Last Day of Work

Today is my last day of work with Vipani, and it's my last day in Nairobi for this summer.

I finished my deliverables yesterday so there's not much to do on my final day. Looking back, it's been an extremely fulfilling month. I need some more time to reflect on my experience, but for the work, I have a few key takeaways -

1. People with pure nonprofit experience and those previously in for-profit sector but having switched to nonprofit are very different. The former appear very passionate about what they are doing. They often experienced poverty or the problem they are trying to help solve by themselves. They have tons of observations from the field and insights of the 'real world' problem. The latter, they are probably as passionate but they don't talk as passionately as the former. They are rational, analytical, and result-driven. They don't see the real world problem as much but they have insights too and can often deliver in a concise speech that I'd easily register with. For that matter, I think I'd like to work with the latter.
2. I am more into the idea of social entrepreneurship than before, i.e. concept of finding ways for the private sector to support the poor and make money at the same time (e.g. sustainable sourcing, marketing products needed by the poor, etc.). During my time at Vipani, I had interactions with people from KickStart, an NGO that develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes pumps for poor farmers. It's more of a social enterprise than a pure nonprofit organization. Their pump could help farmers increase their annual income by tenfold or even more. This encouraging result has made me believe in their vision/model, and social enterprise at large.
3. I am still interested in working in the civil sector but if I ever to join the nonprofit world right after school, I need to work with a group of people with business background. This is related to point #1. What I found out throughout the internship was that I love passionate people with pure nonprofit background but I am just too impatient to be a great listener of long, endless, (sometimes pointless), repetitive talk.

How much you know about China?

China has become such a hot topic. Almost everyone I met would ask intelligent questions or comment about China. Particularly in Africa, where China has poured a lot of money to help build infrastructure, people are always friendly towards Chinese and they all seem to know one thing or another about China.

Today we went into a long conversation with Nick, co-founder of KickStart, who just came back from a business trip to China – his first visit to China covering three coastal cities, Dalian, Ningbo and Shanghai. Nick likes talking, perhaps no less talkative than TG. He has some interesting observations – the booming second-tier cities, overwhelmingly populated towns between major cities in the Yangtze River Delta, etc. He also realized that his previous impression about China could be all biased by the Western media.

Afterwards, Ziad asked "So what're the things Nick was right about China and what're wrong?" I found it a hard question, as I find most of questions from Ziad. "Well, I didn't think anything from Nick's account was particularly wrong, but perhaps he could have seen another side of China if he had gone to places like Beijing, Xi'an, Yunnan, or Tibet, where he could have had more cultural glimpse." I gave a diplomatic and perhaps meaningless answer.

China is such a mass place that it's hard to say "now I know about China" after a week-long travel to some major cities. Perhaps that's why I often found foreigners' questions about China hard to answer. Not that I know less than the questioners. But I feel that almost everything in China is multi-facet and anything I could come up with (often off the top of my head) could be single-sided or only touching the peripheral. Of course, on some topics like politics, Mao, etc, I tend to have some determined answers, but not without the awareness that I could sound very much blindly opinionated or brained-washed by the Communist regime.

I don't like people with very limited knowledge of China commenting on China as if they are experts. But at the same time, I realized that my opinion-less-ness about China or everything else is not good either. So that evening, I decided to take Ziad and TG to a Chinese restaurant near the hotel – I may not say much about China but at least I can let people experience "China" by themselves.

Oh, we had a big feast there – I ordered way too much and would have to eat the left-over for the rest of my days in Nairobi!

Lamu

Lamu, known as a "smaller version of Zanzibar", is an ancient Swahili island on the east coast of Kenya. During the 1970's, Lamu picked up a reputation as the Kathmandu of Africa, attracting travelers who wanted to escape the trappings of Western society. Many also found a ready supply of marijuana, which is still an attraction for some today.

This time, I went with an NGO crowd – Ed and Michelle from KickStart and Ed's two friends, Nicole and Carol, both Canadians working for UN in East Africa region. Five of us stayed at Banana House, a nice privately owned house in Shela, a beach village near Lamu town. It is a typical Swahili style, i.e. a combined genre of Portuguese and Islamic architecture. It has three floors – first floor is garden, kitchen, and two bed rooms; second floor has a dinning place, lounge area and two bed rooms; third floor is an open terrace, with comfy lounge and a big half covered bed room.

