Ok, so I’ve been reading a lot lately and more and more people are talking about their lists and how to start crossing off what they accomplish. In Nik Halik’s book, Thrillionaire, he talks about the 10 things that he wanted to do as a small child and how he’s accomplish over 3/4’s of his list.

Internet guru Yanik Silver of Maverick Business Adventures® posted his list of goals recently on his blog and you can see him cross them off.

Then recently I got a hold of James Ray’s book, Harmonic Wealth, he’s from the Secret and read it through and did all the exercises (amazingly enough!!) And one of the major things I realize is that the frustration I have in certain areas of my life stem from not being clear about what I want and not putting a plan into action to get to where I wanna go.

So this is the start of it … I’ve started a list that I’m gonna work towards achieving and since it’s kinda publicly displayed it makes it a little difficult to ignore

√Get my degree
√Teach ESL for 1 yr
AWAI: -TW – UTW Workshop – Bootcamp
√ Canon XSi SLR Camera
Publish a travel article with photos
Obtain financial independence
Travel – anywhere, everywhere!
Take a year to RTW
Work, live, play in London/UK for 1 yr
Egypt -  pyramids – camel ride, Bedouins
S.Africa – visit people, safari – Durban South Africa  -  swim with great whites
Namibia – safari
Greece – xplore ancient + modern, islands
South America – modern + ancient -Galapagos islands -Amazon -Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, etc, etc -ok, pretty much the entire continent
Thailand – elephant trek – Tibet
Australia – visit family -Alice to Ocean!! -Great Barrier Reef
New Zealand

Well I think that’s a good start when I think of some more I shall add those too!

The home of “Born Free” a favourite movies of mine when I was a kid. It was great to see Elsamere in person but the movie is quite different from the real history of Joy Adamson.

Elsamere was beautiful and is named after Elsa, the lion cub Joy raised. We watched an old documentary on the Adamson couple which played on a small TV screen while sitting on hard plank benches in a large room inside the house. Then ate lunch in the garden while the Colobus monkeys entertained us as they tried and sneak into the house by prying the gates open with their small hands in order to the reach the smorgasboard of food laid out for Elasamere’s guests.

After lunch we browsed the gift shop wasn’t and I picked up a few items including the original novel, Born Free. I will read it to compare if it’s at all like the movie.

Later on we took a nature walk on Crescent Island which is an animal sanctuary on lake Naivasha. We went to Lake Naivasha country club and took a boat ride over to the island. There are no predators on Crescent Island making it safe for people can walk among the wild life.

I was trying to get as close as possible to some of the wild life so I could take some pictures and I was just getting close enough for a great shot when some smart asses decided to go from walking to running and careened past me as they went scaring everything off.

Being so close …within a few feet of something that you could step out and touch it is amazing… it made me want to give up everything and become a wildlife cinematographer for National Geographic. Not a far cry from one of my childhood dreams.

Our train was delayed by over 5 hours, oh joy! Actually, I don’t mind too much since secretly I’ve been desperate for things to slow down.

The trains are ancient but service doesn’t resemble the trains colonial heritage and former glory. I’ve witnessed a few colonial customs. I only hope that they are only remain to stay on this train.

At breakfast the only open seats were at a table where a man was almost finishing his breakfast. Shortly after the man left our table a couple came and sat down a the table which had now opened. The waiter laid out new plates and cutlery then as he passed our table picked up the dirty teaspoon from the previous man and placed it at the couple’s table. This made me quickly inspect the remaining cutlery at our table and wonder how many other things had been recycled? …hmm, yummy!

Went snorkeling on Sunday and it was fantastic… such beautiful colours and shapes some that came right up to my mask since the boat operator kept throwing food on top of us. If only I had thought to buy an underwater camera.

Monday we all went down to visit Fort Jesus, then we walked through the Old City. I need to explore this place again since I felt so confined to the group. We also went to Baraka Radio Station and I joined in with two others to create a few sound bites for them, it rocked!

Today it’s a bit rainy so Steph and I went around to a few of the curio stands just outside the resort. I bought a few things including this little painting which is the size and shape of a dinner plate. It’s a hue of orange with the silhouette of an acacia tree in the foreground with two elephants walking left to the right while the sun sets in the background

Wednesday we all woke up early and sat waiting for the bus that didn’t show… oh, well that’s African time for you…but we still made it to the station and caught a train after eating some lunch at the station.

The next morning I woke on the train… I’m surprised at how well I slept. We made it to Mombasa safely which is saying a lot considering the train we took. From the train we took a bus to the resort, Sun n’ Sand Beach resort… it’s beautiful and has a slightly Middle Eastern feel to it.

Taking a walk to the beach we were surrounded by a few beach boys who wanted to escort us to the reef despite our protests. It was quite fun because as soon as it started to rain they ran off and left us.

I wanted to explore outside the resort but due to the group I was with needed to concentrate and focus on the class.

Friday we went to visit Shanzu, it’s a Girl Guide shop where young women learn how to sew making various different things and then sell them to earn some money. I bought a few items for gifts and then a purse and two bags for myself.

Today was a lot of fun… went kayaking on the Indian Ocean and relaxed around the resort.

The hardest part of the entire trip to Kenya is that we’ve had absolutely no time for jet lag. We get up early each morning so by lunch time I’m ready to pass out and a complete zombie the rest of the day…if it weren’t for the daily log I’m keeping it would all blur together.

Went to Kakamega rain forest… but I’m starting to wish I had better video equipment to capture it all with.

On Sunday we went to a village church service where they specially put on a more formal service just to honor us. Every group we have met so far has been very welcoming and friendly. During the afternoon a group of us met Elizabeth and were given a tour of her shop. Each group’s task was to help an area of the community however we could. The group I was in decided to make a new sign for Elizabeth’s shop and get the locals to join in the process.

Monday we tackled the sign project and had a few hiccups but overall the sign turned out well… everyone joined in and in the end our objective was obtained.

The next day the flight back was good but I’m feeling very shattered… and it’s making me a little more emotional so certain things (read: and people) are starting to take their toll.

Trip to Kenya in 2005

It’s been a eventful few days… we went to the UN for a few presentations which were really hard to concentrate through due to the lack of sleep and constant traveling for the last week or so.

The only thing that has imprinted itself in my mind from the visit was that the UN has condom dispensers in every washroom including the women’s. Oh and the statement, “The UN is neutral… but let’s use ______ as an example of _________”

It’s pretty funny as no one is ever really “neutral”, even if you refrain from politics you are rarely ever neutral… we will always have an opinion, those who don’t either don’t want to think about or haven’t taken the time… everyone has an opinion, even those it’s naive and uneducated. Humans are rarely without an opinion.

Then we were on the Canadian Embassy… the speakers seemed very committed and passionate about the work that they were trying to accomplish alongside the Kenyan people.

The next day we took a small plane from Nairobi to Kisumu – I’m sure I’m not the only who was thankful to avoid the pot hole roads.

In Kisumu we went to the community placement centre, St.Rita’s and then the orphanage. There are a lot of orphans in Kenya due to AIDS. Not all children are infected with AIDS but if the parent has died from AIDS the children become “contaminated” or at least that’s how they are viewed leaving many children homeless.

The third Video from Kenya trip 2005

Second video of trip to Kenya in 2005