Real Sustainable Living

My friend Simon wrote a wonderful article for The Seattle Globalist, encouraging Seattle to be "green" in a different way- contrasting his experience growning up in a Kenyan slum with his life in Seattle now. He says:

Many of us adhere to sustainability because it’s trendy, but we are not aware of how our consumptive lifestyle counteracts our efforts to be green.

Read the whole article here.  

In my own experience, the excessiveness of American culture is so easy to buy into (literally!) when you're living amidst it, yet something struggle with each time I travel and come home to it.

I had a conversation with a Zambian few years back about the absence of refrigerators in his community. Even households who could afford to didn't have them.They had no need, they ate what they needed and any leftover food was given away to hungary neighbors. 

Anyway, just a little encouragement to love others, and for all of us to remember the difference between "want" and "need" today. 

One Year Ago...

...I was in Kenya, shooting for Construction for Change with Jason. I love this photo, taken on my iPhone by one of the kids at Cura Orphanage with Jason in the background.  Cura partnered with Construction for Change to build a secondary school,  because not only did the orphans not have a place to continue their education, but none of the other kids in the village did either.  You can read more about the project here.

When we were there, this was an open field. Now, a secondary school exists to provide education to all of the kids in Cura Village for years to come. 

I'm so honored to be a part of Construction for Change, both volunteering in Seattle as a co-director of partnership development and as a photographer, getting to travel to meet and document the people and communities benefiting by the projects abroad. 

Jason and I will be traveling to the Solomon Islands to shoot for Construction for Change in early March. Look forward to more amazing photos and a really touching story about how that project came to be. 

Wanderlust: Giraffe Centre Nairobi

If you ever find yourself in Nairobi, you simply must visit the Giraffe Centre in Karen.

Jason and I spent our last few hours here before heading to the airport at the end of our trip in February. After being on safari and spending days looking at animals that you can't touch, getting to pet and feed giraffes was heaven for me. Jason, of course, loved getting super close for photos.

The Giraffe Centre is all about conservation, taking in injured giraffes who can no longer survive in the wild and educating the public about these beautiful creatures.

An added bonus, if you go there at the end of the trip like we did, they have an awesome gift shop for any last minute gift needs. A little higher priced than what you find in markets, but a beautiful selection to be sure and all made by local women (who are paid fair prices for their goods). The proceeds go to helping the giraffes.

Just to show you how awesome it is, here's a very short clip for you today of me and my friend Laura the Giraffe.




Photo JKoe Photography

Kenya Photo Gallery

Jason and I've spent the last few weeks running around like crazy people putting together a gallery of images from our Kenya trip for the annual Construction for Change fundraiser. This year, the majority of the funds will go to build is a clinic in Mbita, Kenya, run by Med 25.

This is our fourth year traveling to shoot for Construction for Change and doing a gallery of the images. Each year I think it'll get easier and be less stressful, I try to plan ahead instead of procrastinate. Regardless of what I do, seems to come down to the wire each time.There is this sort of unspoken pressure of wanting to represent the people and communities in the photos as best we can, wanting to give them a voice through the images.  Despite a few hectic "working with your spouse is difficult"  moments, (like when Jason wanted to order more prints just hours before the event began!) killer traffic due to Obama being in town and a couple of shattered picture frames, it looked pretty flawless in the end.

PS. That cute old couple in the photo right above, that's Barack Obama's great aunt and her husband. I kid you not, she's his grandma's sister and a really sweet lady.

Fair Trade from the Source

While in Kenya, Jason and I got to visit a fair trade soapstone art center outside of Kisii. They sell a bunch of their products in US stores. Here is the globe Jason got, for sale at World Market!

There are huge pockets of soapstone in the hills of the Kisii Provence, so soapstone carving has always been part of the culture of the Kisii people and techniques have been passed from generation to generation.

This was the perfect stop for me combining of my love for supporting fair trade, a childhood obsession with seeing how things were made thanks to Mr. Rodgers and my continual need to buy excessive amounts of gifts for friends while traveling. 

We were taken station by station to see how the soapstone art is created and it was super interesting to see these large hunks of rock slowly take shape- being carved, buffed, smoothed and painted into beautiful candlestick holders, platters, bowls and miniature animals.

I was most surprised to see the soapstone actually being broken down from the large chunks. As you can see in the picture, the stone is soft enough to be cut through with a regular saw!

Jason and I ended up coming back with an extra suitcase filled with soapstone carvings. My favorite purchase? Two white elephants. I now have the perfect thing for next white elephant gift exchange we're invited too!

Seriously though, I often purchase fair trade products and wonder about who's making it and if it really is a good working environment. It was so interesting to see that in this fair trade co-op, that was truly the case. 

Why buy fair trade? Read more about fair trade here. 

Heading Home

Today is our last day in Kenya. By the time you read this, I will be on a plane, soaring over the continent. I've heard about a place where you can feed giraffes and INSISTED that we go there today before our flight.

For now, here is our trip summed up in numbers.