Lounge with comfy cushion on the open terrace; a wall decorated by beer bottles, reminds me of the movie, Jiu Gan Tang Mai Wu

They have a small pool of water to clean your feet before walking into the house barefootedly

We arrived Friday afternoon 3PM and went to beach right after settle-down. The beach was not as gorgeous as that in Mombasa – the sand was a bit brown colored and water not as clear and blue. People told us that it was not the best time of year – the wind brings dirty water from a river canal up north. November through March would be the best time for beach activities in Lamu. Despite the wrong timing, we enjoyed the walk around Shela anyway. It's a peaceful village with only 2500 residents. Along the water front, there are many nice hotels and resorts. We had some drinks in a stylish hotel bar on our way back.

Late afternoon walk on the Shela beach

Dinner was the highlight of the day. Our chef Frederick is a short, strong local man in his fifties. That night he prepared fish, French beans, plain rice, wine and banana pancakes. We had the dinner at the open terrace on the third floor. It's cozy, private, and the food was awesome. I couldn't think of anything better than this if we had stayed in a hotel rather than a house.

Saturday morning after breakfast, we walked to the old Lamu town. Compared to the Old Town in Mombasa, Lamu is much better preserved. The history of Lamu town can be dated back to 12th century. And since then, it has seen many settlers and influences, including local Swahili, Portuguese explorers, Turkish traders and the Omani Arabs. All left their mark, but Lamu developed its own particular culture, which has ultimately endured. Lamu's narrow streets remain unchanged, and in the markets and squares around the fort life moves at it's own relaxed rhythm. There are no vehicles on this island, and the donkey and the dhow remain the dominant form of transport.

Souvenir store; donkey is the major mode of transport for cargo;

Kids playing in the central square

I was very much intrigued by the intact feel of the local culture. So when everybody else went back to the house, I lingered around the town till the afternoon and started to head back around 3PM. Then I just chilled out for the rest of the afternoon in the house, reading A Thousand Miles without Cloud.

Muslim women in their black "bui-bui"

When I was wandering in the town, this guy came up to me "Hello, I am XXX, and I am in the Lonely Planet. I'm hosting a party here tonight. Will you join us?"

At 5PM, our guide came to pick us up for a sunset Dhow trip. Dhow is the local sail ship. The whole trip was very relaxing – sunset was beautiful.

Dhow in sunset; the sail of our Dhow

What waited for us after the sunset was another fantastic dinner made by Frederick. This time, we had ginger crab! It was so delicious, the best meal I had ever in Africa!

After dinner, the owner of the house, Mr. Banana came for a chit-chat. He must be bored with his fasting. From the conversation, we got to know that he learned architecture in the Netherlands and started his own hospitality business back home. The house was designed by himself. He has an interesting romance with his wife, Monica, a Dutch lady. And he shared with us some gossip about people living in town. It was a lot of fun.

The next day was more chill-out and relax. I did a heena, i.e. a kind of temporary tattoo. It's my first time to print a tattoo and it was fun! I've been told that this will last for two weeks – just in time to show my GSB friends when I am back in school. Perfect souvenir from Africa!

My heena

I am so glad that I had chosen to come to Lamu – before the trip I was still debating whether I should come as I just went to another coast city Mombasa two weeks before. But as I later discovered, it was not at all duplication. Lamu is more cultural, peaceful and relaxing. And to live in a private house was a great choice too – it has all the benefit of staying in a luxury resorts but feels more intimate and immersed into the local culture.

Lastly, Banana asked me a favor to bring a broken GPS that's still in its warranty back to California and mail it to somebody from there. As such, I have become his best friend. So next time, I can have a complimentary stay at the house - of course he knows I am not going back to Lamu anytime soon though!

Safety in Nairobi

"Is it safe there?" - typical reaction from friends who get to know that I am in Africa. "Is it true that there are many many mosquitoes?" – another FAQ from my friends.

Well, malaria is less of a problem than I expected, at least in Nairobi. There are few mosquitoes in the city, especially when now it's dry winter here. I have been here for almost 5 weeks but have had only a couple of mosquito bites. For that reason, I am not taking any anti-malaria medications as all the pills have bad side effects. I am using insect repellent and net to protect myself during evenings though.

On the contrary, security is a much more serious problem than expected. I thought it was just some occasional stories that have been amplified by the western news media. Not until I talked to people who live here for a while, did I realize it is a real concern for the city.

