In the October 2018 Travel Blog, I wrote about how my life changed after my trip to Kenya in 2016. I was in my 28th year of a high stress corporate banking career and I needed a reset. I got more than I expected!
My world view expanded. I preferred starting a chicken project in Kenya to underwriting corporate debt. I found two Kenyan women near my home in Atlanta with projects I could become involved with. I wanted to step off the career train and do more meaningful things with my time. Thanks to careful financial planning I was able to retire two years after I returned from Kenya.
Today I am fully invested in my friendships and women/girls’ empowerment work with four Kenyan women; two at home in Atlanta and two in Kenya. But I can’t shake the feeling of unfinished business I have each time Global Heart Journeys starts another tour. I need to go back. So, back I will go in February!
I carefully selected where I wanted to give my time after retiring. The Amani Women’s Center in Atlanta, founded by Doris Mukangu, satisfied my need to stay close to the Kenyan women!
I am excited to see what changes have occurred in the people and places I discovered 4 years ago. I am looking forward to meeting a new “tribe” of travelers.
In 2016, I had not traveled with a group of women before. The women on the first trip enhanced the journey for me with their life experiences and perspectives. The shared experience of this trip can’t help but create lasting bonds with new friends.
What can I say? Get a group of women to cut loose from their “day to day” and stuff happens. (2016 Trip)
There are so many things to revisit with a very different mindset than I had 4 years ago. Without a job following me around I can be fully present and relax into the pace of village life. I am ready to take deeper dives into why things are the way they are. Having had time to read about the culture and global women’s issues I feel better equipped to connect with and learn more about the groups I have been working with from afar and new situations I encounter.
When I met Lucy and Esther it’s like we had known each other for years. I am going back largely because I really need to see them again and dig deeper into my work with them.
Most importantly I want to deepen the relationships with the two special Kenyan women in Meru I have been working with. Esther and I have, over the past 3 years, set up five self-help groups of 20 women with chickens, giving chicks to the first group and teaching them to pay it forward to the next group as the chickens multiplied. I can’t wait to see all of the women with their chickens! Also, there’s Lucy who I’ve supported to help her keep school children fed and seek ways to reinvigorate the village economy.
I have done what I can from a distance with both women and now it’s time to be together face to face, dig in and see where I can support them in achieving their goals.
My “business” won’t be finished with this trip but it will satisfy my need to stay connected to this little part of the world.
