Nat Africa

End of Year Post

2010-12-24T06:10:00.000-08:00

I recently celebrated the two year anniversary of my stay in Kenya. It is hard to believe that I have been living abroad for so long. What began as an 8 month consulting assignment has evolved into a fantastic 26 month experience. Juhudi Kilimo has grown from a small pilot project into a real business. We have a new website and we were featured in several news articles. Our partnership with Kiva in 2010 has been quite productive by helping us distribute over $550,000 worth of loans. Thanks to all of you who have provided our clients with loans through the Kiva site. Next year will be exciting as we finally hope to close on our funding and will roll out new projects such as M-Pesa and the SMS survey tool called mSwali.

Some personal highlights of the last few months include my rafting trip on the Nile to Jinja in Uganda, a trek through the jungles of Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas and a few other stories I wanted to share.

In Uganda we rode the big white water on the Nile before a new dam destroys the whole valley.

I enjoyed some bungee jumping into the river as well.

In November I joined a group of friends on a trip to Rwanda to tour the genocide museum of Kigali and see the mountain gorillas. We were charged several times by the gorillas who were drunk on bamboo shoots. One person in our group was actually slapped by a young male.

Diani Beach Generosity

I was biking in Diani beach with a friend and some 20km south of our hotel when we rolled into a thorn patch along the beach. Dozens of razor sharp thorns quickly cut clear to the wheel-well of our tires. We slowly walked our bikes back to the main road and into the nearest town. The afternoon was approaching and I was getting worried that we would not make it back to our hotel before dark. After asking around the village, we found a group of kids who directed us to a bicycle repair shack. There we found an old man with some super glue and a few strips of rubber. The initial diagnosis uncovered nearly 30 puncture holes and resulted in a bill of 500 shillings (about $6).

Unfortunately, I had spent our last 200 shillings on a few bottles of water and did not have a single cent to my name. We begged for help but the old man would not consider doing the work pro-bono. The group of children who had followed us from the beach all banded together, dug deep into their pockets and scraped together the money we needed for the repairs. I will never understand why these children spent their month’s savings to help two strangers from the US fix their flat tires. In many parts of Kenya a gang of children would easily steal our bikes and leave us stranded in the streets or worse. Kenya continues to surprise me.

M-Pesa in the Farms

In August of this year, Juhudi Kilimo held a training event and a new office launch in the town of Eldoret which is in the western part of Kenya. We invited 150 farmer group officials who represented about 3,000 farmers to participate in a free training session on agriculture and animal husbandry. The training is our way of expanding our lending operations into a new area. During the registration, one of my regional managers noticed a large crowd of farmers who were gathered in the lobby of the seven-story hotel where our training was being held. The manager discovered that these farmers from the rural parts of the country had never been inside of an elevator before. They were terrified of the small box that seemed to swallow people and disappear with them. We finally convinced everyone to make the journey to the 7^th floor (many opted for the stairs) where we began our training.

At the end of the event, I was telling the crowd about Juhudi Kilimo’s plan to roll out M-Pesa, the mobile money payment system with Safaricom, and asked how many of them were familiar with the new mobile technology which is not even available in the US. All the farmers raised their hands. Safaricom did an amazing job in identifying an appropriate technology for the rural Kenyan farmer and then in distributing it to the most remote regions of the country. It gave me lots of hope for our plans to integrate M-Pesa with our loan administration system.

I am looking forward to a great 2011 with Juhudi Kilimo in Kenya.

2010 Kenya Maralal Camel Derby

2010-08-31T04:56:00.000-07:00

August 2010 marked the 20^th annual Maralal Camel Derby in Northern Kenya. I was fortunate enough to participate alongside 40 friends from Nairobi and Western Kenya. The derby races were comprised of a 10k camel race, a tri-camel-thon (run, bike, camel) and the team tri-camel-thon.

My small invite to seven people quickly grew to 40 and later required a small caravan of four cars and a 25 passenger bus from Nairobi to haul our group seven hours north to the small town of Maralal. Little did we know what awaited us as we all boarded our vehicles at 11am in the morning from Westgate in Nairobi. Five hours into the drive, the tarmac ended and we bounded along rough dirt roads deep into the bush. The sun went down and we had not seen a sign of life for several hours. The bus passengers started to get uneasy. Northern Kenya is not a place you want to drive around at night due to the high probability of bandit attacks. I reassured everyone that we were still headed in the direction of Maralal and did my best to keep moral high. Around 8pm we halted in front of a sizable river with water reaching well above the wheel well of the bus. The group emptied out of the bus into the desolate night to lighten the load for the crossing. Fortunately, the bus powered through the river only to reach another treacherous stretch of deep mud which had already swallowed a small truck earlier. We somehow managed to find a better road and reached Maralal a little after 11pm under the escort of some local police who kept any bandits at bay.

The morning of the derby was just as chaotic as the night before. The derby ran out of camels for our group and needed to include several non-racing local camels. The camel selection process was critical to the success of the race. I was lucky to be placed with a scrawny white camel named Daha who looked like he would buckle under my weight. Each rider was also assigned a “handler” who was a young boy who ran behind the camel beating it with a stick.