Story 1 – TG, my GMIX boss, lost his laptop a year ago when he was taking a taxi. He was sitting on the front seat of the car and the car was stopped by the bad traffic. The thief somehow opened the locked rear door of the car, grabbed his computer bag which was sitting on the back seat, and ran away.

Story 2 – The house of Ed, our friend from KickStart, was broken into two weeks ago. The burglar took away all the valuable stuff, including his fancy camera kit. It was told that the burglar had to break four guarded/locked doors to get there. And he succeeded.

Story 3 – Yuri's friend, a girl working for Japanese government in Nairobi, ran into some burglars when she went downstairs in her house. Luckily, they didn't kill her; they just roped her, took money, and ran away.

Story 4 – If you think the only robbery targets are 'wealthy' expats, you are wrong. Samuel, one of the unit managers of Vipani and a strongly built local African guy, got beaten down on the street in day light and robbed of his cash.

Fair enough. No wonder people call the city "Nairobery"!

This coming weekend, I am going to escape this dangerous town and heading to Lamu, another coast city in Kenya.

Carnivore

Today TG, Ziad and I went to this famous meat specialty restaurant, Carnivore. Right before Ziad's ramadan - good timing!

Carnivore has become a standard stop for tourists in Nairobi. It's an open-air restaurant that's supposed to have very type of meat imaginable, including all kinds of wild animals. The meat is roasted on traditional Maasai swords (skewers) over a huge, visually spectacular charcoal pit that dominates the entrance of the restaurant.The waiters then carry these swords around the restaurant, carving unlimited amounts of the prime meats onto sizzling, cast iron plates in front of you. A wide selection of salads, vegetable side dishes, and a variety of exotic sauces come with the meat feast. Dessert and coffee follow this. The full meal including a soup course and desert, is Ksh1900.

We didn't get to eat the variety of meats as imagined. The only rare categories we ate were ostrich and crocodile. The others are just common things like beef, port, chicken, turkey, etc. A waiter told us that most of the rare kinds are protected animals and they are banned by the government. But they are hoping the new government tobe elected this coming December may loosen the policy. I hope they won't - it'd too bad to see people eating zebras in the restaurant.

Dubai

I connected my flight in Dubai when I first came to Nairobi from Beijing. So I decided to go out of the airport and make a day-trip in the city.

A big downside of being a PRC passport holder is that you need visa for going almost everywhere in the world. Dubai is no exception. I did some research and found out that I can actually apply for a visa-on-arrival valid for 96 hours. But there are two pre-requisites: a) your flight connection has to be longer than 8 hours b) you must have a local hotel reservation. It doesn't make any sense to book a hotel when you are going to stay in the city for only 10 hours or so in the day time! So I booked a room in Sheraton Dubai, printed the confirmation, and canceled the booking right away. No cancellation charges. The visa application worked out well.

We went out straight to the renowned Burj Al Arab, the only 7-star hotel in the world. It is a very exclusive place. There is a security gate 100 meters away from the hotel building and most people are banned there. We are not allowed to enter it unless we have either a hotel booking or a breakfast/lunch reservation, not even a visit to the lobby! It's just ridiculous. We talked to the reservation service manager on the phone, trying to secure a breakfast reservation on-site, but to no avail.

So we just wandered around the beach near the hotel a little bit and headed out to the town center for breakfast. There are quite a few international fast food chains – McDonald's, Pizza Huts, etc. We chose a nice boutique café and had continental breakfast. The fresh strawberry juice I had was very good, refreshing me up for the day.

After breakfast, we did a taxi tour around the city. Basically, the city of Dubai is just a narrow stripe of land along the gulf. You need very little orientation driving in the city – everything seems straightforward. Roads are broad and new. Signs are clear. Countless skyscrapers and skyscrapers-to-be. It is just like a mass construction in progress.

People on the street are from everywhere. To my surprise, Chinese looking people have a large representation of the population here. They look like from South Eastern Asia.

We finished our whole tour in about 5 hours and spent the rest of the time waiting in the airport. There, I did my usual ritual of sending a postcard home, punctuating my first trip in the Middle Eastern New York!

Burj Al Arab; a girl on the beach near the hotel

Building the 8th Wonder of the World; in a tunnel

Mass construction in progress

The thin, tall, chimney-looking building on the right is going to be the tallest skyscrapers in the world

Flight attendant on Emirates - testing 70-200/f2.8 lens

Vipani

Finally I am going to write something about my internship with Vipani.

