Travel

Let’s inspire not impress each other

Januari 1-11. Kayole. Joy Valley. Safari walk. Cheetah. Narok.
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We get up early enough to make it to Kisumu town on time.
We have an interview with Mr. Masese for The Standard.
Then we take the bus back to Nairobi.
We arrive in the darkness, we meet some other couchsurfers who are enthousiastic about CT.
We have a chicken meal at Alanya's place, ...
January 1. What exactly is a Community Excellence Center?


The idea is simple. In our information age we can share knowledge and expertise with a relatively low cost of resources. So we should support needy communities to do so. A CEC is a center in a small, mostly rural, community of say 1,000 people that functions as a link to the outside ...
December 31. Happy.
Churchill is one of the community elders. We have our first press conference today. Unfortunately, the M.P. and the deputy mayor don't show up. We have put a tent in front of our orphanage and sit there on the couches we have taken from the house to answer questions.


A pastor has come ...
December 27-30. Those days before newyear.
At 7:30 we start working with five people to complete the wallframes and prepare for the concrete foundation of the brick wall. We need more cement and metal rods. Perhaps the "big guy" in the village can chip in with a little donation. Until then, I have to play the big guy myself.

We ...
December 25-26. Merry.
If you are a special a Luo host will serve you chicken. On our first night here this happened. A hen walked in and out in the afternoon. We didn't hear her at night as we tasted the rosy strong flesh of Kenyan chicken. But christmas is something else. We have a goatmeal today, and ...
December 23-24. Those days before Christmas…
If buildings are painted in Kenya, the chances are high that they show the logos of one of the four mobile phone companies: safaricom, zain, orange, and yu. They pay people if they let them paint their houses with their bright green, purple, orange logos. We are proud to erect the first building with non-commercial ...
December 22. Things are getting serious.
Things are getting serious. In Kisumu, I withdraw 100,000 Kenyan Shillings to buy most of the materials in a warehouse. Willis and Philip will do it on my behalf, since they are in a much better position to bargain.

We cut the wood for the walls with machetes, and we are told that they ...
December 21. Ilja’s birthday. Beginning of the orphanage.
And so we wake up and look around. We are in a house made of mud, the traditional Luo way of building, and we are surrounded by cattle, chicken, children, long grass and aloe vera plants. This is it. They show us the plot of land where we are going to build the orphanage and ...
December 20. Lake Victoria!
We have a safe but exhausting Matatu journey to Kisumu, Kenya's third largest city, where we install ourselves for the first time in the cybercafé in the Megaplaza, which will become our main communication channel for the next weeks. We meet Philip, the future managing director of the orphanage, and like him at first sight. ...