On our way to Nairobi

In preparing for our arrival to Nairobi, we had a very interesting conversation with Brett Bullington, who put us in touch with Carolina for Kibera (www.carolinaforkibera.org), which we plan to visit once we are in Nairobi. Mr. Bullington is a member of the Board of Directors of Carolina for Kibera, a non-profit organization in Nairobi founded by a University of North Carolina student in 2001. The organization is located in Kibera, one of Nairobi’s slums and its primary mission is “to promote youth leadership and ethnic and gender cooperation in Kibera through sports, young women's empowerment, and community development.” In addition, the organization provides other services such as healthcare, with its Tabitha Clinic, sanitation and is expanding into education. The organization has been quite successful and has served as a model for other grassroots organizations in Kenya and in other countries in Africa, therefore we are sure that it will be quite a learning experience for us and for AAR. We are specifically interested in learning about the model of Kabitha Clinic, which Brett mentioned was serving the whole Kibera community and had just recently expanded its services. We are also currently in the process of contacting other organizations that we think we will be very interesting to visit so we will keep you posted.

We are very excited to report that the four of us are now in the African continent: we are in Cape Town, South Africa. We have been amazed by the beauty of the scenery; having on one side the superb Table Mountain, and on the other, a spectacular coastline that boarders charming historical towns. We have also been embraced by South Africa’s friendly and welcoming hospitality which has quickly made us feel “at home.” We have visited the Cape of Good Hope, seen the penguins at Simon’s Town, fed ostriches, gone up Table Mountain, and look forward to visiting the wine country and swimming with the sharks in the coming days. Cape Town is truly the “Mother City” as the South Africans call it.