WHY YOU NEED A MENTOR

In many awesome ways at this year Kenya got the privilege to host the global entrepreneurship summit. Through which has brought out many youths sharing their creative business ideas taking the Country to another level of development. This generation is one of the most entrepreneurial in a long time.

As great as it is to strike out your own, we skip the crucial step of learning from someone who has been there before. In every step of my life I got a mentor who guided me in every step, and I have carefully sought excellence.

Millions of young youths are confident, smart and talented, trying to “make it” alone. Spending many years of trying to figure out a craft and then start excelling much later in their years, what if one attaches them-self with a mentor. There will be acceleration in the process to success.

In choosing a mentor is critical, Masaaki Hatsumi, the famous martial arts grand-master, once said, “students deserve their teachers.” So do not choose poorly. Look for mentors who have interest in your given field, visionary leaders, writers and communicators.

The mentor you choose to speak into your life is a sacred choice. Many young leaders damaged by submitting themselves to the next strong personality, the strong personality maybe impressive and self confident but with no personal concern for you. Worse they simply flatter and use you to build their own platform.

The same way a good mentor imparts wisdom, character and craft, a bad mentor will impart their habits, reactions and particular worldviews as well. A bad mentor can be like visiting a bad chiropractor, leaving worse than you start.

Once a mentor believes in you, it does not feel like a possessive thing. He / She do not insist you do this or that, feeling like a patient, listening friend. Mentors often become great guides and friends’ not just advice dispensing machines, they are people who are genuinely interested in you.

Young voices are echoes, striving to sound like others but echoes have diminishing returns, they get weaker with each resounding. When one finds their own voice they create something original and this is where the power is, finding your divine fingerprint and walking in it no matter what others think.

A mentor who helps you find your voice is a rare gift. Part of finding your voice is allowing others to say hard things and speak direction into your life. Find and emulate the rhythms of great mentors.

It turns out what is missing from most youths is the professional work of a mentor.

By Muthuita Lucy.

The Sweet Spot

THE SWEET SPOT

To be on the sweet spot one must be confident in behavior and style. Being confident is not necessarily easy but it is a skill that can be learned. It starts with understanding of whom you are and a belief of the value that you bring.

Awareness is the greatest percentage of the change, it comes with the clarity of your strength and opportunities always raise your confident level of direction in what you can work on. Communicating assertively will give you confidence, strength of your relationship with people. Helping you be more effective, through this you gain support and respect of others.

There are six steps to being at the sweet spot:

Admit it: Rather than spending energy and effort in hiding your fear on being on the spot (it brings the additional anxiety of being found out), you would be better off admitting it, embracing it and learning all you can. Also don’t forget looking for opportunities to practice.

Be present: We are only anxious of the future or about the past. Never about the present so if you focus on this very moment when you are on the spot while sharing your opinion in front of the audience’s rather than what they will think about you or how fast you can finish your thoughts and take a seat. In all this know that deep breathing helps you calm down.

Turn your internal dialogue into a conversation: When you are in your head, you feed your own fear when on the spot by imagining dozens of scenarios. What if I forget the main point I am trying to make?  What if my mouth is so dry I can’t speak? The more your abilities the more negative you get, the more you block your energy flow and what you put out there. Instead of having an internal monologue, talk to your audience, share some anxiety and let their empathy make you feel more comfortable with the situation. When you do not have to pretend, you can focus on what you really want to say. It is amazing what happens when you are honest. People naturally want to help. Let them.

Connect: When on the spot there is a common behavior of people fearing the audience. One being on the spot tends to talk faster and faster it leads to breathing shallowly which generates more anxiety but you lose clarity. An important thing that one should always maintain while on the spot is eye contact which leads to connecting with your audience.

Relax: There is no worst that can happen when you are on the spot since literally the worst has already happened previously.

Wow!! That is all what the sweet spot is all about.

