One Tree Africa Adventures

04/07/2017

Basically, all of Europe.

29/06/2017

MY EXPERIENCE ON THE NAIROBI TO MOMBASA SGR TRAIN WAS AMAZING I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE VLOG AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED THE RIDE!

23/02/2017

Yes yes yes! Yippee

Kenya has been granted Category One status by the US Federal Aviation Administration. This will pave way for direct flights between Kenya and United States.

18/01/2017

31/12/2016

Great way to say goodbye to 2016 at Nairobi national park! Happy new year to all our current and future family! See you in 2017

05/10/2016

Hakuna Matata!

25/09/2016

View of kilifi bridge from mnarani ruins

25/09/2016

Mnarani ruins kilifi Kenya

18/09/2016

What did you do for idd last weekend? We went on a camping safari at tsavo west

14/09/2016

Animals can be celebrities too, all the while dressed in nothing but fur or a hide. There’s nothing like turning up on the red carpet with nothing but scales.  7. Nicky the Blind Rhino  Rhinos generally have poor eyesight, relying more on smell and sound than sight. Although there are two blind rhin...

29/08/2016

History of Kenyan national anthem

For a song made from a lullaby, Kenya's anthem is too lit! It sounds like something you hear in the starting sequence of a movie, or go to the orchestra to relish. The anthem was made a committee, and chosen by a group of screaming fans. Citizens, I meant citizens.

25/08/2016

Can you inspire the next generation?

"I was born and brought up in Korogocho slums, in an area called Highridge B. I was raised by my grandparents. We used to live in a ten by ten shanty house. During the rainy season we had to shift the position of our beds because there were so many leaks on the roof. We lived as an extended family together with my grandparents, uncles and aunts hence there was very little space and privacy. But despite all these hurdles, my grandmother inspired in us a spirit of plenty. One day she got a day job at a construction site. She put me on her back and toiled the whole day under the hot sun for a sh15 pay. My grandfather was an office messenger so he always came home with an assortment of newspapers. I would diligently pore through the papers which triggered my interest in national issues at a very early age. Then one day Nairobi River, which was close to our house, flooded and washed away some shacks built on the brim of its banks. Several people died. Later I saw a man with a camera and notebook being taken around by village elders. Somebody said he was a journalist. Although the story appeared as a tiny brief the next day, journalism starred my curiosity. The prospect of being at the center of making news just amazed me. At least I would ensure stories from lesser mortals got more attention and space, I thought. I asked my teacher at Baba Dogo Primary School what one needed to be a journalist. She had no clue besides the fact that one needed to be good in languages. I literary forgot about the whole issue by the time I was joining St. Paul’s High School in Kakamega. I was enlisted in the drama club and despite being an introvert I became one of the best solo performers in the Western region. After high school my family could not afford college fees so I went back to my slum neighbourhood. I whiled my team teaching kids how to play table tennis at St. John Catholic Church, Korogocho. It’s while doing this voluntary work that I landed a scholarship to study journalism at Catholic University. After graduation, I never got work apart from part time engagement in a street children rehabilitation programme. One day as I took some video footage to KBC for consideration I spotted an advert that said they wanted announcers. I applied and got the job after beating more than 300 applicants in a series of four interviews. After eight months at KBC I switched to Capital FM where I read news and hosted a sports show for two years. After being hesitant about TV for a while I eventually joined NTV as a news anchor. That was around 2009 when social media was becoming a big thing with the youth. So I conceived a show that could attract the youth to TV news by embracing new media. That’s how The Trend was born. It was the first show to bring live social media feeds on the screen. The studios had to be redesigned since this was a completely new concept. It took me a whole year to convince the bosses to approve the show. But the programme became such an instant hit that every topic we dealt with trended. I left the show after one year because I believed I had achieved what I wanted. After all The Trend was not supposed to be an exclusive James Smart project. Any journalist, I believed then as I do now, would succeed in the show. The current host Larry Madowo is a very knowledgeable, passionate and versatile journalist who has taken The Trend to the next level. I strongly believe that where you were born and bred in this city does not define who you are or become. It’s your effort, believe in God and zeal to grind that defines your destiny"

25/08/2016

We love cheeky in Kenya!

20/08/2016

20/08/2016

Fort Jesus old town Mombasa

14/08/2016

Sunset in Mombasa

14/08/2016

Pamela review after three weeks

14/08/2016

Giraffes

14/08/2016

Nguni sanctuary mombasa

14/08/2016

Mexico meets Kenyan beach!

10/08/2016

We have summer weather January to December in Mombasa. One more reason to visit!

That Kenya has good weather and climate is no news. We may complain often over July cold or the heat wave and flash floods, but some people would kill to have what he have. A new  InterNations surv…

08/08/2016

Pamela has had a great two weeks at the project so far and been a huge help with the kids

06/08/2016

Juba ruins Mtwapa

05/08/2016

Come and share the magical Kenya!

I think to myself, what a beautiful world. There’s so much beauty in so many of the world’s nations. From magnificent coasts to breathtaking forests, and from savannahs to cityscapes. Here are the ...

01/08/2016

Helping out!

“Everyone usually tries to get internships between the 10th and 11th grade to add to their résumé and I was no different. I started interning at an NGO called Swades and for the first few weeks I sat at my desk and assigned self help groups — it was boring and monotonous.
One weekend my colleague was going to a village called Khamgaon where our volunteers often visited and asked me to join him…I immediately agreed! When I went there, I was blown away. The students I met were intelligent, educated and motivated but their confidence was at an all time low because they didn’t know English— they felt small and inferior. Something in me shifted and I decided that I wanted to make a change -- these were people from my country who were so ashamed, all because they didn't know English...I felt responsible to do something for them; for a better India... no matter how small the step was.
I reached Bombay and asked the CEO of Swades to let me go, stay in their village and attempt to teach them English. She said she'd never done something like that before…but she wanted to give me a shot. I reached Khamgaon without any other volunteer from Swades and stayed with a local family who welcomed me with open arms. It’s like what you see in the movies… — houses made of cow dung, a walk to draw water from the well, green fields and exceptionally tasty chapattis.
Swades had a sewing class for women at the centre, so I made it a point to go there the day I arrived and tell these women that I was here to teach them and their children English. I then went door to door, introduced myself in Marathi and tried to break the ice. The first few days I started off with one student, then two but one week later the entire sewing class of women showed up to learn English! Slowly but steadily I had 3 different batches running through the day — of little children, women and college students. Everyday, I would think of new ways to challenge them, to teach them and to help them string sentences together word by word. A few weeks later, when I was at the market I overheard two of my sewing women students talking about which vegetables to buy…in English! I was delighted!
Everyday after I would return home and help Naitri Tai make dinner, my little students would come to me with questions… ‘Didi, how can I use this noun? or ‘What does this word mean?’ — they were thirsty for knowledge and I was thrilled that I could be the one to give it to them.
I didn’t realise when 2 months passed, but on my last day the entire village came together to give me a ‘bidai’. They planted two trees in my name, but the gift I got afterwards was one I’ll never forget all my life. My little students came in front of the audience and gave me a farewell speech…in close to accurate English! The last line they said was, ‘Thank you Didi, for changing our life’ and 'till today, I get goosebumps every time I think about it.”

30/07/2016

Drum away

27/07/2016

More direct airlines to Mombasa! Yippee

Transport secretary James Macharia has granted low-cost carrier flydubai the rights to begin daily flights between Dubai and Mombasa in a move that will raise competitive pressure on Kenya Airways.

26/07/2016

“Blushing before a date is normal for us guys too”

26/07/2016

Yes please do come out to Kenya!