About 30 racers in all lined up on the starting gates to begin the first 10k camel race of the day. With my vuvuzela strapped to my back, I raced forward and began an hour-long struggle of excruciating pain and battle to stay balanced on the camel. There is no skill involved in camel racing but just to hold on tightly and try to not let the saddle-pounding shake you apart. We raced through the streets and down the open plains of Maralal avoiding thorny bushes and trees while all along being spurred on by the little handlers with thier sticks. My crazy camel sprinted down hills out of control and I managed to get near the front of the pack. Nearly passing out from the pain and exhaustion I glimpsed the finish line but my camel decided to take a rest break almost 100m from the end. I blasted my vuvuzela but Daha just reared around to bite me. We quickly sorted out our differences and crossed the finish line to place 5^th in the race.

The afternoon races which featured the challenging tri-camel-thon which includes a 2.5K run, 5K bike and a final 5K camel. I had too many lacerations on my ankles from the camel stirrups but still entered the team event and selected the bike section. Our team placed 3^rd overall and brought in some nice prize money.

The journey back to Nairobi was not nearly as eventful but exhaustion took over and everyone slept most of the way home.

I look forward to training for 2011.

July Update

2010-07-04T05:37:00.001-07:00

Summer in America is hard to beat. This is a picture of Doha but I recently spent time in DC and New York at conferences raising money for our company. We had some successful meetings but I feel like it may still be many months before we see any serious investment. Regrettably, I had to sacrifice my trip to the World Cup to make my trip to America, so I hope the trip was fruitful. For the first time, I experienced some culture shock when I landed in DC and met up with some friends for burgers and beer. The streets were quiet and organized and people were able to walk around at night. The bars, stores and malls all provide more things to buy than the mind can process at once. I felt like a foreigner in another country and one of my friends gently reminded me that I was.

After the work portion of my trip ended in the East Coast, I made my way back to Colorado to visit my family and complete my annual fishing trip with my twin brother. The upper Colorado River remains one of the most pristine and spectacular stretches of land I have ever seen in all my travels around the world. My brother and I spent three glorious days stalking big trout in our drift boat along the banks of the mighty Colorado River.

During our last two nights we did not see a single person on the water or at any of the moonlit campsites. We managed to bring in a considerable load of hefty fish even under the constraints of the early season water conditions. I just hope this part of the world always stays like this and remains far away from disasters like the oil spill in the Gulf.

Two days after returning to Kenya, I joined some friends on a trip to the Lewa Conservancy to participate in a fundraiser half-marathon. This being my first ever half-marathon, I was quite intimidated by the 800 other runners. Keep in mind that this part of Kenya is home to 40% of the world champion marathon runners. Many believe the Lewa marathon to be among the most difficult races in the world due to the high altitude and course topography. The runners also need to share the trail with lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo and several other wild animals known to kill people. We were fortunate not to see anything dangerous but it was quite exhilarating running alongside antelope and zebras under the shadow of Mt. Kenya in the distance. My pre-training was pathetic. I finished in a little over two hours, but I managed to pass about 600 people along the way.

Now it is back to the grind of long days and sleepless nights in efforts to bring more resources to the rural smallholder farmers of Kenya. We are pilot testing the M-Pesa mobile money transfer system on our clients next month which I hope will bring convenience to our farmers and lower our own costs.

1 Year Anniversary

2010-05-09T10:45:00.001-07:00

Juhudi Kilimo celebrated its one-year anniversary in April last month. We have come a long way but still have much further to go. Kenya is full of microfinance companies and and all of them would like to reach the rural poor smalholder farmer with products similar to ours. Juhudi is well positioned to be the first in the rural areas of Kenya but we still need to expand to secure our foothold.

The microfinance sector seems to be focused on Sub-Saharan Africa as Nairobi recently hosted the Africa Middle East Microcredit Summit. This Summit was attended by celebrities such as the Queen of Spain, the Princess of the Netherlands, President Kibaki of Kenya and Nobel Lauriat Muhammad Yunus. The sector is expanding exponentially since my first visit to a little non-profit called SKS in India. SKS is about to float an IPO and raise $250 million. Juhudi hopes to be the next success story in improving the livelihoods of the rural communities of Africa. We recently moved out of the pilot phase on Kiva and hope to reach our new monthly fundraising limit in May

For the first time since my arrival in Nairobi, I finally managed to pay a round of golf. Many of the Microcredit Summit attendees were stranded in Kenya due to the volcano and I entertained one of them at one of the golf courses in Nairobi.

I used up the last of my airline miles to make a nice trip to Egypt and the fantastic city of Cairo. The lifestyle and people of Cairo drew me in immediately. I could easily live there.

I made some good friends, rode fast camels and managed to get invited to an Egyptian wedding.

I spent many hours playing dominos over a cup of Egyptian tea or a water pipe and talking international trade in broken Arabic trade with old men who could not believe I had come to them from Kenya. The Egyptians were great at hassling foreigners and charging exorbitant prices for things like a camel ride. I threw them for a loop when I started paying them with Kenyan shillings, which they had no idea of value but accepted enthusiastically.