By Muthuita Lucy

ONE STOP YOUTH RESOURCE CENTER

 In response to the needs of the youth in Mariakani, 13^th May saw the birth of One stop youth resource center. It is within our hearts to support growth and empowerment of the youth, raising their quality of life. This was made possible with the help of PaperSeed Foundation who are dedicated to strengthening educational opportunities for children and young people in under served and resource-lacking communities around the world.

Youths utilize an integrated approach to youth development by providing youth with safe spaces in developing Mariakani, where they meet and access information and resources critical to youth-led development including sexual reproductive health, entrepreneurship and life skills. The center offers youth friendly services and contributes to their socio-economic development.

The youths have understood, appreciated the center since they have learnt it’s a place where they assess, identify and obtain information towards life. At the center we offer Computer packages; screening of movies, training on social entrepreneurship programs to youths who have business ideas and those have already existing businesses. This presents a platform to share ideas and network.

Our mission still holds the stand we use innovative technologies that are relevant in Africa to empower and facilitate positive change in the community.

      The world has become competitive thus requires a person who is creative and dynamic. The One stop youth resource center nurtures youth to be leaders, ultimately adding value in the society and impacting change. We intend to improve the livelihoods of the very many marginalized youth in Mariakani.

     In addition One stop youth resource center helps in stressing good governance and democratic space agenda. The youth are provided with a channel to lobby their issues which can make serious contributions in the society.

      “It starts with you, change the way you see the life and the way you face it. Then make anyone who is around you see how you approach life.”

Wrapping up for the fourth week. {Julia & Annemieke}

Mariakani week 4: Wrapping up

Regular readers may remember from last week’s post that Julia got sick last weekend, and that we couldn’t go out during the weekend. Since we had postponed the trip to Gedi, we were super excited to go this weekend. Unfortunately, I got sick this time. I just had generic flu-like symptoms, so of course, I assumed the worst. I guess every traveler has to have a malaria scare at some point. After being tested, and being ensured it was not malaria, I just slept for most of the weekend. Not very exciting, but I enjoyed it. Poor Julia was stuck in Mariakani with nothing to do, however, so she was the one who was really inconvenienced. Everything is better now, although I still sound a bit like I smoke 3 packs a day. At least everyone in the office thinks it’s funny.

In the office, this week has been quiet. Julia and I have been working on our report, so we have been buried in our laptops for most of the week. It’s due on Friday, so it’s high time we get our skates on. The main problem has been finding a working download of SPSS. We just need it for a day, so that Julia, who actually knows statistics, can run all the necessary tests. While writing this, I am trying to download the two week trial version of SPSS for the third time. But as they say, third time’s the charm, so maybe we’ll get lucky. Then, afterwards, we get to write up what our results actually mean. Just looking at the raw data, it looks like the poster had a noticeable effect on the number of condoms taken from the dispensers, but I will let Julia confirm that with her statistics magic.

In our free time, we’ve been doing a lot of arts and crafts. We’ve been making bracelets out of fishing line and Julia is about to finish the paper craft deer. We discovered that the roof of the office is a beautiful place to sit and relax (and the Wi-Fi reaches up there. Bonus!), so we’ve been up there most evenings. We also went shopping, and now I have an assortment of lessos as gifts for my family and a super colorful dress. I’m not sure if our haggling was up to snuff, but we managed to reduce the price on everything by a little, so we felt pretty accomplished.

Tomorrow we are going to a community outreach, and then we are done with the internship. On Friday we need to finalize the report, and then we travel back to Nairobi. Then on Sunday, I fly back to the Netherlands, while Julia stays a few more days with a friend. It is strange to think we are almost done and that it is time to leave. When I arrived in Kenya two months ago, I did not expect time to pass so quickly. After a few days of getting into the rhythm, time started passing incredible quickly. Now, it feels as though we have been here for ages, yet it also still feels like we just got here. I will definitely miss the chapatti, colorful clothing, fruits (I think we singlehandedly supported the Mariakani mango industry over the past month), and of course all the people at MCDF with whom we have worked over the past month. However, I will not miss the mosquitoes. So I guess there are positives to leaving as well. That being said, I think Julia and I will never forget the magnificent experience we have had, or all the wonderful people we have come in contact with. Hopefully we will come back, but first, I have another year of university to look forward to.  

