We all piled into Gumps, the BOMA Land Cruiser. Omar has now assumed cooking responsibilities in the field and he had organized a lunch at Joseph’s camp, a group of small bandas built at the confluence of three rivers. I explained to my friend Sarah, who traveled north to see BOMA’s work, that this wasRead More
The Raw Beauty of This Land
In a few days, I’ll be leading a safari for St. Lawrence University. My friend Sarah, who will be joining the trip, arrived a few days early to visit Northern Kenya and see BOMA’s work. Sarah was a trouper. After a long flight from Chicago to London to Nairobi, she arrived at the hotelRead More
Meeting Kura
I arrived back into Nairobi on Sunday night after a weekend inspecting properties in Nakuru and Naivasha. It was fascinating to see properties that have sprung up in this region, just two hours from Nairobi, to service the growing professional middle class. Many of the hotels were family friendly – bouncy castles and pools forRead More
Travel with the Nomads
“Africa is mystic; it is wild; it is a sweltering inferno; it is a photographer’s paradise….It is the last vestige of a dead world or the cradle of a new one…It is all of these things but one thing – it is never dull.” Beryl Markham, West with the Night Dear Friends: As the founderRead More
Measuring Success
The morning after I arrived in Nairobi I had a fascinating breakfast meeting with Marc Maxson of Global Giving. Marc is a PhD neuroscientist who helps coordinate the GlobalGiving Storytelling project in East Africa, a monitoring and evaluation experiment (see www.globalgiving.org/story-tools/ for details). The meeting with Marc was timely. BOMA has a program that is seeingRead More
Time for Some Good News From Africa
This summer’s news from Africa has been sobering. We want to bring you some good news – but first a bit of background. Since the founding of The BOMA Project in 2005, we have endured three severe droughts. Each resulted in devastating livestock mortality, and each was proclaimed “the worst drought in 50 years.” AsRead More
The Human Element of Our Work
It even rained in Loiyangalani. As we came into the desert oasis town the steam was rising from the evaporating puddles in the road. Kura pointed out the Turkana settlements on the outskirts of the village. We splashed through the overflow water from the borehole that provided plentiful water to the settlement; naked children wavedRead More
Where There Are Large Herds, There is Danger
In the morning I woke early, anxious to be back on the road and on our way to Loiyangalani. Poor Kura, Omar and Semeji had been up late, talking with Joseph. I hated to wake them up but Kura was great, as usual. “It’s okay, Mama Rungu, I agree, we should leave now.” “Okay, Kura,Read More
Baba Rungu Gets a Blessing
Our journey through Laisamis district continued to be challenging. The rain had stopped but it took days for the muddy, clay roads to dry out. We got stuck on numerous occasions but soldiered on and actually made it across the Kaisut Desert in time for lunch in Korr. Doug had the opportunity to see ourRead More
Breaking out Plan B
The clouds had been gathering for days before our final night at Sirikoi Camp. During the early hours, cracks of thunder could be heard in the distance. Lightening lit up the roof of our tent. At dawn we heard a pride of nearby lions who growled and whoofed their displeasure. When our coffee arrived atRead More