A window to the beauty of Africa

We all crave for beauty, don’t we? Amidst all the sad news of famine and floods that I look at every day on my computer screen, I need to look at something beautiful, too.

When you think about photos and Africa, what is the first thing you see in your mind’s eye? Right now what I see, is starving people, but I don’t want that.   

I fight against that by looking at the stunning photographs by Ghanaian photographer Nana Kofi Acquah: nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com

One of my favorites is this one about the woman with the snake around her neck. Wow! And  there are many other wonderful, colorful portraits, as well as the most beautiful street scenes.

Acquah writes that his blog is “where he rants”. He writes poems – the most recent of which is about Steve Jobs – and talks about e.g. photography in Africa

Photographs, just for the sake of photographs is a totally new concept currently being embraced by a relatively younger generation, most of whom have never owned or used an analogue camera. nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-neighbours-african-photographer-and.html 

and passion and success

The only thing that beats passion is wisdom. And by wisdom, I mean knowing exactly what is worth being passionate about and what isn’t ... What we need to succeed is not OUT there. It is IN us. You need to block out all the noise and passionately follow where your heart leads you.
nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com/2011/09/potion-of-passion.html

Acquah “rants” about bad quality education:  

It’s heart breaking to watch very brilliant minds go to waste due to the horrible foundation they received. The saddest part is, most of these kids were as useful as a half-baked bread. You can’t eat it… and yet you’ve wasted your flour, butter and time. Quality Education is the single, most important gift any government can give its populace. nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com/2011/08/remember-children.html

and shares his realization about how hard Ghanaian people are working:

Sometime last year, I was supposed to make portraits of two successful Ghanaians for the Financial Times. Their office is very close to this market. I wanted to use the early morning light so I told them I will arrive at 6am. Now, please understand that I’m rather slow in the mornings so for me, 6am was an amazing feat. I was shocked to get stuck in traffic at that time and if that was not surprising enough, I saw people hopping out of “trotros” and taxis and rushing towards the market. A few of them nearly knocked me over. On that day, it dawned on me how hard working Ghanaians are.

The average Ghanaian wakes up at 4am. Yes, 4:00 AM to sweep the house, clean, cook bath and feed the children before going to work. Now, the question is, if they’re that hardworking, why are they poor? nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com/2011/07/bone-breakers.html

If you have even one minute, do check out this energizing blog. In these photos, you get a glimpse of how beautiful life could and should be all around Africa.

Ulla

Ushahidi – technology that saves lives

Sometimes I feel technology is just making my life more complicated. It is tiresome learning how to use a new mobile phone. The digibox is again acting irregularly. And the work phone wakes me up from my sweetest dreams at 6 a.m. Sunday morning reminding me of the planning day on Monday. (The person who invented that function must hate humankind.)

But then there is new technology that saves lives, puts the above mentioned grievances in perspective and reminds us that technology exists for the purpose of helping us.

Imagine a way for people all over the world to tell the story of what was happening to them or around them during a disaster or emergency situation. It would have to be easy to use, accessible to anyone and deployable worldwide.

The way already exists: Ushahidi.

Ushahidi, which means "testimony" in Swahili, is a platform that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Its roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during a time of crisis. The original website was used to map incidents of violence and peace efforts throughout the country based on reports submitted via the web and mobile phones.

Anybody can contribute information, a simple text message from a mobile phone, a photo or a video from a smart phone, or a report submitted online. Twitter works, too. Ushahidi can gather information from any device with a digital data connection. After information is submitted, it is posted in near real time to an interactive map that can be viewed on any computer or smart phone.  Ushahidi is open source and anyone can improve it or use the service.

Ushahidi has been used in humanitarian response situations such as the earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Pakistan. http://pakreport.org/ushahidi/ In Haiti, Ushahidi helped to save lives of people trapped under collapsed buildings by quickly delivering the information about their locations to the rescuers. See the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huQpn0D0eK4 

During the first phase of a humanitarian situation, it is vital to get exact information of what has happened, what kinds of assistance people need and where are the people who need assistance. And here lies the beauty of Ushahidi. If people on the location of the emergency can send information to the aid agencies, and that information can be accessed by all, a lot of time is saved and help can reach people much faster.