Third Week at Mariakani. (Julia & Annemieke)

            

Week three in Mariakani was off to a slow start. Both Julia and I had gotten sick over the weekend, probably due to something we ate. This was bound to happen at some point, as we’ve been eating everything that people suggest to us, which includes a lot of street food. While the physical aspects of being sick are no party, I was mainly upset that our weekend plans to go to the Gedi ruins had to be canceled. However unpleasant the consequences had been, I had recovered by Monday, but Julia was not yet at the top of her game. So the first few days were slow, mainly us sitting in the office and writing. One exciting moment was when we made the second poster for the nudging experiment; the one with well-known Mariakanians holding up condoms. We had been worried that it would be very difficult to find people who would be willing to do this, but Yieri made a few calls, and that evening, we were able to take the pictures. It was much easier than such an arrangement would have been at home. Shout out to Saumu and Said for helping us out!

           

Besides the experiment, we’ve also been continuing with the condom distribution. A few days ago, some commercial sex workers asked for condoms and training. We went to find them the next day, but unfortunately, we couldn’t find the same ones. So while we still distributed the condoms, there was no training.Maybe we will run into the sex workers again, so that we’ll actually be able to give them the information they desire.

            We are finally hitting our social stride in Mariakani. A local youth is teaching us to make biryani, we have been invited to church, and on Friday we are going out in Mombasa with the office staff. It’s nice to feel more included, and less like outsiders, especially to those we see every day. Besides that, we’ve been taking a lot of walks, both through the town and by the railway. It’s always nice to get outside and move a bit after sitting in the office.Also, on a positive note, we have our water back! Another small anecdote about becoming more accepted in the community relates to samosas. We happen to live next to a man who makes and sells samosas. So obviously, we’re probably eating more samosas than the Department of Health recommends. This week, I was buying some samosas, and did not have exact change. Unfortunately, the man also didn’t have change, so we were at an impasse. I was expecting to just go without the samosas.  However, he allowed me to take them because I could just pay him back the next day! Yay for gaining a bit of trust!

            Anyway, we still have one week of internship to look forward to, which includes some corporate social responsibility, and, of course, analyzing our data and discovering if our experiment had any results. Then it’s just some frantic report writing, and back to Europe. But let’s not think about that until the time comes.

  Training On Entrepreneurship week two at Mariakani, 

                  Kilifi District. Annemieke & Julia.

Week two in Mariakani started out quite slowly. After spending the weekend in Mombasa, swimming, chilling on the beach, searching for matatus and realizing that food costs the same as in Utrecht, we returned on Sunday evening ready to continue with the internship. 

Monday was predominantly occupied with planning for the following days. We spent ages on our laptops, while occasionally talking to people who wondered into the office. On Tuesday and Wednesday we were supposed to give a workshop on social entrepreneurship, which was a new topic for us. So Julia and I did a lot of research and prepared an interactive presentation for the youth of Mariakani. Just coincidentally, Obama had spoken about entrepreneurship a few days before during his visit to Kenya, so we were able to incorporate some of his speech into the workshop, which had the dual benefit of enriching the program while making us feel as though we were involved with a super hip and current topic. The presentation went well, at least according to the feedback we received, but it once again showed some cultural differences between the people of Mariakani and us. Only one person showed up on time! While this is not that unusual, I was super surprised when the rest arrived over an hour late. We are used to people being no more than 15 minutes late, and if you are, it definitely requires an apology. However, here, it didn’t seem to be a big deal. Luckily, by cutting out a few games, we still managed to fit the presentation in the required time. On Wednesday, it was raining, so no one showed up for the training. That was quite disappointing, but there’s nothing we could’ve done about it. Instead we went to visit a school to observe the meeting of a youth club. Which was really nice about the workshop days was that Esther came over from Nairobi, so we got to see her again. We also put up posters for the first nudge week in our experiment, and are excited to see if it has an effect.

