Kenya: The People, The Places, The Culture (3)

Party Time

There's probably no better way to convey one's impressions of a different place than to describe how people have fun together. As it turned out, my pals and I were up for a good party back at the beginning of the month when my friend Joseph Gichuki decided to have a party for Mr. Guy.

We later learned that the party was to be an all-day affair, somehow built around the goat we were going to be eating. That idea didn't come through to me, and we arrived after the goat had been slaughtered and was being grilled. But even if we missed the beginning of the festivities we still - to no one's surprise - had ourselves a swell time.

We gathered at a place Joseph knew, and the event included a lot of just sitting around and visiting, which was very nice. No formal agenda or activities, just enjoying each other's company. New people joined us - friends of Joseph and his wife Esther - so the conversations covered just about every subject that has come up since I've been in Kenya. We spoke about politics and the new constitution, of course, and there was also lots of talk about the cultural differences between the Americans and the rest of the world - a very popular topic of conversation for international visitors these days, especially this time, just a few days after the mid-term election in the United States. My Kenyan friends - both old friends and new people I met for the first time - were intrigued with what's going on in the U.S. and conveyed to me, it seemed, some nervousness about the results of the election.

Such talk did not inhibit our good time - not with this crowd. The Tuskers were eagerly enjoyed (Tusker being the popular brand of bottled beer in Kenya), and we had many good comments (and O.K. - a few laughs) about how Mr. Guy looks in his African shirt. Made from the fabric used for the Maasai shuka, the colorful wraps worn by not only the Maasai but just about everybody else in Kenya, the shirt was a present as we started off on our excursion to the party and I was delighted. Finally I'm going to be dressed like some of the fellows I see as I roam about Kenya.

A Maasai vendor lady visited us, and while none of us was particularly interested in making any purchases, Joseph did decide that I needed a beaded Maasai wristband to go with my shirt, so instead of the guest giving the host a gift, the gesture was turned around, and I'm very grateful.

Indeed, very grateful all the way 'round to Joseph and Esther for provided such a lovely day and this happy party. It was truly a good time, and we really enjoyed ourselves. The Tuskers were delicious on a warm early-summer day, and all that good goat meat just kept coming and coming. While none of us really overate, I suppose, we did consume a lot of goat (must have been a big goat!).

And as part of the goat-eating, I experienced again something that's been happening to me recently in Kenya: the elegant respect for me because I'm older. I've long known that the Kenyans (and possibly all Africans, for all I know) have a particular code of behavior with respect to the elders of their society, but somehow it had eluded me that I'm one of that group. No one has - during my time in Kenya - made any particular comments or deference to me because of my age (well, except for with my best buddies, who do make lots of humorous comments about the wide gap between their ages and mine!), but in the last couple of weeks or so, I've noticed a little trend in this direction.

And it was made very clear at this party. I asked about it, and when Joseph and some of the other fellows explained to me why I was being treated in a special way, I was very honored. It was almost as if my age had moved me from being simply a tourist and/or a temporary employee in their country to someone (almost) matching the position of their own elders. At the party, the idea was made manifest in a couple of very sweet gestures. For example, when food was served (as it was many times during the day) it was put in front of me first, and I realized that everyone was looking at me. When I asked what was going on, it was explained to me that it was my job - as the oldest person present - to pick up my piece of goat meat and begin eating first, after which everyone else would eat.

The same thing happened as we got toward the end of the meal (not the exact end, because we had to leave early for the drive back to Nairoibi, and we didn't participate in eating the goat's head or the ritual soup that ends the meal, to come late the day). I was handed a large piece of meat, still attached to a bone and it was my job - as the oldest person - to break a hole in the bone (which I finally was able to muster, when my friends showed me how to use a beer bottle as a sort of hammer to crack to bone). The purpose of the hole? Fascinating "cycle-of-life" sequence: the bone will be thrown into the field, the grass will grow up through the hole, and the other goats will eat it through the hole, thus creating a connection between the goats that provide sustenance and the people who will be eating the goat.

The photos tell the story, so interested readers can go to Gichuki Party 06 Nov 2010 to get the full description of this particular day in Mr. Guy's life in Kenya.

Kenya: The People, The Places, The Culture (2)

My plans for preparing a series of posts with my "closing" (you might say) comments as I prepare to leave Kenya were interrupted. Professional priorities took over, and we all know what that means in the scheme of things.

"The best-laid plans," etc....

So apologies to regular readers of these posts. Will hope to stay on track over the next few weeks.

In keeping with my little theme, I was duly impressed with not only the Winner of the Women's Open Division of the New York Marathon (Edna Kiplagat of Kenya) but with David Brooks's essay in today's New York Times.

