Dear all,
Richard Turere, the 13 year old inventor I posted about here, was selected to audition for TED. For his presentation Stefano Cassini and I made him a video.
Many people have been asking how to reach Richard. I am his guardian, please contact me Paula Kahumbu on pkahumbu@gmail.com
I have just spent a week in the field studying Masailand ecology and community conservation with Princeton University students. The location is not that remote (Kitengela and Olerai within 40 km of Nairobi) and the community are wonderfully resourceful when it comes to day to day tools for pastoralism.
Tractor tyre trough for water for goats and sheep
This old tractor or truck tyre was somehow cut, opened up and sealed at either end to make a perfectly good livestock watering trough. Even Joy Adamson noted that the Masai question using modern appliances if home made ones do the job anyway.
Tractor tyre cattle salt lick
Another way to make a salt lick, Evelyn just cut a truck tyre in half and placed it on the ground supported by stumps.
home made bucket works perfectly
Why buy a bucket when you can just make one with an old water container and a piece of metal?
Home made shovel
And if you don’t have a shovel for your manure, just straighten out some corrugated iron, cut it and nail to a stick and Presto – probably more effective than anything you could buy in Nairobi. Manure is one of the few products sold to passing trucks on these remote ranches.
Keeping land open for wildlife migrations in and out of Nairobi National Park can be costly to those living with wildlife. Those in The Wildilfe Foundations land lease scheme earn 4$ per acre per year to keep the properties open (no fences) and to supplement their income they make beautiful beaded artworks for sale on Olerai Conservancy.
It might look like a tough life for some of us, but the Masai out here seem perfectly satisfied and at peace
I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time to recognize the amazing work being done by Dipesh Pabari at the Kenya Coast.
When he told me he was turning snares set to kill wildlife into art I didn’t imagine it would look quite like this.
Then he embarked on turning pollution in the ocean into another work of art. This whale shark is the outcome of his labor of love, it’s beautiful and meaningful. Hopefully we all get the message ‘stop killing wildlife and stop polluting the natural environment”. The project is getting a quite some attention.
Last summer as part of their Ocean Project, Camp International, a volunteering organisation running trips to Africa and Asia, coordinated 7 beach cleanups involving gap year students from the UK to cleanup the Kenyan coastline. Over 200 bags of litter were collected which included over 7000 flip-flops. The Camp Kenya School Team Expedition then worked with local artists to create a life size whale shark made out entirely of the recycled flip-flops picked up from the beach.
