28 September 2019
This week, a story from my last few weeks in Kenya (eluded to here): the day my friend and I went with John Mayai and filled up two Ubers with eggs. It’s a good example of the struggles and differences in the mindset that come with running a micro-business in East Africa. Plus, a quiz at […]
31 August 2019
By the time this email is sent, I’ll have left Kenya “for good”. Sad face. During the final week, I’ve been procrastinating hard to avoid actually packing up everything, though in moments when I was clearing out my wardrobe I did find some interesting things. Most were objects that I’d brought over from the UK […]
24 August 2019
This week we’re talking about the biggest infrastructure project to hit East Africa since independence: the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). Launched on 1st June 2017 it has become the symbol of modernisation for the Kenyan government, and last week I took a journey on it from Nairobi to Mombasa. Trains in East Africa When Europeans […]
17 August 2019
Last weekend I was in a village near the Kenya-Uganda border. It was great fun. Here’s an overview of what we got up to (with plenty of pics). A weekend in the making When I first arrived in Nairobi in 2016 I soon made friends with the Shiundus. Their eldest daughter (Tracey) was getting married […]
20 July 2019
This week I’ve been in Zambia. It’s been predominantly holiday: my girlfriend and I seeing a friend from my university before he leaves next month and then exploring parts of the country. I’m writing this from our stay near Lake Kariba on my phone, so apologies if any typos etc. Brief geography of Zambia Zambia […]
13 July 2019
This week I met with two organisations providing people in East Africa with skills for the future. “The future of work” is something I’ve been contemplating a lot recently, and both seem to have developed a view of what the world will look like in 0-20 years, and subsequently designed themselves to equip students accordingly. Africa Digital Media Institute (ADMI) ADMI trains people […]
22 June 2019
This week we’re discussing a form of transport I’d not encountered before moving to East Africa, but that is now my primary form of transit: the motorbike taxi. There’s more than meets the eye to getting on the back of a motorbike and so we’ll cover the history, market dynamics, and improvements to the industry […]
15 June 2019
On Tuesday and Wednesday this week I was at a conference in Nairobi showcasing tech businesses from across Africa. It was a good opportunity to see some of the initiatives being taken by startups on the continent and also listen to discussions by enthusiastic panelists on the role of technology in the development of the […]
20 April 2019
Last weekend my girlfriend and I stayed in rather quaint Airbnb on the north side of Nairobi. Sat on the veranda reading our books (she/ me) we got discussing the heritage of the place and whether others might find it uncomfortable. The Constant Gardener We were staying in the house where the film The Constant Gardener was shot. […]
23 March 2019
This week’s email is an assortment of encounters and observations from 1.5 weeks in South Africa and Botswana Overview I spent 5 days in Cape Town, 3 in Johannesburg and 1 in Gaborone (capital of Botswana). Weekdays/ -nights were consumed with work and then the weekend was in CT. Joggers aplenty in Cape Town Morning […]