It was used to gather information of what was happening during the Arab spring. It was used to gather reports globally about the swine flu, too. Ushahidi has been utilized in several elections, and it is going to be utilized e.g. during Liberian elections this year.

http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2011/09/14/sms-and-liberia-a-love-story/ 

Often people seem to think that with computers, internet and web communications, things just magically happen. However, that is certainly not the case. A lot of tapping the keyboard, time and thinking is needed there! Therefore, let us not forget the people behind Ushahidi. http://www.ushahidi.com/about-us

The non-profit organization is comprised of individuals with a wide span of experience ranging from human rights work to software development, with a strong team of volunteer developers primarily in Africa, and also in Europe, South America and the U.S.

This was the third technology-blog of my series (here are first and second).

Have a sunny autumn!

Ulla

What the real story should be

It’s been a while… Since my last blog, I’ve been on my (happy and relaxing, thanks for asking) summer vacation. And after returning to work, I have spent all my time on the East Africa drought crisis. The third technology-blog I promised can wait, I want to write about East Africa.

Exept, I have very little to say. I feel sad. We are not equal. Some of us have too much, some of us have nothing. I have also been thinking about this a lot: the life or death of an African person is not as interesting in the media as that of a person from Europe or USA.

But I present two bloggers who have something interesting to say.

This crisis has finally become a story, but not as big – huge – as it should be. And it’s largely been simplified into the pictures of starving children (as seen above...). In her brilliant post Starvation pornography: How many skinny babies can you show me? AlertNet’s Nairobi correspondent Katy Migiro writes about journalists' behaviour and about what the real story should be.  

Migiro describes the horrid way a group of journalists are "racing around" the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. There is no time for sensitivity there:

It was excruciating watching two TV journalists shouting at an exhausted woman who had just arrived at the camp.
“Tell her to look at me, not you,” the producer barked at the translator.
“Get her to say what the arm tag means to her.”
The poor woman – who had probably walked across the desert with her children for days to reach the camp – clearly had no idea what the piece of paper around her wrist meant.

 Katy Migiro has been writing about the worsening situation since the beginning of this year.

I’m happy that the drought has finally become a story. 
But it’s also frustrating, knowing that this is their five minutes of fame on the global news agenda.
“I want to visit a hospital next Wednesday and see lots of skinny babies. Can you set that up for me?” a television producer in London told a British aid worker who has been working here for years.
The real untold story is that the skinny babies are always there. It’s just that there are a few less of them.
In Wajir Hospital, 32 malnourished children were admitted in May, the highest number so far this year.
Yet a chart on the wall shows that 40 children were admitted for malnutrition in December 2008.
No wonder people look bewildered when we constantly ask: “Is this the worst drought in 60 years?”
“Last year, the average was 15. But it never drops below 10,” said the nutritionist.
Shouldn't that story be told too?

Yes, Absolutely!

However, I do not envy the journalists covering this crisis (and there are also those who do that in a decent way), it can't be easy. The situation is complex. The drought certainly is not the only reason for the famine.

"Vultures and Fat cats wont help. Will you?"

Kenya is one of the countries hard hit by the drought. But Kenya is also one of the African countries with a middle class population, and the wealthier Kenyans have now started to help the starving. 

I went to read if SavvyKenya, who I wrote about in my first Southern Blogosphere blog, would have something to say about the situation and indeed, I found a reblogged post about the Kenyans’ response by a blogger called Crazy Nairobian.

Crazy Nairobian is VERY critical of the government:  

Kenya is such a beautiful country. We have amazing wildlife in our national parks like the Big Five (the most famous Kenya animals are known as 'The Big 5': Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Buffalos and Rhinos)

and an even better offering of beasts in parliament which include vultures, fat cats (fat cat, term. a wealthy person, originally one who contributes to a political campaign) and snakes. And what makes parliament even more interesting is the presence of clowns in the midst of all the animals I mentioned above...

My grandmother (who passed on earlier this year) told me the most challenging words some time back regarding food and sharing. She told me that if you have something in your plate, then you have something to share...She said the beauty of giving away food to the hungry is, while you will be filling their stomach with food, they will be filling your heart with joy and your life with blessings.

