dancing and dancing...once I get going, there's no way to stop until I leave the place. I just let the music take over and it sure did good after a week like this.


Saturday
Day full of no special plans....l-o-v-e-l-y.
On Saturday most of the team did a day trip to lake Victoria in Kisumu. To me, after the demanding week, just some time off without any plans sounded more appealing.

Sleeping in felt amazing...I had forgotten how it feels to be able to sleep as long as you feel like and have a slow morning. Since we got here every day has been something and the previous weekend both days we left the hotel at 6.30am.

Saturday afternoon few of us, who had stayed at the hotel, went to experience the Nakuru street market fuss. The sellers have been educated though, they were not too pushy and listened when saying "asante, but not today".
I am not a shopper anyway, so was proud to be able to check out the stands from one end of the street to another. After that I didn't feel like leaving the hotel though ;o)

Sunday
Swimming in the morning felt great,as this time I was swimming first when the sun has started to shine. I have been swimming nearly every morning but at 6.30 am. The hotel staff things that I am crazy, as for them it's now winter and swimming before the sun is out...seems to them similar as for Finns jumping in the winter into icy lake from sauna. To me the water temperature is just fine, it's doing a morning swim in the lake during a Finnish summer.

Each time there are several people coming to wonder about the fact that someone is really in the pool, swimming in the "cold" water. Chinese tourist group, which is staying at the hotel likes to come and take photos while I swim. I guess in their opinion too I am crazy...and they all might be on the right track ;o)

While swimming I have been able to talk one of my colleagues into swimming as well. Krishna has gotten beaten by the swim-bug and seems to be enjoying it.

Sunday afternoon was time to get the nose out of the hotel, so group of us ladies went to Thomson's Falls and Hippo pond in Nyahururu.

Nyahururu is about 2 h drive from Nakuru, is Kenya's highest settlement, sitting at 2360 m above sea level. The drive there was climing with the matatu the hilly road...slow, but certain.

After getting past the tourist fuss at the entrance we could concentrate to the essential...the water fall.

Thomson's falls is beautiful. The sound of the water and seeing water...made me feel like home. The water comes from Ewaso Nyiro river and falls 75 m down in a single drop over a volcanic ledge. The waterfall has gotten its name after Scottish explorer, Joseph Thomson, who was in Nyahururu area in 1823.

The best part of visiting Thomson's Falls was the hike down, to the bottom of the valley. The stairs were not any sophisticated stairs, but rocks carved to the shape of stairs. That made the walk down more like climbing down. With our cameras and bags at times it did require helping out each other and giving guidance how to get down.

I was all worth it...the view by the river was so beautiful. The sound of the masses of water falling down was calming.
It was like in a dream...

The spot obviously serves as a "date place", as we saw unusually many couples kissing by the river. In Kenya, apart from Nairobi, it is now common to show in public that one is dating (bit same fashion like in India - apart from Mumbai).

The climb up was equal to a good run...and I was then thankful for doing regularly sports. The hike went fine till half way, after which I felt it in my pulse. It was fun though ;o)

After the climb it was time to sooth ourselves with hippos. Few kilometers from the fall there is a hippo bond. It was beautiful...there were at least a dozen of hippos in a close distance. Sugandha, who has the mega camera lens, got some beautiful pictures there. I forgot to change the lens in the car to the longer one (and for some silly reason left my camera bag in the car)...thus I had to settle with what I had...knowing luckily that I will get copies of "Suggi's" photos.

Seeing hippos that close made me amazed with the mass they carry. From that perspective water definitely is the best place for them, as it takes some of the mass effect off. Seeing a huge hippo head is one thing, but when few of those mega size hippos pushed themselves up....made me happy that we had still some distance between us ;o)

Hippos seem to be a tight group if the environment allows it. Mostly you could see a junk of hippos, not recognizing from the junk that which parts (head, back or behind)belong to which hippo. They seem to be very one with all ;o) Here and there a baby hippo popped the head above the water for a moment...and then dived back under the muddy water.

