africa resource bank conference, simba lodge

from sunday to wednesday i have been at simba lodge naivasha discussing with all these cool peeps on how to turn africa people into a resource ... i attended the conference courtesy of SIFE (students in free enterprise) and i immensely thank James Shikwati, the country director and a dear friend for that

it was more like a think tank kind of thingy and oh, i was like the youngest and the like the least educated because almost everyone carried scents of Phds and Masters ... i learnt a lot about the african situation ... and that africa is the only continent that is going to note an increase in its population by the year 2025 therefore the eager need that these people be turned into an asset or risk them proving a major liability ... if you consider that 50% of the population is under the age of 17 with many of them facing an uncertain future in regard to poor governance, disease, poverty and unemployment some serious considerations have to take place ... our workshop was such an attempt

let me go back to less serious issues ... simba lodge was the bomb ... i would wake up in the morning and run towards the lake so that i could view hippopotamuses grazing ... there were beautiful waterbucks also that held no fear or awe for the humanity surrounding them ... a friend had a digital camera and we took some major snaps ... i tried downloading them but there was a hitch so i will try to do that some other time ... the lake ... there is something incredibly fantastic about standing close to a lake ... it reminded me of the time i was in high school and we went for a major hike down kerio valley to touch the waters of lake kamnarok ... lake naivasha is just the same ... only grander ... and with all these beautiful birds standing and wading around ... and in the distance where the sun rays shimmered over the lake, one could spot a fisherman or two trying their trade

the hospitality from the lodge staff was great, the only tragedy is that most of them seem averse to smiling ... which is not necessarily bad but a smile does not seem to cost that much, does it? ... i met all these peeps from south africa and tanzania ... shared a lot about our cultures ... learnt some afrikaans and plied it on a south african lady who laughed her socks off when i told her that she was a beautiful girl in Afrikaans

the best part was the mbuzi choma we had ... never tasted roasted goat that was half that good ... i was rather full from an excellent dinner so i missed somewhat on that delicacy but there were other rewards like in being around all these interesting peeps doing all these interesting things that you had no idea that they could possibly be done

most folks there were exceptional in that each person seemed to have in a certain way chosen the road less travelled ... they all took exception to conventional wisdom and followed what was in their own hearts ... and i was like caramba! that must have demanded a lot of courage

there were poets, writers, businessmen, social workers,researchers, proffessors, idlers who did not like working but had saved money to attend all manner of conference ... and each person was very confident about their position in life and were not attracted in any manner to what any other participant might have had on their side of the fence

i met this lady who scored straight As in highschool ... her father had insisted on choosing the most complicated degrees for her so as to effectively utilize her load of brains ... you could imagine the list ... doctor, lawyer, rocket scientist, astronaut ... or something that would involve her shutting herself in a lab for good watching a paramecium reproduce in the hope that such an observation would earn her a nobel prize

instead, this girl did philosophy and theology in the states and came back immediately afterwards ... there was some form of career assurance in america but the country sucked culture-wise and she hopped on plane back to africa ... she is like very jobless right now ... oh, she did a stint in strath but thought that a teaching job sucked so she is just at home travelling around the world with the money she saved ... she is thinking of working for a cruise ship, hmmmm ... my mind could not adequately correlate her decisions but then she told be a beautiful thing ...ALL WE WANT IN THIS LIFE IS TO LOVE AND TO BE LOVED ...period ... she has already achieved that and sees not why we should have much hullabaloo about life

this is critical if we a too look at the education system in africa ... there are those who say that a developing nation needs more scientists than it does guys in the so called liberal artistes ... do we force children to become doctors, engineers and accountants or do we give them the free will to explore their God-given talents ... are the students who fail pro-science examination necessarily weak or are they just victims of an unfair system ... the whole talk challenged me to really look at myself in the mirror and see what i really am and what i really want ... which of course is a difficult task for any human ... but i guess that at the end of it all we have to make choices about our lives and we have to be ready to live by those choices and not blame anyone if anything goes awry ...

TO BE CONTINUED