Lamu.. Lamu.. Lamu..

I’m writing this diary to keep my memory in Lamu. Lamu is still in my heart even though I left there few days ago.. I stayed in Lamu from Aug 5 to Aug 7.

After serengeti safari tour in Tanzania, we stayed nairobi one night waiting Lamu island where we can only see donkeys. Lamu is also UNESCO World Heritage Site. With full of hope that I can have real vacation with wind, sea and stars, I arrived in Lamu island. And I was very surprised because of welcome flower. It was full of happiness.

     

As the airport is located in Manda island, we took boat from Manda island to Lamu island. Weather was sunny. It made me more excited to go to Lamu island. Once we arrived in Lamu island, we can only see donkey, donkey and donkey poo. There is no car in Lamu. My mother told me it’s dirty to walk in Lamu, but I enjoyed to walk in Lamu. Without car, only donkeys are transportation in Lamu. When my mother and I arrived in Jambo House, Arnold who is the owner of Jambo House welcomed us. Arnold expained Lamu isaland : where to visit, restaurant and acitivities. Jambo House was clean and nice. Expecially, terrace with balcony was one of the best part in Lamu. I enjoyed terrace at night and morning with sunset and sunrise..

After having vegetable samosa which was delicious, we went to Lamu museum. It was quite bigger than I expected. We could see different style of door, furniture, accesories, indian ocean trade and wedding ceremony style. Couldn’t believe that there was trade with even China.

   

After Lamu museum, we were heading to Lamu square where we can find main street. Main street is about 3 meters. haha. In Lamu square, we went to Lamu fort which was free if we had Lamu museum entrance ticket. There was nothing much to see. But we could see panorama which was beautiful… beautiful sun, cloud, sea, wind and people.

             

After Lamu town tour, we had dinner in “Whispers garden”. I felt like “Am I in Kenya? Is this Kenya?” I can’t believe that there was such hidden place in Lamu. My mother also liked the name of restaurant, Whisper’s garden. We had fresh calamari, fish and wine. No more potatoes and meat! After wonderful dinner, we could see stars at Jambo House terrace. Sorry that I didn’t take pictures of twinkle stars in the sky. But it’s all in my heart.  This is first day of Lamu. How can I forget beautiful Lamu?

Community day in Nakuru

7월 14일, community day 첫째날.
오늘은 유아원과 고아원을 가는 날이다. 각자 각 나라에서 선물들을 가득 가져왔다. 나도 수하물 무게 제한만 없었어도 더 가져가고 싶었는데..
가기전에 호텔앞에서 Jambo Bwana 노래를 호텔 manager Rebecca로부터 배웠다. 아이들 앞에서 이 노래를 불러쥐 위해서!
처음 간 곳은 Tumaini Nursery였다.

처음에는 아이들을 어떻게 대해야할지 몰라서 쭈삣쭈삣 거렸는데.. 아이들에게 Jambo 라고 인사하고 다가가자, 아이들이 더 적극적으로 다가왔다. 처음으로 간 교실은 제일 어린 아이들이 수업 받는 교실이였는데.. 아이들이 너무 귀여웠다. 그 중 특히 한 아이가  적극적으로 안아달라고 하고, 발을 붙잡고 떨어지지 않았다. 그리고 Celine Dion이라고 하는 아이가 (정말 이름이 Celine Dion인지는 모르겠다… 이름이 뭐냐고 물어보니까 그렇게 계속 대답해서..) 정말 너무너무 이뻤다. 나중에 다시 이 교실에 들어갔을때에도 이 아이가 계속 눈에 밟혔다.

