Safety, Hiking and Living the life

Hey Everyone,

Well after weeks and weeks of safety, work and fun issues in Nairobi I am finally out for LC visits in a little town called Nakuru about 2 hours outside of the big city. And things are sweet.

First of all, I have the interns to plan activities around, which means regardless of circumstances or excuses if we have something planned... we do it. Second, I have a stable place to live that is right close to where I work. Third, I work at the POOL.

Yah. Finally starting to live that life I always told myself that I would live. Nothing like lounging by the pool getting a suntan doing up powerpoints about leadership and goal setting.

The days here have been what Africa should be like.. Calm and safe being able to do my work in an environment that doesn't make me feel like I am going crazy.

Enough about negatives, finally I am in a place that I can start writing about the huge positives of my experience thus far in Kenya.

First of all I can honestly see myself working harder than ever when I get back home. Not just for HIV/AIDS but for work in general. When you come to a developing counttry you quickly realize that you will get nothing done without solid infrastructure and a good internet connection (if you are planning like working when you are at home) if not, you will most likely get caught up in the extremely relaxed culture and become indifferent to timelines and generally a sense of apathy sets in.

But when you sit down and realize that you could get everythig that you do here in a week done in about a day back home it really gets you excited for the possibility of returning home and putting in some solid work hours. You really get to see how much your capacity to get things done has grown over the years when you sit around an office in Nairobi and WANT to work, but due to factors which are out of your control you cannot work.

Also, I have gotten so many great ideas for starting businesses from the fantastic entrepreneurs around Kenya. These people, as I have previously said, are extremely resourceful when it comes to getting products and selling them. While I would suggest that their methods of "HEY WHITEY!!! COME AND BUY THIS WATCH" or "HEY RICH WHITE GUY... GIVE ME MONEY" may be counter-productive in a western sense, there is still much to be learned about the culture here in Kenya.

I finally can really relate to all of the rap videos and general "ghetto culture" in america. Wonder why the rappers are always screaming about "HUSTLIN'"? Come to Africa. What they do to "hustle" on the streets of compton is a direct result from the culture here in africa where they hawk everything that isn't tied down and make noises like a cat hissing to get your attention.

I have made some really awesome connections with other interns which has resulted in more travelling and trips than I could have ever done on my own. I am going to Spain with an Austrailian, India with an Indian, Holland with some people from Holland, and I have convinced many people to come and visit Canada to travel and learn more about my culture.

I have changed the view of the world for several people here in Kenya regarding what the West is really like. First of all, the people here in Kenya get 2 international news stations: CNN and BBC. Talk about a warped view on the world already. But here is the kicker: People sell their houses, their animals and give up their livelihood to travel to America their sort of paradise. But as I found out yesterday... people here believe that North America does not have poor people. NO POOR PEOPLE. Right... well I guess the positive thing I can say out of this is that America as a whole has a GREAT ad campaign when it comes to building on its superiority complex... but we are talking about EDUCATED people believing that they will make it huge in America... because frankly.. people don't die of starvation there. Ohh wait.

So I am glad I could really educate them that they should A: Turn off CNN and B: don't sell your life here short. People come here to tour around not because things are crappy here, but because the land is beautiful and the people are great. The people here in Africa should really stop selling themeselves short. Every country in the world has problems... but in order to grow they concentrate on their strengths.

I heard recently that my video was shown at WRC in Winnipeg! Pretty pumped and I hope that I start to hear of a lot more people looking to come here to Kenya and Africa in the future... just AVOID NAIROBI!

I just got back yesterday from hiking up a dormant volcano and looking into the 9km in diameter crater. It was awesome. But given that I get 2k a second here and I don;t have 3000 shillings to give to load one picture up I will try to load pictures up when I get back to Nairobi!

Cheers everyone,

Devan

PS: I have already heard that Devin O'neal and Rylee Mckay are thinking about joining me for part of my adventure across Europe. If you are interested in travelling and are looking for some solid fun with me and the boys hit me back at my e-mail!