Before I met with TG, founder and managing director of Vipani, I thought the organization is a combination of micro-finance and consulting for farmers - they help farmers secure funding, access to premium markets, and advise them on farming techniques. It's not wrong at all, but after a couple of conversation with TG, I found out that Vipani is more than that. Vipani is a grass-root nonprofit incorporated in California, with a vision to create an agriculture marketplace where poor farmers could be enabled to participate in free trade with suppliers, buyers, lenders, farming experts, etc. Of course, there are many other ways to define Vipani. According to my GSB classmate, Ziad Mokhtar who are working with me on the same GMIX internship, Vipani is "an Indian social entrepreneurship funded by US philanthropists to help Kenyan famers with the assitance of a Chinese and an Egyptian."

Ziad and I had slightly different tasks. My assignment is to develop an operations manual for the unit and central office management, while Ziad is required to set up an accounting/MIS system for the operation. In the first week, we discovered that there is probably no easy way to set up a system that captures all the requirements and the accounting software the company had purchased couldn't handle all the accounting requirements. As a result, our tasks have been changed a little bit – we are both working on creating a filing/tracking system for the unit operations. We re-designed the unit operating processes and now are piloting the manual filing system with unit managers. It's a more interesting job for me – obviously writing a manual is no fun.

TG, our boss for the GMIX program, is a Stanford visiting scholar. TG is originally from India, opinionated, animated, and extremely talkative. He has been doing NGO stuff for almost all his career and is very passionate about what Vipani is doing.

We have gone on several field trips so far. It's been interesting to see how the largest industry in Kenya in real life. These farming areas are not far from Nairobi city – 40-60 km. For me, people here are living lives not very different from those in poorest mountainous area in China – except that their black skin makes it look worse. Most kids on the street are running barefooted. Some adults are idling around the corner. On every junction that leads to villages, there are many people carrying fruits and vegetables trying to sell to the drivers or people passing by.

On one of the trips, Ziad and I made an adventure by taking matatu (local mini bus) from one village to another. This was quite adventurous because these matatus are often over-loaded and crashes/accidents that killed all the passengers are reported every now and then.

Jeff Buenrostro, another GSB classmate who worked with Vipani on a Stanford project, will pass by Nairobi tomorrow. We are taking him to a field trip.

Vipani farmers are harvesting french beans

Ziad, Shu, and a farmer family; We are with a group of local kids, Elisabeth (unit manager) and Michael (farming expert) I thought the finger that accidentally appeared in the picture was cute

Saba Saba village - a group of curious kids are peeping us - while I had gone from the other side of the building and caught them right there.

A "grocery store" in Saba Saba - opened by a successful Vipani farmer

Karen Blixen

"There is something about safari life that makes you forget all your sorrows and feel the whole time as if you had drunk half a bottle of champagne, bubbling over with heartfelt gratitude for being alive.

It seems right that humane beings should live in the nomad fashion and unnatural to have one's home always in the same place; one only feels really free when on can go in whatever direction one pleases over the plains, get to the river at sundown and pitch one's camp, with the knowledge that one can fall asleep beneath other trees, with another view before one, the next night."

Karen Blixen, Letters from Africa, Feb 1918

Karen Blixen is the author Out of Africa, the novel that was made into the well-known Oscar-winning movie starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Karen was a Danish coffee planter and lady aristocrat. After her first marriage broke down, she began a secret affair with a British playboy who was killed in a plane crash. Karen subsequently returned to Denmark where she wrote Out of Africa based on her real personal experience in Africa. She was passed over for the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature in favor of Ernest Hemingway.

Today, I paid a visit to Karen Blixen Museum. The museum is the farmhouse where the writer lived between 1914 and 1931. For me, there was nothing really special in the house. The rooms remain the same as what it looked like when Blixen lived here – typical of aristocrat in colonial Africa I guess. There are photos of Karen, her husband, and her lover on display. Outside of the house, there is a nice, huge lawn, where a plot for wedding banquet was being prepared. My taxi driver told me that it is a popular place for people in town to organize events.

I didn't find the visit as interesting as expected. For one thing, in general this kind of historical sites barely raise my interest. For another, I don't know much about Karen and her stories. I watched the movie long time ago and didn't really appreciate it. But I have downloaded it from emule and am going to watch it again when I am out of Africa.

