WE Day Toronto 2013

I'm going to take a break today from talking about my African Adventure to share with you an amazing experience I had this week attending WE Day Toronto 2013. It's not entirely unrelated since Me to We and Free the Children (FTC) put on We Day(s) coast to coast and they were also the organizations that planned and hosted my Kenya trip.

Since going on my trip and starting my new position in Community Leadership at KPMG this past summer, I have become very familiar with Free the Children and Craig Kielburger's story.

Please click and read the hyperlinks in this blog to see why I am so passionate about promoting this organization and the good work they are doing around the world and right here at home. And also, the amazing speakers from We Day and their inspiring stories.

I've seen first hand how the FTC programs (education, health, clean water and sanitation, alternative income, and food security) are helping people in Kenya and I know they have programs like these in other developing nations like India, Ecuador, Haiti, and Ghana. Their unique Adopt a Village model is revolutionizing the way countries like Canada can help countries like Kenya.

Some of you may not know that I've also started a course in International Development this month. It's early days and we're only just starting to talk about "what is culture?" and how to effectively communicate with cultures other than our own (something to think about, it's not as easy as you might think) and already it's apparent that a group of people from one country cannot come in and tell another country how to change and what to change and expect those changes to 1) be the right things for that particular country and 2) be adopted whole heartedly by the recipients of this "help". Free the Children seem to really understand talking with the community to learn what their challenges are holistically....that is to say, "why aren't children going to school?" as opposed to "how many school houses would you like us to build here?". That is where the Adopt a Village model comes in.

So, that's the international part of Free the Children which is near and dear to my heart. But what I saw on Friday right here in Toronto really blew my mind!

First of all, the scale of this event and what it takes to pull We Day off! Many of you have been to the Air Canada Centre (or stadiums like it) for hockey, football, or concerts - well, picture it full of 18,000 screaming school kids and their teachers from Toronto and surrounding regions,1,000 volunteers like me, and 1,000 sponsors and honoured guests of FTC up in the boxes.

 The students and teachers almost all arrived

Secondly, the amazing line up of talent/speakers - I mean where else are you going to see Demi Lovato, Imagine Dragons, Barenaked Ladies, Martin Luther King III, President Johnson Sirleaf (first female president of Liberia), Kathleen Wynn (premier of Ontario), Chris Hadfield, the Kenya Boys Choir, and FTC motivational speakers Marc Kielburger (who by the way is a total cutie and I got to meet!), Craig Kielburger, Molly Burke, Robin Wiszowaty (if you get a chance, read her book "My Maasai Life", it's great), and Spencer West....all in the same room on the same day! See, mind blowing! They each had a positive, motivating message that I think really resonated with everyone there. I know I was impacted, hence this blog!

 Martin Luther King III - 50 years after "I have a dream"

 

Those lights are the applause after the video of Martin Luther King Jr.'s

"I have a dream" speech was played 

Robin Wiszowaty and President Johnson Sirleaf

Kenya Boys Choir

But what really moved me the most was to think that all these kids were there because "caring is cool". You cannot buy a ticket to We Day, you have to earn it. That means, every one of the 18,000 kids did at least one local and one global volunteer activity over the past year. In this day and age when all you seem to hear about is bullying, suicide, gangs, and other horrible things that kids go through and then you come to an event like this and hear people speaking about being nice to each other, helping those in need, dreaming big, and anything is possible - it's so inspiring! Especially when you see a 10 and 12 year old (Hannah Alper and Vishal Vijay) get up on stage in front of thousands of people and talk about what they are passionate about and doing to create change. Their passions are the environment and anti-child labour respectively...but their message was the same, it is their generation that is going to change the world for the better. And I believe them!

Craig and Mark Kielburger

 

Oh Canada!

 

Some of you may be wondering what I did as a volunteer. There are many different jobs you can do from Transportation (directing traffic and making sure everyone gets from the parking lot to where they are going), Registration, hosting, escorting talent or guests etc. I signed up for "Honoured Guest Suite Hosting"....which I feel a bit guilty in saying was a pretty cushy job. Aside from one coffee emergency I pretty much got to watch the whole show from one of the corporate boxes and met some lovely people from Tory's LLP.

View from the box I was "hosting"

Two days before the event about 800 volunteers went down to the ACC to get our wrist bands and learn about our duties for the actual day. We also got a tour of the venue and got to see some cool sound check stuff happening.

Setting up 2 days before

Backstage tour for volunteer training

Way up there in the 600 level (under the Rogers sign)

is the volunteer area where we had breakfast/lunch

 

We day is happening in 9 cities across Canada this year (I believe) so if you get a chance to volunteer I strongly suggest you do, it's a life changing experience. Maybe your company is already involved whether it's pro-bono work or as a sponsor - so you may be able to volunteer through them, like I did through KPMG. Super cool it's also expanding into the US and UK!! So, my overseas friends...get yourself to London and check it out. But remember, you heard it here from Canada first! :)

Day 11...Discovering Mombasa

No rest for the weary! At least not today, so much to see and do in Mombasa.

