March Kenya Visit

Oh, how the time slips away from you in Grad School. I wanted to post about my week-long trip to Kenya weeks ago, since it happened in March, but a little thing called "school work" kept getting in the way. Also, it took a while to get the video at the end together...

I was visiting the projects of One Acre Fund, a very cool agricultural development NGO working mostly in East Africa. If you are interested in ag development (and been living under a rock for the past few years), you should check them out! I will not spend much time on the organization nor their model here; rather, I just wanted to offer a few random observations from an excellent trip to Nairobi and southwestern Kenya. So, here we go:

• I was in-country during the time between the announcement of a Presidential victor (Kenyatta) and the confirmation of his victory by the Supreme Court. I heard many different opinions on the legitimacy of the elections, but I also heard a general agreement that violence would not be repeated and the entire country would accept the Supreme Court's decision. Judging from international media after I left (and after Kenyatta's confirmation), they were right. It is nice to see that political discourse did not lead to violence as the international community had feared/predicted. In other words, great work Kenya in proving so many "experts" wrong!
• There are a lot of newspapers - everyone in the towns and cities were reading multiple papers to stay up-to-date on the political results. I have no idea how independent or distinct they are, but it was an interesting aspect to note. Somewhat related: this African newspaper search engine looks pretty cool.
• I went at the start of the rainy season, which lives up to its name. But it meant lush greens and dark red soils.

The rains in Kisii, Kenya

• Tourism was down while I was there, but everyone I met was warm and quite friendly. And as I said above, no political violence despite international concerns. As a few people in Nairobi kept saying: "Kenya is open for business!" So get back there, tourists!
• The food there is good - ugali (cornmeal) by itself is a bit bland, but it is very filling and you can dip it in anything you like!

Mmm... ugali and fish!

• The answer to my favorite evening meal in Madagascar (THB and brouchettes) in Kenya is Tusker and grilled goat meat. So good.

Ugali and nyama choma

• The nature reserves in Nairobi are pretty cool, and you can see the tops of the skyscrapers from inside the park! In particular, the Giraffe Center is pretty great.

2 tall guys, just getting to know each other

• And a really cool operation is elephant orphanage at Nairobi's David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which takes in baby elephants orphaned by ivory poachers.

Football, the world's sport

• And here is a video I took at the Trust, with some of those elephants jamming to a band I thoroughly enjoy: Kenya's Just a Band. (the song has its own, awesome video). This video also made me think: if Budweiser can make a commercial with Clydesdales playing American football, surely Tusker can make one with elephants playing real football? Anyways, enjoy!