Finding our Way

Good evening from Nairobi.  It is Super Bowl Sunday but unfortunately due to time change and channel availability, we will miss the game (and commercials).

Our second week here was a full jumping into our new lives …The kids started online school, my work schedule went into overdrive, we have found our spots to eat, shop, get gas, etc.

On the school front, Molly and the kids have figured out, more or less, how the online school thing works – some good classes, some OK classes, but all in all manageable. 

Bennett got his Jr. Kenya Golf card and is loving golf lessons in January a couple days a week.  Clara made her first visit to Heshima, a school for disabled children and livelihoods for their mothers that was started by a Minnesota family.  She is going to be able to volunteer there a couple days a week. 

We have found Nairobi a bundle of paradoxes, like much of Africa is today.  It is very different than our time in Lusaka was just 7+ years ago…(Although, due to the rapid development happening across the Continent, living in Lusaka today would also be very different.)

A few examples...We can go 5 minutes from where we live and order fresh brick oven pizza that rivals anything at home – next door you can order a Cappuccino, made from fresh Kenyan coffee (all the good stuff used to be shipped out to the US and Europe) that is better than Dogwood Coffee (not really Greg Hoyt).  Last week I was at the new Nairobi airport and I sat in the literally the nicest airline club I have ever been to anywhere in the world. 

And yet, all of this sits up close to the Africa that most of us think of – massive slums, struggling farmers in far-flung villages, crippled beggars at each intersection.  It is hard to wrap your head around the disparity that used to mostly be separated by oceans.  Now the gulf sits sometimes just seconds apart.  We have less answers for this than ever before and we do our best to keep living in the tension.  Sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

Yesterday Clara and I went on a little trip and hiked Mt. Longonot, an extinct volcano, about an hour and half from Nairobi.  As a Colorado boy, it is always wonderful to put the city in your review mirror and head for mountains.  Clara and I had a great day together mindful of the many gifts the day represented.  It was a steep hike to 9,000 feet but we were rewarded with a unique and amazing view into the former cauldron, now covered in vegetation, and views of the African plains in every direction.  Clara thought to throw a hammock into our pack and we placed it in maybe the best place ever for a hammock. (See Pics)

        

On the work front, this week was incredibly energizing and exhausting.  I have not yet found a pace that will be sustainable for 4 months.  There is so much to do and see.  My favorite times thus far are meetings with our staff and clients where I have the opportunity to hear their stories and the ways the expertise we bring can improve their businesses.  Attached are a few pics of our staff and a few of the leaders of the more than 600 companies with whom we have been privileged to work.

Bill and Melinda Gates recently came out with their annual letter from their foundation and this year they threw down several bold predictions, one of which is that Africa will be able to feed itself by 2030.  This thoughtful prediction is exactly in-line with the stated aspiration of Partners in Food Solutions:

To participate in helping Africa feed itself and the world….

PFS will improve food security and nutrition across Africa by expanding and increasing the competitiveness of the food processing sector creating markets for smallholder farmers and increasing the  availability of nutritious foods.  This positive transformation will occur by delivering customized food technology and business wisdom and solutions from volunteer experts at world-class companies, providing industry training and catalyzing financial investment.

This bold statement from the BMGF now gives us a definitive timeline to work against joined by many others, no less that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  When you meet with the people like those pictured, you can believe, like I do, that this vision is attainable.

 

I’ll close with a family reality check – The kids hit a bit of a wall today – as teenagers often do.  Said another way, Molly and I are driving our kids nuts.  The challenge in our particular situation is the normal outlets for them aren’t here.  Despite our large yard, the walls closed in a bit today for the kids.  Those inclined to pray (aka, those with teenagers), please do.