And so today, I send out a passionate appeal to each and everyone of you. It does not matter who you are or what you do. If you have food in your plate, you have something to give. Lets share the little we have with the hungry children whose smiles and laughter has been masked by the hunger pangs they feel. Lets share with the desperate mothers and fathers who have no idea where the next meal to feed their families will come from. Let no Kenyan die when you and I can help. 

Soon after reading this, my colleague told us during a meeting about East Africa that Kenyans have started to raise funds. It is the same fundraiser! I checked; they have raised about four million euros. Isn't that great news?
 

Ulla

(Photo: Katy Migiro/AlertNet)

WhiteAfrican – where Africa and technology collide

I have been wanting to write about the WhiteAfrican ever since I started this blog in the beginning of this year. 

Only I am so much in awe about this blog that I find it very difficult to present it… It will be hard to do justice to a technology blog which is so well written, so deep in knowledge and so beautifully set up that I got hooked at once – despite the fact that I do not understand anything about technology!

The author of WhiteAfrican is Erik Hersman, a technologist and blogger who lives in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes two blogs. WhiteAfrican is his personal blog where he writes about high-tech mobile and web technology change in Africa. The second is the lovely AfriGadget, which I presented in my previous blog. (a team blog about low-tech ingenuity and microentrepreneurs in Africa.)

Hersman is an advocate of change brought about through the smart use of technology. He is also an advocate of Africa, the continents real possibilities, beautiful ingenuity and brilliant ideas. Hersman is a Ted Senior fellow and a wanted speaker in various high-level conferences around the globe. He was in Helsinki just last month. http://whiteafrican.com/2011/05/31/local-innovation-and-entrepreneurs/

TED names him ”a key member of the African blog revolution”. And though Hersman could surely choose to live anywhere in the world, he feels most at home in Africa. (and I do not imply that this is a bad choice at all :-)

 

It is difficult to SEE

Did you know that a mobile phone can be the first and the only (technologically and financially) feasible connection to the world for a remote African village? And by the way, these phones are not the cutting edge technology but the low-priced old realiable Nokias. Very basic mobile phones change the world much more than the new models that we get so excited about.


Knowledge is power. If you are a farmer living in a remote village where a buyer comes once a year to buy your crop, he can tell you the price he wants. But if there is a mobile phone in your village and you have subscribed to get the information about market prices, you have the power to negotiate a better price!

Simple solutions can be really helpful and can really bring about change.
Information about business, weather warnings and forecasts as well as important personal information can start to flow. Look at e.g. this: http://mfarm.co.ke/

And watch this great and very informative video: 

(http://whiteafrican.com/2011/02/21/phone-and-internet-mesh-for-african-villages/)

 “What’s difficult for people to do is see. It’s hard to look through another set of lenses and appreciate the inventiveness that got something so far. It’s a challenge to understand the needs of a culture that you don’t share and then create a product for it. This is why so many of the platforms and products designed in the West fail in Africa. It’s not that they’re not well designed, they’re just not designed by people who truly understand the needs of the customers in Africa.

It’s why rugged and efficient seed planting devices will be created in rural Ghana. It’s why Ushahidi and Mpesa had to come from a place like Kenya. It’s why South Africa’s Mxit has 35m users.

Finally, it’s why we should continue to invest in local inventors and entrepreneurs – instead of importing foreign solutions, let’s grow our own. “

Hawala

I would like to share one more WhiteAfrican blog post which is a post about the hawala form of money transfer in Somalia. Fascinating. Reading the post made me think, once again, that the world we live in is just so diverse and there are so so many things that I do not know about… The discussion that followed the post is also interesting. 

Hersman writes that his interest in Somalia is twofold

"First, I’m interested in watching how the international community tries to force central government on a society that clearly abhors it and functions without it. Second, Somalia is a fascinating study for anyone watching the African tech and business scene. Out of one of Africa’s harshest environments, entrepreneur’s thrive."

"Somalia, per capita, has one of the largest diaspora populations in the world. One in eight Somali’s live abroad. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the remittances they send make up approximately 40% of urban household income ..."

The money moves via the havala.



My next blog will tell how technology can help in a catastrophy.