In The Crossroads Nation, Brooks makes his usual strong and well-thought out case for his topic, which this time is how America attracts creative and innovative people, how in the United States people who have the talent to move forward with their ideas can do so. Despite the difficult times we're living in, Brooks notes, there is still an opportunity for creative people to find a place where they can fulfill their creative destiny. It doesn't seem to matter where you come from (he refers to someone living in "some small town in Ukraine or Kenya or some other place, foreign or domestic"). You want to go, he says, to "where people are gathering to think about the things you are thinking about, creating the things you want to create." And he's right. America - especially the United States - is the place you want to go. American truly is - and always has been - the "crossroads nation."

But is it?

I'm not an expert in these things, but of course I couldn't resist, and I responded to David's column (I read him so often I feel like we should be on a first-name basis!).

From my experience - from what I've observed and from what I've heard Africans speak about - I fear there is one important barrier inhibiting the United States as a crossroads nation, at least for people from outside our borders. Here's what I said:

"Thank you, David, for this cogent and stimulating essay: I totally agree with what you've said, and being a crossroads nation has many important implications for us both as a nation and as a society. However, there is one 'layer' (we might call it) that is preventing our moving forward in this direction: the dangerous, petty, and offensive resistance at embassies with respect to granting visas. I'm currently wrapping up a year-long business assignment in Kenya, and I'm shocked to hear the stories people tell about attempts to come to the United States from several of the African countries. In fact, the joke here is that 'it's easier to get into Heaven than to get into America.' In the past, I had not thought about this very much, and it is very sad to hear about this. It's a situation that, I fear, could be a serious impediment to our being a crossroads nation. Thanks again for your good essays. Good work. All the best."

Kenya: The People, The Places, The Culture (1)

As the professional assignment winds down and this homesick wanderer prepares to end his stay in Kenya, it seems appropriate to give some thought to what has impressed me about this beautiful land.

That "homesick" is a little hard to explain, though, for despite the fact that I've been in Nairobi since last November 12, there have been two nice visits home, and to Brussels and Geneva and San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro as well, all dutifully described (well, I hope not "dutifully" - certainly "enthusiastic" is more accurate!) in posts to this blog. And even occasionally at the corporate blog where my colleagues and I try to share our knowledge and interests with professional colleagues and clients. So it's not like I've been on the other side of the world for a year. Or stationed in some remote, out-of-the-way place where I would be totally out of contact with home.

But there's no question about it: it is a long way from Nairobi to New York (one return journey was 34 hours door-to-door!). So despite the pleasures of Kenya, the intrepid Manhattan-ite has had his moments of longing, wishing he could hear Jeff on WQXR or head off to the opera house to hear one of the favorites or even, simply (and in typical New York style), just head over to his club and spend a couple of hours reading magazines that aren't available at home.

And when in Kenya?

It's those "pleasures of Kenya" that have made it all worthwhile. To my way of thinking, those pleasures fall into three categories: the people, the places, and the culture. And while I can't predict whether I'll be able to give due attention to all three, I can begin with the people. Even thinking about what I want to say about the people of Kenya fills me with such pre-nostalgia that I'm expecting to find myself a little homesick in the other direction very soon.

For me, any thought of the people of Kenya is going to begin with happy memories of The Great Four, this funny gang of people who discovered each other shortly after my arrival in Nairobi a year ago. We've come to care very much for each other, and now seems a good time to pay a special tribute to them (and to provide just a hint of how much I'll miss them after I leave). As readers of these posts know, Charles (second from right in the photo above) is my driver and boon companion and now, almost family, since he and his wife have named their new daughter Claire, honoring my last name more graciously that I ever expected to experience. As for Geoffrey and Nerisa, we got to know each other professionally early on, as they are both KM/knowledge services specialists. For Nerisa, dealing with strategic knowledge is her professional focus in the workplace, and she takes much pleasure in directing her clients to the right "knowledge-sharing" opportunity. Geoffrey is fascinated by how KM/knowledge services is being embraced in Kenya, and he is bound and determined to provide the country's KM market with the highest standards of KM service delivery (to the extent of initiating an informal branch of SMR International - SMR Africa - to bring the SMR brand of KM/knowledge services to this wonderful place).

But it is unfair to limit my characterization of Geoffrey and Nerisa as "professional," for our friendships now far exceed the professional and with Charles, we modestly describe ourselves as The Great Four. And why not? When people come to Africa to go on safari to pursue The Big Five, why shouldn't they also run across The Great Four? We could probably lead them on some very interesting adventures.

Silliness? Of course. But adding greatly to the enormous stockpile of memories that will stay with us forever.

Andrew Doughman: Writing and Sharing are All Part of the Picture

The subject of this post is Andrew Doughman, a young journalist I met recently in Nairobi. Andrew's work has made quite an impression on me and some of my friends in the community.