The farmhouse

Karen's bedroom

Karen Blixen

A nice wedding banquet plot is being prepared

Stanford T-shirt and Random Encounters

Ziad and I had two interesting encounters this week.

First one happened when we were walking in the city center to meet Ryo. A local guy came up to him and asked "So you graduated from Stanford?" Ziad stopped and then realized it was his school T-shirt that revealed his identity. "Yes, I go to Stanford." "It must be hard to get into Stanford. What did you do to make it?" "Well, it is hard and you have to go through a competitive application process..." The conversation didn't last long as we were in a rush but it was an interesting encounter. We didn't realize that Stanford could be so well-known in Kenya, to literally people on the street. Later, we found out why. Apparently, there's a smart Masai guy who was born and grew up in Kenya but made all his way to study at Stanford as an undergrad. He used to get a lot of media coverage as he managed to make acquaintance with the Clintons through Chelsea Clinton. And he made himself a CNN news when he orchestrated a gift giving from Kenya Masai village to 9-11 victims. A nice by-product of all these is free advertisement for Stanford in Africa.

Second one was in the hotel business center. Again Ziad's T-shirt revealed his affiliation with Stanford and this time it was recognized by two other Stanford alum! They are working with Kiva, developing partnership in Africa. Now we have two interesting people to hang out with in Nairobi. Awesome! The Kiva guy also told us that Kiva is going to interview with Oprah Winfrey and Clinton will be in the same show, promoting his new book Giving. Coincidentally, both encounters have something to do with the Clintons...

So, wear your school T-shirt when traveling. There could be some random, interesting encounters because of that.

Yoga, Sushi in Nairobi

Today I went to yoga with Ed and Sarah from KickStart. I am not a big yoga fan. For me, it's more for the experience of seeing how yoga class in Nairobi looks like. But I guess it's a wrong thing to start thinking with – just like those who have never been to China would assume China is a backward Communist bad land. The truth is yoga classes in Nairobi could be the same as those in Shanghai, or Palo Alto, or any other places in developed economy. Nothing special except that the people working out in the gym are 100% expats.

There is one more thing special about the coach though – he is so militant. It was an Indian coach. At times, he would make us maintain a hard posture for 5 minutes! It was unbearable! It's been a year since I did my last yoga class in Shanghai and I am so stiff and out of shape now. I just couldn't do some of the postures, especially those using muscles on belly or lower back. But he would come up to me and stretch my legs and hold them for quite a bit. I am sure I will have a sore body tomorrow.

After yoga, we went to dinner at a sushi restaurant. Again, people in the restaurant were almost all expats, i.e. non-local African people. I had a hot Miso Udon. Yummy!

Random thoughts

Yesterday I heard from Ryo that my GSB classmate, Jake Harriman, has actually incorporated his own social enterprise in California. It has something to do with Africa and that's why Jake was in Kenya for his summer internship, during which he established some business relationship with local vendors.

I had a mixed feeling after hearing this. On one hand, I am very proud of Jake and respect him a lot. I wonder what it takes to start a social venture like his. On the other, I feel dwarfed by a million times when compared to Jake. I am also doing a nonprofit internship in Kenya, but on my blog, there's not a single entry talking about my work (although I intended to write something about it later). While I am posting pictures taken on my safari adventures, Jake was diligently working in remote rural area but didn't get to do one safari during his two months here. Not that he didn't want to in the first place. Not that going on a safari is a shameful thing as opposed to doing good. But come to think about the difference.

"Live the life that makes other no envious, but proud of."

Today I have a better understanding of this quote.

Mombasa

The GSB crowd in Nairobi, i.e. Ziad, Abby, and I, went on a weekend trip to Mombasa. Before coming here, I knew very little about Africa. My limited impressions about Africa were the endless grassland, countless wild animals, local primitive people, disease, famine and poverty. I didn't know it offers some of the finest beach destinations in the world. So the trip to Mombasa, the largest city on Kenya’s coast, gave me another aspect of life in Africa.

Mombasa is the largest coastal port in East Africa. It has been, at various times, a Swahili city-state, the capital of Portuguese East Africa, and Omani provincial capital and the railhead for the British East Africa Railway.

We took the overnight train. Delux class cost us $60 per person one way, including dinner and breakfast. I was expecting something similar to the Oriental Express type of thing, but it turned out to be something between the hard and soft sleeper in China. Two berth per compartment, a cabinet, a sink and running water. Our train got delayed for about 40 minutes but dinner started on time at 7:45PM. They have a coach designated as restaurant. Four people per table. The meal was fine.