Though I love writing this blog, it has been so hard to find the time. My job wants my time, my kids want my time, and my back is killing me for sitting in front of the computer. So now I head off to do some yoga. Summer is finally in Finland, the office is quieter and, as my boss is on a work trip, I am acting as her substitute.  

So,
Greetings from Ulla, head of communications

AfriGadget – African ingenuity

Last time I told about my misfortunes as blogger. But today I ventured to the site where I think I got the virus to my computer - and indeed, there was this text: "We’re currently fighting a bug that has affected our server, hence the long delay in updating this wonderful blog." 

Good! I had been wondering why this very site had had a virus, because the people behind the site are clearly professionals. Anyway, the situation seems to be in control now. But if you get any pop-ups that look like security warnings, get out!

AfriGadget  is a website dedicated to showcasing African ingenuity. A team of bloggers and readers contribute their pictures, videos and stories from around the continent. The stories of innovation are inspiring. It is a testament to Africans bending the little they have to their will, using creativity to overcome life’s challenges.

Newest invention presented in AfriGadget is a billboard poster re-used as a roof cover - waterproof.(in the photo above)

There is also an absolutely heart-breaking series of photos showing how boys from a children’s home in Kenya make a football using old plastic bags and sisal string. Here is one of the photos:

Even more heartbreaking is the video of remote controlled toy car. Definitely worth watching – and it makes you think. My children's rooms are full of beautiful toys, but in our world many - most? - little boys and girls have to construct their own toys.

Other good ones are, for example:

A customized bicycle, with an accessory that lets you charge your phone via dynamo

Poop piki piki for a biogas system (Piki piki means motorbike in Kiswahili) 

See through wireradio - and it works! 

AfriGadget also has its own Facebook group, and it is a community where people share ideas.

OK. Thanks for reading. This was the first of three part of my "technology" series. The next blog will present technology that is a little more advanced. But not any less innovative!

Happy Easter!

Ulla

Toli

toli: n. 1. A juicy piece of news. 2. The latest word or gossip. 3. The talk of the town, typically a salacious or risque tale of intrigue, corruption or foolishness. (Ga language, Ghana, West Africa)

Before going to the point, I have to tell that I have experienced some misfortune as a blogger. First I myself contracted a nasty flu virus, and then, as I had recovered and was writing my next blog entry, I let a virus in my computer. I’m still embarrassed. And the virus apparently sneaked in from a blog site… Therefore I did not dare to return to that site, so my plan of a three blogs’ “technology” series has to wait. But now both me and my computer are again in good health, I have been on a vacation as well, and have sorted out the pile of work that always forms during a vacation week – and it is lovely to be blogging again.

Ghanaian Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah writes a blog called Koranteng’s Toli . His posts are long but interesting.

In his blog, he often describes different kinds of phenomena. Koranteng is an intellectual, very knowledgeable in many areas, and when he starts to reflect on something, he can go through it in many interesting detail and aspect. Strickly speaking, Korantengs’ Toli is not a blog “from the developing world” since Koranteng currently lives in US. However, this blog gives you perspective on Africa, her cultures, politics and life! And in a nicely tongue-in-cheek manner.

Koranteng has been blogging for years. (You will find the beginning here: Starting theToli) He is the son of an African journalist. (Read Strange Bedfellows and Journalistic Impulse or at least see the cool picture of his mother)

Koranteng’s writing is not time-bound – I read with great interest for example Bags andStamps from 2007.

“In Ghana and most of West Africa we call it the "Ghana must go" bag… humourously, they are called "Efiewura Sua Me", literally "help me carry my bag". Indeed there's always someone at the bus or train station who needs help moving such bags. (And yes, I did help that young lady after taking a surreptitious snap with my dodgy cell phone. Chivalry isn't dead even at midnight at the bus terminal).”

And this is followed by an analyses of those bags, their use by refugees, in art and even in top fashion (Luis Vuitton).