I do not have many more travels planned but there just may be a trip to DC in June or perhaps a journey to South Africa for the World Cup at some point this summer.

Wundanyi - The Switzerland of Kenya

2010-01-26T10:39:00.000-08:00

Near the southwest town of Voi sits a little oasis tucked in the Taita hills called Wundanyi. I like to call it the “Switzerland of Kenya” because of the breathtaking mountain views and lush rolling hills. Juhudi Kilimo has a small field office in this town that I was able to visit recently.

I think Wundanyi is one of the few towns in Kenya where anyone can walk around the streets late at night and not worry about safety.

"Staff Olympics" after a long days work

We hope to expand in this region of Kenya and were conducting an outreach and training program with the help of SwissContact, our partner organization. I might buy some land and expand there myself someday.

In the office most of my days are spent with normal CFO responsibilities such as updating our financial plans and budgets or answering the seemingly endless questions from potential investors (I actually like that part). The other half of the day is take up by my general manager duties such as developing a strategy for rolling out the mobile phone money transfer system with Safaricom or identifying new assets to finance such as solar lights and bio gas plants. My side projects include designing a metrics-based compensation plan and organizing a training curriculum for our 36 employees.

In the midst of all this activity, I started to realize how incredibly global my day to day activities have become. We are a tiny Kenyan company but seem to operate with dozens of countries from around the world. In one day I met with a group of Italian rating analysts in the morning then chatted with a Brazilian agriculture expert and later had a conference call with a Colombian investor in India followed by another call with a French micro-insurance agent in Tajikistan. Now through Kiva.org we have hundreds of lenders from several more countries contributing directly to our client loans. At night, I went home and fell asleep listening to a free live broadcast of NPR from Denver on my cell phone just to remind me of the "simple" life back home.

A New Year

2010-01-08T23:42:00.000-08:00

Christmas came early for Juhudi Kilimo. I purchased a tree for the office and suddenly the money started to roll in. Before the close of 2009, we were able to secure around $1.04 million in funding from fantastic organizations such as OikoCredit, MESPT, K-Rep Bank and Kiva.org.

The entire Juhudi family is especially excited to be one of the newest Kenyan partners with Kiva. If you have never visited the Kiva website, I suggest you do and register with our group “Friends of Juhudi Kilimo”. In the next few months you will be able to provide loans directly to our clients through the Kiva website.

Anyone in the world can now lend as little as $25 to our clients in rural Kenya. Our staff will be taking pictures and uploading stories about our clients so you can choose whom you would like to support. Since you are providing a loan and not a donation, you will get your $25 back to lend again or cash out. I will do my best to make sure your loan is paid back by our clients.

We also launched our new website: http://www.juhudikilimo.com/.

I spent five glorious days skiing with my family in the freezing temperature of Colorado. Since I have been in Kenyon I find it much harder to adjust to the cold.

Now I am looking forward to another great year in Kenya and enjoying its perfect weather.

December in Kenya

2009-12-06T02:25:00.000-08:00

This post is long overdue. I give lots of credit to all those people who are better about updating their blogs regularly!

My Kenyan Thanksgiving consisted of a fresh 5lb red snapper from the coast and a fantastic sunburn. Still a much better deal than battling the cold and the snow of Colorado.

My last six months were spent fundraising and building our new company, Juhudi Kilimo. The first investor to jump into this relationship with us could be well rewarded. The only problem is… nobody wants to be the first to jump.

Juhudi Kilimo means “effort” and “agriculture” in Swahili and the company provides micro-asset financing for productive assets such as dairy cows, chickens and irrigation equipment to thousands of rural smallholder farmers all across Kenya.

Dairy cow in Murang'a

Water tank financed for irrigation during the droughts

A serious chicken farmer

Client training at Juhudi Kilimo

A Kenyan goat- fantastic for eating

"Asset" transport in the rural areas

We are also continuing to spend time with the East African Dairy Development Program in our Rural Enterprise Financing program to provide financing to a series of milk chilling plants throughout Kenya. The chilling plants bulk and cool the milk from rural dairy farmers and create a consistent outlet to sell milk for many of our smallholder farmers who have purchased cows with our loans. The plant also prevents the evening milk from spoiling before it can be processed by the larger processing plants. Currently, we are financing two plants in Western Kenya near towns called Kabiyet and Lelan. The Kabiyet plant started collecting milk in August this year and is now gathering 23,000 liters of milk per day from the surrounding dairy farmers.

The $140,000 plant is already profitable and looking to pull in close to $145,000 in profits this year. The farmers in the area are excited because they are now paid 25 Kenyan Shillings (about 33 cents) a liter instead of the 18 (24 cents) from local hawkers. If the average farmer sells 14 liters per day, that creates another 100 shillings ($1.30) in income each day. It might not sound like much but an extra $1 a day in the rural areas of Kenya can go a very long way.

The Kabiyet and Lelan plants are community owned with a local board, so all of the profits remain in the village and are distributed throughout the 3,000 shareholders from the community. The whole story makes me want to quit my job, buy a few cows and start a dairy farm.

