Haggling – Nairobi, Kenya - Tuesday, Aug 21

We met up with the whole crew on Tuesday and our first adventure was the Masai Market on top of the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.  Jac is an expert negotiator so she gave us advice and price points for items she had previously purchased at the market.  It was a bit overwhelming but we scored some great handicrafts.  We loved the soap stone hippos, paper necklaces, purses, jewellery, nativities, etc.  This is how it would go with every person we met at the market:

Seller :  What is your name?

Me:  Sara.  What is your name?

Seller:  James, Judy, Emmanuel, Oscar, Jeffrey, Margaret, etc

Seller:  Are you a Christian?

Me:  Yes

Seller:  We are sisters in Christ.  You must come to my shop.  Looking is free!

Me:  Laughter and I would start looking

Seller:  With newspaper in hand would write down an astronomical price for an item

Me:  Laugh and said that it outrageous and way over priced

Seller:  Would cross out the number and say that was the Japanese price and would ask me what my price was.

Me:  List my final price and I would tell them that my friend who lives here could buy it for that price

Seller:  No, no, no.  What is your final price?

Me:  I would stand my ground with the final price and walk away.

Seller:  Ok, ok. 

Me:  I would walk away with my item at my final price!

BTW – for those of you who remember my trip to Turkey, no, I did not come away with a rug I didn’t want. 

Later that afternoon we hired a driver to take us out to the Giraffe Center located outside of Nairobi.  It was an interesting drive through the city. I particularly loved one road that I affectionately named “Home Depot Road” and I am kicking myself for not taking any pictures.  Alongside the road, people set up roadside furniture and beautiful garden shops.  It was fascinating watching people make handicrafts and selling them alongside the road.  If I lived in Nairobi, I would have purchased a billion things.  The craftsmanship was incredible.

The Giraffe Center was great.  We were able to feed and pet the giraffes.  I was pretty grossed out by their tongues...but you know me and peer pressure....I gave in and ended up loving it.  I couldn’t get enough of these gorgeous animals.  Their eyelashes were stunning and they walk so gracefully.  I now want a pet giraffe.

Waka Waka Africa – Nairobi, Kenya - Monday, Aug 20

After two 8 hour flights and an unexpected 24 hour layover in Zurich, Milca and I finally made it to Nairobi, Kenya!  My good friends, Jaclyn and Cameron Jones, have been living in Nairobi for a little over a year, so of course, the world traveller that I am, jumped at the chance to visit them.  It didn’t take too much to convince my friends, Milca, Maida, and Sonia (along with Maida’s husband Tomas and Sonia’s husband Juancho) to join me on this trip of a lifetime.  Side note....Jac, Milca, Maida, Sonia, and I all worked together at PwC in NYC and are friends for life! 

Anyways, Cam was a trooper and picked us up at the airport and we spent the evening hanging out with their adorable boys (Ollie and Fletch).  They had just arrived back from the US the night before so we all recovered from jet lag together. 

Project Belize

I had the opportunity to participate in PwC’s Project Belize program this summer.  If you are unfamiliar with the program, please check out www.pwc.com/projectbelize.  I’m so proud to work for a company that understands the importance of corporate responsibility and dedicates money, time, and resources to important initiatives around the world.     

Over a two week period of time, PwC sent 400 interns, staff, and partners to Belize to teach approximately 1,800 Belizean students, principals, teachers, and parents!  Unfortunately, no words can explain how amazing, rewarding, heartbreaking, sobering, inspiring, and empowering this program would turn out to be.

I attended week 2 of Project Belize and was assigned to the financial literacy track.  I was given the responsibility of helping Sari (a partner from the Boston office) and Brantynn & Nigh (Peacework Volunteers) run the financial literacy program at the Queen’s Square School in Belize City, Belize.  It was estimated that we would have 212 students over the course of the three days.  We were disappointed the first day when only 70ish students showed up but were thrilled as more and more students arrived each day. 

I had to fight back the tears as we pulled up to Queen’s Square for the first time.  From the outside, it looked like a prison.  The view from the inside wasn’t much better.   The classrooms were simple.  Old wooden desks/chairs (most of them were broken) and chalk boards filled the room.  Many of the classroom “walls” were chalkboards that didn’t reach the ceiling.  The computer lab consisted of about 15 computers from the 80s and the playground was a basketball court and a Project H landscape. 

The students were absolutely adorable and for the most part well behaved.  The official language of Belize is English but the students usually speak in Creole.  It was difficult at first to understand what they were saying but by the end of the week we were able to communicate and even learned a few Creole sayings.  We loved break time since this gave us an opportunity to play games with the students (basketball and jump rope) and learn about their culture, family life, and hobbies/interests.

The first day and a half was spent teaching the students about basic financial concepts:  income, expenses, budgeting, saving, etc.  By the end of the second day, we had helped students come up with a business plan for a business they would like to start one day.  On the last day we hosted a “business fair” where the students displayed their business plans and some students even brought some items to sell.  Some of the business ideas included:  nail salons, restaurants, logo design, boat making, animal hospital, clothing, kite, and sporting good retail stores, etc.  It was awesome watching their faces light up as they presented their business plans to their peers, parents, and teachers. 

Project Belize was just an incredible experience.  I could go on and on but will spare you the details until I tell you about it in person!  In the end, there is no way to measure the impact we had on the students, parents, teachers, principals, and country over those two weeks.....but I have no doubt that we made an impact.   We made a difference by teaching basic financial concepts, feeding them one meal a day, giving them attention, and by showing love.