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:
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| 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.
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