Habari Gani?
(Swahili for “What’s the news?”)
John Linsley ’04 (KSP fall ’02)
History Department
Stratton Mountain School
World Cup Circle
Stratton Mountain, VT 05155
jlinsley@gmail.com
Jon Angus ’07 (KSP spring ’06)
returned to Nairobi in November with Assistant Professor of Environmental
Studies Jon Rosales to attend the 12th meeting of the Conference
of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change. The trip was made possible through a travel grant provided
by the University. Jon Angus also coordinated a visit to the
conference for the fall 2006 KSP students (pictured). A highlight
was the chance to observe the COP climate change negotiations in
the plenary room.
Jon
felt fortunate to have the opportunity to return to Kenya so soon
after his KSP semester. He said, “I exercised as much of the
Kiswahili as I could remember, although it was kidogo sana.” He
also joined his urban homestay brothers, Ken and George Mwangi, at
their favorite nyama
choma stop, “The Place.”
Any travel to East Africa requires
some forethought, but both Jon and Professor Rosales agreed that
they would have spent less time packing had they known their luggage
would never arrive in Kenya! Jon graduated in December and planned
to spend the winter in Montana with alumni including Doug McCabe ’03 (KSP
spring ’02) and Will Hartman ’06 (KSP
spring ’05).
Christina Erickson ’99 (KSP fall ’97) says her KSP
urban homestay parents, Ben and Andrea Mshila, are involved with the Binti Pamoja
Center (www.bintapamoja.org),
a reproductive health and women’s rights program for teenage girls in the Kibera slum
of Nairobi. Christina noted their connection to LightBox,
a publication comprised entirely of photographs and essays by Binti
Pamoja’s members. Christina
returned to Kenya in 2002 to visit the Mshila family and is now a Ph.D. student
at the University of Vermont.
I have been in close touch over the past year with Kathleen
Perkins Colson ’79 (KSP
spring ’78). Kathleen has returned to Kenya in various capacities
since her KSP and is currently executive director of a non-profit, The Boma Fund
(www.bomafund.org). It serves pastoral
nomadic communities in northern Kenya and also provides for livestock programs
and assistance through Cows for Kids (www.cowsforkids.org),
a program that was started by Joseph Lekuton ’91. Kathleen said, “Joseph
and I have worked closely for many years, fundraising for programs and recently
for his candidacy as a Member of Parliament (MP). [Joseph was elected; see page
xx]. I am on the board of another non-profit, The Island Children's Fund, which
provides infrastructure and school fees to the children of Lamu. But, for
most of my professional life, I have been the owner of African Safari Planners,
specializing in special-interest group safaris to East Africa.”
Kathleen
told me that Joseph had plans to travel to the United States in January
for several speaking engagements and in March to be a keynote speaker
at a conference at Earth University in Costa Rica. She said
he plans to run again in 2007, for a five-year MP term, along with
Chachu Ganya ’96, who runs the Pastoralist
Integrated Support Program, an NGO headquartered in Marsabit, Kenya.
Kathleen led St. Lawrence alumni safaris in 1992 and 1994 and helped
make the connection with Kuki Gallmann (I Dreamed of Africa),
who was St. Lawrence’s
Commencement speaker in 1993. She and her family also lived
in the United Kingdom for four years, working with African groups
at Refugee Services in London.
Last
fall, Kathleen traveled to Kenya, where she visited the parched North. She
wrote, “The region is still in the midst of drought recovery efforts, but
we are seeing some progress in the support of micro-enterprise activities and
getting girls into primary and secondary schools. Security and roads continue
to be a challenge, but Joseph Lekuton is working hard to get a more equitable
distribution of national funds.”
Kathleen said Bill Kaiser '79 (KSP
spring ’78) is on the
board of directors at The Boma Fund. When people ask her about her relationship
with Kenya, she says “I tell them about St. Lawrence, former KSP director
and Professor of Geology Bill Elberty, hitchhiking all over the country, and
many late-night adventures in Nairobi--something that can only be imagined now. I've
made a personal commitment to talk only about the positive stories of Africa,
to celebrate the accomplishments, hard work and integrity of the many people
I have had the good fortune to work with. I hope all KSP alumni do the
same, to counteract the endless cycle of negative press about Africa.” Kathleen
lives in Dorset, Vt., with her husband and three children, and will return to
Kenya this summer to lead a safari.
Natalie McKennerney ’04 wrote to say that
she, Laura
McCarthy ’04 (both KSP spring ’03), and John Milanese ’04
are volunteering with an Albany-based non- profit called Kujenga Africa (www.kujenga.org).
Natalie helped start the organization, which locates funding and
supplies for children in Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS. In October, a launching
event was highlighted by a concert and African dance.
Natalie earned her M.A. in Africana studies from SUNY Albany in December
of 2005. She
said, “The KSP experience was entirely responsible for my decision to attend
graduate school for Africana studies. It really did change my life; in the four
months I was there, I was transformed from being terrified of where I was, and
not understanding it at all, to not wanting to leave. Studying in Kenya
turned the catastrophes I heard about on the news into flesh-and-blood stories,
and I could no longer claim ‘I didn't know.’”
Natalie
works in Albany for the National Credit Union Administration, but
plans to join the Peace Corps or move to Washington, D.C., to work
in development, health or fair trade in the non-profit sector.
Heather Patt ’96 (KSP spring ’95) recently earned
her M.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife from Michigan State University. She
is a watershed planner for the Division of Water Quality at North Carolina’s
Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Heather was in western
Kenya last year assessing soil and water conservation practices in remote villages
as part of a watershed project funded by the USAID Cooperative Research Support
Program.
In November, I passed through New York City and saw Eric Klapper ’04 (KSP
fall ’02), director of development for ACE Programs for the Homeless, a
non-profit organization that provides programming aimed at assisting homeless
men and women in locating employment and permanent housing.
I am looking forward to spending the summer in East Africa. If you are
willing to tell a story from your KSP semester, or provide an update of your
current doings, please contact me. Kwaheri ya kuonana!
Summer 2003 Entry
Fall 2003 Entry
Winter 2004 Entry
Spring 2004 Entry
Summer 2004 Entry
Fall 2005 Entry
Spring 2006 Entry
Summer 2006 Entry
Report of Appreciation 2006
