Week update

It's been a pretty eventful week, last week seems like so long ago! I'll put some pictures up from work soon; silly me left my camera on, and the battery drained out so I wasn't able to take as many as I had planned.
On Monday I headed into town (which in Nairobi is an actual area, not just a general reference to leaving the house to go someplace) to meet my supervisor and some of the other people I'll be working with. Having inherited my father's sense of timing, I arrived half an hour before the meeting, so sat there for a while and whiled my time away. The meeting went well and I got a feel of what my week would look like. Two days a week I work in the office with the Young Adult (YA) stuff, and then two days I work from home and in town (the general definition this time), with meeting people, brainstorming, recruiting, planning and executing events. The rest of the time I use for planning and reflecting on my own time, and some days I'll attend weekend events.
So the next day, I headed to Ongata Rongai, and finally got to the office after being stuck in about two hours of traffic. I spent the day looking at the biographies of the Young Adults, as well as getting briefed on more of BTCKE's work. Wednesday I worked from home, planning the leadership evaluations and learning more about the YAs. One of the questions that obviously arose is, what defines a leader? The Ganz definition is someone who takes responsibility for enabling others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty. The definition of leadership however, may change depending on the role one is thrust into. How would you define a leader?
Today was interesting because I actually got to visit one of the homes that BTCKE partners with, called 'Nyumba ya Tumaini' (http://bethechangekenya.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/meet-nyumba-ya-tumaini-2012-partner/). Most of the kids were at school, but I got to meet two of the newest children, Peter and Charles, who were shy but not wary, and were able to tell me what they were doing and what sports they enjoyed. They were excited to see the pictures I took of them (to be put up soon!!) too! Since they were new additions to the home, they weren't at school because they still had some stuff to sort out, such as uniforms, new shoes, getting desks at the classroom (a problem that I hadn't exactly expected!)
Leaving the home, Sarah (one of the two directors of BTCKE) and I got stuck in the mud, and had to wait a while to be pushed out, but all in all it was a fun day, and we had some interesting conversations on the drive back and at lunch (which was at a cafe that had no fries or ice- interesting experience but worth it).
Right now I'm sitting at my sister's office at Inuka Kenya Trust (a nonprofit too, http://www.nisisikenya.com/), and we'll head home to some much deserved chai (Swahili for tea) soon!
Much love from this corner of the world,
R