I had good sleep and by the time I woke up, it's almost 9AM. We had continental breakfast and spent the rest of the morning looking out of the window – acacias, bushes, small villages – very typical East African landscape. And there were many kids standing by the railroad, grinning, waving hands and yelling at us. I guess people drop small gifts or coins out from the train and these kids are waiting to collect some souvenirs.

The train was very slow. At some point, one kid was running after the train and he could catch up with us without much difficulty, which reveals how slowly the train goes. By the time we arrive at Mombasa railway station, it's already noon. Sixteen hours for 500 kilometers!

Nairobi Railway Station Abby and I leaning out of the train window

"Hello" we heard some kids greeting us but couldn't locate them at first. Then I discovered it's actually coming from these two kids behind a door.

We settled at Royal Court Hotel in town, had lunch and headed out for a late afternoon walk around the Old Town as there's no time left to go to the beach. The Fort Jesus was only two blocks away from our hotel, at the harbor entrance. It was built by Portuguese in 1593 and changed hands at least nine times in the years to follow. It looks very old and not very well maintained. A self-employed guide offered a tour to us but we chose not to go in the fort. From the fort, we started our walking tour in the Old Town. Lonely Planet says "while Mombasa's Old Town doesn't quite have the medieval charm of Lamu or Zanzibar, it is an interesting area to wander around." It is an interesting area. There are some old buildings with ornately carved doors, windows, and fretwork balconies but unfortunately they are not well preserved. Most of the old wood architectures are rotten. And some parts of town look so deserted. It is a pity.

Mombasa Old Town

For dinner, we went to Tamarind Restaurant at the other side of the harbor. It is perhaps one of the best restaurants in Kenya. I had the most expensive meal so far in East Africa but it was well worth it. Abby ordered a ginger crab and they offer some interesting gear to eat the crab. Seeing her wrestling with the huge orange shellfish was quite enjoyable as well.

Thanks to Ziad's zeal for seeing a sun-rise by the sea, we woke up 5AM in the morning. We checked out and went all the way to Tiwi beach, south of Mombasa. It took us sometime to find a proper way to get to a public beach. But finally we got there and the sun had just come out. We did a nice walk along the sea shore. It was very nice.

Early morning walk along the Tiwi beach

As this would be Abby's last weekend in Kenya during her GMIX and naturally her last chance to see some wild animals, they decided to go to Shimba National Park for a game drive. I opted out. I had seen enough wild animals in Masai Mara and from my game drive experience in Tanzania, I know the downhill feeling all that. So I'd rather stay outside the park and read book.

I am reading a book borrowed from Chris, The Shadow of the Sun. It is a book by Ryszard Kapuscinski, a Polish journalist. It is a travelogue that chronicles the journalist's various experiences in Africa from late 1950's to 1990's. It is also a history book that covers events from the early days of independence in Ghana to the ongoing ethnic genocide in Rwanda. It was a good read, an extraordinary depiction of Africa. Even though the stories in the book are mostly from the 1950's - 1970's, there is a timeless quality in these observations. I can relate what he witnessed in the past to what I am seeing in Africa today – the people, the landscape, and the daily perils of African life. By the time Ziad and Abby came out, I just finished the chapter about Rwanda, which gives me a better sense of what really happened in the movie Hotel Rwanda.

We headed back to the beaches in south of Mombasa and this time we chose Diani beach, right next to Tiwi. We had lunch at Forty Thieves Restaurant. Again, it was a good pick. The tide went down by 11AM and the beach looked just gorgeous, much better than in the early morning. Now we started to regret that we should have stayed in a beach resort, rather than a downtown hotel. Some local people offer camel ride on the beach. And there are some Masai people selling souvenirs.

By noon time, the beach looks just gorgeous. White sand, blue blue sky, and blue blue water.

Apparently, this camel is called George. He is 12-years old. His master, James, is a smart boy who managed to sell a boating tour to us.

After much debate, we decided to stay a bit longer at the beach. Ziad and I went on a boating trip out to the sea. It was a specially designed boat with transparent glass in the bottom that enables you to see what's in the water from the boat. You could do snorkeling during the boat trip as well but I didn't bring my swimming suits. We saw some pretty fishes. But my favorite is starfishes. They look as if they are dead, rubber toy. But if you observe them close and patient enough, you'll see them moving. They would stretch their legs, very slowly. And they are so cute when doing so. Supposedly, you can even see dolphins if you are lucky enough. We did see some dolphins jumping in and out of the water remotely but couldn't get closer.

