Safari photos

There are hundreds more photos from Peter's safari that we could post. Here are a few. Notice all the baby animals- that's one positive about going on a safari in the springtime! Peter told me that during the most popular time to go on safari, summer, you get to see the animal migrations. He said the coolest thing about watching the migrating herds was to see the crocodiles eat as the herds crossed the rivers. I'd rather see baby animals than feasting crocodiles, personally...

Tichwa Tembo

This weekend I had the chance to go on safari at the Maasia Mara. I stayed at the Kichwa Kembo lodge, which was amazing. If any of you ever get the chance to go on safari, I highly recommend them (owned by &Beyond). I loved how all of the staff knew me by name and the guides knew right where to go. Below are just a few of the several hundred photos I shot over 4 game drives.

Maasia warrior dance.

Black Rhino

Our camp was inundated with animals: monkeys (like the one above), warthogs, and the occasional bush buck.

We got to see a bunch of lions.

Mommy and baby on a trip to the watering hole.

A couple of young elephants playing.

Cheetah - a childhood favorite. We were fortunate enough to see a lot of the cheetahs in the park, despite being fairly rare.

Karibu to Nairobi

As Rachel mentioned, I arrived here safe and sound with no complications. I've really enjoyed my time here in Nairobi so far. the city is much more developed than any of the other places I have been. There are numerous shopping malls and grocery stores with almost anything you could want. Traffic is the one downside, with no major highways, covering just 10-20 miles can easily take an hour.

Despite the tremendous wealth that exists however, the poverty is still strong in many parts of the city. We are working in Eastleigh and Huruma, and its been interesting to see how similar the East and West of Africa really are.

I am working in Nairobi as a consultant for Fairbourne Consulting to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the same organization I consulted in Sierra Leone. Similar to our work in Sierra Leone, we are helping the IRC with their youth microfranchise programs. This project is funded by the Nike Foundation, and they keen to provide microfranchises specifically for girls. They are strong proponents of "The Girl Effect" and are doing innovative things around supporting girls around the world. Here are some videos to help explain what they are trying to do generally:

So, our project is to help girls in the slums Eastleigh and Huruma of Nairobi to join/start their own microfranchise businesses. We have received a small planning grant and right now we are simply identifying potential businesses that either already have a microfranchise business model or could easily implement one. This is different from Sierra Leone because funding is a little tight such that we can't simply start a new microfranchise business from scratch. Plus we have about half as much time here to do our research. Also, because of the girl focus, another organization, Technoserve, is working alongside of us to identify the other physical, emotional, and social needs of the girls to help ensure that not only are the business we identify ones that will work for girls, but that we know what additional support services the girls need to be successful in life.

Its been fun to walk the streets of the slums one day and meet with some of the top business leaders in Nairobi the next to discuss expanding their businesses into microfranchising. I have over 30 potential businesses on my wall with the goal to identify the top 10. All of our research will be wrapped into a big proposal to the Nike Foundation to launch the microfranchises and provide the additional support needed by the girls through different mechanisms like training programs.

So that's work. Every now and then though, I get to have some fun. Like getting a big wet one from Lara...the giraffe.

Or fostering an elephant at the orphanage in Nairobi National Park.

* I apologize the images aren't better quality - the internet connection is quite as good here as it is in the US.

Safely arrived

Peter got to Kenya around 5PM today. Thankfully there weren't any delays or problems like there were last year when he went to Sierra Leone. His hotel is "nice enough," whatever that means. I'm guessing it would be hard to top his last hotel with a view of the ocean.

Back to Africa

Hello world. I have had ambitions to blog several times over the past few months, but it hasn't happened. I could give excuses, but I don't really think they're important.

Briefly, here are a few things that have happened since my last post.

I survived my first semester of graduate school.
We had our first Christmas in our new house.
Peter's Grandma Moss passed away.
My Granddad Black passed away.

I think those are all the big things. Our grandparents died about 2 weeks apart from each other. It was quite strange to have all the family in town and a week of craziness for one funeral, and then travel to Arizona and have a week of craziness for another funeral so soon afterward. It was great to see all the family, but I wish it would have been for a happier reason.

Also, Peter is going to Kenya in a week, doing a similar project to what he did in Ghana and Sierra Leone. This time they are focusing on identifying business for young women to operate. He'll be gone for 3 weeks. He gets to go on a safari and I am jealous! He will be in warm weather while I will be here with the snow. (and he keeps reminding me it isn't for a vacation, but it will be more of a vacation than staying here to do school)

And that's all. Sorry no pictures. Hopefully my next post will not be after quite as long of a break as last time.

Halloween

We had a fantastic Halloween this year. We always do Halloween with our friends Mike & Natasha, or at least we have the last 3 years and we plan to continue the tradition. This year, we decided to go to a corn maze earlier in the day. The Thanksgiving Point corn maze actually has a lot of fun stuff to do besides just the corn maze. We raced some rubber ducks, went on some slides, went inside the haunted creature, and jumped on some bouncing pillows.






Then, Natasha and I went and got massages, which was heavenly. When we were done, we made dinner in a pumpkin. It is our Halloween dinner tradition, and I look forward to it every year. You can see my recipe here.


We also dressed up our puppies. Callie was a bat, their dog Pocket was a pumpkin, and Little Red was a bunch of grapes. The costumes didn't last very long- just long enough for us to get some pictures.







As you can see, it was an awesome day!

First Snow

A couple of weeks ago, we got a ton of snow by our house. To our knowledge, Callie had never seen snow before (although we can't really be sure because we've only had her since June). She LOVED it. She would purposefully leap through the deepest parts, and she avoided the cleared-off sidewalk. It was really funny to watch. Here's a video showing her jumping through the snow, which was what our entire walk was like.