Danish author Karen
Blixen and her husband moved to Kenya in
the early 1900’s to attempt to make money with a coffee plantation. It failed.
Little did she realize it was her charitable efforts that made her name live on
forever in the hearts of Kenyans and become a hero in Denmark.
The drop in coffee
prices, due to the world-wide depression and the breakout of WWI, was part of
the failure. Wrong soil was another. But
the timing of her land donation to locals and help to give them a better life
was right. This happened long before businesses sought protection under
bankruptcy laws as they were forced to sell off the remaining lands and
equipment to pay creditors. The banks graciously allowed her to remain on her
homestead… as long as she was able to continue paying rent. Later, the Danish
government bought the homestead and donated it to the Kenyan government where
it still remains as a monument to her and her charitable efforts.
In her popular
world-wide bestselling book “Out of Africa”, Karen details her life, times and
struggles and at the time. It was considered by critics as racist, colonialist
and “haughty”. However in our recent Good to Go with Patti Beth trip to Kenya,
we learned a much more profound and revered status that still remains for the
person whose help for locals doesn’t
seem to make it into online memoirs. Helping others less fortunate and the
often unsung heroes in life are a living testament to the good in people. Being
kind has a profound effect long after the benefactors have passed.
I was so very proud and
thrilled with our intrepid Good to Go Gang, as well as local Groveites that
donated four suitcases full of school supplies and clothing that we gave to the
Girl’s School in Nanyuki, Kenya. I was proud when a member of our tour
initiated an impromptu donation to a local Samburu tribe to purchase clean
drinking water. This was in addition to, and far and above the help provided to
the locals through purchases of locally crafts, jewelry, and other trinkets.
While our meager (by
comparison) efforts will never have the profound effect of a world-wide
bestselling book-come-box office legend, we saw firsthand, how much our
previous efforts have helped the P.C.E.A. (Pentecostal Church of East Africa) Nanyuki
Girl’s Boarding Primary School. The school has grown from its humble beginnings
we witnessed back in 2005. They started
with a handful of girls and now educate over 200 girls. Most likely, we will never know how much these
acts of goodwill and donations will reverberate for generations to come.
Proud? You bet. I am
proud of our Good to Go goodwill ambassadors and how much they positively
affected the lives of so many with their smiles, friendly gestures and
donations before our always-too-short visit to Kenya ended and we too had to
get Out of Africa. We will plan a return visit to retrieve the pieces of our
hearts we left behind for a beautiful country populated with so many beautiful
people.
