Adventures in the Masai Mara

Last night we returned from a wonderful weekend in the Masai Mara! After reviewing my pictures tonight, I am still amazed about all we were able to see in just three short days.

We left the hotel 11AM Friday morning with our safari guide, Sammy, for the long drive from Machakos to the Masai Mara. While the road from Machakos to Nairobi was relatively painless, the conditions became a little more complicated as we got closer to the Masai Mara; let's just say I have a whole new appreciation for paved roads. The last two hours of the seven hour drive were spend avoiding potholes, and the rain did not make the drive any easier. However, we arrived safely at the campsite, and enjoyed a wonderful meal cooked by our safari guides and a much-needed beer by the campfire. Below is a picture of our van (our group of 13 split into two different vans) with our guide Sammy.

The next morning we were up bright and early for a twelve hour day of game hunting; it was an amazing day. We saw every animal I could have hoped to see (and more!). Although the whole day was wonderful, my favorite moment was when our van was next to a herd of elephants ten feet to our right, and a pack of lions ten feet to our left. However, I also enjoyed when a monkey jumped on Camy and stole a banana right out out of her backpack! I took over 200 pictures, and have included a highlight of my favorites below.

      

             

On Sunday, we did two more hours of game hunting and then went to visit a Masai village before heading back to Machakos. We experienced a traditional Masai welcome dance, were given a tour of the village, and were able to explore one of the Masai huts. Following the tour, we were given the opportunity to buy some of the handmade Masai items, and I may have allowed myself to be talked into at least one or two more souvenirs than I planned on buying :) Below are some pictures from our visit of the Masai village.

Masai before the traditional welcome dance.

Camy and I inside a Masai hut

Me with some of the children of the village

Following the Masai village, we headed home to Machakos, where we were all able to enjoy a long-awaited hot shower. No rest for the weary though; we were up this morning at 4:45AM for a full day of meetings in Nairobi. It was a productive day, and now we have a lot of information to organize and analyze to begin our recommendations.  We hope to accomplish a lot this week so that we are able to present a mid-term report to the client early next week.

Welcome to Machakos

We have arrived in Machakos, our home for the next three weeks! We left Nairobi on Wednesday morning and all enjoyed the hour and a half drive through the Kenyan countryside; some were even lucky enough to spot a giraffe on the drive (not me, unfortunately!). Below is a picture of the countryside from our drive.

As we arrived in Machakos, a small town surrounded by beautiful green hills, it became quickly apparent that life here would be calmer and much slower-paced than life in Nairobi. After settling in to the hotel, (finally) unpacking, and taking a quick meeting with the District Commissioner of Machakos, we headed out for a tour of the town. Below is a picture of our hotel.

Alex acted as our local Machakos tour guide and led us to the city center. We walked around the shops and restaurants in downtown Machakos. We even made a quick stop in the local club, which was empty despite the DJ blasting music at 5PM. Everywhere we looked, someone was working hard to try and sell something homemade: shoes made from tires, baskets, slingshots. As we explored Machakos, I quickly noticed how friendly the locals were; young children would come up to say hi, and several people smiled and welcomed us to the city. Below is a picture from our tour of Machakos.

Thursday was spent hard at work in a conference room at the hotel. As our part of our work to create a Vision 2030 dashboard for the citizens of Kenya, my subteam and I headed into Machakos to speak to the local citizens about Vision 2030 and how they would like to receive information concerning the program. After talking with almost 20 citizens, it quickly became apparently that although they are aware of the Vision 2030 program, they are not aware of the specific flagship projects that comprise the effort. Additionally, it became clear that a lot of the citizens of Machakos do not have daily access to internet, which would make it difficult to receive status updates from a dashboard; many told us they would prefer to receive this information in a newspaper, magazine, or from TV. This is something we will have to think about as we proceed with our project.

Tomorrow, we head out for the weekend on our first safari to the Masai Mara! I am very excited and cannot wait for the adventure.

Jambo from Nairobi!

I have finally arrived in Nairobi! The last four days have been a whirlwind, I can't believe it was only Friday when I left from DC. When I arrived on Saturday - the last of our 12 team members to arrive in Nairobi - I was quickly welcomed into the group. It was wonderful to finally put faces to the voices I had been hearing on our weekly conference calls the past three months. Although we are all from different countries and backgrounds, it was immediately clear that we would all get along very well and will develop a very strong team dynamic. Saturday night we headed to our first team dinner, hosted by our fabulous DOT partners Alex and Muriuki, and spent time getting to know one another (and try our first Tusker beer).

Starting Sunday morning, it was straight to work! We worked with our subteams to finalize our initial presentations to the client, we met with Muriuki and Alex to learn more about the history of Kenya, the challenges the country is facing, and the recent emphasis on innovation, and finally attended in our first subteam presentation with the client. Never a dull moment! Below is a picture of our entire team with Alex and Muriuki before the first presentation.

We were also determined to try our first taste of authentic Kenyan food, and so our group headed to Ronalo's in downtown Nairobi. A live band kept us entertained throughout the evening, and for a special performance of "No Woman No Cry," the band even called Richard onto the stage to perform with them - what a fun evening! Below is a picture of our Ronalo's meal.

On Tuesday, our subteam was finally able to meet face-to-face with our client, Vision 2030, and present our work plan. Following our presentation, we were able to meet with several resources within the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat to learn more about the the client's current reporting process, the client's expectations, and the Vision 2030 goals, structure, and flagship projects. It was a very productive day, and our team left with a lot more information (and several pages of notes!). The task ahead of us is large but exciting, and I am looking forward to what our team is able to design. Below is a picture of my subteam at the Vision 2030 office.

Tomorrow our team leaves Nairobi and heads to Machakos, where we will be living for the next two weeks. My short stay in Nairobi has been great, but I am looking forward to exploring Machakos!

Final Preparations

In less than five days, I will leave to join my team in Kenya. It's amazing how quickly the time has flown by!

Three weeks ago we received our subteam assignments. I, along with Camy (Mexico), Lotem (Israel), and Kensuke (Japan) had been assigned to a project with the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat. Vision 2030 is Kenya's new development plan to transform Kenya into a globally competitive and prosperous nation by the year 2030. It is a very exciting initiative comprised of over a hundred social, political, and economic flagship projects, and I am extremely excited to be working with them.

The goal of our project is to develop the high level framework for a Vision 2030 dashboard; a dashboard will promote Kenya's open data policy and will also allow Kenya citizens and Vision 2030 stakeholders to quickly and easily access the progress of the various Vision 2030 projects. Last week, our team held our first meeting with our client to introduce ourselves and learn more about the goals of the project. Based on the results of this meeting, our team has been working to complete a work plan for our month in Kenya. We submitted the plan to Muriuki, our DOT partner, for initial review and will hopefully be submitting the final version to the client this week.

Over the weekend, I began the overwhelming packing process - packing for five and a half weeks is quite the challenge! I have a few more things to pull together before I leave Friday morning, but for the most part I am ready to go. My next post will be from Kenya; I am looking forward to arriving, exploring Nairobi, and meeting the rest of my team in person!