A Single Grain of Sand

"All you have to do is contemplate a single grain of sand, and you will see
in it all the marvels of creation." Paulo Coehlo, The
Alchemist

Recently I finished reading the book The Alchemist, and I must say what a wonderful book it is. If you have not read it - I highly recommendi t.

It was recently brought to my attention that I have not written a blog in some time and so I thought it's about time to write again. The question then arose -what will I write about? Should I write about the last few weeks that have been rather uneventful? Should I write about meeting the 53 new trainees? Should I write about....? Eventually I came to the decision to write about Nature.

"All you have to do is conctemplate a single grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation."


This quote came to mind (even after having quoted it on Facebook as a status update a few days ago) as being a key phrase and therefore a theme for this blog post.


Last weekend I had the chance to, once again, head to the Narobi National Park and walk along the Safari Walk. The Safari Walk is just as it sounds - a safari that can be taken by foot. Imagine a Zoo cross mixed with a boardwalk - and shazam! you have the Safari Walk.

The Safari Walk gives Kenyans and foreigners alike a "taste of Kenya's rich Animal collection including the rare rare bongo, white rhino, albino zebra, a collection of cats, antelopes and primates." (Quote from Kenya Wildlife Service Website)


So with over 150 species of trees, large cats cheetahs, lions, a leopard, a rhino, pygmy hippos, and hundreds of birds - I would say that it is one of my favorite places to visit in Kenya.


Upon arriving at the Safari Walk I had one mission in mind: Have a good time relaxing! Reconnecting with nature.

I walked up to the entrance, paid my 300Ksh entrance fee (Resident price) and headed inside. It was rather quiet upon entering and that was just perfect. No one around in the entrance area where there was a simulated marshland with at least 30-40 little birds and butterflies enjoying the sunny weather. Three little birds where having a bath in a small puddle. Now I know why a "bird bath" is so neat to have! I honestly never understood the concept of a bird bath as anything more than a decoration in people's yards - but having seen these three little fellas bathing in a puddle I can see how great it must be to have a small sanctuary for birds to come and relax.

As I walked on the boardwalk I ended up coming accross more and more birds all over the trees in the area. The prettiest bird, in my opinion, that I saw is the Pygmy Kingfisher.

I just enjoyed looking at the birds and seeing how they are such an important part of the ecosystem. Certainly I may not have had all the time in the world to see the entire ecosystem at work - and yet I felt connected to it. While contemplating the birds as part of the system, it was simply magical!


Next up I saw a Simba (reference from Lion King; Simba means Lion in Kiswahli). There were actually multiple Simba in the area though one was very close to the viewing area while the other(s) were resting a bit farther away. So once again I stopped to contemplate the single grain of sand...in this case that grain of sand being a large cat.


After concemplating the rather large grain of sand there, I proceeded to concemtplate the rare sight of an Albino Zebra (picture of albino zebra). The Albino Zebra is a rare grain of sand to find, especially in the wild - so to see one up close and personal is quite magnificient.

In the same area as the Albino Zebra there was also a toirtoise. Yet another magnificent creature to concemplate.


Later up was a leopard which happeend to be relaxing in tree and so from the observation area it was not easily spotted (pun intended!) So to be able to see it fully, we had to walk up along the boardwalk a little bit to see it in full length relaxing on a tree branch paying no mind to the animals walking on the large flat trees.


Progressing from the leopard area, there was an bongo being fed below the boardwalk. The impala is a rather large animal which I had not seen up close in my previous trip to the Safari walk so I rather enjoyed contemplating it as it was eating not 10 feet below me.


Skipping ahea a little bit, or rather going back, I found the simluated forrest area where I found 2 Dik-Diks which I must say are the cuttest little deer creatures I have ever seen!

Seriously take a moment right now and look at the picture before continuing!


Ok did you see a picture? Good. Now let me tell you a little bit about Dik-Diks. Dik-Diks mate for life. If a Dik-Dik's partner dies, the Dik-Dik will starve itself to death. That level of dedication to something (or someone) is rather rare in humans. So I stalked the Dik-Diks like one of those nature show guys on National Geographic just following them along their way as they were living in their peaceful lives. I loved how their little tails were wagging so quickly and it was so darn cute - for when one fell behind you could tell he/she was about to take off because the tail would stop wagging. I contemplated their existance and their dedication to an idea/ideal while following them for about 20-30minutes. Thankfully, I was alone during this time so there was no disturbance to their natural being.

After some time, they went away from the path area and I decided it was time for me to continue.