Koranteng has a point on slum life (On Slums, squalor and Sodom and Gomor)

“Growing up in Ghana, one was always aware of the poor living conditions. The poverty in the villages was bad enough but the sheer physicality of city slums bring everything to the fore. Poverty often juxtaposed in startling proximity to great wealth and luxury. James Town, where the Ofosu-Amaah family home is, is right next to the Castle, the seat of the government, and is in many ways a very depressing place. But then things change. As a child, Nima occupied a place in my imagination as the worst slum in Accra, a rough and miserable place; the stereotypes of Nima boys was as uncouth, brash, vicious, ill-educated - your garden-variety slum boys. A decade or so on, many of those things are still true but things are changing and it's not just better education. Physically, the shacks are sturdier and perhaps more sanitary - maybe built with tin and the occasional bags of concrete, rather than the asbestos and mud of old. I guess the same is true these days in Soweto, the 'notorious' township of old is now marketed for tourism, rebranded the 'largest urban residential area'. It's a struggle but it is not a static state. Home improvement is not just popular in the US or UK.”

I greatly enjoyed Types and Faces. Have you ever thought about why certain type font is considered “African” – it has not been designed there, it originates in Germany. 

And why does a history book on Africa have to have a safari scene on the cover – most Africans have never been on a safari…

 

At the end of his blogs, Koranteng often has a playlist. Let me copy his idea. Here is my tiny playlist for this blog

ErykahBadu - Bag Lady   
Eppu Normaali - Nyt reppu jupiset riimisi rupiset
Paul Simon - Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes

Bye for now,
Ulla


p.s. I would be grateful for comments about this blog, and if someone would like to suggest a blog they are following to be presented here, you can send me email at: ulla.karki@kirkonulkomaanapu.fi

Beautiful India: Artanlight

Heartfelt thanks for all the feedback and comments, both written and spoken, to my first blog post. I even received a recommendation to a fascinating-looking blog about young Kenyan writers, which I promise to present at some point.

But now we are going to India!

Vineeta Nair is an ex-advertising art director, who stumbled into the world of design blogging. She is now an independent design consultant with a decor accessories business. Her Artanlight blog is just SO beautiful. Indian culture, ethnic groups, interior design, beautiful things. All the pictures in this post are from Artnlight.

It is simply wonderful to pore over this beautiful site. I love it when I find beauty in the Internet, and indeed there should be more. I am always happy when I get to publish for example a beautiful photo gallery on my organization’s web site.

I also like going to flea markets, and therefore I very much enjoyed a posting about Chor bazar in Mumbai.

"Chor bazaar literally translates to 'Thieves bazaar' is cluster of small streets each jam packed with shops that sell everything from tyres to old electronic spare parts to nails and hammers to gorgeous furniture to antiques to Bollywood posters, phew! And I haven't even mentioned the grandfather clocks, old ceramic plates, chandeliers, gramophones or typewriters."

 

If you are into interior design, check out the Beautiful Homes blogs. This even includes one home from Finland! (I almost feel sick with envy when I look at the photos… Our home does not yet ;-) look quite like that…)

And if you are a fan of India, see the Indiaah! aha! section, for blogs about all things Indian.

Trust, take care of yourself, and be gentle

Just recently I heard that women in their thirties and forties toiling on a series of periodic employments, belong to a burn out generation. And in this age group, there reigns a culture of coping on your own, a culture that in Finland has its roots in the war time, when men were at the front and women had to cope with everything else.

I feel that I do definitely belong to this burn out generation, even though I do have a steady job and enjoy my work. If only I could find the time to sleep enough!

Lately, I have noticed that often when I type, I do not have the time to pressthespacebar…

But what is the rush, really?

Artnlight reminds us in a beautiful way, how we all should lead our lives. The blog post Things I learned in 2010:

"People trust you.

"Life bails you out. Just when I wanted money an assignment would materialise, or bang in the middle of an important assignment I would have to go out of town, which would in turn cause a much needed shift in perspective.

"Going with the flow. Some things will happen, some won't. And be ready to jump & go for it when something big comes your way.

Do new things

You get many chances

But one of the biggest learnings of 2010 for me has to be this. Taking care of yourself pays. You've got one body. Treat it well, sleep. Eat healthy food. Its ok if you do one less in a day (look who is talkingggg!!!) But truly, I've learnt to slow down this year. Its killed me to do it. Even now my instinct is to stay up & do it. But don't. Sleeeeep.

"Be gentle. You are your worst critic, people are not thinking half the harsh things you are thinking about yourself :) I wish for all of you like me to be gentle with yourselves & to move on from the things you felt you could have done differently this year. Its over."