I am committed to staying with Juhudi Kilimo for as long as they are able to remain operating to help drive the management and source financing. We are so close to making something spectacular with Juhudi Kilimo and we have already come a long way.

Colorado River, Istanbul and Juhudi

2009-09-05T03:01:00.000-07:00

Colorado was warm, beautiful and full of good times. The fishing was
a little slow. My brother and I successfully navigated a pristine 40
mile piece of water in our drift boat along the upper Colorado River. The stretch included the passage of a wild rapid called Rodeo- an experience I do not need to repeat in the near future. It was also comforting to be camping in an area where only three animals might be deadly (bear, mountain lion, rattle snake) instead of 35+ around Kenya.

On my flight back to Africa I made a stopover in Turkey to visit
Istanbul. The majestic roof-top vistas of the Bosporus River and prominent
architecture of the mosques will remain etched in my mind for some time.

I think Istanbul has just made its way into my top 10 lists of favorite
cities. Since Istanbul straddles both Europe and Asia, I managed to
set foot on four continents in just four days.

During the last weekend before my official work start-date I took a
quick trip to Diani beach on the southern coast of Kenya. This time of
year yields the best weather at the coast and I took advantage of the
superb diving in the Indian Ocean. My friend and I rented mountain
bikes and managed to get stranded with four flat tires and no cash in
a little village about 15 miles from the hotel. A small group of
young boys evaluated our plight and then dug deep in their pockets to
produce the $1.50 needed to repair our tires. This money was probably
their month savings but they were eager to donate it to help some
complete strangers. Someday I hope to return the favor.

I am now starting my first week as the new CFO at Juhudi Kilimo.
The expectations are well beyond any of my capabilities but
I am excited to begin. We have an aggressive financing plan with
hopes of bringing in $2 million by the end of November.
Perhaps we will find some investors and donors as generous as the
village kids near Diani beach?

Kilimanjaro

2009-08-09T00:14:00.000-07:00

I successfully made it to the top of the 19,341 foot summit of Kilimanjaro. It was a rough climb. My group chose the Machame route (also known as the whiskey route) which is one of the more challenging climbs to the top.

I was graciously joined by a fantastic Canadian family and a professor from the UK. Our group of five climbers required an entourage of 15 porters, two guides and one cook to carry us up the mountain.

The scene certainly brought images of the Colonial Era expeditions in Africa. I thought I had signed up for the budget tour but that even came with the full floral display on our dinner table which the porters took to each campsite.

Other groups on the mountain had as many as 200 people in their company with house-sized tents, elegant meals, gas generators and flat screen TVs. Each night was like staying in a tented village. Not quite the camping I had in mind.

The physical and mental challenges of the climb were intense and at many points I seriously questioned my ability to continue. It took us five days to climb and one day to descend back to the town of Moshi.

The more time people spend on the ascent the better their chances are of avoiding altitude sickness.

The ranger station at 14,000ft sold cold beer.

The summit of Kilimanjaro was one of the most spectacular views I have experienced in my life. It made the whole journey worth all the troubles.

Now that I have mastered the two tallest peaks in Africa, I will set my sights on the Americas, Asia or Antarctica.

One more job update:

I was recently given an enticing offer by a UNDP organization called AMSCO that places expatriate managers in companies across Africa. I will now be working under AMSCO instead of Accenture with my new role as General Manager and Chief Financial Officer of Juhudi Kilimo. AMSCO provides all the benefits of a UN employee such as diplomatic immunity and tax free salary. I will still be in Nairobi until December unless our team can finally raise some money to keep the company going.

I will be in the US for the next two weeks which includes a long fishing trip on the Colorado River.

Job Update

2009-07-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a long awaited post...

Job
I managed to convince the Grassroots Business Fund to pay me through Accenture to continue and work with K-Rep until December. This is nice because I can continue doing the work I love and get paid this time. If our new company, Juhudi Kilimo, lives up to its potential we will transform the agricultural sector of Africa and secure jobs and food for millions of people.

My next task with this company is to design a new business that finances “rural enterprises” or SMEs (small and medium enterprises) like the chilling plants I was talking about earlier. There is a massive demand for this type of financial service and we only need to convince a few innovative investors or donors that we can do it profitably. If we do, the potential social, developmental and financial returns are spectacular.

Samburu
Our most recent national park adventure was up north to Samburu near the town of Isiolo. It was the usual crew from the US Embassy and Accenture but this time we were joined by a free-lance photographer who put me to shame on any kind of photo-taking endeavor.

We have a few too-close encounters with the local elephants and I was able to snag a few good videos too.

Fly fishing
I finally caught my first trout in Africa. It was a puny little brown but good to break in the continent. My most recent fly fishing student, Craig, somehow pulled in five fish to my one on the trip.

Kilimanjaro
My trip to the summit of Kilimanjaro begins on July 31st and will take about 6 days from the town of Moshi. Should be fun.

Tsavo and Watamu

2009-05-03T02:43:00.000-07:00

Highlights from the last month include a trip to Tsavo National Park where the movie about the man-eating lions, The Ghost and the Darkness, takes place.

