back in Ireland

Hello, it is almost a week since I returned back to Ireland...

I am currently busy writing a few articles about the World Social Forum and the GYG... It is a sunny day today...
I went to the Dublin Food Coop and I met Lara, an Irish friend of mine. We had a look at the photographs from Kenya and some of the Magazine. Lara is in charge of the local gardener group in Finglas, near where I work.
Back in the City centre, I met Eli, and other Catalans friends at the Farmers Market... I had nice memories of the stay in Kenya and wish I will be able to return... until then goodbye


In attachment a photo taken in Nairobi at the conference with Wangari Matthai. I addressed a question to her about the Green Belt movement and I was delighted to hear the answer in front of the venue full of young activists

visit to Kibera, Kwaheri Kenya-agur Kenya1

Today finally is the last day of the journey....


It is a day to say goodbye-Kwaheri in Swahili and to thank and share e-mails and phones with people...

I had the opportunity to visit the Kibera Youth Community Project in the morning.
Kibera is the biggest Favela( they don't like it here to call it Slum)...

It is not far from the City, it reminds me to Rio de Janeiro, and the favela Rozinha.
I went with Tom, the Aussie from the GYG and with Frank a local who brought us to the hear of Kibera...

We participated at a discussion about mussic and it was nice to share some experiences being a pianist...

The sanitation, waste treatment, water supply and other environmental services almost don't exist...we went to visit some of the dumping sites, where there isn't division of waste and it seems that there are not recycling facilities...
There were lot of kids around, and some people working with craft...
music is still quite important, and you could read messages such as #audio# for rent, as a type of disco in Kibera.

The main reason for the visit is to write a report and send it to Dunkan, an irish friend from college, based in Barcelona and currently writing a lot on this...

more details on Kibera done by Dunkan
kenya.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/450.php -

If you had the opportunity to watch the Constant gardener film also filmed in Kibera

http://www.filmstew.com/Content/Article.asp?Pg=1&ContentID=12233

In the afternoon I was back at the venue of the forum to continue interpreting, this time the last session of the International Council meeting.
A big pleasure to be interpreting together with a Galizan who also works as an interpreter for the European parliament...

Simultaneous interpreting is normally done in a cabin,but here the facilities were not there...

The event finished and I had an interview with a woman activist from Kenya involved in the Debt relief campaign who is also good friend of Nessa, an Irish friend of mine.

Will continue with some updates in the blog. but the flight is leaving tonight and want to make sure that the passport is in a safe place until now

Kwaheri Kenya

Out of Africa-Memorias de Africa-visit to Karen Blixen house

Dear readers

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Karen Blix Museum, from Out of Africa film #Memorias de Africa# see some story below...
It is not far from Nairobi city centre... I was there in the morning as I had to be back to continue interpreting at the afternoon. The World Social Forum is finished but there were still some meetings by the International Council to decide about the next venue for the forum and to reflect the output of this forum.


I enjoyed so much to had the opportunity to visit the Museum, which is in fact the house where she was living. Photographs in the house are not permitted,
Everything has been maintained as in the old times...
see more info below



Some information about Karen Blixen

Baroness Karen Blixen moved to Africa in 1914. At the foot of Ngong hills, she established herself as a farmer. After her departure in 1931, the suburbs retained the commemorative home of Karen.

At independence, the Danish government donated the house and the surrounding land to Kenya. The house was restored by the Danish government and was used during the filming of 'Out of Africa'. The museum was opened to the public in 1986.

The house built in 1910 has a red tile roof and mellow wood paneling in the rooms. When Baroness Karen Blixen bought the property in 1917, it had 6,000 acres of land. Only 600 acres were developed for growing coffee; the rest was retained under natural forest...

In the evening we went into town with some Kenyan interpreters... it was an area full of pubs and restaurants,,, but not everything was colourful as we saw a sad incident with some teenagers and we left with a sad feeling of being not able to help in the situation. We were adviced by the taxi driver, ( who is one of the local interpreters to leave the area) as it was not safe to be around at this time of the night...
Street violence in Kenya is a fact...

