LAST HOURS TO DEPARTURE :: GOOD BYE KENYA::

This might be the end of Kenya but the beginning of a new adventure! Kenya definitely opened new doors for us and gave us a new perspective on life. We see things in a different way now, we now know that giving is not always good, not all aid is appreciated and sometimes it doesn't even go to who needs it the most, we had to learn it the hard way but there are some things you just have to experience to fully understand. Besides Guatemala, this is the first time we've lived in another third world country, in some ways Kenya is facing the same issues we face in Guatemala, poverty is seen more here but only because it's really in your face, streets are dirtier, the trash is disposed in the middle of the city for everybody to see and smell and slums are really visible but in the end it's the same, the only difference is that our slums are in different areas, we have cleaner streets and the trash is disposed in places away from the city so it doesn't struck you as hard as here... anyway, Kenya was another door in our story, another path we had to take, another dream accomplished and scratched off our list, it was a very interesting experience, with ups and downs, laughs and tears and lots of hard work.

One of the things we loved the most about this country is it's scenery, Kenya is a big country and everywhere you go it's a different experience all over again. This year our budget shrank a lot and with just a few hundred dollars to live each month we were able to travel to all corners in Kenya... from Lamu almost in Somalia, to Turkana just steps away from Ethiopia and from Kakamega so close to Uganda to Wasini Island facing Tanzania. We travelled by bus more than we've ever done before, our longest trip was to Turkana, travelling for three days, changing from bus to bus from city to city until finally we got there, eight buses in total and lots of lost patience but know that's in the past it's just a funny memory in our book.

Besides the great trips we made, most of all we'll always remember all the good friendships we made... our Kenyan family was made up us tons of other volunteers from all over the world... we'll always remember the adventures we had while travelling together and all those dinners with the coast girls which brough us a bit closer every time... Good times and now it's time to leave but  for all the friends we made we know it's not really a good bye because for sure we'll meet in some other corner of the world...

So now Asia, stay tuned and see what's coming....

::WHAT THE HELL DID I DO IN KENYA:: RECAP!

A few more days and we will be off to some long vacations cruising around Asia… every journey we make leads us to another door, every city we pass by leaves it's mark and changes our perspective of the world bit by bit. Sometimes we find ourselves all over again and sometimes we loose a bit of what we thought made us who we were. This time it was Kenya's time to host us for one year, in paper it was two years and that was the plan but plans always change once you start executing them… It was definitely an experience we'll never forget, ups and downs, lefts and rights… we came with the ideology to help a bit, share our little knowledge and experience so that people at the organizations we were placed at could continue afterward… but things are never easy, you always encounter people with hunger to succeed and sometimes you just meet people who just don't want to be bothered and in both cases you just have to try to make the best out of it and that's what we did… We helped the ones who wanted to be helped and even though we wished we could have done more, we'll just leave this country glad of at least have helped one or two….

Anyways, so I was in charge of the design department of Likoni Quality furniture…. Design department meaning me, and by design meaning having to deal with marketing, advertisements, website, product design and even dealing with clients… it was a mouthful of things and nobody to help me… pissed as hell I started my placement last July, feeling like I was taken advantage of, things were not clear for my partner organization, for them a volunteer felt like a good deal, so they got rid of their designer and brought me in, which shouldn't be the case because this thing is supposed to be sustainable, you come, you train, you implement and then someone else continues doing the job but if there's nobody else then there's no point, as soon as you leave things go back to how they were before and you loose a year of your life….

It took me a couple of months to have management approve high speed internet installation which was going to help me with e-marketing and the build up of the website… Four months for the approval of a digital