Last Days

The last few days went in a blur.  Thursday and Friday were the conference days.  It was a very small conference mostly for young researchers to present their studies in agriculture and health.  Unfortunately, on Thursday I lasted through the morning keynote speech and then by way of a grocery store for provisions, stayed in my room for the rest of the day recuperating.  

Friday was more successful.  I nearly had to give my boss' key note address which had been pre-recorded but then lost in the "cloud".  It was found with minutes to spare, and while it probably would have been a good trial by fire for me, it was still a relief.  

I was feeling well enough and so met up with my friend Miho. It was the first sunny day since I arrived so we and half of the city accessed the roof top bar scene.  After that we met up with some of her friends whom I'd gotten to know at her wedding last fall.  Unfortunately, I was still not feeling well so wasn't able to eat much but the company was great.  Saturday morning I am home bound.

Stowaway

Today was our planning meeting for our proposed Agri-Health Academy for early researchers from Africa and Asia.  We'd invited prominent researchers from around the world (aka North and South), to weigh in on the needs, gaps and vision of what this might look like.  I stepped in for my boss to do an opening statement and another colleague took over chairing a session.  This was just as well because this morning I woke up unwell.  Tuesday I had no appetite which is highly unusual and so I should have suspected something was amiss.  Since I can't pin point anything I ate on Monday (poisoned by Rotarians?), it must be a delayed response to something from Kenya.  An unwanted souvenir.  Fortunately I was still functional and managed to stick with the meeting but am spending this rainy London evening in with my crackers and soda water.

  

To London to Visit the Queen

Well not really but I am now here.  To get here I picked the short travel straw and sat next to an 18 month old who tantrumed nearly the whole way.  Fortunately the day only improved from there.  My BnB is in the great little college area of Bloomsbury - very historic with blue plaques noting famous people who have spent time there such as Lenin and Dickens.  

After making sure the hotel where our guests are staying for this week's meetings were in order, I headed to the lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of London.  It was located in a membership club called the English Speaking Union that was all dark wood, marble, sweeping stair case and chandeliers.  They proclaim themselves to be the first and oldest Rotary club in Europe.  The Duke of Edinburgh is an honorary member and I was told there are several ambassadors who are members.  Needless to say I was a bit under dressed and glad that work is reimbursing my meals. The speaker that day was an American executive from Chevron giving a presentation about hydraulic fracturing aka "fracking".  I wasn't disappointed that I had to leave before he was finished.  

Next up was a meeting with the partner running tomorrow's meeting.  I found out the night I left Nairobi that my boss has sciatica so can not sit on an airplane due to severe pain.  We were able to come up with a plausible plan B.  And then this evening I met up with a good friend for dinner.  

Nairobi layover

Because of meetings in London this week it didn't make sense to go back to the US in between so I had some time to use.  I opted to spend the day being a tourist in Nairobi before my midnight flight.  I hired a driver and we headed towards the aforementioned suburb of Karen.  I ended up not visiting the Karen Blixen Museum but did have lunch in a really great garden restaurant adjacent.  The weather was perfect and it was a very peaceful little oasis.  After that I ventured to the Oloolua Nature Trail which I had found on the internet but no one seemed to know it.  It is in a forest and from what I could tell is popular with local students.  While nothing phenomenal nature-wise, it was a nice to do a bit of hiking.  

Then it was on to the Giraffe Center.  Again, nothing grand but you can feed the giraffes, many choosing to ignore the posted guidelines and instead hold the food pellets in their mouth for the giant tongue to come lick it away.  As my veterinarian colleague had warned me, a great way to support emerging animal to human diseases. 

Finally I tried without success to do some souvenir shopping before opting instead for some coffee and tea as this trip's take-aways.  There's always next time.

Decompression

The course ended midday with the obligatory circle of sharing (and tear shedding) and once the flurry of goodbyes was over, it was suddenly very quiet for those of us who wait until tomorrow to depart.  After seven very, very full days, it's a bit surreal to just sit at the beach, hear the waves crash, feel the wind blow, watch the large ships go by and chat.  I spent the afternoon talking with ladies who work at the FAO in Rome - from Algeria, England and India with topics ranging from interagency policies to arranged marriages to why and how women chose to cover themselves in Muslim societies.  

Tomorrow, I depart early for the airport and have hopefully arranged for pick-up in Nairobi to play tourist for the day before taking a red-eye to London.  Quite honestly, part of me wishes I was heading home tonight but the rest of the trip awaits.  Stay tuned!