With regards to life in Mariakani, everything is going smoothly. We are bonding with all the shop owners by the office, and are continuously meeting new people who chat with us and ask for our phone numbers. I am sure that in the past two weeks more people have asked for my number than in the rest of my life combined. Julia has it especially bad. She has a Smartphone, so countless people WhatsApp her or add her on Facebook. Since my phone was cutting-edge technology in the early 90s, I can call and, with great effort, text, which effectively cuts down on the amount of suitors who contact me. Another factor may be that Julia is just much more social, so she talks while I stand next to her and smile.

Two things happened which really set us apart as foreign. First, our water ran out, and we were very confused. Charles came to our rescue, and now we have water again! Secondly, Julia and I really wanted to eat some coconut. We bought one from next door, but had no idea how to open it. So the butcher used an ax to open it for us, and then three people helped to take the flesh out. I guess it takes a village to feed two wazungu. That being said, it was delicious.

It is strange to think that we are already halfway done with the internship, and that there are only two weeks left before we return home. So maybe Julia and I should start working on our report. At least, that would be the responsible thing to do….

Annemieke & Julia first week at Mariakani, Kilifi District.

                     The adventure begins -Mariakani  

                              (Julia & Annemieke.)

             There is a world of difference between Mariakani and Nairobi. At first, going from the busy city to this small town was a bit of a surprise. After a few days, however, it became clear that Muthaa can do very valuable work here, which cannot be carried out in Nairobi. Due to the location of Mariakani on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, there is a high incidence of commercial sex, which is why the FC2 and sexual reproductive health programs are so important here to minimize the spread of HIV and unplanned pregnancy. Playing into that, Julia and I started our research project for university. We want to investigate whether nudging (Julia’s favorite topic) can influence Mariakani residents to use more condoms. So we made and installed condom dispensers, and will record how many condoms are picked up per day. First, the dispensers will be by themselves, but later, a poster will be put up alongside them to function as a nudge.

            Julia and I also participated in the sexual reproductive health training which took place at a local college. Interestingly, the students to whom we were presenting were around 18-25 years old, yet we were talking about things which I learned in sexual education classes in middle school. There is clearly a difference in the way Kenyans and Dutch people talk about sex, which was made obvious in the presentations, but also in the way we talk in the office and with community members. Besides that, the manner of presenting of Charles, and Julia and I are completely different. Julia and I are used to concise presentation where facts are the most important, so that is also how we present. Charles took his time, chatted with the audience, and told several stories. While this was less direct, it did keep the audience engaged. The second time around, both of us tried to involve the students more, so maybe they remember more.

                Besides work, living in Mariakani has been an adventure. Life is a lot slower than in Nairobi, so Julia and I are starting to entertain ourselves with craft projects. Also, there is no supermarket, only one or two paved roads, and seemingly no systematized way to dump trash. Instead, we buy our food at the local market (where they try to ridiculously overcharge us every time), constantly have dirty feet from the muddy roads, and throw our trash on a large pile just down the road. Especially the trash situation feels strange, as I have been conditioned to carefully separate trash from recyclables and to neatly put it in the municipal dumpster.

            So far, the Mariakani residents have been very friendly, and willing to show us around. However, they are also irrationally excited about us being white. Everywhere we go, we hear “wazungu, wazungu” and people waving or staring at us. This will definitely take some getting used to, but hopefully, with time, we will also become less exciting to see. Living in Mariakani for four weeks will be unlike anywhere else I have lived, and I am looking forward to see how it goes. There will definitely be challenges, such as how slowly everything happens here, but overall, I think it will be a nice experience.