Friday!

Turns out it was casual Friday at WEF. We did not know and arrived in our suits, because we would be meeting the WEF Officers: volunteers located in the constituencies across the country helping women to form groups, they get them trained, and then help to apply for the loans. Really great to hear them talk about their work, their views, and to get their input. 

Picture of the building where WEF is located. This is our view when we wait for our taxi to take us back home.

Today we had lunch at this local place. They serve mostly meat that is cooked on a barbeque. The smell was great.

And I guess this does not count as a "cheetah"? This little one and its sibling were watching us from a distance. When I tried to take a picture, they ran off. But as soon as we got our food, they came to our table for a small piece of food. They could share a piece of my chicken skin (which I do not like so much anyway).

Maybe tomorrow we'll see the real big cheetahs. We're going on an overnight trip to Amboseli. And at least we're promised to see more elephants during that weekend than we'll see during the rest of our lives. My overnight bag is almost packed. First malaria-tablet taken tonight. I'm glad I got the daily tables, much less side-effects than the weekly ones. 

We'll leave at 6, so the alarm is set to 5 am. I have the key to D4 - which is our common room - in order to open this room for everybody to have a bit of breakfast. The ladies who serves us normally breakfast will not be there, because it of course will be too early. By the way, they serve an excellent Spanish omelet. Asante sana!

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Cultural Exchange Night

One of the nice things of traveling are the signs - on streets, in hotel rooms, in taxis, etc. Here in Nairobi, there are prison showrooms apparently. I wonder... will you be able to see various types of prison rooms so that you can select the one you would like in your state? 

People here do not like it when you take pictures of them. So I try to prevent that. When taking this picture, some of the women in the bus shelter turned their faces away. Not knowning that I was not taking their pictures but only the sign above their heads.

 
And this evening, we had pizza night / cultural exchange night. We are from 12 different countries thus bringing souvenirs to share with the rest of the team. So of course I brought clogs and dropjes (sweet liquorice). 

And I would like to thank the whole team for all the nice, lovely gifts they had for us all. These souvenirs will be a constant reminder of this trip and the newly made friendships. Maybe I'm just happy because of the excellent caipirinha made by Micai... Thanks!
 

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WEF on twitter

And another interesting page to check:

Women Enterprise Fund! Kenya 8 Sub-Team 4 : https://twitter.com/WEF_kenya

Visit to Strathmore University

For details, please see this website: iLabAfrica

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First client meeting

Hi all, 
For today's entry, please see the information I posted on the group blog and then select the tab for our Sub Team 4 - WEF.

Now time for breakfast. We're leaving today at 8 am trying to beat the traffic. I doubt it will be successful. The traffic jams are unbelievable here in the city. But no honking, hardly any shouting and we'll just have to wait until we reach our destination. Maybe we should adopt a bit of that attitude in NL as well when we're stuck on the road?
 

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First day - meeting the team and DOT

Busy schedule today. We started with meeting each other over breakfast. There is an extra room we can use for breakfast and business meetings during our stay here. It's at the first floor of "my" D-block. I'm on the top floor (5th) so lots of stairs each day to climb.

After breakfast, we got into our bus and drove to the Elephant Orphanage. The baby elephants get milk and they play around a bit while the helpers spray them with sand or water. One of the main guys is telling us all about each of the elephants, where they were found, what their  names are, and what will happen with them once they are big enough to start living in the wild. It takes about 5 to 10 years to get the babies adopted / accepted by the wild groups living in Tsavo. During this time, they are being introduced to the groups and one day, they will simply not return.

Next was a nature walk in the Nairobi National Park. Seeing our first rhino, cheetah, and other animals while our guide told us a lot about the animals and about Kenya. At the end of the walk, we could feed the little giraph. She was very sweet and soft.
 

Time was running out... and we wanted to do some practical shopping to get fruit, cookies, and drinks. So we left and went to the shopping mall.

And tonight we had dinner together at a very nice hotel. 

So far, so good! What a great country!

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Arrival at Nairobi

Oh, already so much to tell... starting with the tears of goodbye at the airport... I'm going to miss the family so much!

And of course the plane from London to Nairobi had a delay. Reasons not fully clear, but something to do with a women feeling unwell so she left the plane and her luggage had to be removed as well. Heli and I met up at the gate prior to boarding. We were not sitting next to each other, but pretty close by. It was great to see the first member of our team, because it made this trip more real. 

Our arrival was late in the evening. My luggage did not arrive as quickly as Heli's and we had to wait a bit. Our contact Sharon of DOT was outside the airport standing with a sign and we could quickly get into the taxi to the hotel.

At the hotel, a few others were still in the common room. We were the last to arrive. Quickly unpack, and then to bed. Alarm at 7:00 am in time for breakfast. 

Picture of the IBM buildings in Amsterdam from the plane:

Picture of IBM sign at the Nairobi airport: 

 

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