We did not see any man-eaters but we were chased down by an angry mother rhino and her child. Fortunately, the rhino was intimidated by our Toyota Rav4 and backed down. The animals are much wilder in Tsavo than the other Kenyan parks.

Normally leopards are of the most difficult animals to see in the wild due to their shy nature and nocturnal feeding habits. My friends and I are becoming excellent game trackers and managed to get some close-up shots of this juvenile leopard.

Tsavo reminded me of parts of Boulder, Colorado.

I joined a few friends from Accenture on a trip over the Easter weekend to the coastal town of Watamu. Tourist season never happened due to the economy and we managed to get a fantastic rate at a beach-side Italian villa for the weekend.

I am not going to post the name of this place because of alleged ties to the mafia but here are some pictures.

Our group spent a day trying out careers in pirating aboard a wooden dhow.

The rest of my time is spent doling out work for the Grassroots Business Fund in our efforts to launch a new rural financial services company we are calling, Juhudi Kilimo. When we finally get this thing off the ground in the coming months, I know it will have a tremendous impact on rural poverty in Kenya.

With the spring months on their way, I thought it would be high time to return to the US for a few weeks. I will be attending a wedding in CA and Workshop in DC with the Grassroots Business Fund titled: Metrics from the Ground Up. The outcome of this trip home will likely determine my future in Kenya.

One Month Update

2009-03-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

These are some highlights from my last month. I now have a new modem and can connect a little better to the internet.

Masai Mara

Once again my team of Americans, Canadians and Japanese voyaged to the far reaches of the Masai Mara reserve to camp and chase animals.

I managed to spot some lions and cheetahs this time. The Mara is one of the most spectacular parks when it comes to viewing animals.

A lioness even walked under the bumper of our van. I decided to stay in the van. We stumbled upon a family of cheetahs one morning but were quickly crowded out by 50 safari vans full of camera wielding tourists.

Sweet Water

This is one of my favorite game parks that sits just west of Mt. Kenya. Our

group of eight secured some great rates at the tented camps outside a

popular watering hole for giraffes.

I somehow convinced the owner of a 2008 Land Rover Defender to let me take the wheel for a day. The Defender is a cross between a Hummer and a Land Cruiser. Nothing gets in its way.

We drove it across rivers and pounded through thick forests in pursuit of elephants and rhinos.

Horse Races

Nairobi is home to some nice race tracks seemingly left over from the

British colonial days. The Ngong road Raceway came complete with a golf

driving range in the middle of the track. I look forward to attending the Kenya Derby on April 5th.

Ngong Hills

The outdoors of Nairobi are what Karen Blixen made famous in that

book/movie "Out of Africa." My two friends, Kerry and Eline, from

Doctors Without Boarders, joined a human rights lawyer and me to explore this vast region. We climbed the seven hills shadowing Nairobi. We even hired an armed guard in case we had to fend off the bandits, rogue buffalo or lions.

Mungiki Protests

The national underground quasi-mafia group decided to stage a protest

the day I was to visit two of Nairobi’s worst slums. None of our clients showed up for the meeting and we could not understand why. We later discovered that the Mungiki had not only frightened people into their homes, but they had effectively shut down most public transportation for the day with some death threats.

Goat Eating Party

Our chief accountant is getting married in April and he invited me to their “goat eating” party. I have developed quite an appetite for tender goat meat and now prefer it over lamb. The “party” was more of a fundraiser and roast for the bride and groom to be.

Fly fishing with the Hippos

A few brave souls came with me on a treacherous fishing expedition to the hippo invested Lake Naivasha. Hippos kill more people each year in the continent of Africa than any other animal. Juvenile giraffes lined the banks and watched us as we casted for prize black bass. We did not catch a single fish and managed to get the boat stuck a few times but we made it through with no hippo attacks.

Fishing Video

Work

While my blog may not indicate this… each week I work myself to exhaustion trying to make sense of a complicated business with a dizzying financial model. It is extremely challenging and fascinating work. I would like to think it is having an impact on the rural poor of Kenya.

Most of my time last month was taken up with entertaining some visitors

from the Grassroots Business Fund. I had a nice time showing Vinay

and Rafi some of the daily joys and challenges I face in Kenya (like

the internet connection). We ate kilos of Nyama Choma (Kenyan grilled

tender meat) and drank our fill of Tusker beer in remote places like

Kitui and Nkubu.

I visited another village bank in Itoleca and was hailed as Obama’s cousin and offered a boiled goat brain. My favorite town is now located in the lush hillsides of Meru in the northeast part of Kenya. Vinay and I were out with our field staff tagging our client’s cows for an insurance company. We tagged close to 20 cows in two days. I learned all about dairy cow breeds and their corresponding daily milk yields. A Kshs 120,000 ($1,500) Austin Heifer can produce as much as 50 liters of milk a day! This is some serious business.

Mt. Kenya Climb

2009-02-19T05:02:00.000-08:00

I successfully reached the 16,355 foot peak of Mt. Kenya. Our stellar team of eight Americans, two Kenyans and one Canadian climbed for three days across spectacular terrain to reach the peak.