Andrew is finishing up his studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, and he has been in Kenya to work as an intern for the East African, one of the most important and popular newspapers in the area. He has had several valuable internships, including a three-month reporting internship at the news desk of the Seattle Times and a stint in legislative reporting at the state capitol in Olympia, where he wrote for the Skagit Valley Herald.

I didn't get to read any of his work for those assignments, but if the articles he wrote are as impressive as what I've read in Kenya, Andrew Doughman is moving into a solid career as a writer.

He has always loved to write, he tells me, and we got together recently to speak about journalism and how journalism and writing connect - in my mind - with knowledge development and knowledge sharing, what we in the field like to call "KD/KS." As Andrew and I spoke, it became clear that journalists and strategic knowledge professionals are very much on the same page (excuse the pun).

For one thing, both fields bring out one's passion for sharing. In Andrew's case, as he said, he has always loved to write, and when he arrived at university as a freshman - even before he had gone to his first class - he had managed to get into a meeting at the student newspaper and land a freshman job writing for the paper.

Why did he take on such demanding work? Because he wanted to learn, to work for an editor who would - simply in the editor's role of providing Andrew with what he calls "institutionalized feedback" - provide Andrew with critical feedback (and, as Andrew noted with a laugh, force him to learn to meet deadlines).

"I want to work with people who know more than I do," Andrew says, "and then I can share what I know later on."

It's a fine goal, and as he describes it, he's making it clear that as he pursues his own career, he would be able to work from one of his basic beliefs, that "it's better to be a coach than a boss."

Well said, Andrew, and it's a principle that - for most professional strategic knowledge workers - provides the foundation for success as a knowledge thought leader, no matter what kind of organization you work for.

Another connection between writing and KD/KS has to do with delivery, and I wanted to pursue some thoughts with Andrew about the differences between writing for print journalism and online content delivery. These are media formats that strategic knowledge professionals think much about, and my conversation with Andrew seemed like a perfect opportunity to hear what someone on the other side of the desk thinks about what's happening as we seek to deal with print and digitized content.

"There is no distinction," Andrew says quickly, and I'm impressed. This man is confident in his opinions on this subject.

"If there is a difference," Andrew continues, "it is with breaking news. Online reporting is fast, and as a writer you are required to get your story up fast, to provide a glimpse of what's happening. Then, as the day goes on, the story gets filled in, fleshed out, and by the time the print story is ready, it's a fuller version of what you started out with in the beginning.

"But the rules are the same. Good writing, whether it is for print or online, must be clean, it must be clear, and you have to write to very high standards. The rules don't change. Only the format changes."

And dear to the hearts of those of us who think in terms of legacy content, of professions like librarianship, archives, records management, and the like, Andrew made another point that resonates.

"Well, there is another difference," he said. "With online writing you're creating a permanent archive, an opportunity to come back and review something that's been written on your subject before, and to do it very easily, right at the desktop."

The example Andrew gave, of following what had been previously written on a subject that interested him in a recent magazine story, made his point, but I could not resist raising the issue of quantity vs. quality.

"But what about all that's out there, all that's available in digitized copy?" I had to ask. "Isn't there a lot of just bad writing out there? What about that? How do we deal with that?"

"We don't," Andrew said. "Good writing, copy coming from someone who has something to say will bubble up, and it will be read."

So now it was becoming clear that Andrew isn't too concerned about bad writing. His focus is on good writing, on following those rules of writing that don't change (except for social networking media, he points out, where the same rules are still valid but "the tone changes").

So we return to what good writing is, and the example from Andrew Doughman's work that so impressed me in the first place. Since I've been in Kenya (actually since before, from when I had visited South Africa several years ago), I had been aware of the tremendous focus on slums, those urban spaces where so many poor people live. Slums and sub-standard housing are a critical challenge for society, and since my work in Kenya is with the development of knowledge strategy for dealing with sustainable urbanization, I've read and seen a lot about slums.

But nothing has impressed me like Andrew's article in the East African, published a couple of weeks ago. In the article, "An American in Kibera," Andrew takes a different look at Africa's slums and the citizens who live there. Instead of going as a "slum tourist" - an unfortunate direction now being provided as an attraction for some visitors to Kenya - Andrew went into the community to visit, to get to know people, and to write about them. He lived in Kibera for four days and four nights, collecting knowledge to share, to enable people to understand what life is like in the slums. It was  remarkable experience for Andrew Doughman and - we're very grateful - for the rest of us as well.

Read the story, and send your comments to SMR International. Or if you want to contact Andrew Doughman directly:andrewdoughman@yahoo.com.

Thika: The Fourteen Falls and the Blue Post Hotel (and its Falls)

There is much to see in the Thika area, and time spent in the Thika area is well worth the trouble. There is the beautiful Ol Donyo Sabuk National Park, described previously, and while I ran out of time and didn't get to Lord Macmillan's home or the home of Jomo Kenyatta, I had a lovely visit to two other attractions in the area.

