Tales of Eldoret: Baringo

A bunch of youth planned their mid placement review weekend during their volunteering program. They decided Baringo would be a good place to see. As would be expected, most of them packed a few bags, obtained a little alcohol and brought their guitars and fun along. They were travelling from Eldoret to through Elgeyo Marakwet county to Baringo. At the beginning, the roads meandered across the highlands allowing them a magnificent view of the majestic beauty of the rift valley. They all had different thoughts about the roads such as how good it would be to ride their motorcycles upon it. After driving past the town of Kabarnet however, the temperatures began to rise steadily with the vegetation changing so that they were moving between cacti bushes. The bushes became higher ironically casting no shadows and the air became so hot that they could no longer drive without their windows open. I was obviously among them, if you thought this story was about some strangers. Unfortunately for us, the wind was equally hot and this felt like desert. Baringo county is quite dry and the residents seemed to sell honey and keep livestock. This is the kind of drive you need a safari vehicle for. On arrival, we unpacked into the little tents that were located under trees of the Robert's Camp. The camp was also by the lake, probably the reason why it was less hotter here than during the journey.
 At Robert's Camp, the camping experience is quite real as the food is very expensive and might require one to cook their own meals. Our group had brought cooks and foodstuff and we would only be using the tents and take trips across the lake. The lake had hippos in it that would make noise at night. They would however, not come out at night or any time of the day. One could only see them if they went closer to the lake. There were also crocodiles that looked very similar to the rocks. The trees by the lake shore were also perched with different kinds of birds. Mornings were a great time to go by the lake and watch the birds. The night was a good time to sit by a fire and play the guitar. Some of the us preferred to sit by the couches and play games after dinner. Others would take short walks around the campsite.
On the second day, the team took a boat ride to the other side of the lake. We were able to see the hippos in the deeper regions of the lake. We also came across some fishermen that would sell fish at very low prices moving them across the lake to the awaiting market. We were  able to get to an island where the local people sold different kinds of beaded bracelets and gourds. There were also hot water springs and eagles en route to the second island. On the second island was game, beautiful giraffes, ostriches, impala and warthogs. The impalas were however in hiding from the hot sun whilst the giraffes and ostriches walked in the open. These beautiful animals however were not used to human beings and would only be watched from a distance. After the game walk, on a very sunny day, we rode back to the camp site. Here, we had a wonderful time bird seeing in a sanctuary nearby whilst others opted to go for a swim at a nearby pool. We later went out to a small bar and interacted with the local people before getting back and leaving for Eldoret.

Let the Fish Dive

I still have not found a job yet. My plan is to not ever get employed even though I have had the opportunity once or twice. It did not come easy either way. To be honest I was not sure if this is how I wanted to live my life, I mean I need experience to engage in my own business. Most importantly I need to be humble enough to learn from someone in the process of employment. I do not need to be in employment forever to attain this as I will be saving to start up my own business right? Sounds like a win-win situation conceived in an extremely smart mind. These are strategies for life.  However, I also remembered that most entrepreneurship trainings always advised one to jump in just go for it. I’m telling you this is exactly how I want to live my life. So how can I plan to begin a business then postpone it? Does that not go against the very principle of thing I so badly want to engage in? Fortunately for me, something worked in my favor. Something I had never come across just popped its cute head in my life and on my path. A conversation between my friend and I led to me being advised to volunteer. She narrated her experience which I found quite interesting but thought was exaggerated, you know that propaganda the organization must have pushed you to. Nevertheless, I had absolutely nothing to lose and I applied immediately for the program. I was not certain they would pick me. Besides so many of my applications had landed in the hands of rogue people seeking to exploit an already jobless youth and I was getting tired of this. This is why I had been home struggling with my business plan, proposals and God knows what else chasing opportunities to network like mad traffic police in a car chase.

In a fortnight, I had received my response and asked to the assessment where the enterprise explained roughly what we would be doing. I was happy to hear that this was about entrepreneurship. I had been fortunate enough to attend the Mama Sarah Obama Entrepreneurship Summit and this could not be any more guidance than I was expecting. During the conference I had met the finest young entrepreneurs in our country and was determined to walk this path. Now I was picked for the program and trained for a week within which my heart would constantly leap with joy and a sense of fulfillment and the most profound excitement in my life. The next ten weeks would be spent training real entrepreneurs, observing and learning from them. The main idea during training was not to impose in order to achieve the most natural results. At the end of the program we saw real results with some of the mere business ideas turning into small businesses. The entrepreneurs were also more confident and we were happier people to have made impact in other people’s lives and learned so much at the same time, now that is a win-win situation. That is learning and understanding the society’s problems and creating solutions for them. This alone has given me so much faith in my abilities and decisions and I am definitely more confident than ever. I am also more knowledgeable and I realize that it is not lack of humility that leads entrepreneurs to want to work alone and run their own businesses rather than be employed. On the contrary, it is the highest level of humility, responsibility and confidence.

I am not arguing that employment is wrong or undesirable; it is very much a part of learning. It does also earn us a living. To be fair, not everyone is made for entrepreneurship and employment is a completely fulfilling place for such individuals. These are ever motivated by it and will rise so fast through the ladders. But if your intention is to become an entrepreneur, the best thing is to learn on the job. Do a good market research, learn about what you want to venture, the industry, your market and your product costs and affordable losses. Do not be discouraged if you cannot achieve a perfect product at first, instead, test what you have and keep rebuilding it taking into account your market’s feedback until you have the perfect product. I am no longer for the idea that employment will give you all the experience you need for entrepreneurship. Most of the time, employment will become a comfort zone for potential entrepreneurs and they are likely to abandon their crazy dreams after a while. One has to be highly disciplined to finally leave their comfort zone back into their dreams and I mean extremely disciplined. Lastly, I know everyone’s experiences will be unique and employment might be where you find yourself but then I would vouch more for volunteering. The idea is to find yourself and I find the best place to do that is somewhere where you do not need to be pushed. For anyone to volunteer they must have a passion for the course or volunteering itself. Given that fact, they are likely to say no where they are uncomfortable and shape their future for themselves without the constraints of pleasing their boss probably for a raise or promotion.

The most beautiful thing is to learn what you are made for. Like Einstein said, we are all geniuses, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree then it will live all its life believing that it is stupid.