The trip back was having its excitement....the motor was smoking and made a whole lot of noise. But we got back without pushing the car.
The group that went to lake Victoria had to push the car 4 times, as the battery died and later on cooler was nearly out of liquid (and there was only a river close by to get some water from). One of the team member had to pay for the battery first, as the drivers don't (for some funny reason) carry hardly any money, nor water with them....so our trip was still far from that excitement. I can also state that Thomson's falls and Hippo pond was definitely value for money, as Sugi (our negotiator) got it for free as compensation to Saturday's lake Victoria matatu chaos. Thanks Sugi ;o)
(will add photos later - when the connection allows it)

Egerton University was hit.....by an IBM wave

Power of knowledge is like a huge wave...it hits you, embraces you totally and when it has passed by, you are covered with drops (drops of knowledge in this case). It is up to you to decide, do you let those drops to sink in or you just wipe them off with a towel.

On Friday we made a whole day wave of information and knowledge to the Egerton University. Technology session and after lunch "soft skills". The students were technology students and like in many universities that area does not include, sadly enough, the soft skills e.g. presentation skills, writing CV, time management, product management, expectations management.

Despite the university students being officially on winter holiday, there was great amount of them participating to our session. Smart students, really into what we presented. Plenty of good questions.

Special thanks from the students came about the different soft skills sessions. The finding was that those would be needed as part of the learning curriculum of the students. This is pretty much the case in many countries around the world for technology studies.

The drops of knowledge we brought with our IBM wave definitely sank in to the Egerton students ;o)"Thank you e-mails" are floating in and it really got the whole team happy. We enjoyed talking with the students and having interactive workshops with them.

Little bit about Egerton University....
The Egerton university campus is absolutely stunning, green with plenty of flowers. The land was donated by Lord Egerton for school purposes. The education started as farm school and in year 1987 the school changed to Egerton University. The farm business has stayed though as part of the university activities. They produce milk products and have their own university farm. Their own yogurt with the university logo as the brand. I hear the yogurt is the most delicious. One of the colleagues from IBM Kenya says they used to drive to Egerton to get the yogurt.

More information on Egerton University and nice photos of the campus - check out the link.

#ibmscs Kenya 3

Bitter sweet symphony

There are days when it is like you have all weather conditions within one day, or all emotions in one day. Thursday was one of those, but different from anything before.
Thursday was like a bitter sweet symphony.

We did community day on Thursday and visited the New Life Africa International children's schools. The few nights before we gathered all the toys and clothes that our team members had brought for this purpose. I collected before the trip some toys from my nephews, friends and neighbors' children to give the toys new happy owners in Nakuru.

First we went to the New Hope Nursery school, which is about 1 km from Nakuru junk yard. People actually live in the junk yard at tents made from plastic or caves dug into the trash pile.

They have 3 classes there, 58 children between 3-6 years of age. The school provides the kids school uniforms and daily meal. Meal at the school might be the only meal of the day for some of the kids.

The kids were adorable...the "baby class" with the 3-4 year old children, some of them clammed themselves around us. Pretty much all of us were having one or two children in our arms or sitting in the lap. We played with the kids, they sang to us and we sang our team song to them. The amount of smiles and laughter filled the room.

...then to the next room to meet the "middle class" 4-5 year old children. Some of the kids from the baby class followed us, as they insisted not letting go of us.
The kids sang to us and danced. We sang to them and played together.
...then to the next room to meet the "top class", 5-6 years old children.
The amount of children moving along with us grew again.

Junko, our team member from Japan, had a Polaroid camera with her. She took pictures of the children and gave them the picture. Oh joy, oh joy...the kids were bursting out of joy when getting to hold a photo of themselves.

After singing songs and playing in the class room. We played for a short while outside and then gave the kids some candies.

We had brought toys with us from all over the world to give to the schools. We left some of them at the nursery school and I wanted to give the "baby class" the mirror, which has been previously my nephews' toy, when they were smaller.
In the baby class, there were twins, who just simply made my heart melt...they got excited when I hung the mirror to their class room wall. The twins of the baby class, Joseph and Felicia, welcomed the mirror with joy.

In the car, when driving to the next place...after a short buss of talk everyone went silent and among some other people, I had tears in my eyes. It broke my heart to think that these kids go from the school to junk yard and call that their home.

The car drive was long enough for me to gather myself before we arrived in the New Life school. The school has about 500 children, whose parents cannot afford to put the children to school or otherwise not able to look after their children. Some of the children were formerly street children or orphans.
About 150 of the children permanently live at the school. There is girls' house and boys' house in the school area for that purpose.

Nakuru is a melting pot for several tribes and if it clashes in Kenya for tribal (read: equal to political) reasons, Nakuru suffers the most damage. Some of the orphans or street children are the result of those clashes.

