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I had a shower yesterday… #Kenya

/in /by

Finding time to blog has been difficult, but these tweets tell it all. I’ll share more tomorrow.

Day 4

  • Candle wax being melted on the table to hold our light while dinner is made. Rieva and Karina (kids) enjoying darkness. #Kenya
  • Unpainted plywood ceiling in main room of house is luxury. Stone walls, concrete ceiling in most others. #Kenya
  • @GoSocialMobile I know. But here we call it getting through the crowd in a car. Life has different rules in different places. #Kenya
  • Diesel smell everywhere. Will take weeks to get it out of my head. I have that option, they don’t. #Kenya
  • Yesterday we visited another school with 250 kids. No electricity, dark dirt floored rooms. Beans for lunch – only meal of the day. #Kenya
  • .@ColoradoFoothil No Mexican food, but Mexican soap operas translated into English – biggest hit on TV here by far. #Kenya
  • Brian was down for almost two days with stomach problems. #Kenya
  • .@barrymoltz Don’t tell Charles that (owns soap stand). He says “no problems, only challenges” #Kenya
  • .@prolificd The actors are different than India, but the play is the same. Poverty & hope together. #Kenya
  • I’ve seen hundreds of kids, only one crying. So much hope w/ so much less “proof” then in Colorado. We are spoiled. #Kenya
  • After all the desperation we’ve seen, tomorrow we go to the slums of Kibera. How could it possibly be worse? #Kenya
  • Hope is not a commodity here. There are no atheists in a foxhole. #Kenya
  • The battery is almost gone. No electricity/water. The world will get smaller in a just a few minutes. #Kenya
  • Every day I know less and have more to learn. What can I possibly say that will change anything here? #Kenya
  • I’m supposed to talk for two days straight Thurs/Fri. to tell bus. owners how to create wealth. I wonder – can they afford lunch? #Kenya
  • Church on Sunday was loudest event of my life, more than any concert. Drowning out the sounds of poverty for just 2hrs of the week #Kenya
  • Chuck – this must be so humbling RT @ChuckBlakeman: I’ve seen hundreds of kids, only one crying. So much hope . We are spoiled. #Kenya
  • .@barrymoltz I would think that, too. But Charles is just one Kenyan, and lives it out every day. #Kenya
  • .@AlanBoothCoach Adults must be disoriented to learn. I’m learning. #Kenya
  • Can you help? #Kenya
  • The battery is gone – Good night!

Day 6

  • The rooster next door that woke me up at dawn the last 2 wks. did not sing this morning. Dinner. #Kenya
  • Here I am just “Mzungu” (mah-zoon-goo). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzungu #Kenya
  • Electricity back on today. Water still off. Just another day in #Kenya
  • Saw my first refrigerator in 6 days today. The Other #Kenya
  • Visit Kean Blixen estate today (Out of Africa author) – 600 acres. The Other #Kenya
  • Filmed orphaned elephants today 3 mths to 3 yrs. They sleep under a blanket in single rooms. Not so in Kibera. The Other #Kenya
  • @drjoyce_knudsen Visited the wealthy side of Nairobi today. Their water works just fine. The Other #Kenya
  • Govt. coalition falling apart. Kofi Annan called in to hopefully stitch it back together. Locals here in Nairobi are concerned. #Kenya
  • Open door to Room 1 – 30 5yr olds in dark (no elect) happily learning ABCs. Room rt. beside? 100 chickens in dirt/crap laying eggs. #Kenya
  • Locals here in Nairobi say President Kibaki is creating instability and is “nuts”, “crazy”, and other more descriptive phrases. #Kenya
  • Had tea in an upper middle class home in Nairobi today. Vastly different than the lower middle class home I’m staying in. The Other #Kenya
  • Saw my first microwave today in a week – left Kayole and traveled over to the wealthy “Westlands” and Karen, Nairobi. The Other #Kenya
  • ZnaTrainer RT @ChuckBlakeman: Electricity back on today. Water still off. Just another day in #Kenya {{{ WOW!
  • Steep, rickety wooden stairs (almost ladder) to 2nd flr of grade school wouldn’t have been safe in a tree house. 100’s of kids #Kenya
  • @drjoyce_knudsen Especially in #Kenya. The roads are quite good leading to the President’s house
  • Great conversations on sustainable business for the Kibera slum yesterday. #Kenya
  • @drjoyce_knudsen No, it’s in a bit of chaos right now-coalition falling apart; Kofi Annan back to try to fix it; locals say Pres. is “crazy”
  • .@drjoyce_knudsen FYI – Someone from Nashville built a school for my host’s wife who is now School Director for 300 kids. #Kenya
  • C7Design @ChuckBlakeman – welcome to Mother Africa! Once her dust is in you, you will always want to go back. #BornAndRaisedAfrican
  • .@C7Design The diesel fumes are in me & the dust is soon to follow. Bugs bite here, but so does Africa herself! Magnetic people. #Kenya
  • #Kenya has two halves – the “haves” and the “have nots”.
  • 8 yr old Andrew came back to school today. Refugee from Rwanda via Uganda. Our host has a safe house they fund themselves. #Kenya
  • Tomorrow we go to “the other #Kenya” to do biz owner wrkshops w/ shipping magnates, CEOs/college grads – wealth. The other #Kenya
  • My host’s wife has asked me to kill a goat. I told her it was woman’s work. She laughed. I got away with it. #Kenya

Buy my book for a small business owner in Kenya. I’ll take it to them.

/in /by

February 7-20 I will accompany The 1010 Project to Kenya to explore ways to break the cycle of poverty by developing sustainable business models. Brian Rants, the Director of The 1010 Project asked me to work with them to think big and go beyond the typical craft-making and handwork solutions. We’ll be looking for ways to fund real businesses that work for the local economy – it’s an exciting and daunting opportunity.

We’ll be working in the Kibera slum with a population density of 1,250 people per acre. We lived on one acre in Farmington, CT for years, backed up against 75 acres of state forest. Kibera will be a different world. We’ll also meet with some nationally connected business leaders to involve them in the solution.

The size of the problem is overwhelming. Our solution will be simple – change everything; one person and one small business at a time.

What can you do?

Three things:

  1. Sign up for The 1010 Project Newsletter here – and keep updated about our trip and what we plan to do to.
  2. Make a donation to help fund the trip by clicking here. I will be funding my own travel costs; your donations will go to fund the in-country costs of the trip and the travel costs for Brian Rants, The 1010 Project Director, and to support the in-country permanent presence of The 1010 Project headed up by Keith Ives.
  3. Buy a copy of Making Money is Killing Your Business that we can take with us to Kenya and donate to a small business owner. I wrote this book as a comprehensive reference book for starting and running a small business, and I believe the principles work in any culture. It is normally $28.95, but if you want to buy one specifically to send on our trip, we’ll take it with us (it will be shipped in advance), and the cost will be only $15. This will pay for the printing, handling, shipping and for having your name placed in the book (address info will not be provided).

To buy a book to send with us to Kenya and present in your name, go to our pre-order site and click on the Book for Kenya button. We’ll present the book on your behalf to a small business owner in Kenya. We’ll only be able to take 150 books, so please order your Book for Kenya right away.