Our "capitain" snorckled under the water and waved at us from the glass bottom of the boat.

The starfish is undoubtedly the Star of the Day!

3PM, we started to head back. Flights had been fully booked by the time we planned the trip; late buses are not good options either. So we hired a car from Mombasa with a driver. This turned out to be not the best experience we had in Kenya. We argued with the rental car company as they wanted to over-charge us for unfounded reasons. Then on the road back, we got pulled over by police and it was discovered that our driver didn't have a driving license. We had to bribe the police officer to get away. The drive seemed to be very dangerous too – on the single-lane two-way road, we had to pass by many big trucks. Ziad and Abby were so paranoid that they kept asking our drivers to slow down or speed up. I was the only relaxed, slept most of the way.

We reached our hotel at midnight. Again, I had a good sleep that night and had a nice dream playing with dolphins and starfishes.

The Shadow of the Sun

Nairobi - second impression

Yesterday after work, Ziad and I went to the expats shopping mall in Nairobi - the Village Market. It is located near the UN headquarter complex (Nairobi has a huge population of UN staff as their base for Africa) and US Embassy.

The area is on a small hill and quite nice. There are many big fancy houses and villas. Passing by here reminded me of a Beverly Hill drive, except that palm trees get replaced by acacia trees. This, combined with the MCK meeting I joined Tuesday night, gives me a better sense of how expats' life here could be.

The mall itself is an open-air, three-story complex. Country-side style building, exotic. There's no Gucci, LV, or Nike stores here - except Rado, Mango, and a couple of others, I didn't see any other world-class branded retail stores. But there are some interesting boutique stores selling souvenirs and there is a food court. There is a supermarket in the mall as well, Nakumatt, that belongs to a local supermarket chain. Stuffs they are selling are nice - either global brand or home-grown ones that are well-packaged in English. I bought one Colgate toothpaste and one bottle of Dettol shower gel (it comes with a free bath loofah) and they cost 335 shillings (about 5 US dollars). Not cheap by local standard I guess.

We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant called Ro Ro in the mall. The owner is actually a Chinese couple from Inner Mongolia and they have been here for eight years. The food was not bad - in fact, a beef dish I ordered was even close to authentic Chinese food. I was quite content.

Tonight, Ziad, Abby, and I are taking an overnight train to Mombasa, a Kenya coast city overlooking the Indian Ocean. I am looking forward to seeing some of the culture clash described in the book I am reading, The Shadow of the Sun - cultures ranging from local African to British colonial, to Indian.

MCK

OK, but this is not the short of that big name consulting firm. This MCK represents Mountain Club of Kenya.

Our colleagues at KickStart, Sam and Ed, invited us to a MCK gathering. It's a local mountaineering club formed by many expats living in Nairobi. They have weekly gathering at the club house where members would bring food (like a pot luck) and make presentations about their climbing/hiking adventures.

There was a good turn-out that night – about 40-50 people came. It's a quite international and mobile community - people from all over the world - some work here on short assignments (like Ziad and me); others work here permanently. Before the presentation, people mingled, ate dinner, and chitchat in small groups. We met a girl from Switzerland, Jenny, who just arrived a month ago and will work for Swiss Embassy in Nairobi for 8 months. Jenny has been to China and during her three weeks there she seemed to have been everywhere, from Dunhuang to Guilin. We left phone numbers and might hang out in Nairobi on a later day.

Today's presentation is made by an American guy about his trips to a mountain in Samburu area. Apparently he's been living here for a while – the trips he talked about were back in 2005. The mountain is rather an off-the-beaten-trek one – it seemed no non-locals had ever gone up to the peak of that mountain. Impressive.

At the end of the gathering, club leaders announced some upcoming trips, including a 3-day hiking trip to Mt. Kenya, etc. I am interested in joining a hiking/camping trip to Nguruman the weekend before I leave Nairobi in late September. There will be some unofficial trips as well. A caving trip over the next weekend sounds interesting but I have decided that caving is not my thing as my rock climbing ability under the ground should be as bad as that on the ground.

