BLOG – Balloon Kenya: Warm Rotary Welcome

Back home in the UK I was fortunate to sponsored by Soar Valley Rotary Club for my trip to Kenya. As part of the sponsorship I was required to make contact with the Rotary Club in Nakuru to exchange a pendant and find out what projects they are working on.

I attended the first meeting, although I shouldn’t have as I was later told it was a closed meeting the discuss their AGM. Despite this I was welcomed with open arms by President Kahendah Vitalis and his fellow Rotarians. During the meeting I gave a short introduction to what I was doing and why I had come to visit the Club. I was fortunate to be placed next to the former District Governor for East Africa. Ken Joslyn moved to Kenya from his native Chelmsford in 1950, starting his own farming business as he came from an agricultural background, after joining Rotary he went on to become the District Governor for 12 countries in Africa. After the meeting I was asked if I would like to speak at the following meeting about Balloon Kenya.

On the Thursday I was invited to lunch with two Rotarians, Lorna and Michael at the local business school, Tracom College to discuss my project with local entrepreneurs. I am going to talk to their students before I leave about what Balloon Kenya is trying to do in their community.

On Tuesday I took Balloon Kenya’s Co-Founder Josh Bicknell to the meeting with me, where we were both warmly welcomed by the members. Bromley Rotary Club were also guests, as they were visiting project that they had sponsored in Nakuru, so all the speakers flew the British flag. Josh followed Peter, the President of Bromley Rotary and spoke about how he had visited Nakuru following the post-electral violence in 2007/2008 and how Balloon Kenya was born from the entrepreneurial spirit he had witnessed here. I followed with a ten minute presentation about my background, why I had chosen Balloon Kenya, my Kenyan adventure so far and concluded with my plans for the future. My presentation was well received and the compliments afterwards were a confidence boost.

Today whilst passing through the park I spotted the Rotary sign being packed away, so I went to investigate. I found President Vitalis amongst crowds of school children. He was stood at the heart of the Rotary’s School Furniture Project which has provided over forty schools with thirty desks and chair. I was also lucky enough to be invited into the official photograph and it was great to see the Rotary’s work in action.

Advertisement

BLOG – Balloon Kenya: The Final Countdown

Not a rendition of Europe’s hit from 1986, don’t worry!

3 more sleeps – makes me sound like an excited child counting down for Christmas! 4 if you include Thursday, but with a flight from Heathrow at 06:50 I doubt I’ll get much sleep.

I’ll be taking the 06:50 from Heathrow to Brussels and then taking a flight south to Africa, stopping briefly in Kigali, Rwanda before hoping over Lake Victoria and into Nairobi. There will be nine ‘fellows’ from my project on my flight, so its nice to know that the 14 hour journey will not be taken alone. Our Facebook conversations have been exuberating excitement and it seems as if they are going to be a great bunch to work with.

My playlist for my flight is under construction, with Tinie Tempah’s Trampoline being added yesterday  – I’m sure this will be a huge summer anthem. If anyone has any further suggestions drop me a message! Maybe something that’ll get me into a Kenyan vibe.

I was fortunate to be sponsored by my local Rotary Club (1070 Soar Valley) who have set up their own page for their Rotarians to follow my progress: http://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/page.php?PgID=387283&ClubID=448. Their current President Graham has been a great help with not only the funding but offering words of advice to working with different cultures. Over the past few weeks we have been trying to make contact with the Rotary Club in Nakuru and last week we made a link and I have been invited to look at their projects in the community.

As a proud Carlisle United supporter I was interested in looking at the Kenyan football system. After a few tweets (@djgarlick) I have made contact with the CEO of Nakuru Allstars, who play in the second tier of Kenyan football. I have been invited to watch their lads train and watch them play in the league, with a promise of one of their shirts. I’m excited to meet with them and discuss their squad development and their plans for the future.

 

Hopefully I shall be able to catch one of the Directors of Rockstar Youth this week, as we keep missing each others calls. Rockstar are the largest mentoring and funding organisation for young entrepreneurs in the UK and I know that their Director has worked in Africa. It’ll be good to talk to him about Balloon Kenya and also the plans for Sheffield Business School’s Enterprise Society, which I’ll be on the committee for next year.

Finally an e-mail from the Head of Business at University wants me to share the experience with the Business School and to the new students starting in September ‘to show what you can do when you put your mind to it!’.

My next post will probably be from a few thousand miles away.

Strap in! I’m sure it’ll be a bumpy journey from Nairobi to Nakuru!