Again were welcomed with pure joy. The smaller kids ran to meet us and did not let go. I had at the best 4 kids holding my hands ;o) We played and sang songs with the kids at the school yard. I sang finnish play-songs with the children around me. Funny enough they caught some of the lyrics and sang their version of the Finnish song with me (Piiri pieni pyörii / "small circle spinning around", yksi pieni elefantti / "small elefant marching".

They have a sewing classes at the school, 1 and 2 year class. They have the old style sewing machines, which my grand-mother had.
Rooms full of girls busy sewing. We talked with them and many of them had the dream to open own sewing shop one day. They make the school uniforms there for the whole school and for the nursery school. Practical and saves lot of money.

The founders of New Life Africa International (the organization behind the schools) came to meet us at the school. We got to hear the story how they ended up moving to Kenya and how it all got started. Lovely couple, Leif and Susanne. They moved 17 years ago to Kenya with their 5 children. They had not planned to start this kind of charity work to support the local children...but their love to children took over the direction. Susanne said it nicely that as we cannot take anything with us, she wants to leave behind as many children as possible, with a better future.

I was taken by the fact that they have 5 children of their own, who were small at the time they started the charity activities. Yet they opened their heart to help other children...in huge amounts.


They have opened a crisis center for women, who need a safe house. It is also for young women or teenagers, who are about to become single-mothers. They can stay in the crisis center during pregnancy and maternity period here and get support to start the life with a baby on safe grounds.

This is the only one in whole Kenya (with population of 40 million people). In comparison, in Finland (with population of 5.4 million) there are 21 women's and children's safe houses.

The crises center women have started earlier this year a glass jewelry project and are also making bags. This enables them to work and support the school to become more self sustaining. Also the sewing class is making items for sale.
Our team's ladies, we pretty much shopped till we dropped. I can say from the bottom of my heart, not being the typical female type who would love shopping for "ladies accessories",it was the best shopping ever! The brand is Kioo Lulu (means glass pearls in swahili).

After ladies were worn out from the shopping it was our team's guys time to contribute by playing football with the kids. We were cheerleaders and got most of the kids cheering "IBM, IBM, IBM!!" and clapping their hands. Heavy rain shower stopped the game (maybe better so for our team...as we are talking about consultants, who do not play football every day) ;o))))

We left bag loads of toys, pens, books, baby & kids clothes to the school. Nice feeling to know that they will definitely know to appreciate those...and there will be many happy kids playing with the toys.

One can become sponsor to the kids, and that I will definitely do. Knowing the founders and directly the target and not having some organizations with their high admin costs in the middle. Heard e.g. that with some international organizations, you donate 100 eur, 10% of it ends up to the target. Rest disappears along the way to admin and other costs. With New Life Africa International this is not the case.

You can read about New Life Africa International more here and even become a sponsor to one of the children(for only ~20 eur per month):
http://www.newlife-africa.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1
(the connection is getting worse again...will upload the rest of the photos as soon as possible)#ibmscs Kenya 3

Back in business - in Kenya

Kenyan traffic is crazy allright, but this was the funniest...on Wednesday, on my way to IBM office in Nairobi, the driver did not know exactly where the office was. After driving around for a while, he spotted a police officer at a roundabout. So, what does he do...stops in the roundabout, behind a traffic sign. I sit in the car waiting while he runs to ask directions from the officer. It turns out that the exit to the direction of IBM office was the one, which we had just passed. Oh well...he reversed (in a roundabout!!!) to get the right exit. And this was done right infront of the police officer, who did not even blink his eyes ;o))))
Another country, where I will never sit behind the wheel myself.

Aside of doing our assignment, I was asked to support our local IBM colleagues with client visit. The team here is still fresh and they don't have yet all the business areas covered. The client meeting went well, but it was "very Kenyan". We showed up in time, but client representative wanted to go pay some bills first to the bank downstairs. Thus we started 30 mins late and yet had only till the original ending time to present.
Nevertheless all went well and client was really nice. It felt great to help directly and in concrete terms the local IBM team.