So I remind myself, and recommend this to you too: Do one less a day.

I would be grateful for comments about this blog, and if someone would like to suggest a blog they are following to be presented here, you can send me email at: ulla.karki@kirkonulkomaanapu.fi

Bye for now,

Ulla

First post: The Diary of a Kenyan Campus Girl

Are you bored with always visiting the same sites? Welcome to the Southern Blogosphere! This blog explores and presents interesting blogs and sites from the developing world. 

I work at Finn Church Aid as Media and Public Affairs Officer. Because my life now keeps me at one place (Helsinki, Finland), I decided to find out what bloggers from the South are saying. So I decided to start this blog. Here are some reasons why:

Firstly, because by reading blogs from the South you get an idea of what people living in the developing countries consider worthwhile telling about. And blogs make great reading because they are personal and frank.

Secondly, the reason I want to work at Finn Church Aid is not because I want us to have the finest website and the newest applications – I want to tell that we live in a common world. I am interested in how people live and what they think, I want to understand the world around me, and I suspect I am not the only one.

The Southern Blogosphere obviously will not be an all-inclusive description of blogs from the (so-called) South, but an account of my adventures in the blog-world. I’ll try to write my blog in the way that each text will communicate something about the atmosphere of the blog I’m presenting, and can be read as independent texts. Those who want to read on, can then proceed to the blog itself, and from there, drift to other blogs…

I can assure you that my adventures in the Southern blogosphere have been enjoyable, fun and eye-opening!

The first blog I have the honour of presenting, are actually two blogs from the same blogger. “The Diary of a Kenian Campus Girl” is a narrative of a brave, cheerful student girl. Savvy (the author’s name in the blog) studies at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya. However, the blog is not about her studies but about all other interesting things. And this girl definitely knows how to write! Her style is daring, descriptive, open and full of wonderful self-irony.

“There are 3 types of people when school opens. Those that say, “How can I stay in campus? It is soo booring…” and then they head for home. I just want to ask, if u can be bored in campo, home ndio hutaboeka? get real…if u are bored in school, u’ll be bored at home coz u are most probably a boring persona anyway.

Then there is the type that is actually bored coz they have a more exciting life outside campus, but mark  my words, it is not at home where they have fun.

Finally, there is the me type. I don’t claim that campus is boring, and neither is it exciting. But I do have good times, catching up with my pals. With pals like mine, who know everything from the colour of ur underwear to whom u made out with last nite, it is fun to be in campus.”

I have no doubt about that!

Savvy goes clubbing with friends, observes life and people around her, writes about idlers on street corners, sugar daddys and Chinese copy phones. One of my favorites is a blog from her weekend trip to visit a friend in Uganda – I felt as if I had been there with her!

Savvy falls in love, but the young man takes too long to make up his mind. When he finally calls her, Savvy shows that she can make decisions:

“Actually…am over you. Am sorry but it’s the truth. Sometimes it’s not what you say but what you don’t say. Silence for that long…” Where do these words that sound like lines in a movie come from?” 

“You see, am not one of those people who agonize over decisions. If I mean yes, I tell you. If I mean no, I say it. And once my mind is made up, it’s hard to change.”

Way to go, Savvy.

I loved the blog Harambee Stars vs. Ugandan Cranes, in which Savvy sneaks out of church to be in time for an important football game:

“I’d bet heavily on the game: I was going to change my twitter name from Savvy Kenya to Savvy Uganda, and possibly my nationality too if the stars lost to the Cranes.

Having left church around noon, and changed from my dress to jeans and carried a borrowed vuvuzela, I got into a matatu around 1p.m. to town. Now, my small brother was in possession of the tickets and had been at the stadium since noon. He was giving us (my other bro and I) one hour to get to the stadium or he’d sell our tickets. I kept telling him am almost in town even when I was stuck in traffic because the Chinese constructors (contractors?)had decided Saturday was the best time to divert traffic to roadside paths.

By the time I finally got to the stadium, it was 3.30pm and my brothers were already inside. Somehow, we managed to communicate and they wrapped my ticket around a small flag they’d bought and threw it over the wall of the stadium. Of course, there were few spiderman wannabes who scaled the wall but since I had my ticket no need to resort to desperate measures.”