The air was thin and the chill wind cut through us like glass, but we managed to prevail against all of Mother Nature's forces. The landscape reminded me of Patagonia, with a dash of the Utah Canyonlands, but populated with trees and plants from a Dr. Seuss book.

In following with standard protocol, our expedition hired five porters to carry gear and cook the food. I had lugged my frame pack and camping equipment all the way to Kenya and, to the porter's surprise, I was not about to let someone else carry my stuff. We hiked to two campsites before our final ascent. The campsites consisted of crude huts that were packed with bunk beds. Nevertheless, they managed to keep the cold at bay.

Paul, our Kenyan guide, was a professional marathoner from the famous Kalenjin tribe of Kenya. The Kalenjins produce a vast majority of the top Kenyan runners and Olympic medal winners. Paul completes a marathon in about 2hrs 20min and had little trouble hiking the mountain. The rest of our team included three Americans from Georgia. Their accents brought back good memories of my days in Nashville.

Other than the occasional fat Rock Hyrax, we saw very little wildlife. On our hike to the bottom, our guide noticed Jaguar prints and trailing hoof prints of the deer-like Dikdik. An angry bull elephant knocked an enormous tree down just as we turned a corner, but stomped away before I could get a picture. Climbing Mt. Kenya has given me the confidence to climb Kilimanjaro or maybe something in the Himalayas.

Back in action

2009-01-27T04:33:00.000-08:00

So sorry to all of you for the delay in posting! I did not realize that people were actually reading this.

After my break in the bitter cold of Colorado, I am now back in Africa. The same beautiful weather. Plenty of poverty to alleviate. And the same long days of work under the whip of the Grassroots Business Fund. I managed to watch the US Inauguration ceremonies from a crowded bar (it was late at night here). The Kenyans were running in the streets waiving big American flags in celebration. Other highlights for me include joining an ultimate Frisbee league and taking official Swahili lessons

The K-Rep director and I attended another FSA launch ceremony this weekend in a village outside Nairobi called Kasikeu. Once again I was greeted with celebrity status and called “Obama” by the all locals. The K-Rep Bank employees think I give them good PR… I feel like a mascot.

I included a few videos from the entertainment and ribbon cutting ceremony. As much as I tried to avoid giving another speech, a group of old women demanded that I say a few words. Somehow my Swahili has progressed to the point where I was able to tell everyone what country I was from, where I work, and that Barak Obama wishes them all the very best.

Aleke, the district officer and ONato

Signing the official register

One exciting initiative I am working on is a partnership with my company and an online lending group called Kiva.org. This arrangement could deliver some new loan capital to all of our FSAs. Check back in a few months and hopefully you will be able to loan as little as $25 to all these friendly villages from my pictures.

Ribbon Cutting

Some local dances

Aleke Dondo from K-Rep motivates the crowd

Skiing in Kenya

2009-01-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

Not really skiing in Africa. These pictures are from Colorado.

I survived several months in “Nairobbery” with out any incidents of theft but the first weekend in the US, my skis were stolen. Fortunately, the thief was apprehended when he tried to sell my skis to a shop outside of town. Not too wise.

Other highlights of my vacation included a bout with E. coli (always fun) and a weekend of extreme skiing in the deep snow of Silverton, CO.

It is about time for me to leave this -5 degree weather and return to the sunshine of Kenya.

Amboseli

2008-12-18T06:20:00.000-08:00

Friday was Kenya’s Independence Day. The Kenyans call it Jamhuri day. My compatriots Craig and Crystal invited me yet again to chase down some wildlife in Amboseli, Kenya’s most pastoral game park at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The cloud-shrouded, 19,340 ft peak (which I hope to climb in August), gives the park a majestic backdrop.

This time we decided to take our tents and camp for two nights in the park. The park is much more exciting when you give the animals a chance to eat you at night.

Just five minutes after passing the west gate of the park, our car was immediately surrounded by a family of seven elephants. Normally dangerous, the Amboseli elephants are comfortable around cars and can even be a little too friendly.

We dropped into the posh Serena Amboseli Lodge a few times for some lunch or coffee on the picturesque veranda.

The rest of the time we spent driving through the rough back roads of the park in search of lions and cheetahs. No cheetahs this time but we made friends with plenty elephants, hippos, zebra, hyenas and a few lazy lions. The real thrill came when we returned to our electric-fenced campsite for a night of rest. Monkeys ransacked our site each day but fortunately never made it into our padlocked tents. The terrifying nocturnal roars and cries were chilling enough to keep anyone from sleeping for a few days. Craig and Crystal bought local produce and cooked some gourmet dinners for me over the campfire each night.

The local Masai people are indigenous to Amboseli and recently regained ownership of its management. As a result, the stick wielding, shawl wrapped Masai often came politely come through our campsite. They seemed pleased just to be speaking and even invited us to see their villages (for a hefty fee). The Masai still drink cow’s blood and kill lions so I decided to stay on friendly terms with all of them.

In the next few weeks I will be in the US for Christmas and not posting much.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=nat.robinson&target=ALBUM&id=5281229889379200817&authkey=d-y5AjaHVrU&feat=email

Mombasa

2008-12-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all of you for posting comments. Sorry I can not respond to them sooner!

