Key Point: 'He [Jesus] redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles [like me] through Christ Jesus, so that by faith [not the law] we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Wednesday 16 November 2011
You foolish Galatians!
Glatians 3 is confusing but brilliant. Here is a visualisation of Galatians 3 and a bit of 4, as I have understood it...
Key Point: 'He [Jesus] redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles [like me] through Christ Jesus, so that by faith [not the law] we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Key Point: 'He [Jesus] redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles [like me] through Christ Jesus, so that by faith [not the law] we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Tuesday 27 September 2011
Why Nairobi Attract’s Amazing People Like Me!
I enjoyed this New HuffPost Piece: Why Nairobi Attract’s America’s Young Social Entrepreneurs by jonathankalan
He discusses why "Nairobi has just recently to crept into the international market as a city to keep an eye on." which makes me feel pretty cool for living here!
He says, "It’s what I’ve come to dub as the four P’s — Potential, Poverty, Politics, and Parties -- a unique blend that draws a distinct class of Gen-y ers looking to make money, make a name for themselves, and make a difference…."
Clearly I consider myself one of the UK's best and brightest young social entrepeneurs with my shiny development degree from the University of Easy Access so its nice to hear this chap's evaluation of why I'm here in Nairobi.
More seriously, I've been thinking a bit of late about 'Generation Y' and what we are up to, how we are trying to find our way in a fast-changing world, growing-up being told we would change the world, that we would be history makers and finding ourselves the other side of uni struggling to even get employed, filling in the meantime with a quick trip somewhere so we have something to post on facebook.
This blogpost nicely introduces how in Nairobi I find myself mixed in with other young people in very different situations, with very different values, motivations and dreams for their lives. On the one hand I have friends my age praying and dreaming to get a qualification that might make them minimally more likely to get a job in this country which has about 10 jobs to offer the expansive young population. I have friends who have gone to the best schools, read widely and have big dreams of what their country could be, they are full of passion and ideas and are getting on with changing their society. Some friends whose main goal is to provide for their young family or to help their parents provide for their siblings.
Read the whole thing at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-kalan/potential-poverty-politic_b_969338.html
He discusses why "Nairobi has just recently to crept into the international market as a city to keep an eye on." which makes me feel pretty cool for living here!
He says, "It’s what I’ve come to dub as the four P’s — Potential, Poverty, Politics, and Parties -- a unique blend that draws a distinct class of Gen-y ers looking to make money, make a name for themselves, and make a difference…."
Clearly I consider myself one of the UK's best and brightest young social entrepeneurs with my shiny development degree from the University of Easy Access so its nice to hear this chap's evaluation of why I'm here in Nairobi.
More seriously, I've been thinking a bit of late about 'Generation Y' and what we are up to, how we are trying to find our way in a fast-changing world, growing-up being told we would change the world, that we would be history makers and finding ourselves the other side of uni struggling to even get employed, filling in the meantime with a quick trip somewhere so we have something to post on facebook.
This blogpost nicely introduces how in Nairobi I find myself mixed in with other young people in very different situations, with very different values, motivations and dreams for their lives. On the one hand I have friends my age praying and dreaming to get a qualification that might make them minimally more likely to get a job in this country which has about 10 jobs to offer the expansive young population. I have friends who have gone to the best schools, read widely and have big dreams of what their country could be, they are full of passion and ideas and are getting on with changing their society. Some friends whose main goal is to provide for their young family or to help their parents provide for their siblings.
Read the whole thing at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-kalan/potential-poverty-politic_b_969338.html
Friday 22 July 2011
Monday 6 June 2011
Tooonage
Here are some of the bands we saw at Blankets and Wine last sunday:
Ma3 from Nairobi introduced as urban afropop? Not bad...
Then everyone's favourite Kenyan boyband Sauti Sol, best dance moves...
And finally Manou Gallo of Ivory Coast. She can sing, play bass, beatbox and play djembe, a veritable musical penknife. Her drummer was playing the kit with one stick then playing congas with his other hand. I stood in awe...
Ma3 from Nairobi introduced as urban afropop? Not bad...
Then everyone's favourite Kenyan boyband Sauti Sol, best dance moves...
And finally Manou Gallo of Ivory Coast. She can sing, play bass, beatbox and play djembe, a veritable musical penknife. Her drummer was playing the kit with one stick then playing congas with his other hand. I stood in awe...