Requisite feet/beach/palm/ocean picture :) 

A Fine Romance

Last night's outing to the romantic Ali Barbour's Cave restaurant did not turn out the way we had envisioned but it sure made a great case study for the next day's lesson on conflict resolution.  But first - a picture:

Courtesy of the internet - my camera couldn't handle the lighting

Indeed the restaurant is in a cave with a roof open to the sky.  We asked what happens when it rains.  The response "The Masai cover the roof with a canopy".  They weren't kidding - a Masai in traditional garb was standing by the front door.  Anyway - At our resort several trainees and trainers had been approached by an older white South African man who wondered what this "women's empowerment course" was all about and did we realize the negative effect this would have on Kenyan women etc.  He himself had a young female Kenyan companion. As luck would have it - he and she were dining at Ali's at the next table.  We were fourteen and were perhaps a bit louder than the diner hoping for a quiet experience would like.  All of sudden he towered over our table shouting that we should be ashamed of ourselves and that we were "disgusting" and who did we think we were with our Bill Gates funding etc, etc, etc.  It was alarming and disturbing.  Long story short, the spit-fire members of our group backed down, and the hostess quietly got him back to his table.  He told her we were ruining the resort and were ruining the restaurant.  Hmm.  To think that this sort of mentality is probably not as rare as it should be was a bitter reminder.  

Team Day

I survived both team day and the feedback it was geared to produce.  While it was the learning experienced it was proclaimed to be, I will not be looking to repeat the activity.  On our forth day, after being Myer-Briggs typed we were divided into teams.  Let the games begin.  We participated in four activities each designed to demonstrate how we lead or function in a group setting.  The deck was stacked so there would be challenges.  Introverted leaders would be hijacked by extroverts, structured people wouldn't give space to roundabout thinkers, observing types would withdraw when they felt not listened to, etc. etc.  After each round our facilitator "helped" us uncover the strengths and weaknesses we bring to leader or team member roles.  Considering what this could have been like, I lucked out with a really great team.  Even as we went through our positive and "constructive" feedback this morning, there was still a sense of camaraderie and that we were, in fact, the best team.  Most of us also felt that the constructive feedback were things we already knew we needed to work on - no surprises.  

Tonight we are heading out to what one of my well-traveled Rotary friends calls "the most romantic restaurant ever".  Who better to experience illuminated cave dining on the coast of Kenya with than a group of ladies.  Reviews tomorrow!  

Team Baobab (black&white attire coincidental)

Leaders in-Training

The women's leadership training is three days in and going rather well.  Having never attended such a training but having had questionable group learning experiences in the past, I've been trying to keep an open mind.  The trainers are both American and African and the group of 30 ladies, as mentioned, come from most parts of the world - either native or ex-pat.  Course work includes doing a 360 leadership/management assessment from your colleagues (done pre-training), a Myers-Briggs test, learning about emotional intelligence and tomorrow will be team day.  We've been told to wear comfortable clothes...open mind, open mind. 

Like most things, it's the people that count and they have been very interesting and friendly.  Being here, reminds me that I've been extremely lucky to have never experienced gender-bias, partly from having worked and studied in female dominated fields and having had supportive male supervisors.  Among this group, that is not the norm. Most of them come from patriarchal societies where getting a passport, bank loan or other significant action requires a husband's, father's or brother's approval.  And they are often the only senior woman in their work where they frequently face defiance from male colleagues.   They handle all this plus manage a family (with domestic help) which makes them admirable and successful now matter how you look at it.  

Our group photo under the baobab tree.

At the Equator

It was a bit of a clunky trip from Nairobi to Mombasa.  My back-up alarm, the landlady knocking on my door, woke me at 6am for my morning flight.  Turns out I was to pay USD cash for my stay.  Hmm, I was able to pay half with a promise to somehow get the balance to her by other means.  Flight to Mombasa went well however the drive to Diani beach should have been easy but due to it being the 50^th anniversary of Kenyan independence (Happy Madaraka!), there was a traffic jam to get to the ferry.  It was a long, hot three hour journey. 

Foot traffic onto ferry

Am getting used to being in an equatorial climate again plus not being surprised to see the other inhabitants: giant millipedes, monkeys, colorful lizards and crabs. For the geographically minded this is where I am: http://goo.gl/maps/rFMbG. It’s a nice resort and getting to know the other training attendees over meals has been good. Women from Nepal, Rome, Cairo, US, Africa all working for various research or intergovernmental organizations.  The first session starts this afternoon.  This morning I managed a sweaty run on the beach though due to security that means running back and forth between the two guards like some sort of tropical pong game.