When we return home

I always wonder to myself what role we can play when we return home. How we can help build our country. How we can make good use of the education and experiences we have gained in Europe/States or wherever we may be.

Obviously it all depends on where we will be in life when we finally decide to go back and exactly what we have in mind. Some people want to go back as soon as they've finished studying. They want to go and make their way in the Nairobi of today, be it as politicians, diplomats, business, this and that...

As I posted last week, I'm planning on returning to Loitokitok. I definately have no plans of going into politics! I would like to concentrate on business and farming. Unfortunately I don't yet have a business plan, in fact I have no clue what kind of business I could do. As a kid I always dreamed of building a matatu franchise - but you know, that was just a kid being influenced by the loud music, reckless driving and cool touts. The farming part is easier, follow in the tradition of the family - livestock, maize, beans and some coffee.

The question of helping build our country is even more difficult. I can only speak for myself and what I think is possible for me - help develop Loitokitok. Though this requires a lot of money, to me the most important are health and education. If we make good use of the money and especially the contacts we make out here, we can do some little things in our small communities. It can be something like building a small nursery school, organising some old computer hardware from these sides, securing finances for short-term health programmes, this and that...

While we are out here we can help our relatives by sending money home (thank God for Western Union). However small the difference is we make in our little communities, it helps in building our nation and giving back to those who haven't been as lucky as we have.