Friday 8 April 2011
Barefoot in Kibera
April 5th 2011 was One Day Without Shoes led by TOMs, a for-profit company who will send a pair of shoes to a kid who has none everytime someone purchases a pair of TOMs shoes. Myself, Godwill and Moses decided to join in and walked barefoot all day. We met at 8am to walk through the slum to the Mashimoni compound together and received so many bewildered stares and quizzical looks you would think we had turned purple. I didn't notice much though as my eyes were fixed on the ground spying out glass, stones, bottle tops and any other potentially harmful object ahead of me.
The idea of the day is to raise awareness and probably to sell more TOMs shoes but we had our own reasons for walking barefoot for the day. Godwill had just returned from his latest mission trip to the Kenyan coast with Nairobi Baptist Church. While he was there he witnessed the pain caused by 'jiggers' and was moved to do something about it. I should say, a jigger is a parasitic anthropod which burrows into people's toes and causes pain and iritation as it feeds and grows. lovely.
The idea of the day is to raise awareness and probably to sell more TOMs shoes but we had our own reasons for walking barefoot for the day. Godwill had just returned from his latest mission trip to the Kenyan coast with Nairobi Baptist Church. While he was there he witnessed the pain caused by 'jiggers' and was moved to do something about it. I should say, a jigger is a parasitic anthropod which burrows into people's toes and causes pain and iritation as it feeds and grows. lovely. Godwill noted a particular incident when he was running a football workshop, a young boy of around 7 was trying to join in the game but had to run on his heels because his toes were so infested with jiggers. The boy reminded Godwill so much of his nephew of the same age. It was as he considered what he would do if his nephew had such a problem that he resolved to do what he could to get shoes for those kids.
The plan is to get people within Kenya to donate shoes their kids have grown out of or even buy a few pairs to send out to Kwale on the next mission trip. I love that Godwill is looking to his church and to people within the country to deal with this issue and thats why we wanted to raise awareness here in Nairobi. People across rural Kenya wear no shoes all the time and thats not usually a big deal but in areas where jiggers are prevalent there is a problem and the sight of 3 otherwise well dressed young people walking around Nairobi with no shoes on certainly seemed to cause a stir. Project Director Kariuki was enjoying telling gawkers that he was punishing us! I hope it will help give some momentum to Godwill's mission.
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Dig Deep Apron: for baking, barbequing and more!
The Dig Deep for the Farmers campaign has got off to an encouraging start, raising nearly £300 in the first month. The game must be raised if we're to reach £3,700 by the end of June though! So for the first game-raising effort I introduce the Dig Deep Apron!
These Aprons are made of Kanga material which is used by mums everywhere in Kenya as clothing, headwear or to carry things like babies. They are covered in awesome brightly coloured patterns and always have a Swahili proverb scribbled somewhere.
The impact of these aprons is three-fold. Firstly, I bought the kanga material from members of the microfinance programme, all mothers, giving their businesses a boost.
Secondly, I nipped round the corner to my friend's house to get them made. Mary a.k.a Mama Daisy (her baby girl is called Daisy and is terrified of me) lives in the Turning Point compound in Mashimoni and has lovingly made each apron by hand. Income from this work will help pay for her two boys' school fees.
Finally, all the profits from apron sales are going towards the Dig Deep for the Farmers campaign to buy a single-mum from Kibera a farm.
So, that's three mums from Kibera benefiting from every apron sold! Surely these aprons would make an excellent mother's day gift! If you would like to order one from the Turning Point Website, we'll make sure it gets to in time for mother's day on 3rd April.
These Aprons are made of Kanga material which is used by mums everywhere in Kenya as clothing, headwear or to carry things like babies. They are covered in awesome brightly coloured patterns and always have a Swahili proverb scribbled somewhere.The impact of these aprons is three-fold. Firstly, I bought the kanga material from members of the microfinance programme, all mothers, giving their businesses a boost.
Secondly, I nipped round the corner to my friend's house to get them made. Mary a.k.a Mama Daisy (her baby girl is called Daisy and is terrified of me) lives in the Turning Point compound in Mashimoni and has lovingly made each apron by hand. Income from this work will help pay for her two boys' school fees.
Finally, all the profits from apron sales are going towards the Dig Deep for the Farmers campaign to buy a single-mum from Kibera a farm.