I decided it was high time to take a short vacation after working so much. Unable to find a flight with my friends to Lamu, I booked a flight to Mombasa for the weekend to check out the coast of Kenya by myself. Mombasa holds a special place because we were denied entry with Semester at Sea in 2001 after the September 11^th attacks. The Kenyans will tell you that the pace of life in Mombasa is a little slower (probably due to the heat) and the coast is the location of the true Swahili culture. I can attest to both. The beaches north of Mombasa do not match up to those of Virgin Gorda, Barbados, Hawaii, Brazil, Costa Rica or the Seychelles, but then, I have high standards for beaches. My guide told me to visit the southern coast next time. For a tall American, blending in was tough and I was taken for a tourist by every street peddler in the city. The constant harassment and scamming usually does not bother me but here it detracted from the experience. Some of the trip highlights include, a walking tour of the Mombasa island, a day in the WhiteSands resort and a boat trip on a refurbished Arabian dhow. It was tempting to join up with a band of Somali pirates but I chose to return to Nairobi.

Here are more pictures…

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=nat.robinson&target=ALBUM&id=5275206951436060929&authkey=Z7fxekrsg5w&feat=email

Mt. Kenya Dairy Trip

2008-11-27T05:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! No turkey or pilgrims in Kenya. I even had to work today.

K-Rep sent me to visit some rural milk chilling plants to evaluate their future investment potential. The milk chilling plants are supported by the East African Dairy Development Project (EADD), will provide thousands of jobs and create massive milk revenues for rural farmers. Like the village banks, the chilling plants are owned and operated by the farmers who receive nice dividend payments when times are good.

A team joined me from a fantastic organization called TechnoServe which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is involved in setting up these milk chilling plants. TechnoServe provides the technical assistance and training involved in running a chilling plant.

We drove up the slopes of Mt. Kenya near Nyeri and met with a group of dairy farmers in the lush valleys of the Central Province. K-Rep is much less involved in this program (at this point) so I did not have any opportunities to give speeches or do some dancing…

More pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nat.robinson/MtKenyaAndNairobi

Nairobi Slums

2008-11-27T01:23:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, my friend from K-Rep Bank drove me around some of the worst slums in Nairobi. These places we could only visit during the middle of the day on a Sunday. My digital camera was making my friend nervous so I could not take as many pictures as I liked.

We stopped and chatted with a local mechanic and shopkeeper to hear stories about how many people are killed in certain streets and that you can arrange a murder for around 3,000 Kshs or $43. We actually had to pay a tax the slum lord just to drive through his neighborhood. They do not get too many Americans walking around their neighborhoods and I attracted plenty of attention. Although, at no point in my time in Nairobi have I any incidents of being threatened.
It was still a fun experience to some of the rough parts of the city.

Mabera Village Bank

2008-11-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

I took a short flight with the company CEO to a visit a town called Kisumu in western Kenya. We were on our way to the opening ceremony of an FSA in the rural town of Mabera. Kisumu is the situated on the banks of Lake Victoria and very close to the village where Obama’s father was born. In the airport, I noticed a truckload of CNN baggage on its way back to Nairobi following the election last week.

Western Kenya seemed to mix lush basins with rolling hills scattered with small holder farms and remote towns. The company truck was skillfully maneuvered along the pothole riddled mountain roads at high speeds by our veteran driver, Asika. Our team of five representatives from the K-Rep Group arrived in Mabera and were promptly introduced to the village leadership and provided with a tour of the new FSA building. Ceremonies soon began under a tent with several hundred of the village residents in attendance. The Mabera village leaders delivered a series of long-winded speeches and introduced the newly elected bank board of directors. Our ceremony was then graced with the presence of the provincial government District Officer and District Commissioner (along with their full security detail in tow). Thankfully, a group of elders and traditional African dancers preformed to break up the speeches. I managed to throw out a few moves myself.

Eventually it came time to explain why I was present as the only foreigner for hundreds of miles. I was handed the microphone after a lengthy introduction as Mr. Robinson from K-Rep and I proceeded to use as many Swahili phrases as I knew. At the end of my speech, I threw in a line about being an American and how I was happy for Barak Obama. The audience then gave me a standing ovation.

The Mabera community truly embraced this FSA and I expect the bank to be a valuable resource for small businesses. I even purchased three official shares of the bank myself and anticipate a dividend within the year.

Our CEO flew back to Nairobi but Asika and I remained in Kisumu for another day and then drove the 7hr and 480kms home. I did not even notice the length of the drive since the scenery kept me well occupied. We would stop by street vendors in every town to purchase bananas, potatoes, sugar cane and anything else that might fit in the bed of the pickup truck. Asika explained to me that he was supporting the rural businesses and saving his family from the heavy costs of produce in Nairobi. This trip was a highlight to my experience this far and I hope to participate in a few more journeys throughout rural Kenya.

Here are some more pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nat.robinson/KisumuTripAndMaberaFSA

Apartment

2008-11-04T04:47:00.000-08:00

I moved into an apartment right next to the K-Rep Bank. The place is massive and very nice but does not have any furniture. The bank owns the building and was kind enough to give me one of the vacant apartments for my time in Kenya.