The days started 5.30 am - drive from Nakuru to Nairobi and ended around 10 pm when we were finally back in Nakuru. Loooong day, but great experience as well. #ibmscs Kenya 3

Weekend in the Kenyan Nature

Imagine there were no people in the face of earth, and never had been....
On Saturday I learned how things would look like in some parts of the world if that was the case.
We went to Nakuru Lake National Park and drove around the park for better part of the Saturday and Sunday took over Lake Bogoria and Baringo.

Saturday
Getting up again very early was not so pleasant, but afterwards I can say:"it was definitely worth it".
The nature around the area of Lake Nakuru was beautiful, huge area with animals living free. Seeing the park from morning dust till late afternoon (with full sunshine) revealed the different shades of the park and different modes of the animals.

We saw a whole long list of animals ...zebras, rhinos, giraffes, antelopes, buffaloes, pelicans, flamingos, monkeys ....etc. etc. There are no words to express the experience; seeing the animals free and in close distance. The crown of all was a leopard in hunting activities. There are only 5 leopards in the Lake Nakuru National park and we spotted during a day light one of them!

This leopard though has some work to do on his attacking skills. The leopard got "attacked" by its prey, first the antelopes and then the baboons were surrounding it to a bush, in order to protect their babies.

More information on the Lake Nakuru National park:
http://www.kws.org/parks/parks_reserves/LNNP.html


On the way back we went to see the Menengai Crater. It it said to be one of the biggest in the world with average diameter of 8 km. In the bottom of the crater, the valley, one can see the wave wise formed ground, which is purely black in color. There is still steam coming out of the crater, which means that the volcano activities are dormant, but not extinct. Menengai means in Maasai language - "bottomless pit" or "place of corpses".

As in this area people have as the "higher power" a mixture of pagan beliefs, superstition and religion. Local people believe that the steam coming out from the crater are the spirits from the old battles between two ruling Maasai clans in the area.

The Maasai are the warrior tribe from the Kenyan tribes. I have learned to recognize the Maasai people, as they are clearly taller than rest of the population. They have the reputation of being fearless warriors, thanks to which Maasai tribe avoided pretty much any slave caravans.

Maasai tribe generally believs in Engai, which is the spirit of a volcano (originally from Tanzanian side, Ol Doinyo L'Engai by Lake Natron). It has two characteristics - Black God and Red God.

Apart from being totally amazed by the crater and new life that has started to grow on top of the lava ground, I was moved by the villagers (kids in particular) paying so much attention to us driving through.
From past travelling abroad, especially in Asia, have thought that it is healthy at times to be the minority. Here I belong definitely to the minority, the one who is easy to spot everywhere and the one who (with her blond hair) does not belong to the group. To some locals my and my team members appearance brings joy and to others amazement, to some even frustration (especially if we are just passing by, not stopping). It is difficult to stay cool when a group of kids is joyfully shouting "Hello!" at the side of the road, and their clothes are totally worn through and they have no shoes on.
Again....so looking forward to our community days. We get to spend one day at the kids orphanage and one day at the mentally handicapped kids care-home. And third day with the technology students, giving the the information on the latest trends and how to prepare oneself for the job market (CV, presentation skills, etc.)

Sunday
Repetitive actions become a habit....and it applies in my case even to getting up at crack of dawn.
Early Sunday morning, everyone shivering (as it was bit chilly) while waiting for our matatus being ready for the whole day trip.
First heading towards lake Baringo.
The negotiations on the boat rental price put everyone's mood down...Sugandha (our Chief Negotiator) got us a price of 3000 KES per boat, when they were originally asking for 2000 KES / head! ;o)
One hour with the boat around the huge lake.Lake Baringo, like lake Bogoria, is combination of river water and hot springs. The area has rich variety of different bird species. Hippos and crocodiles feel like home at the lake as well.
We saw the local fishermen fishing with their own fishing boats, which is made of saplings. This building style is traditional of the njemps tribe, who live at lake Baringo. Though they relate to Maasai and Samburu tribes, at least from language perspective, their main activity is fishing. Njemps are fewer than 20 000 left.
To us their boats looked more like the air filled pool mattresses, which are not too solid and letting water in where one is sitting. But the fishermen were paddling with those very fast and solid.

Sunday was hot, so the drive around the lake would have been refreshing, would we not have been dressed like the hippos with our life-jackets.
But the views made us forget the heat momentarily as we were gasping at the amount of birds flying around and all the other animal representatives, which we could spot during the boat ride.

