Matatus, Maasias and Manifestos

Muhammad Mudassir Afzal
Jun 8, 2013
2 min read

Merembe from Marigoli in Western Kenya!

EA Discovery really took Nairobi by storm: the 100 Kenyan Shilling challenge, market exploring, goal/expectation setting for the trip, and delicious, delicious food! We spent our first weekend in the region with Mwelu foundation and Maasai Mbili in some of Nairobi’s biggest and most notorious slums. The Mwele foundation does photography, film production and community projects in the Mathare Valley slum. Maasia Mbili is an art studio that uses fine Arts and cultural activities could bring equal strength into the communities in Kibera. It was here that OG first met Solo 7, a local artist who uses to help spread messages of peace to children who were impacted by the violence. He operates a painting studio in Kibera where he creates pieces of work, paintings and works using recycled metal, that have been displayed at exhibitions around the world. The debrief to follow was centered around “The role of the Outsider”.

After a busy week in the urban jungle we headed north to a national park and cooled off in beautiful Lake Naivasha. Hiking, biking through “Hells gate”, and hanging with the hippos and other wildlife was a great change after a week in the city!

We’re now in Maragoli where we will be staying and working the next week on several projects with another long-time OG partner community. The second night everyone stayed with local families, one aspiring cook in the group staying with the local chef and learning some traditional cooking! We’ve have some great discussions about development, voluntourism, and our purpose here. Everyone feels passionate about what we are doing and it took four hours on one of our first nights to settle on which specific ones of the community-requested projects we will be working on and the appropriate budgets for them!

The other night night we discussed the Backpacktivist Manifesto before going out for headlamp hide-and-seek! Work hard, play hard!

We are settling into Maragoli for the next week, until Monday when we pack up and head north to Uganda!

Until soon!

Team EA Discovery