그리고 그 옆에 한살 더 많은 교실에 가서 아이들이랑 또 놀아주고, Jambo Bwana 노래도 불러줬다. 아이들도 우리에게 준비한 노래들을 불러주고.. 너무너무 귀엽고 사랑스러웠다. 카메라로 사진을 찍자 신기한듯, 보여주면 너무 좋아하고 키득키득 웃었고.. 그 웃는 모습이 너무 사랑스러웠다. 더군다나 한번 안아주면 더 안아달라고 바지를 붙잡고 늘어지고, 팔을 펼치는 아이들을 보니, 정말 사랑을 필요로 하는 아이들임을 알 수 있었다.
Junko가 가져온 폴라로이드 사진을 아이들에게 찍어서 주니까, 너무너무 좋아하면서.. 자꾸 더 찍어달라고 경쟁이 붙어서 좀 힘들었지만.. 좋은 추억 사진을 남겨주고 올 수 있어 좋았다.
그 뒤에 New Life School 이라는 학교를 갔다. 처음에 간 곳은 학생들이 밥먹는 식당이었다. 첫번째로 규모가 꽤 커서 놀랐고, 두번째로 먹는 음식에 놀랐다. 콩들이 섞여있는 음식이었는데, 맛을 봤는데, 맛은 괜찮았다.
다음으로 여자 학생들이 옷이나 가방을 만들고 있는 곳을 갔다. 학생들이 학교를 졸업하고 나서도 일을 하고 생계를 꾸려나갈 수 있도록 여학생들에게 옷, 가방, 악세서리를 만드는 수업을 하고 있었다. 놀라운건 웨딩드레스도 만들어서 대여하는 일을 하고 있었다.. 곧 조만간 Nakuru 시내에 조그맣게 shop을 열것이라고 했다. 나도 학생들이 만든 가방 하나를 샀다. 아프리카 느낌의 가방인데, 그 후로 아주 잘 사용하고 있다!
그리고는 수업을 하는 교실로 갔다. 시험기간중이라 책상을 띄어놓고 있다는 선생님의 설명. 그 교실에서 여학생들과 이야기를 하였는데, 수학, 과학을 좋아하는 학생이었다. 열심히 공부해서 다른 나라에 가서 일하고 싶다고 말하는 여학생. 그 여학생은 당차고 똑부러지게 말했다. 그 아이의 소망이 이루어지기를 간절히 바랬다.
점심을 먹기 전, New Life School의 책임자인 덴마크 부부를 만났다. 17년전, 아이들이 학교를 가지 않고 길거리에서 떠돌고 있는 모습을 보고, 케냐에 정착해서 나무아래서 아이들을 모아 가르치는 것부터 시작한 부부. 남편이 먼저 이야기를 하고, 와이프가 이야기를 하는데… 눈물을 보이더라.. 아이들을 사랑하는 마음, 그 마음 하나만으로 외진 케냐라는 땅에 와서 이런 자선사업을 시작한 그 부부가 너무 멋지고 자랑스러웠다. 그리고 나도 sponsor가 되기로 마음 먹었다. 듣기로 케냐에 이런 자선학교들이 많은데, 그 중 반은 외국인이 운영하고, 반은 현지인이 운영한다고 한다. 현지인이 운영하는 경우에는 다는 아니지만, 가끔 후원금이 아이들이 아닌 다른 곳에 쓰이는 경우도 있다고 한다. 어찌됬든, 내가 보고 만났던 아이들이 있는 곳에서 한 아이를 후원하고 싶다는 생각이 들었다.
늦은 점심을 먹은 후, 남학생들과 IBM 남자팀이 축구 시합을 했다. 중간에 비가 오는 바람에 끝까지 못했지만.. 아이들이 어떤 팀이냐고 물어보길래, 맨유라고 했더니, 좋아하더라.. ㅎㅎ
가야할 시간이 되었지만, 정말 발이 떨어지지 않았다. 이렇게 하루 달랑 방문하는게 그들에게 얼마나큰 도움이 되었을까.. 방금 만난 나에게도 사랑받기를 원하고, 떨어지지 않으려고 하는 아이들이 계속 눈에 밟히고, 호텔에 와서 찍은 사진들을 보고 또 보면서, 계속 생각이 났다. 케냐의 미래인, 어린 아이들, 학생들이 지금의 순수한 마음을 잃지 않고, 잘 커서 더 나은 케냐를 만들어 가기를 바란다.

Attending ‘Transforming Kenya’ conference

On Jul 13, I woke up at 4:30AM to go Nairobi from Nakuru to attend ‘Transforming Kenya’ conference and have interviews. Due to Nairobi traffic jam, we were little bit late with meeting with the customer. She understood it and she said that the conference will not start on time. Yes! The conference was supposed to start at 9:30. But it starts at 10:30. In Kenya, there are two types of work. One is time driven and the other is task driven. Yes, it was task driven for conference. Kenyatta International Conference Center where ‘Transfirming Kenya’ conference was held is nice conference center except slippery floor.

There were some exhibition including e-government that DeG was responsible for. The interesting thing was M-Farm which is private company’s service offering. Thru mobile phone, farmers can get all information such as market price, weather and mapping farmers. This is exactly what farmers want. I asked the man who explained M-Farm for me, ‘do you have relationship with Ministry of Agriculture?’. He said, ‘No’. It’s interesting that priviate company has wonderful service offering what people want, but no connection with the government at all.

The conference started with prayer and Prime Minister joined as well. After some topics, Dr.Getao presented about Citizen Service Centres. Her speech was perfect! So clear and persuasive! It was rellay valubale to attend the conference. She is just amazing and I’m very happy to work with her.

PS speech was also good and he has sense of humor as well.
Before lunch, we had short meeting with CEO of Seven Seas Technologies who is provider of integrated business and technology solutions across Africa in the Financial, Telecom, Real Estate, Service Industries and Government. He has so many idea and insights for e-government not only e-government itself but business idea as well.He also said that Open Data can be valuable when someone (whether government or private company) add value to the customer. I totally agrreed his opinion.

"Kenyatta International Conference Center"

After lunch, we had two interviews. One is with Ministry of Immigrations and Registration of Persons and the other one is with Ministry of Education. I remember ICT person at Ministry of Education about wish list. He said that he wants many students have enough food so that they are not hugry. And finally we had nice Kenya coffee at Java Coffee. In Kenya, it’s hard to get real good Kenya coffee. They pour too much milk and water on coffee. Nairobi trip was really productive and valuable to spend 6 hours for round trip!

Meeting with citizens in Nakuru

Today, Lynn and I tried to meet citizens in Nakuru,

First, we met Mattew who is an instructor in Nakuru Institute of Science and Tech. We asked about e-government as citizens and instructor. But it seems that what they need for government is just basic things such as textbook, table and chair at school. I felt there is hugh gap between normal citizens life and ideal life that government want to target. He was so kind and open to talk. So, he gave us his phone number to talk more when we have time. (And he did call us and had conversation again.)

After lunch, we met an woman who is working at travel agency in Nakuru. We found that Kenyan need to go office of Ministry of Immigration to register passport. And then they need to go to office to get it. Unfortunately, there is no notice from the office that ‘your passport is ready’. If there’s some SMS notice system to let people know passprt is ready, that makes it more easier.

And then, we took tuktuk which is local taxi from Merica hotel to Rift Valley provincial Hospital. Hospital was quite big. Interesting thing was that there was wiating time for each service. We met guys who are working on documenting all patient information. He said he is using computer to save all patient information. As we need authority to interview in hopital, we made appointment on next Monday.

It was really interesting and helpful to hear real voice on the ground.

On my birthday

On Jul 6th, it was my birthday.

At the restaurant where we had late lunch, CSC Kenya team 3 had surprising birthaday party for me.

I’ll never forget my 29th birthday in Nakuru, Kenya!