From lake Baringo we drove back towards Nakuru and stopped at lake Bogoria on the way. Lake Bogoria is fed by river waters and about 200 hot springs.
Some locals were testing the heat of the hot springs, which were bubbling on the beach, they boiled some eggs ;o)
The water is very hot and salty, which attracts the flamingos. Flamingos migrate at this time to lake Bogoria...and we were greeted by wonderful sight of pink "line" going around the lake. First when driving closer, one could identify the pink coming from huge amount of flamingos. To me it seemed like the flamingos were walking in queues along the beach line, one line clockwise and another line counter clockwise, as if they were checking each others out like in speed dating ;o) Sometimes they were disturbed by us, the desperate tourists, who wanted to capture their beauty to pictures.

Having experienced all that in 2 days...we were all overwhelmed by the beauty of the Kenyan flora and fauna. The wonders of Mother Nature are infinite in Kenya.
The world would be a beautiful place without human intervention.
(will upload rest of the photos, when I get a stable internet connection...that seems to be bit of a problem at the hotel)#ibmscs Kenya 3

Closure to the first week in Kenya

Voice's of the local people
Local work requires local inputs. The input is of course very different depending with whom one talks. It is our job to make an objective verification of the data we are gathering.

We did on Friday two interviews with local people in Nakuru. Getting their experiences and perspectives on e-government and e-voting. Absolutely eye opening interviews. They went directly into my heart. Was bit shaken as well when hearing the details of what happened here in 2007 in the post-election riots.

A very positive experience fit into that day as well. I got so happy about this occurrence after our experience in Nairobi at a restaurant in Mamba village. Namely in Mamba village a waiter was trying to sell us coke for 100 KES, when the real price would have been 60 KES. We spotted that, thanks to our Indian colleagues, who hold count on the budget. The feeling that someone, in a proper restaurant thinks it's just okay to pull a higher prices from you(even if prices are in the price list visible to us)...just because you are not local made us upset.

On Friday we got the opposite example here in Nakuru. Waiter at the Giliani's restaurant, where we went also on Wednesday was amazing. He was relieved to see us and after we had settled he came to talk to us. He said that since Wednesday he had been with guilty conscious. He had gotten confused with our 2 tables and how the bills were supposed to be split and he charged from our table accidentally extra.
He had tried to run after us, as he realized it but we were gone already.
So, on Friday he wanted to settle the difference. What a honest and honorable person.
He also was one of the persons we interviewed on Friday and gave fantastic perspective to things.

People here have hope and they want the change; change of Kenya towards positive development. Meeting the local people here has touched all our hearts. At times must admit, that one has to deal with the emotions involved. One would want to help in all possible ways, but we cannot do everything...and what ever we do here, will be part of the bigger wheel.

I am really glad to be part of, even if on a small scale, the change.
We have the community days coming up...again another way to help and be part of the change. So looking forward to give the toys I gathered in Finland from friend, family and neighbors, to the local kids at orphanage.

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
~Author Unknown #ibmscs Kenya 3

From Permanent Secretary's office to Nakuru

On a misty Wednesday morning most of the team pulled from their beauty sleep very early in the morning.... that morning was full of excitement; we were to meet Dr Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Information and Communication. At 7 am we left from the hotel with our "matatu"s (matatu = local van converted into minibus). As Dr Ndemo was coming from South-Korea, directly from airport, we were not 100% sure if he makes it in time to meet us. We sat in the meeting room. Excitement was definitely in the air. Internet is full of material on Dr Ndemo and it had become obvious that he was very much a thought leader, with high motivation to bring this country to the next level.

When Dr Ndemo entered the room, we all wanted to stand up and modestly he stated that no need for us to stand up for his sake. Seeing him in person confirmed that despite his high profile position, he is sincere and very modest man. He is purely wanting to contribute Kenya to move forward and he is fully aware of all the problems there currently exist.

He spoke a lot about his view on the areas, where our teams' assignments are and he joked a lot. "If I had lots of money, I could be the president of this country", bringing us the view of current state of corruption existing in the country.
Things are very much working now on tribal basis, where as the constitution states that government should be issue based.
Dr Ndemo's session with us took about an hour and we had great interactive discussions not only of his visions for Kenya, but how things are in our countries concerning voting and government electronic services and people's trust to government.

When we walked out from the session we were all ready to rock the world, or Kenya at least. Such an inspirational person. In my personal opinion what crowns it all, is his personality; sincere, modest and with good sense of humor.

