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.