One was the famous Fourteen Falls, a favorite attraction for many local people, and it was lovely to be there on a Saturday afternoon and see so many people enjoying themselves. The waterfalls are an amazing sight, and while the local boys are anxious to pick up a few extra shillings by taking you out in the water for a ride in their boats (none of which looked particularly secure to me), I declined. I also declined the offer from one fellow to go to the top of the falls and dive in ("It won't cost you much," he said, but I wasn't so sure - if he were knocked dead from the fall, where would the blame land, I wonder? Would I suddenly become an "accomplice" in a local's death in a foreign country? Not a chance I wanted to take!).

Also well worth the visit (but not really an attraction in the safari-travelling sense of the word) is the lovely Blue Post Hotel just on the edge of Thika, with its own splendid waterfalls. Actually, the waterfalls - both of which seem to be artificial to me (one has a highway going across it) - are lovely to look at, but I think the hotel simply happens to be there. Nevertheless, it's a very special place to go for an early dinner before the long drive back to Nairobi, and there's no question about it: falling water does provide a certain ambiance that can't be found in any other experience. (View my photos here.)

Yet Another National Park in Kenya: Ol Donyo Sabuk

Not too far from Thika (of The Flame Trees of... fame), there's a lovely mountain park that I did not really have on my list, but as I had not spent much time in the Thika area, why not? That's what Saturdays in Kenya are for, right?

It was a beautiful drive to Thika, once we got away from the construction on the new Thika highway (the Chinese are doing the Kenyans a big favor with all the road construction they're sponsoring, but it sure does make a mess - and tie up traffic, even on week-ends!).

The park itself is named for the great mountain in its midst, the Masai word for "big mountain." The Kikuku tribe calls the mountain (and the park) Kilima Mbogo, their word for the African buffalo, and one can understand why they gave it the name. The park is famous for the buffalo, often found in great numbers in the park, and we had heard many stories about the many African buffalo we would see there, in great herds.

That was not to be our experience, alas. For some reason, the buffalo were in hiding, and we did not see a single one! Our guide opined that it was because we were there in the middle of the day, and it was - unusual for us but apparently not so unusual for this part of the country - very hot.

So while we were not going to get to see the buffalo (and not a big deal, really, as we've seen plenty of them in other places), we were going to see some magnificent scenery. We feasted our eyes and shot many photographs simply because, like when we were at the Menengei Crater, there's just so much to see and the vistas are so spectacular. In fact, if I were in charge of tourism for the Ol Donyo Sabuk National Park, I would just skip over the buffalo stuff and go straight to the scenery. You can see some of our photographs here.

The park has quite a history, too. For one thing, the country's more recent history is represented near here as the home of the country's first President - Jomo Kenyatta - is nearby. We didn't get a chance to visit, but apparently the Kenyans often stop by to pay homage. Also nearby is the birthplace of Tom Mboya, born in the area in 1930. One of Kenya's most important politicians, Mobya's career was cut short with his dreadful assassination in 1969.

The colorful history of the area goes back even further. Part of the wicked Happy Valley (ahem!) activities took place in the surrounding countryside but an even more important legacy is the contribution of Lord William Northrop Macmillan (1872-1925). Despite the title, he was an American, from St. Louis. He came to Kenya for big-game hunting (even hosting Theodore Roosevelt for a hunting excursion or two) and stayed on to become a major philanthropist for the country. Like Lord Egerton, Lord Macmillan had much to do with the establishment of Kenya's agricultural economy, and he and his wife - both buried on the mountain - are warmly remembered by the people of the area.

Menengei Crater

One of the most spectacular sites in Kenya happens to be not too far from Nairobi, about two hours' drive up toward the Rift Valley.

I had seen another spectacular view (well, there have been many, really) on a safari in this direction, when Charles drove me to the Hell's Gate National Park and we descended into the famous Gorge and then, upon coming up again, climbed up to some very splendid views. [That safari is described here and here.]

The Menengei Crater is something else again. We had not really planned this excursion, but as I was giving speech that day at an international conference at Egerton University, near Nakuru, and since my presentation and the reception following were finished by noon, Charles and Nerisa and I decided to do some exploring. Beside, we wanted a preview, because as Charles continues with his tour guiding (and since fellow Americans are going to give his business a jump-start when we come for a three-week safari in December), the Menengei Crater was being considered as a likely spot to visit.

Were we impressed? Absolutely. See for yourself (Menengei Crater near Nakuru). The photographs show off the beauty of the place, and it is at times I wish I were more skilled as a photographer, but I think enough shows through to give an idea of the spectacle of the Menengei Crater. I'm already looking forward to returning there with my friends in December.