Only… the hot water does not work for the shower and I have to wash my cloths by hand in the sink. The Kenyans thought it was crazy that I had my own washer/dryer combo when I was living in Washington, DC. Here are a few pictures of my spacious yet empty new home.

We are continuing to burn the midnight oil and work some crazy long hours at the bank. My day starts around 7:15 and I usually do not leave the office until well past 7:00pm. These last two weekends I have also spent some time putting this financing deal together for the Grassroots Business Fund. It is so refreshing to once again have some responsibility and a daily purpose. I never in my life thought I would have to evaluate a foreign currency swap hedge (wish I had paid attention in that class at business school).

This weekend… I am scheduled to participate in the opening of a rural Financial Services Association (FSA) that the K-Rep group is supporting with the government of Kenya. These FSAs are like village banks where the local residents can take microloans but are also the owners/shareholders with the ability to vote on board members and whether or not to distribute dividends. It is a fantastic model that has seen some early success in Africa. For all of you who are worried about where to put your money these days maybe you should consider purchasing equity in a few of these FSAs. Rural Kenya is well isolated from the global financial crisis.

PS- I am seriously concerned about my welfare as a US citizen in Kenya if Obama does not win. 89% of Kenyans say they would vote for Obama.

Weekend Safari

2008-10-25T02:19:00.000-07:00

For much of the world, Africa is best known for its thousands of species of mammals, birds, insects and reptiles. Of course, just as important are its vast complexities of people, cultures and countries. That being said, the animals are incredible to see! This past weekend I joined two of my new friends, Craig and Crystal, on a safari through the National Park of Nairobi. We rented a taxi and drove for hours through herds of giraffes, zebras and water buffalo. I found it crazy.... all these animals walking around literally at the doorstep of a city of three million people. But yes, one of the best game parks in Kenya is only 15 minutes from my office.

The moment we entered the “lion territory” our 2wd minivan became bogged down in the mud. Our driver grabbed a shovel and started digging. Craig and I decided to get out and push while Crystal kept watch for any dangerous predators. Fortunately for us, nothing approached in the 40 minutes it took to get the van turned around and headed back to the paved roads. We did not see any lions or cheetahs but we hope this will be one of many safaris to come. Before today, my only exposure to some of these magnificent animals was in a zoo. The real thing is so much better!

It took a long time to upload these pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nat.robinson/NairobiSafari

Week 1 in Nairobi

2008-10-21T05:07:00.000-07:00

Parts of this city are right out of Born Free or the Lion King (not that I have seen either of those
movies) with the rolling savannas and acacia trees, while other areas give support for the city’s nickname, “Nairoberry”. My digs are located in the southwest part of the city near a major tourist market called the Ya Ya center. I was pleased to find my office was only a few blocks away and housed in the top floor of the tallest (and nicest) building in the area. It got even better when the president of the bank (Aleke Dondo) showed me my corner desk with spectacular views of the rolling highlands in the distance. Aleke is a local and international celebrity who seems to care a lot about my experience in Nairobi. I have found most of the local Kenyans and K-Rep employees to be overwhelmingly friendly and welcoming.

My immediate role at K-Rep is to assist the organization in building up their financial reports to qualify for some major financing from the Grassroots Business Fund. I sit with a small army of young accountants and try to decipher as much of the relevant financial and accounting statements as possible. Yes, I am the only American in the office which gives me flashbacks of my intern days in Shanghai. I never thought I would miss high-speed internet access but life is rough without it. Things like Skype, streaming fantasy football scores and even Facebook are nearly impossible to use. It will be tough to post any more pictures until I figure something out...

Kenya believe it?

2008-10-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

Thank you for joining my post! I will attempt to update this site regularly with pictures and stories about my time in Africa.

For those of you who thought I was going to Germany… there was a change of plans. The whole AFRICOM position did not materialize and the MBA Enterprise Corps reassigned me to a project in Nairobi, Kenya with a former IFC/World Bank fund. Somehow, I managed to squeeze in four months of vacation in Colorado during this “transition” period. Thanks to all of you who facilitated my 14 days of fly fishing, 24 rounds of golf and the 5 summits on Colorado 14ers.

Background

The MBAEC approach is similar to the concept of the Peace Corps. They send professionals to developing areas of the world to work “on the ground” with local communities, NGOs and governments. The MBAEC believes they can leverage the talents of recent MBA graduates to improve the lives of small businesses owners around the world. The participants this year will be traveling to places like Angola, Mali, Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea to work on projects such as rural tourism development and microfinance.

In 2007, I graduated from the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University with plenty of academic idealism fueled by a graduation speech from the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus. The MBAEC provided me with a venue to turn my passion for global poverty alleviation into action through a project with a social venture capital firm called the Grassroots Business Fund. I will be helping a local microfinance bank called K-Rep on a due diligence process to qualify them for a new financing package. My most recent employer, Accenture, has graciously granted me a leave of absence to spend a year overseas to partake in this endeavor. Thanks again.

My MBAEC contract lasts until July and I anticipate being able to explore much of Kenya and Africa in that time.

Please check back to find out more.