3...Flights to get here.
2...Number of movies staring Ryan Gosling I watched on the plane.
10...Mosquito bites on me.
A TON...The best way to quantify the number of mosquito bites on Jason. He's my personal mosquito magnet. A quality I definitely recommend looking for in choosing a husband.
465 GB...Of pictures and video captured and there is still more to download.
64...Instagram pictures posted by Jason. Follow us on instagram! @jkoephoto and @jennykoekoe
80...approx. amount of Kenya Shillings that equal $1 USD.
2...Drivers we had named Edward.
13...Number of times my hair was braided by girls at Cura Orphanage.
2...Times we drove across the equator.
1...Huge cockroach, that I discovered hitching a ride IN MY BAG at the airport in Kisumu. I (calmly) flung him out and he scurried towards the departure gates only to be stomped on by a Kenyan who seemed unfazed by this giant bug running at him.
50ish...Soapstone carvings purchased from a fair trade shop that sells to places like World Market. I will be writing a full post on this place later.
30%...  Of the population that is HIV positive in Mbita, where Construction for Change is partnering with MED 25 to build a new clinic.
4...Recipes for things I've eaten here that will be tried at home and blogged about.
100,000...approximate number of farmers that will be served by One Acre Fund this year.
5...Clothing items that I lugged half way around the world only to carry in my suitcase and not wear once the entire time we were here. To be fair, one was a raincoat, something I would have been glad to have if the rainy season had started early.
83F...Temperature in Nairobi today. Perfect for us to enjoy our last day here!

(Giraffes on the mara photo taken by Jason. Picture of us taken at the soapstone place by our second driver named Edward, who was awesome.)

Summer!

We crossed the Equator yesterday. We were just driving down a road headed to Kissii and our driver pointed out this sign. We had crossed into the southern hemisphere. Its not like the weather changed or anything. It was above 85 and scorching when we were above the equator Kenya doesn't reslly have seasons the same way we do in the states. Nonetheless, I still felt a bit giddy as we crossed, as if I'd officially escaped winter. It is officially summer in my head and my heart is light and free and suddenly the hot dusty air blowing on me from the open window felt different, it was a summer breeze.

PS This marker was in the middle of someone's front yard! I wonder what it is like to live in a home where half of it is in the northern hemisphere and half the southern? If I lived here, I know I would say things like, "Jason, will you go to the northern hemisphere and do the dishes?" Also, if would be funny have your bedroom right at the equator so you could say, "My husband and I sleep in separate hemispheres". Hehehe! 

The Big Five

As a child I always wondered why Big 5 Sporting Goods was named Big 5. I thought it referred to the 5 "biggest" sports, but then, I didn't know which 5 that would be: baseball, football, soccer, basketball and...yoga? My local Big 5 stocked a lot of yoga mats. Anyway, somewhere along the way I learned that "The Big Five"is a term coined by big game hunters back in the day referring to the five animals in Africa hardest to hunt on foot: lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros. In 2 days, Jason and I have seen all five, not to mention a cheetah, plenty of warthogs, crazy looking birds, zebra, giraffe, hippos and a porcupine! The elephant shot was taken on my iPhone.

Jambo!

Hello from Kenya! Jason and I have been staying out in a village the last few days without any sort of  plumbing, minimal electricity, and would you believe that the thing I missed most was internet! We are back in Nairobi for the night before heading out to Masai Mara for safari, currently sitting at a Nairobi Java House and I am having a great iced latte and LOVING the wi-fi.

We spent the last few days shooting at Cura Orphanage. We headed there with every intention of being the only photographers, but from the moment we arrived, the kids were super excited try our cameras and learn how to take pictures. They also really enjoyed taking pictures and video on our iPhones, until they discovered Angry Birds and season 1 of Modern Family, then that became more exciting than taking pictures on the iPhones. We are looking through our iPhone pictures now and discovering some gems. Jason's phone has over 70 images of one kid making funny faces, my phone has a ton of odd blurry close ups of pigs and cows on it from the afternoon we went to visit a neighboring farm. There are some really good ones too.

Henry, the youngest at Cura Orphanage, using Jason's camera

Construction for Change,  the organization we are shooting for while we are in Kenya,  is building a secondary school here that will not only benefit the 50 kids at the Cura Orphanage, but the rest of the kids in the community as well.

Taken by Margret, age 12.

We are headed to Masai Mara tomorrow to take lots of pictures of animals and relax for a few days before heading to our next project. We're staying at Sarova Mara. It looks pretty amazing. I'm excited. More to come!

Airplane Entertainment

Jason and I area headed to Kenya on Wednesday for three weeks of shooting for Construction for Change. 

I'm just starting to get all of the necessary clothes washed and starting to pack. Getting my carry on ready is always the most fun. I LOVE long flights. For me, it's a feeling of multitasking, I'm getting somewhere and getting something done at the same time, whether it's working or reading a book or even watching movies, I feel productive.

When flying back from Zambia a few years back, I purchased Atonement at the airport in Johannesburg and dove right in during our really long layover. I'd gotten through a good chunk of the book by the time I got on the plane and saw that the movie version was an option on the OnDemand. So, I decided that I'd play a little game and see if I could manage to finish the book AND watch the movie during the 9 hour flight. I succeeded, but was definitely ready to rest my eyes by the time we landed in Amsterdam.


Here what's going in my carry on this time...