So, that's three mums from Kibera benefiting from every apron sold! Surely these aprons would make an excellent mother's day gift! If you would like to order one from the Turning Point Website, we'll make sure it gets to in time for mother's day on 3rd April.Wednesday 2 March 2011
Nairobi:New York:Newport
I'm excited about the new Sauti Sol album. I like this version of 'Nairobi' where they liken the city to New York and Newport, Wales. Is Nairobi more New York: 'Concrete jungle where dreams are made' or Newport: 'Concrete jumble, nothing in order'? A bit of both I feel.
Tuesday 8 February 2011
Dig deep for the farmers
Around March last year the Turning Point management team spent quite some time praying and discussing 'stage 3' for the mums living on the Turning Point Farm. The goal has always been independence, but what should that look like?
Seeking God's vision through prayer is always a key part of any big decision at Turning Point and everyone involved in the praying got a similar sense (in their own way) of God wanting to give the mums freedom. Freedom from the hunger and poverty and stress of Kibera but also freedom from the Turning Point Farm. We and the mums feel that as long as the mums are living on the Turning Point farm they are not fully independent from Turning Point. They remain reliant on Turning Point to continue offering them rent-free land and with this proximity comes the temptation to run back to Turning Point for help at every hurdle.
From here we developed the final plan for 'stage 3': to buy each mum her own one acre of land complete with two-roomed house, kitchen, toilet and bathroom. This will not be a completely free gift but the mums will pay a small amount each year for 15 years. As the years pass ownership of the land will gradually pass from Turning Point to the mum and at the end of the 15 years the mum will have 100% ownership of the land. Land ownership would have been an impossible dream for these mums three years ago when they signed up to move to the farm.
The big issue now is how do we pay for all this land? In total it will cost £3,700 (around $6,000) to buy the land and do the necessary building for just one mum and we now have seven mums who are ready to move onto their own land later this year. In May last year I said something along the lines of '£3,700 is totally do-able, I'll raise the money for one mum myself!'. I slightly wish I hadn't said that now, but I did, so I'm launching a campaign. I call it, 'Dig deep for the Farmers' and the goal is to raise the money for (at least) one mum's land by the end of June 2011. To add to the challenge I'm aiming to raise the full amount online through Globalgiving.org.
So whoever wants to get the ball rolling, head on over to Globalgiving.org and help me out with the first donation! Also, the word needs to be spread far and wide, so please consider blogging, tweeting, or actually telling your friends in person about the mums and their opportunity for freedom. Thanks!
From here we developed the final plan for 'stage 3': to buy each mum her own one acre of land complete with two-roomed house, kitchen, toilet and bathroom. This will not be a completely free gift but the mums will pay a small amount each year for 15 years. As the years pass ownership of the land will gradually pass from Turning Point to the mum and at the end of the 15 years the mum will have 100% ownership of the land. Land ownership would have been an impossible dream for these mums three years ago when they signed up to move to the farm.
The big issue now is how do we pay for all this land? In total it will cost £3,700 (around $6,000) to buy the land and do the necessary building for just one mum and we now have seven mums who are ready to move onto their own land later this year. In May last year I said something along the lines of '£3,700 is totally do-able, I'll raise the money for one mum myself!'. I slightly wish I hadn't said that now, but I did, so I'm launching a campaign. I call it, 'Dig deep for the Farmers' and the goal is to raise the money for (at least) one mum's land by the end of June 2011. To add to the challenge I'm aiming to raise the full amount online through Globalgiving.org.
So whoever wants to get the ball rolling, head on over to Globalgiving.org and help me out with the first donation! Also, the word needs to be spread far and wide, so please consider blogging, tweeting, or actually telling your friends in person about the mums and their opportunity for freedom. Thanks!
Tuesday 11 January 2011
My walk to work
8:00 Leave my apartment, lock up and go downstairs
8:02 Greet the day guard, Naktari, as he lets me out of the gate to our compound
8:07 Reach the Adam's arcade roundabout and attempt to cross Ngong Road's morning traffic. Nearly die.
8:09 Pass by a guy dropping off his disabled friend at his begging spot in toi market, he makes sure his friend is comfortable and arranges to pick him later. I carry on past the people setting up their second-hand clothes stalls for the day.
8:12 Turn right at 'Winners Chapel' and enter the most peaceful phase of the walk along a nice shadey suburban road lined by jacaranda trees. Peek in at the nice looking bungalows behind the walls. Pass the estate where apparently one resident smuggled a leopard until the Kenya Wildlife Service came to the rescue in a daring raid.