The day started off slow with breakfast at the hotel, changed rooms to a sea view room, and a bit of reading by the sea. Ahhhhh, bliss!

The beach :) They actually rake up the seaweed, nice touch

 

Can you see the gecko?

Baba picked us up at 11am and took us into town. On the way, we stopped at "Aunty Jean's" salon....Jean was married to my cousin Kevin. Aha, I am related to these people. :) In fact, the whole trip I was referred to as "Kevin's cousin"....even though Kevin and I have never met. But people seem to recognize the Gunputrav family resemblance right away...must be the nose! ;)

Jean, myself, and Zena

Then we met up with another relative, Aunty Fifi, for some local market shopping. I'm so glad we were with a local, I've never been good at bartering, especially when the prices already seem so reasonable with the exchange. On the other hand, I want to pay a fare price too. Fifi hooked us up! :)

Zena, Fifi, and me

One of the market streets....possibly Chicken Mango St...I'm not joking!

 

A beautiful dress I got for 1500 Ksh...about $15

 

 After shopping we jumped into a couple of tuk tuks and headed to a café for some falooda  (and samosas for me)! I never thought I'd say any of those words in a sentence together, lol.

Tuk tuk driver...nice shirt! :)

 

Love this café sign!

Fifi, Ligia, Jimmy, and Zena waiting for falooda

Ligia very much enjoying her falooda

 

Back to Baba's to meet more rellies and chat. It was a great but exhausting day, especially just dealing with all the noise and traffic and congestion in Mombasa - I fell asleep in the chair where I was sitting! Good to see I have not lost the ability to nap anywhere :-p

After a quick shower at the hotel we went out for dinner at Il Covo...a lovely restaurant that just so happened to be next door to our hotel. We walked on the beach since the tide was out. So happy Zena came back with us so we all could spend more time together.

 The BIGGEST prawns I have ever seen 

 



 

Me, Ligia, Zena, and Jimmy at il covo

Fire dancers performing back at the hotel - nice surprise!

And finally bedtime! What an amazing day full of new sights, sounds, food, experiences, and people. I was not kidding when I told Seraphina that "Aunty Tash was going on an adventure"!

 

 

 

Day 10b...Mara to Mombasa

Up early to say goodbye to each other and go our separate ways. Although there was one more day in the itinerary full of fun things to do in Nairobi, many of us had separate trips planned.

Saying goodbye was bitter sweet. On the one hand, I had just spent almost every waking hour with a great group of people that I was just really getting to know and I was sorry to see that come to an end. On the other hand, I was excited to start the next part of my African adventure, see where my Mom was born, and spend time with family...not to mention relax by the beach! :)

Thank God, a bigger plane!

I was very lucky that Free the Children organized my transfer to the Nairobi international airport where I met up with Jimmy and Ligia and together we flew to Mombasa. From there on out my brain went on vacation and I just "went with the flow"! :)

Hello Mombasa! It's hot here!

Nothing could have prepared me for Mombasa! Talk about a culture shock coming from the tranquillity of Bogani and the Maasai Mara to the noise and chaos of Mombasa! I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this kind of dirty, extremely loud, bustling, Arab-influenced, predominantly Muslim, port city.
 

City Mosque

 

Culture shock!

 

When I first started this blog I said that it was the people who really made this trip amazing and my time in Mombasa was no different. The moment we landed, Jimmy's cousin, Baba, picked us up at the airport, took us to his home for "tea" (which was really an amazing spread of food and drink), and everyone (there were a lot of people at home and some who just dropped by) made me feel like I was a part of the family. It was great! Thousands of miles away from home, in a foreign city, and I felt like I had just met a bunch of cousins I never knew existed. And my absolute favourite part was re-connecting with Zena, who I hadn't seen in 17 years! She lives in B.C. but we had to come half-way around the world to see each other, hilarious.

 

Me and Zena

 

After quite a hectic day, Baba drove us across the city to our beach-front hotel.

Lovely hotel

Tad bit windy but who cares?!

Tide coming in

 

Lounge chairs by the pool and sea

 

The view from our room before we got upgraded to beachfront

 

Ligia and I enjoying the sun

Ahhhhh, it was so quiet and peaceful there. Amazing to be by the sea! Let the vacation begin! :)



Day 10a...goodbye Bogani and some stuff I forgot to mention

It just occurred to me that I never said what James actually did to save my camera! Can't forget to share this story with all of you, it was one of my highlights of the whole trip!

