Bit of a mixed bag this week.
Last weekend I went on a hike out of Nairobi to a place called Elephant Hill. Upon telling this to people who had been in Kenya the past few months they mentioned that was “where the plane crash happened“.
I hadn’t heard about it, but a light aircraft had crashed after changing direction in bad weather conditions. All 9 people on board died, pretty nasty stuff.
When at the peak of the said hill we could spot the remains of the plane on the other side of the range. Our guide asked us if we wanted to go and see it.
Trekking over the other side was in fact pretty morbid.
The bodies had gone, but everything else was there to walk through. A crumpled plane, folders of documents, even the shoes of some of the passengers.
We spent what must have been 30 minutes just going through the crash site. A wing had cracked off, wires were sprawled everywhere and things were still pretty “untouched”. It seemed very raw still: quite an unpleasant experience.
After paying our condolences we left the mutilated (but still visible) plane and its parts on the hillside and began our descent, less chatty than the way up.
In other news…
British Prime Minister Theresa May was in Kenya this week as part of a wider Africa tour. It’s the first time for 30 years that the Prime Minister has been to the country.
On the ground, there didn’t seem to be too much fuss made about it (maybe I’m moving in the wrong circles) though it is interesting to hear about the new narrative for UK-Africa trade within the context of Brexit.
Also, last week’s post on “don’t follow your passion” received a lot of responses. Most were positive, though the most interesting one began vehemently with:
“What a cautious, uninspiring and self-limiting piece of advice this is?!”
My friend’s argument was that it is possible to combine those things that you’re good at with what you love and so don’t settle for spending the majority of your waking hours on something you’re not passionate about.
This was explained through the lens of the Japanese concept of ikigai: finding the intersection of What you Love, What the World Needs, What you’re Good At and What you can be Paid For.
For those still musing on where to find meaning etc. in what you do, I hope this brings another perspective on how to think about it.
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