Dr Ndemo is the owner of the project which my sub-team is doing on e-voting and he solved nicely the concerns we had about possible duplication of work. When sharing his vision on e-voting and his main concerns, we were able to capture nicely the new scope for us on the area of e-voting and voting.

We went all full of inspirational energy to get our bags and packed ourselves and our bags to two matatus and started the journey to our permanent residence, Nakuru.

We took the old road to Nakuru, which took us bit over 2 h. Nakuru lies in the area of Rift Valley with over 400 000 inhabitants. Nakuru is surrounded with lovely places, which represent the African nature (Lake Nakuru, Lake Bogoria, Lake Baringo, Crater, Masai Mara nature park). On the way I spotted my side business ;o) One high-way "hotel" had Roos on it.

What makes Nakuru an interesting location to our team is that the Kenyan post-election clashes did the most damage in Nakuru. This is due to the fact that a variation of tribes live around Nakuru, this has been a safe haven to all tribes in the past. When we arrived here we went to meet the district commissioner. He shared history and current facts about Nakuru.

Wikipedia facts about Nakuru: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakuru

Sinde Wednesday we have been working at Nakuru on our assignments, gathering data and analyzing it. Internet connection comes and goes, so it makes the process bit slower.

To balance the days we have explored the local restaurants and yesterday we had dinner and dancing evening with the team at Taidy's. It was great fun, and despite the fact that Thursday is locally not a dance night...thanks to our team taking over the dance flow, the locals got into dancing too. While eating dinner at the restaurant from the local sports channel, they were showing document about Finnish football (interviewing among others Timo Marjamaa...whose facial expressions stayed unchanged from beginning to end of the interview)...I could not believe my eyes. Here I am in Kenya and they are broadcasting about Finnish football in the tv! ;o)

Waiting for the weekend and our day trips around Nakuru - Lake Nakuru, Lake Bogoria and Lake Baringo and the crater. So, latest on Sunday will revert with the weekend experiences. Happy weekend to one and all from Nakuru!

#ibmscs Kenya 3

Hakuna Matata

When you have the 5th gear, you might as well use it ;o) Week has started in a speedy fashion...Monday and this morning was mainly teams presenting the client presentations to our clients.
Before the presentations started we went to visit IBM East-Africa office in Nairobi center. Nice office and fresh team, felt warmly welcomed there (well like overall in Kenya). Great talks between the team and local CEO.

During the presentations, it was nice to be able to observe the other sub-teams presenting their work plan as well. Everyone has, despite the daily hectic work and long work days, pushed to put a great piece of work together. Also, the presentation facilitation was nice to watch, as everyone is in this with passion. The other two teams have had really great start to their assignments. Inspiring owners to the assignments, which have been overloading them with information.

One of the presentations was given at the Nairobi University. Quite nice faculty, we got the tour around the university from end-to-end. Lovely garden and court yard, plenty of space for us to take photos and jump around ;o)

For my sub-team there have been some hick-ups on the scope of our assignment. We bumped into the fact that preparation at this side has suffered at some level. Work we were supposed to do is actually partially in progress elsewhere.
Yesterday and today have been trialling days, but as our team is equipped with SISU (Finnish for not giving up, persistence), we have managed to rebound both days. Tomorrow we will meet with the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Information and Communication to get some decisions on the direction. After that things will hopefully look again more clear, and we can really roll up our sleeves and dive into it.
By the way, they call the Permanent Secretary as PS ;o) Which I personally find funny.

Yesterday, to zero the day, we went to the neighboring hotel for dinner...which got extended to singing and loads of fun. Our team are eager singers and we ain't missing the laughing part either.
This our team song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUrVeRGo5IM

I designed to the team new dessert as well, lemon sorbet with vodka. Helped the chef to make them and the chef + waiter got excited about this new kick...it might end up on the menu list ;o)

Today has been bit mixture of emotions, when trying to think through with my sub-team about our options on going further with our assignment.
Also different country, different food its doing its thing....stomach is going through a crumbling phase. But oat porrige and vodka should help to make it an VERY intermediate thing (long live Salmari).

Tomorrow after the important meeting with the PS ;o) (which hopefully takes place), we will head to our permanent residence in Nakuru.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakuru

There we will have nature and wild life surrounding us. Need to charge the camera batteries tonight ;O) The driver's nerves will be tested on the journey to Nakuru with our Camera-maniac team...I know that we'll be demanding "slower, slower...we want to take a picture", "please stop here, we need to take some pictures".

