More adventure

Yesterday I met up with the Adventure Family before they headed south on the final leg of their African adventure (they're aiming to be in Cape Town mid-January). It was good to see them and nice to see our Fishing Stool being used for more than fishing (or sitting).

Snake incursion

Yesterday's excitement involved a large(ish) snake that wandered into the Lenana shop as we prepared for our Christmas Sale. No idea if he was there to buy or just looking but Martha wasn't at all happy with the intrusion and he was quickly despatched.

Always ethical, now audited.

Today we had an independent ethical audit conducted by the extremely professional Nairobi-based Ethical Business Services team from Africa Now. Leonard Nawiri and Peris Ochieng will be pulling together the report over the next week but the initial feedback was very positive, which is gratifying but unsurprising because we've always been guided by strong ethical principles. I think the key is that it will give us a framework to guide us in future, undoubtedly helping us do a few things better, but most importantly formalising something that until now has been more of a philosophy that has grown from operating in a way that simply felt right.

Kinondo Kwetu

At the weekend I embarked on a mammoth trip from Nairobi to Mombasa by train: departure 7pm Friday night, scheduled arrival 8am Saturday morning, actual arrival 4pm Saturday afternoon. The travails of the journey were more than compensated for however by my visit as a (paying) guest, and deliverer of new product, to Sandstorm customer and resort (that feels more like a great house party) Kinondo Kwetu: I get a real kick when people make doing something so well seem so completely effortless. Tell all your nice friends, this place is heaven and it was a wrench to have to leave for the return rail journey after just 24 hours. My pics don't do it justice, so take a look at the website when you get a moment.

Nyama Choma

I've been rather tardy this week with posting, much going on, but last Friday we all gathered at the Africana Restaurant next to Jamhuri for nyama choma. Pretty much everyone made it and it was great to have everyone from the factory, the office and the shops together under one roof, and we're going to do it every couple of months from now on. For those of you unfamiliar with nyama choma, it is (or certainly feels like) Kenya's national dish, and translates literally as 'roasted meat' in Swahali, we had goat and on this occasion, accompanied by ugali (cooked maize meal) and sukuma-wiki (curly kale). Delicious.

Everyone gathered.

Big smiles from the sales team.

Zadock (left), our accountant, dispenses beer with natural authority.

Never get between Moshi and his nyama choma.

Lest we forget

There's a small turning off Ngong Road on the right hand side as you head into town. It's just past the racecourse and almost equidistant between our office at Lenana and Jamhuri. Thousands of people pass it every day by car and on foot, but I've never seen anyone make that turn. It brings you onto a long tree-lined avenue that leads to a cemetary and memorials that commemorate the fallen of the war in East Africa, 1940-41. This Sunday is Remembrance Sunday.





My Grandfather fought in the First War and, while we're remembering, this is the transcript of a letter sent to my Great Grandmother by one of his men. I never had the chance to know him, and this letter makes me wish I had.

June 19th, 1918
France

Dear Mrs. Stephenson,

I’m sure I don’t know whether this is the proper way to address you or not, and I hope you will pardon me the great liberty which I am taking in writing to you on behalf of the men of the battery and myself, which came out with the battery two years ago. The reason why I am writing is to ask you if you would mind letting me know if Capt Stephenson is recovering alright or if he has got better and been transferred to another battery as no one seems to know anything about him here. If he has been sent to another battery, would you mind sending me his address as I would like to ask him to get me transferred as well to be along with him. I have been his servant three years now and well I think there is no one like him, and if he gets another servant I’m sure he wont look after him properly. Also, I have to tell you that the men think him one of the best Officers out in France. He was practically in charge of two brigades of artillery and he never lost either a man, horse, gun or wagon all during the retirement, and how he managed to bear up through it all was really a marvel. If you could hear the men praising him your heart would well nigh burst with pride, and I am not telling you this simply because you are Capt. Stephenson’s mother but because its every bit true. He was the last old Battery Officer that we had left and that in itself makes us doubly anxious to have him back. I have watched the various roads into the camp waiting for him until I think I know every stone in them, but he never appears. No doubt you will think me very presumptious in writing to you like this, and I don’t know what the Captain would think if he knew, but hope that you will excuse me. Hoping that the Capt’s sister, brother and yourself are enjoying the very best of health.

I have the honour to be
Your obedient servant

G. J. Taylor. 750693.