After having seen and comtemplated two cute grains of sand I moved on to see what other unique grains I would find.


Near the end of the park I came to the area where there were 2 cheetahs relaxing in the grass not more than 10-15 feet from me. I remembered the legend about the tear marks (please note that there are other variations on the story as well). Well at any rate, as I contemplated the story of how the Cheetah was lonely and the tears were burned into it's face and I contemplated the loneliness I as a PCV will sometimes feel. In contemplating thus, I realized that the feeling of loneliness connects me and the Cheetah - and of course all other humans as well. At that moment when I had that thought of our connectedness, the Cheetah and I shared a moment of understanding - a moment when I was not a different animal and nor was the Cheetah. We were each of us single grains of sand in the same beach we call the universe.

After the Cheetah and I shared our moment the Safari Walk ended but the contemplation of singular grains of sand did not end... The grains of sand may be in different forms, but the contemplation continues.

CKC Training

In May, I transfered to Kisumu and was attached to One Global Economy, a non-governmental based in Washington, D.C. The project is a partnership with Cisco Systems and Appleseeds Academies to set up Community Knowledge Centers to deliver community skills, technology skills, leadership skills, management skills, and critical thinking skills and to ensure the sustenance of the Beehive (http://thebeehive.org), a locally produced website with resources related to the opportunities and needs of the community.

The following is a series of blog postst that I wrote during a training I attended last week.

Day 1 of CKC Manager's Training

As Day 1 of the Community Knowledge Center Manager's Training comes to an end I can't help but reflect on how productive the day was.


The day began with several groups of strangers coming into the training room. Groups of strangers from different CKCs throughout Kenya - ranging from Western/Nyanza Provinces to North Eastern Province.

We began the day with introductions - getting to know one another's names and where we all come from.

As the day progressed, we had group activities whereby we got to know each other quite well.

We had a session talking about the importance of a joint vision, and had group discussions were we worked with CKC owners to see how the operations of CKCs are affected by the mission and objectives of an organization.

As the day progressed, by lunch time we were no longer shy with one another and quickly we all were mingling with other CKC managers, owners.

Lastly, we finished out the day by setting up our own accounts on the RunCKC website.

What a great day we all had!

Day 2 CKC Manger's Training

Day 2 started with a song sang by our very own participants.

Following the opening with the song, another one of our participants led us in a review activity of the previous day's events.

One of the participants wrote the following regarding the previous day's events:

" Yesterday was a great day for me. It was a start. The beginnign of a journey of learning. We met each other, we mapped the goals, we hope to achieve in the end, we learned what tools we had at our disposal and which ones we needed to acquire.

Yesterday was the first step and I'm excited to be part of the grand commencement"

It was a great activity that helped us see where we were from the day before and getting us on track for today's activities.

Next we had a session on sustainability and we discussed different income generating activities.

Following the sustainability session, we had a session in which learned about the different equipments each CKC will have. We had a group activity to try and indentify the different equipments and then we had some live demonstrations of setting up the equipment.

Later we talked about community asset mapping - and we had some live demonstrations of how to approach members of the community and also a demonstration on how to approach potential donors.

After lunch, we had a field trip in which we went out into the community where the Soweto CKC is located and practiced community asset mapping by asking members of the community the questions we created during the sessions before lunch.

And stay tuned for further updates from the CKC Manager's Training in Nairobi.

Day 4 of CKC Manager's Training

For those who may be wondering what happened to day 3, well June 1st happens to be Madaraka Day in Kenya. It's a national holiday commemorating the day that Kenya attained internal self- rule in 1963, preceding full independence from the United Kingdom on 12 December 1963 (according to Wikipedia).

So after a day of celebrating Kenya's self-rule, we're back to work!

The day started off with some group activities: I sang for the group in Spanish - the song I *tried* to sing is called Quizas by Enrique Iglesias. Following my performance, Ayan Farah led the group in sining the Kenyan National Anthem. After the Kenyan National Anthem was sung, Keren and Roni taught us a Yemeni dance!

We had a great start to the day.

Next we had a recap of Tuesday's activities since we had been off on Wednesday (June 1st). We talked about the survey responses we had from our trip to Soweto and put it all together.

Later on we had a session on marketing - we got into groups from each CKC and came up with marketing plans and strategies for each of our individual CKCs.

Next we had 'a day in the life' of a CKC manager. We had a tremendously enjoyable group activity in which we had a mock up of a manager - in the form of Homer Simpson - and we had group discussions about different organs and how they are used by a CKC manager - the brain, the eyes, the mouth, the right arm, the left arm, and the feet. We went back into plenary and discussed as a group the similarities and some differences each CKC may have based on the different management styles of the owners of different CKCs.