The largest industry in Kenya

What's the biggest industry in Kenya? I thought it would be tourism/safaris. Abby was joking it might be security guard. She was living out of an UN compound that is close to an area where most of the expats live by in Nairobi. In that area, almost every house has no less than 5 security guards.

Then that night, we sent Abby to Country Club Lodge, a hotel where she's going to have her dinner appointment. It is located in a seriously guarded district, where there are road obstacles everywhere and broken glass on high walls. And every five meters, there was a security guy with loaded gun. Now I started to believe that security guard really is the largest industry in Kenya.

The real cornerstone of Kenya's capitalist economy though is agriculture, which employs around 80% of the population and accounts for over 50% of the country's export earnings or 25% of the GDP. Tourism used to be the mainstay of the country's economy but has suffered since the embassy bombings and terrorists attacks a few years before.

The GMIX I am involved with is at a nonprofit helping farmers and building agriculture marketplace. So I look forward to seeing some part of the rural areas that represent Kenya's largest industry.

Nairobi – first impression

Nairobi is my first stop in Africa when I arrived here but I didn't get to explore it until this Sunday. There are some other GSB friends working on their GMIX in Nairobi, so I had a small get-together this afternoon with Ziad and Abby.

It's a nice Sunday afternoon. We did a walk around the central city area, passing by the City Hall, the Judicatory, etc. People on the street seemed quite relaxed. There was a group of well-dressed people passing by the City Hall – we guessed that they must have come from a church activity. Near our hotel, there's a big green urban park area, where people rest, picnic, chat, etc. The atmosphere was good. In the central downtown, there is some nice combination of skyscrapers (much shorter ones than those in China) and colonial buildings. We took photos in front of what seems to be the tallest building in Nairobi and a mushroom-like building. Later we were told that the tallest building is Kenya International Conference Center.

But overall, you can tell the British didn't do much good to build its East African colony.

We strolled to a nice hotel in the heart of the city, where there's a thorn tree that you can put message post on it. We decided to write a short message for the future GSBers who'd visit this place. Finally our meeting ended with a chitchat in the hotel bar, with drinks and hot chocolate.

Traffic in Nairobi is bad. A small vehicle problem can cause a huge traffic jam. I have been riding taxi for many times, and every single time, I would get stuck in the traffic for a while, ranging from 10 minutes to a good hour.

Ziad, Abby, and I, in front of KICC

Message Board at the Thorn Tree Cafe

Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara

Our last stops for this East African journey were Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara, both national conservation areas close to Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. This time, in anticipation of the fatigues after the Kili climb, we booked a lodge safari (vs. camping) and stayed in Ngorongoro Farm House, which is an extremely nice lodge resort.

Ngorongoro Crater is one of Tanzania's most visited destinations. At about 20km wide it's also one of the largest calderas in the world. There is a soda lake at the crater's base. Thanks to the permanent water and grassland on the crater floor, there is a variety of animals living in the crater wall and they don't migrate throughout the year. We were hoping that we could see leopard which we didn't get to see in Masai Mara, but in the end, these shy animals didn't show up. The game drive was less exciting than those we did in Masai Mara as I had seen most of the animals there. One animal that is more abundant here is baboon. We got to see a lot of them, strolling on the vehicle road and often in groups.

At Lake Manyara, we had hoped to see thousands of flamingos, but unfortunately it was not the right timing as most of the flamingos have already migrated away. We saw a few of them remotely and a bunch of storks. Besides, there were many hippos sleeping on the muddy lake shore. They live peacefully with the birds. We also saw many elephants, impalas, etc. Close to the end of the game drive, we saw one pair of Thomson's gazelles mating.

I think these two parks are less impressive than Masai Mara in terms of scenery and variety of animals you can see. But they are probably better conserved than Masai Mara. In Mara, safari vehicles are allowed to cut off-road, chasing after animals, while here it is prohibited, which negatively affect the animal watching experience for tourists but good for the animals and nature. I really hope people can do something to make as little disturbance or negative impact on the wild life here. But I guess as long as people are coming for safaris on these metal "animals" that is not part of the ecosystem, the real animals' life will be inevitably affected. Isn't that sad?

Acacia trees inside Ngorongoro Crater

Crown Cranes

Thomson's gazelles are mating and there is a bunch of audience as well

Two male impalas

Klipspringer

Father and kid

Hippos sleeping on the lake shore

Ngorongoro Farm House Lodge Hotel

Lodge room interior

The Farm House grows coffee plantation and all kinds of flowers