8:15 Turn off the nice suburban road onto the dusty track towards Kibera. Pass the detention centre for street children on the left. Walk past the tall brick walls and wonder what exactly goes on in there. Slowly the surroundings change from quaint looking bungalows to cheap looking flats to shabby iron-sheet shops and the concrete block one-room houses of Fort Jesus. Start passing kids who shout 'Howareyou!' all as one word.
8:20 Reach the junction with Karanja road and pick my way through the soapy streams created by some young men washing buses and matatus. Generally right in the way of oncoming traffic. Turn right and head up the hill towards the Olymic 'stage' (bus stop).
8:23 Enter the mayhem of Olympic stage. A hord of Matatu touts offer me a lift to town, I shake my head a lot and swerve several times to miss the bus's side mirrors which come close to smacking my head. Its a bit like walking into a wall of sound, on the left is a CD shop which blares music at full volume which blends horrifically with the bass sounds pounding out of the Matatus on my right, plus the touts shouting prices and places, plus the horns beeping as they hustle through the traffic.
8:25 Cross the multicoloured bridge over the railway line covered in graffitti calling for peace and unity and to keep Kibera clean.
8:26 Pass by the sweet smell of mandazi frying then get tempted by the spicy smell of samosas lined up at a road-side kiosk. I resist the temptation but probably will give in on my way home.
8:28 Turn left and enter Kibera proper, the 'howareyou's increase exponentially. Follow the muddy track down the hill until I see my friend whose name I never learned, I just call her mama. She sells oil from a bucket right where I need to turn right down a small alleyway between houses to the Kianda project.
8:30 Reach the Kianda project where I'm greeted by Jane the cook, Mary and Benson have already launched into the morning's teaching with the kids. Here ends my walk to work.
8:02 Greet the day guard, Naktari, as he lets me out of the gate to our compound
8:07 Reach the Adam's arcade roundabout and attempt to cross Ngong Road's morning traffic. Nearly die.
8:09 Pass by a guy dropping off his disabled friend at his begging spot in toi market, he makes sure his friend is comfortable and arranges to pick him later. I carry on past the people setting up their second-hand clothes stalls for the day.
8:12 Turn right at 'Winners Chapel' and enter the most peaceful phase of the walk along a nice shadey suburban road lined by jacaranda trees. Peek in at the nice looking bungalows behind the walls. Pass the estate where apparently one resident smuggled a leopard until the Kenya Wildlife Service came to the rescue in a daring raid.
8:15 Turn off the nice suburban road onto the dusty track towards Kibera. Pass the detention centre for street children on the left. Walk past the tall brick walls and wonder what exactly goes on in there. Slowly the surroundings change from quaint looking bungalows to cheap looking flats to shabby iron-sheet shops and the concrete block one-room houses of Fort Jesus. Start passing kids who shout 'Howareyou!' all as one word.
8:20 Reach the junction with Karanja road and pick my way through the soapy streams created by some young men washing buses and matatus. Generally right in the way of oncoming traffic. Turn right and head up the hill towards the Olymic 'stage' (bus stop).
8:23 Enter the mayhem of Olympic stage. A hord of Matatu touts offer me a lift to town, I shake my head a lot and swerve several times to miss the bus's side mirrors which come close to smacking my head. Its a bit like walking into a wall of sound, on the left is a CD shop which blares music at full volume which blends horrifically with the bass sounds pounding out of the Matatus on my right, plus the touts shouting prices and places, plus the horns beeping as they hustle through the traffic.
8:25 Cross the multicoloured bridge over the railway line covered in graffitti calling for peace and unity and to keep Kibera clean.8:26 Pass by the sweet smell of mandazi frying then get tempted by the spicy smell of samosas lined up at a road-side kiosk. I resist the temptation but probably will give in on my way home.
8:28 Turn left and enter Kibera proper, the 'howareyou's increase exponentially. Follow the muddy track down the hill until I see my friend whose name I never learned, I just call her mama. She sells oil from a bucket right where I need to turn right down a small alleyway between houses to the Kianda project.
8:30 Reach the Kianda project where I'm greeted by Jane the cook, Mary and Benson have already launched into the morning's teaching with the kids. Here ends my walk to work.
Saturday 8 January 2011
Friday 7 January 2011
Larger surface area
Larger surface area is what I wrote for every answer in GCSE science and I did quite well. This here map demonstrates that Africa is in fact quite big.
http://static02.mediaite.com/geekosystem/uploads/2010/10/true-size-of-africa.jpg
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