Now this was my favorite session of the day! Why? Well several CKC managers said what drives them - why they do what they do. Here are a few quotes from some of the CKC managers:

"I'd like to have a CKC which not only draws people because of what it offers...but where they will offer themselves to the CKC. I want people to come and say "I have a lot to offer" not just going to get something but to give as well"

"what drives me is my desire to empower my community to have knowledge in technology, to be sustainable economically"

"My driving force is, one, Love. I love doing what I'm doing right now. It is important to remember that first you must have a heart for it...with your heart in it you give more commitment. Love takes it all..."

It was truly touching how several of my fellow trainees opened up to the group and expressed why they do what they do. It was truly an inspiring time, listening to them.

We had a budgeting session in which we worked in groups to create sample budgets. It was a great activity that allowed us to see how it takes many pieces of the puzzle to achieve financial sustainability for each CKC.

In the evening, we had a session regarding ICT 4 development (ICT4D) in which we had a guest from www.askadoc.co.ke talk to us about a social enterprise which he started 6 years ago with 3 other physicians. It was really neat to hear about how something can start off as a simply idea and expand, with love and passion, to what it is and how it keeps growing.. It is truly inspiring.

We finished out the day with Joyce leading a session telling us about MyCKC websites and how versatile they are. Tomorrow morning, we'll be having a practical MyCKC session, I can't wait to see what the different CKCs come up with!

Day 5 of CKC Manager's Training

We started off today working in groups by CKC coming up with subject areas and topics for the websites each CKC created on MyCKC.

We worked in groups coming up with ideas based on what is important in each community.

Later on, each of the CKCs further worked in groups to create SMART work plans.

After we created SMART work plans for each CKC, each CKC was assigned their *drum roll please* Final Project. In the Final Project, each CKC is required to put all the information together that we have learned about throughout the week.

The Final Projects include: The group members names, demographics of the communities, a CKC profile, the work plans created earlier today, information for marketing their packages and which tools will be used to market, the budget, and ideas on how to use ICT for development of each of their communities.

After lunch, we had a practical session on updating the MyCKC websites: http://garissa.myckc.org http://kiberaeast.myckc.org/ http://kiberadecanting.myckc.org/ http://pala.myckc.org/ and http://koige.myckc.org/

Following the updating of the newly formed websites, we finished the day by making sure the Final Projects were ready for tomorrow mornings' presentations.

On paper, it seems like we did not do as much as we have in previous days, but in practice I think today has been the most intensive day in terms of activity.

Day 6 of CKC Manager's Training

Today was the last day of the training. It was a sad day and at the same time an exciting day.

Sad in the sense that all of us new friends are going our own ways after sharing a wonderful week of learning. And yet it was also very exciting in seeing how far we've all come this week.

The day began with Group Therapy led by Teddy with Peter assisting. Following our group therapy session, which was rather fun and interactive with Peter tossing marker pens into the group whereby the person who caught the marker pen was to provide input.

Later on, Roni led a leadership session in which all of us voted on what we felt was the most important qualities of a leader using candies.

Then a bit later on, after our leadership discussion, each CKC had a chance to present their Final Projects to the group and receive feedback from other participants and the trainers.

After a short break, we got into a circle and shared how we felt about the training. Many different people shared their stories that I would like to share.

At the beginning of the training, Omondi said he had come with his pockets empty - and literally showed us an empty trouser pocket turned inside-out. He said he expected to leave this training with his pockets full, full of knowledge. I think Omondi and others will agree that all our of pockets have been stuffed with knowledge this week. In fact, another participant said "All in all I'm grateful for this opportunity to come and learn and make new friends. I think I'm pregnant with information, though our 'due dates' may be different.. the ball is in our court to perform the big task. Let's take it positively!"

I think the above quote really states how everyone was feeling at the end of training today.

Let's finish today as we did (just before the presentation of the certificates) with a story:

The story of the businessman and the carpenter, which goes something like this:

There was a businessman who built communities. This businessman hired a carpenter to do work for him in the construction work. The businessman would continually pay the carpenter just enough even though the carpenter was continually doing his best work. Eventually the carpenter grew tired of doing his best work and being paid little for it, coincidentally this occurred near the time of his retirement. So the businessman asked the carpenter to create a great big house. The carpenter resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. When the carpenter had finished the house, the businessman told him "This is your house, my gift to you."

Think of yourself as the carpenter.

Think about your CKC as your house.