On Day 7 (safari in the afternoon day) as we were riding along in the lorry, I was chatting to one of the girls beside me and a bunch of kids came running down the road to say hi to us, as usual. On autopilot, I raised my hand to say Jambo (thus coining the phrase Jambo-ing) and my camera went flying off my wrist onto the road! Well, I started waving frantically to James the Warrior and he smiled back at me, he was always smiling, until he understood what had happened then got the attention of the driver and told him to stop. We started backing up and I just prayed my camera wasn't too badly damaged and then one of the guys spotted a kid pick up my camera and...run down a side lane with it (by "lane" I mean between two corn fields)! For some reason, this was shocking to me, didn't expect it at all - quite naïve of me really. And then James went into "warrior mode". I didn't see it myself but apparently his facial expression and demeanour completely changed and he jumped out of the truck and ran after the kid! Of course, we didn't see if he had to take out his machete or not but a few minutes later he came back with my camera in hand. And the camera was no worse for wear, phew, what a relief! James was definitely my hero that day. :)

Another important experience I forgot to share was on Day 5, after dinner we all gathered by a campfire to listen to James and Jackson talk about what is was like to grow up in the Maasai culture and become a Warrior. They are uniquely the last generation to kill a lion as a sign of bravery and also the first generation to go to University. It is truly fascinating to hear how this culture is embracing massive change but also keeping many of their traditions alive to be passed down to the next generation. They openly answered our questions about arranged marriage, female circumcision etc. It was a wonderful, personal experience and I feel we got to know not only the Maasai people a little bit better but also these two guides who were spending the week with us making sure we had the best possible experience in Kenya. They are both wonderful people and I'm very happy to have met them.

And the last thing I forgot to mention was before we went for warrior training we got to "shop" at the Me to We Bogani "store" - which is basically a room where they keep some of the beautiful beaded jewelry and rungus that we saw being made, really cool t-shirts (like my "I heart Maasai Warriors" t-shirt), Kenya Boys Choir CDs, and other fun souvenirs. Needless to say, after a week in Africa, just as the Western world withdrawal was starting to subside, I went a bit nuts in the store! Many of you have been recipients of some of my purchases. And as I said before, there is a store in Toronto if anyone would like to buy some gorgeous African artifacts and support a good cause. (Heeroos, you know what you're getting for Christmas! Lol).

Here are a few more pictures from my last day...

Me and Justus (my spider killer) :)

 

Local Vervet Monkey

Goodbye Bogani...I'll miss you!

So, that pretty much captures my favourite memories from the Free the Children portion of my trip. Next up Mombasa!

Day 9b...best possible end to a magnificent journey

Back to Bogani for lunch and a bit of downtime before "warrior training". ;- )

A few of us decided to finish our beading from the other day, the idea being that you could get your leaf turned into a key chain at the shop in Nairobi the following day. Since I wasn't doing to rest of the itinerary in Nairobi I decided to tie a pretty beaded loop on my "key chain" and give it to James the Warrior as a thank you for saving my camera and for being an all around awesome guy! (sorry no picture and I have no idea what he thought of this)

Next we got split into groups, KPMG people, friends and family, and "kids", to discuss how we could take all that we've seen and learned in Kenya and continue the journey when we go back home to Canada. It was a pretty fruitful discussion and I for one committed to discussing with my boss all the ideas we came up with to see if there is anything we can do "officially" company-wide. Being in my new role with Community Leadership only 3 days before I left on the trip I wasn't sure of the boundaries between trip participant and CL representative. In any case, I (we) really felt changed by this experience and wanted to make a difference at home, whether locally or internationally.

As evening was approaching we were told that our medicine walk and Maasai warrior training would be just outside the fence of Bogani so we all walked over and discovered refreshments had been set up for us! I love the staff at Bogani...seriously, we could not have been treated any better in a 5* resort.

Refreshments in the Mara

 

James and Jackson took us on a walk-about (to coin my old Aussie phrase) and discussed the medicinal properties of the trees and plants nearby. For instance, the plant below that looks like a cactus (but isn't) will make you go blind if you get any sap in your eye. However, if made the right way it can be ingested for use in the after-birthing process (I think it's this one anyway).

Note: To get rid of the blindness put cow's blood in your eye (how they discovered this I don't really want to know).

Jackson and the blinding plant

 

James making toothbrushes for all of us! It tastes peppery but does the trick!



Next up was "Warrior weapons training". James told us all about using the spear and the bow and arrow but for some reason we were not allowed to practise throwing these! Lol. But we did have a friendly rungu throwing competition.

James talking about Warrior weapons

 

The idea was to hit the "Lion/shuka" for 2 points or the "Giraffe/tree" for 1point

Getting ready to throw the rungu

 

How hard could it be?

Oops, missed! But got a high 5 anyway :)

(I did better on my second attempt)

 

Sun setting over the Mara - calling an end to our Kenyan journey

 

But wait.....there's more! Nyama Choma!!

 

You can't leave Kenya without a traditional Kenyan BBQ! OMG, it was so good. And I'm happy to say the goat we ate was not the one that was given to us the other day! :)

 

Bbq

Mmmmm, how do they get their sweet potatoes to taste like potatoes??

 

And then finally it was time to say goodbye. The staff came out and sang for us. There was cake and a cake cutting song (that went roughly like kata-kata-ka-ta! which loosely translates to "cut the cake" lol). We cheered and clapped and sincerely thanked them for all they had done for us over the past week.

Staff farewell and singing

Cake cutting

 

We all went back to our tents to shower, change, and pack before lights out then reconvened for another few drinks and a "dance party" that was more like chilling out, talking, and listening to music.

 

And just like that, the epic adventure we had been waiting months and months for was over. It was definitely worth every penny and I would highly recommend this trip. Go to Kenya for safari but stay for the people.