After being at the World Social forum, where some locals were excluded from participating ( because of the high entrance fee) I realised that the story continues... more to comment on this in the next blogs

Kakuru Lake National Park

Hello everybody,

Last Thursday we visited a National Park, around 160 km from Nairobi.
It was an organised trip with a local guide who is learning Spanish and had some opportunity to practise and welcome us to the region.

see more information about the park
www.kws.org/nakuru.html -

To visit the Nakuru Lake national park was an amazing experience, it is
based in the Rift Valley, where Prof. Wangari Mathai worked for many years...
the weather was wonderful and the trip was an opportunity to travel around the country and visit some villages.
I was told that white Europeans are called mzungu by the local people.

We learned some kenyans songs and teached some Irish, and Latin American Songs...

Remembering and thinking about my experience as a guide in Ireland and it is really so different here... we were a total of 14 people, mostly interpreters, who travelldd to Nakuru national park. However other people went to other National Park, Amboselly National Park on the border with Tanzania, and they never managed to arrive to the Park.Will post photos soon

There were giraffes, elephants, buffaloes, zebras, and flamingos amonth others...

from the World Social forum today I met Professor Wagari Matthai; Nobel peace price

Dear readers


sorry for not writing earlier; it is difficult to have access to the web::: since the last blog; lots happened:::I am not staying at the camp; instead at the wsf venue:

I had lots of interpreting assignments;mostly consecutive; because part of the equipment for the conference interpreting was missing:::

On Sunday apart from interpreting; I attended an interesting talk on Fair trade organised by IFAT and a seminar of future impacts of climate change organised by UNEP:
The topic of the control of natural ressources has been one of the main topics of the foruM,

i had the opportunity to meet other interpreters; including a Brazilian; and some argentinians*
I went to a talk on carbon credits organised by a Swedish institute where I met Vandana Shiva; Indian environmentalist;


Monday was busy as I had to interpret quite a lot; first in the morning at a brazilian german seminar; later at talk by Oil watch; another one on water resources;and later on another on organised by a peruvian forum!!!! i did not have a lot of time to attend seminars::::

Finally today I interpreted again on the issue of Oil and about Health care in Cuba:

It was remarkable that I had the opportunity to meet the Nobel peace price and ask a question about the green belt tree planting movement**She liked the question and I was amazed by the response:

I was planning to meet Mary robinson; former prime minister of Ireland but she left too early:::

there are some local interpreters fluent in Spanish ,who are tour guides too:::

In general the forum is quite different to the one in Porto alegre Brazil: I will write more on this:


food in kenya is lovely::: people are friendly; robbery very high:::


i will post the photos once I will return back to ireland:::


Jambo

starting of the World Social forum today

Dear readers

greetings from sunny Nairobi. The weather today was very hot, over 30 degrees.. and I am starting to get some colour...
the WSF started today... we went to Kibera, the biggest favela in Africa, start point of the march. From there we continue walking to the Urubu Park.
I had two interviews, one with a french station ( in English) and another with the Brazilian NGO's observatory ( in Portuguese) giving my impression about the forum as well as about previous forums I attended in Porto Alegre.


Just to understand a bit my role in this current social forum. I have been asked to work as an interpreter. It is voluntary work, we will just receive a small allowance.I went to collect my badge yesterday... There were other 300 interpreters, most of them Africans.. there were a few Europeans, including a Basque woman, and an Irish woman, who was the trainer and is a member of BABEL volunteer interpreters group.
I have to say that yesterday's experience was amazing. The Irish woman, Judith, mentioned my name and experience in front of the 300 interpreters. She was happy to listen some news about Ireland. She currently lives in the French Pirinees... sorry for the spelling. I will let you know more about the interpreting during the next coming days...\

Just a few comments about today... the march was good, we were at the end carrying the green flags, I was carrying an Irish one... I did not see any Irish people...just a few Latin Americans ( members of the International Peasant's movement, Via Campesina) some nice girls from Cordoba Solidaria in the South of Spain and few other journalist.
I had the opportunity to go to the area of the artist, as I met the cultural organiser a few days ago. .. Most of the musicians were Africans except a Brazilian singer... The interviews went well. I have to run to the bus, the other Greeners are waiting... until now take care

will post more photos soon,,,,

Some photos-tree planting