Around 3:30 am, we arrived at the capital city of Nairobi, where we were greeted by our friend Ayla and her driver, a Kenyan man named Joseph. The streets were full of people celebrating the new year. Joseph took us to the Kuvuli center where we will be working with the Rwandan refugees building a biodiesel processor. Upon arrival, there was a reggae-esque dance party. The party suddenly ended as the power went out, a common thing here.
Aria and I slept until about 2 in the afternoon. Ayla woke us up with food and coffee. We took to the streets to walk around. The center is on a dirt road lined with little shanty like stores, selling all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and services like hair salons.
Ayla's father, Charles Reith, is a good friend of mine from new Orleans. He helped me with my biodiesel project there. It's been about four years since I've seen him. She took us to where he and his wife Pin were staying, at another Americans house, Dr. Bertrand, a professor at Tulane. We have been staying at this koshie house for the past five days.
Charles an crew took us to see a baby elephant orphanage on our first full day here. They had over 20 elephants that were orphaned by poachers or parents that have died. We also saw a rhino, warthogs, and a gazelle.
After the elephants we had our first meeting with the crew of refugees. They are an intelligent bunch and seem very motivate at this prospect. The biodiesel project will be much more difficult than in the states. Resources are hard to come by, and the chemical costs so far are very high compared to the US. We are doing a more acute feasibility study, and if we find that it's not feasible, we are going to look at other ways that these people can generate income. They are already doing amazing African carvings and art. It seems probable that we can open a US market for there goods.
Many things are different here. Local food and services are cheap, comparatively, but western goods are more expensive than in the states. A jar of Ragu spaghetti sauce is about $5 for example, but one can purchase a mango for about 10 cents. Being a white person here has a tax. There is a tourist price and a local price for almost everything.
I was disappointed to find out that most of the large animals endemic to Africa are in large preserves and parks. A tourist has to pay 50-80$ to see lions, elephants, rhinos, and other animals. Locals have to pay 1-10$. Pretty outrageous!