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.
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