for the past year i've been alongside kelly & anne championing the village experience. kelly does a phenomenal job of communicating her vision and work, and it was so easy to fall head over heels in love with the company's concept of 'moving forward by giving back.' so as often as my schedule would allow, i would make sure i was with the girls promoting the cause and making it my own.
toward the end of this day is when it truly began to click for me.
we began with some conservancy-related activities in karen, a beautiful area of nairobi. the roads are smooth flawless tarmac, which i would soon discover is the exception rather than the rule in this country. interestingly enough, it's an extremely affluent area where most of the western expats can be found - and it's literally right next to kibera slum, where a staggering number of people live in a corrugated metal and mud shanty town with no electricity nor running water.
we visited the sheldrick center, where baby orphaned elephants and rhinos who have been rescued from certain death are nursed to health and cared for around the clock. the animals were positively adorable and it was great to see that organizations are committed to convservation of these amazing creatures, particularly since the economy relies so heavily on tourism and westerners paying top dollar for safari.
this was immediately followed by a visit to a giraffe center, where the endangered rothschild giraffe is successfully bred in captivity and released into the wild. one nice thing about being removed from western culture - you can get so close to the animals! we were able to shower tlc on the baby elephants and rhino, and i literally had endangered giraffes eating from my hand. my animal-loving heart was melting all day. what a birthday gift-!our final stop apart from food was kazuri - the true commencement of my 'a-ha' moments. kazuri (a swahili word for 'small and beautiful') is a phenomenal, model, gem of a fair trade organization. they produce clay jewelry and pottery, and their exceptionally high quality products are distributed worldwide. employment in kenya is a major issue. it's an even bigger issue for females. kazuri employs more than 300 kenyans, primarily single mothers. they pay fair wages and provide a pleasant, safe work environment. it's been around for roughly 30 years and some of the women have been there that long. we toured the immaculate facility and purchased pieces for the store back home as well as ourselves. in that regard, i was in heaven.
beside the point, though.after a year of putting kazuri products into the hands of shoppers in the US and discussing why it's such a great cause to support, it was amazing to be standing in the room full of all these women watching them make everything from scratch. this company gives the women working there the ability to put food in their children's stomachs, provide them with adequate shelter and an education. the fathers have either died or left, and there's no structure in place in kenya to protect these women or provide them or their children with basic sustenance. this rare opportunity for employment gives these women the chance to lay the groundwork for their children to pursue their dreams. pretty reminiscent of the american dream, and to see it working in a developing country was truly inspiring. and this is where things really started to kick into gear for me - what kazuri is doing is what we are striving to do in villages all over the world.
and of course, being the hopeless foodie that i am, there's the food. in nairobi i had pretty decent luck as a vegetarian. there's a strong european (english) influence, obviously, as well as indian. if i were a vegan i'd be pretty SOL, as it appears the national breakfast food is the spanish omelette. the great thing is that i love english tea, and that was to be had everywhere. two sugars, milk - called 'white tea' by the locals. breakfasts at the hill park were done al fresco, buffet style. to my joy there were always loads of tropical fruits...pineapple, mango, papaya and other delicious things i've never seen before. and the most wonderful passion fruit juice, my new favorite. by the end of this particular day i'd eaten a ton of spinach since i had to avoid the frequently available goat and very dry chicken and beef. the country hasn't been getting enough rain for a while now - and you can see it very clearly in the meat served. minimal grass to graze --> painfully skinny livestock --> extremely dry, tough meat. i definitely did not feel once as though the carnivores were getting a better deal than i. it just meant that as we went to more and more remote locations, many of my meals would consist solely of fried bread (chapati) or fried potatoes. i'm also quickly learning, even in nairobi, that cheese is a precious and very expensive luxury. *pained expression*so far, i'm loving everything we're doing and thoroughly enjoying getting to know our group of passengers...a fantastic, diverse, quirky crew.