Once Savvy almost got arrested because she was caught handling fake money (she had not noticed her note was fake). She had already been arrested once before, for a minor traffic offense of not tying a seatbelt. A “fat, obnoxious cop” takes her phone, though only after Savvy had managed to tweet about the arrest (!)

“The cell wasn’t so bad. It was dark like all the rest, but the women were friendly, some had complicated cases like fraud, others had been in for days and were dying for a shower, and all I was worried about was my phone so I could tweet away the anxiety (if your case is not heard on a Friday, you have to spend the entire weekend in custody till Monday.) or call my mum.”

Phew, Savvy walks out the same day.

“Buckle up next time. Alternatively, know someone big in the police ranks and you’ll be let go at the police station.”

An almost-forty-years-old Finnish Media Officer/mother-of-two certainly does not belong to the target group of this blog. However, I have really enjoyed reading about Savvy and getting to peek into the every-day life of a Kenyan student.  

At the beginning of this year, Savvy graduated from the university. She got her first job in Rwanda and moved there. And she started a new blog: Savvy Kenya (The Adventures of a Former Campus Girl). http://www.savvykenya.com/

I was very relieved! It would have been sad to lose Savvy. She is now working with an organization called Art of Conservation. AoC works in poor rural communities surrounding the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, teaching schoolchildren about the importance of maintaining a healthy environment for both people and animals, especially the mountain gorillas which Rwanda is famous for.

Savvy writes about settling in a new country and compares Rwanda and Kenya. She loves Rwanda. But.

“The first thing that disturbs me is people’s reaction to white people. Don’t get me wrong, if a white person goes to a remote village in Kenya, everyone is bound to get curious and a little excited. It’s allowed. But here, it’s a little too much.”

When Julie and the rest of the team, I included, drove up to Rushubi Primary School to prepare the classroom for lessons this year, all the kids in the playground stopped what they were doing to run to her. They had surrounded her so much she could hardly take a step. Some of the little kids were falling over and getting stepped on; it was almost a stampede. Whenever she’s driving, kids who know her shout her name, which is great, and she honks at them. Those who don’t know also call out, mzungu, mzungu and ask for something. Most kids almost always wave, at first I also waved back till I realized, oh, I’m not included in the waves. So now I don’t wave back.
There is always an association in people’s minds of white people and an unlimited amount of money, which is common all over the world and more so here.

The second thing that bothers me is the newness of things. When I first came here, I was so excited to see almost everything looks new. The roads, the buildings, the fences… when we drove through the countryside, the farms looked like they hadn’t been around for long, the houses looked like people had just begun to live in them. It’s been only 15 years since the genocide so this should not surprise me, the country is still rebuilding. At first it was exciting to see how new and organized everything looks, but now it just makes me a little sad. I like the way there is a permanence to old things. An assurance that since these buildings have been here for so long, they’ll still be here many years to come. If you go to our home in the village, where my grandmother still lives, there’s a feeling that we’re all totally settled and the place has been and will always be there. With new things, you can only hope that they’ll last, that just maybe this is the last time they’ll have to rebuild.

The third thing that has me sleepless at night (let’s just say it’s not the source of the sleepless but I think about it whenever am awake) is the education system in Rwanda. This is the third week of January and schools have not yet opened officially.

The last thing that bothers me is lack of openness. The fear of the police. The way there are some things you can’t talk about. The way you can’t criticize Kagame. He’s a great man but he’s not perfect. But these things take time.

I just hope there is some way I can contribute towards Rwanda’s development. It needs the support of the rest of East Africa.”

Savvy is a middle-class, well educated African, who clearly wants to do something meaningful in her life. What will become of this interesting young woman?

Unfortunately, I now need to leave the Southern blogosphere for the time being and head home. In Helsinki, there is now 50 cm of snow on the ground and our yard is in serious need of some shoveling.

I would be grateful for comments about this blog, and if someone would like to suggest a blog they are following to be presented here, you can send me email at: ulla.karki@kirkonulkomaanapu.fi

Bye for now,
Ulla
…and next time it will be a very different kind of a blog