I volunteered for two weeks in the reforestation project Sadhana Forest in Kenya in November 2016. The organization originated in Auroville, India about 15 years ago. It later spread to Haiti and Kenya. During my Ecovillage Design Education Course in Auroville I had the chance to talk to the founder and visit the Indian campus. […]
Tag: Kenya
Water-Saving Handwashing Station
With some simple tricks and very few items, you can construct a convenient handwashing station. Make a T-shaped wooden construction with some nails and some string. Drill a hole into both a tin and a half coconut shell (or similar containers). Attach both to the horizontal bar with nails. Put a bucket of water with […]
Free Tutorial: Using a Compost Toilet
Always wondered how to use a compost toilet? Here is your tutorial. Completely free of charge! When you use a compost toilet, you have to train your muscles a little bit because #1 and #2 go separately. First you use a little container to pee into. Then you collect the pee in a larger bucket. […]
Water-Saving Shower
Building and using a basic water-saving shower is very easy. All you need is a small metal pot, some string and a place to attach it. Drill some holes in the metal pot. Attach both handles to stable strings. Tie the strings on above-head level to some stable pole or the like. For some privacy […]
Children in the Slum
Don’t let everybody see your big camera when travelling. Never take the camera or other valuables to a slum. Better don’t even go to a slum. These kinds of advices I threw completely over board. I had the great opportunity to visit Southlands Slum in Nairobi with my friend Tomo. She works for the Japanese […]
Mindset of Helping Each Other
One afternoon during my volunteering experience at OTEPIC in Kitale, Kenya heavy rains set in. It was the onset of the rainy season. We gathered in a small hut on the premise to have lunch in nearly complete darkness. The hut had neither a window nor electricity. After the rain, it had gotten cold and […]
Planting Trees. Planting Life.
Trees are life. Trees make life possible. I experience a huge difference between two of the Otepic gardens. Armani garden is very shade thanks to some tall trees, including banana palm trees. Sabwani, on the other hand, is quite hot. Only some of the huts provide some shade. Working on the field under the equatorial […]
Meet the 16 Otepic orphans
16 kids live in the Otepic orphanage. All of them go to school. The orphanage is situated outside of Kitale. The kids live on the ground floor of a house with a large garden. Planting vegetable and fruit in the garden is only possible during the rainy season because there is no water supply for the […]
Kenyan Kids Sing Anthem of South Africa
Have you ever listened to the National Anthem of South Africa? It is a very beautiful song. The kids in the Otepic orphanage sing it just for joy. They don’t understand the language, which is very different from their native tongue. In fact, they were taught that song by a German volunteer. Isn’t that truly international? Here […]
Handmade Bricks
Why buy bricks if you can make them at home? The crew of the ecological project Otepic in Kitale, Northwestern Kenya, makes bricks manually. Without using any electricity. Zero-emission footprint. They want to construct a seminar center in Sabwani Garden, the largest of the three gardens they own. It will be a school for permaculture […]
Clubbing with Special Care
On Saturday night we went clubbing in downtown Kitale. For pre-partying, we went to the allegedly cheapest pub in town, where a bottle of beer still costs about 2 Euros. Africa is not a cheap place in many regards. The pub was dark and fairly crowded, a pool table in the middle, a TV with […]
Heros’ Day in Slum
The air carried a stinging smell of rotting vegetable and animal droppings. I made my way through the dusty roads following Millicent and Lucy, my two new African friends. Sometimes we needed to jump over small canals, half filled with a dark liquid garbage mixture that I did not want my foot to slip into. […]
My New Home in Kitale
My new home in Kitale is a bungalow in the African Theological Seminary. The place is heavily influenced by American evangelists. And Melinda Gates is actually coming here next week. However, it is a very comfortable place: I live in a bungalow with a kitchen. My bedroom has an adjacent bathroom. The bungalow is situated […]
Life & Death in the Animal Kingdom
This week I had the great opportunity to do a Safari in the Masaai Mara and to witness some of the social aspects of herds and packs. I noticed within our little tourist group of 8 Kenyans and Internationals that death and the act of killing arose a strange sensation, a prickling of excitement and […]
Video: Nairobi Social Entrepreneurs Camp
The Nairobi Entrepreneurs Camp (NEC) supported young social entrepreneurs in Kenya. Experts from Kenya, Germany, and France trained participants to gain new skills in both forward-looking ideas of decision making and team work as well as traditional business skills. The NEC took place from October 7-9, 2016. Watch the video for impressions from facilitators and […]
Collaboration for Social Businesses
Next year, the first Kenyan Impact Hub, a co-working and encounter space for social businesses will open in Nairobi. Tonight, the co-founders invited anybody who is interested in joining the Hub community to find out about expectations and needs. Around 40 national and international people attended. A feeling of community, collaboration and mutual trust started […]
Silicon Savannah Goes Social
In the past couple of years, Nairobi earned itself the nick name of Silicon Savannah due to a mushrooming start-up scene. Last year, Bloomberg Media estimated Nairobi’s tech scene could be worth as much as $1 billion by 2018. At the same time, social entrepreneurs are gaining ground with the first Impact Hub opening next […]