So, what ever may come...I just will sing our team song...Hakuna Matata. Things will work out ;o) sooner or later. Lala Salama / Good night from Nairobi! #ibmscs kenya 3

From elephant orphanage to preparing for the client presentation

Jambo!
Saturday and Sunday were both big days from activity perspective.
Saturday, as written we met with the team at 8 am at the breakfast (after 3.5 - 4 h sleep) and started the the sightseeing tour towards the elephant orphanage.
We saw elephants, which have been found abandoned all around Kenya. Mostly the reason is that their mother was killed for her ivory horns. The guide was saying that if people would only stop buying anything, which is made of ivory...the marked for ivory products would disappear. It did make me bit sad that we, people, are the main cause for those cute "kiddo" elephants being orphans.
One of then was only 11 months old and had to wear a blanket, as African-elephants will catch very easily a pneumonia if their body temperature gets too cold. Normally the mother provides for the warmth, but in this case the blanket is put over the little elephant in the hope of keeping it warm enough.
The found baby elephants are kept in the facility till they are 2. They drink about 24 liter of baby milk mixture. One cannot give them e.g. cow milk, as it's too fatty. Elephants' natural body fat is very low and even their skin is very sensitive.
The guide said that it takes the elephants long to get back in the wild to the society. Elephants are very family / group oriented and a newcomer will need to win the others' trust one by one.

After the elephants we continued our exploring in the animal world; we visited the giraffe center. One could feed the giraffes there...and it was funny ;o) The giraffe was pretty much swallowing my whole hand into its slimy mouth ;O))) Giraffes' have an antibacterial saliva. As such that was as good as antibacterial hand wash ;o) but it did not convince any of us not to wash one's hands after that ;O)) Such elegant creatures they are. Seeing them running or hovering around made my stunned...just with few steps they were meters away. The body of giraffe looks like the blueprint was not properly done, when that was drafted...yet they move so smoothly and gracefully. It does also feel funny when feeding the giraffe...as it grabs the hand into its mouth and licks it thoroughly with its super big tongue ;o))

We also went to explore the bird sanctuary and came to the conclusion that if a park has 5 birds, it can be called bird sanctuary ;o) Sugandha spotted all 5 + squirrel with her "norsu-lense" (the lense is nearly as big as elephant). We took few minutes meditation time by the small river running through the park.

After lunch, on the way back we met a group of school children, who were super cute. They had spent the day in the park having fun.

To make sure that the day stayed busy, after the tourist trip we had the welcoming dinner on Saturday evening. The whole group had come together on that very day and there we sat already, like we had known each other for ages. Muriuki, the program director from Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) said that he could not believe that we all just met each other.

On Sunday morning 10k run first, after all I am in the land of the runners. So, need to keep up my weekly running schedule. You never know, my running speed my improve here ;o)

After morning exercise time to get the insights to the country. Muriuki and Alex shared with us history of Kenya, about the 42 tribes and how the tribal areas are nowadays formed as counties. He walked us through also the impact of the neighboring countries to the border areas - mainly Somalia and Ethiopia. Kenya considers Tanzania to be like their sibling-country.
There are tribes in the backwoods, without much knowledge of how the world looks today. They also don't recognize themselves as Kenyans necessarily. That is what Kenya wants to change; make all the tribes to become also proud of being Kenyans.

The whole session was really interesting and gave new insights, new thoughts about Kenya and how things work here.

In the afternoon we went to Bomas village (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomas_of_Kenya). It displays the different villages of the different tribes. We found it amusing how there was own hut for 1st, 2nd and 3rd wife. It is still allowed in Kenya to have more than one wife. Around Nairobi this culture is changing though. We saw also 2 hours of dance and music performances, glimpse of the different tribal dances. Muriuki shared that when dancers shake mainly their shoulders - they are from the North, when they shake their hips - they are from the South. I counted 1+1 and now I know why the population density is higher in the south than in the north ;o))))

Today is a big day for us, we will be presenting our work plans to our clients...we took over the breakfast room yesterday evening and prepared ourselves.
So, keep the thumbs up for our team today ;O)
I will load the photos tonight...there are loads of those.

#ibmcsc kenya 3