Because of budgetary and time constraints, there are some things which I wish I could have done on my Kenya tour, and which I didn’t get to do.
One such thing is a tour to the country’s Maasai Mara, and maybe a detour to the neighboring Tanzania’s Serengeti national park – both being things that almost every serious person who tours Kenya gets to do. The hallmark of a visit to the Maasai Mara is usually the opportunity to witness the migration of the wildebeest, but unfortunately the time I made my Kenya tour, as I was told, was past the wildebeest migration season. As I learnt from the ‘travel Kenya’ resources that I had read before the trip, the wildebeest migration is usually a seasonal affair, and I was certainly not on season.
So spectacular is the wildebeest migration, I was made to understand, that it has been enumerated as one of the seven modern wonders of the world. According to an article on the subject that I came across somewhere on the Internet, there are people who tour Kenya every year with the sole aim of witnessing the wildebeest migration – and this category includes the high and the mighty of the world, who usually visit anonymously – entering the country quietly, visiting the Maasai Mara and then leaving without much fanfare.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Reflecting on My Kenya Tour: A Friend Laid Off
I recently received an email from one of the friends I made during my Kenya tour, informing me that he had recently been laid off from work. This got me thinking of just how far and wide the currently economic crisis originating from the United State could be hitting. According to my, friend, whose name is George, his being laid off from work is as a direct result of the global economic crisis.
Due to the global economic crisis, few people are traveling nowadays – with many having to resort to money that they had saved for things travel and holidays for their subsistence after having been laid off from their respective places of work in the west and the far east. Indeed one of my other friends who tours Kenya every year told me that he wouldn’t be doing so this year as he is not sure of his finances. And mark you, this is not a poor fellow – but his woes are resulting from the fact that the shares he held in various companies have slipped down and are actually still slipping - and he is not sure just how far down they’ll go.
In the other side of the world, George’s lay off puts him in an even more precarious predicament as he is living in a country where he cannot file for unemployment benefits. Indeed, according to a number of people that I met on my Kenya tour and talked to, telling a person who is begging on a Kenyan street to go get a job (as we tell our vagrants in the west) is an insult because getting a job – and any job at that – in these developing countries is usually a very tall order. Meanwhile, all I can do is to pray for George, and perhaps send him a few bucks to shore him up as looks for another opportunity. Life can be tough.
Due to the global economic crisis, few people are traveling nowadays – with many having to resort to money that they had saved for things travel and holidays for their subsistence after having been laid off from their respective places of work in the west and the far east. Indeed one of my other friends who tours Kenya every year told me that he wouldn’t be doing so this year as he is not sure of his finances. And mark you, this is not a poor fellow – but his woes are resulting from the fact that the shares he held in various companies have slipped down and are actually still slipping - and he is not sure just how far down they’ll go.
In the other side of the world, George’s lay off puts him in an even more precarious predicament as he is living in a country where he cannot file for unemployment benefits. Indeed, according to a number of people that I met on my Kenya tour and talked to, telling a person who is begging on a Kenyan street to go get a job (as we tell our vagrants in the west) is an insult because getting a job – and any job at that – in these developing countries is usually a very tall order. Meanwhile, all I can do is to pray for George, and perhaps send him a few bucks to shore him up as looks for another opportunity. Life can be tough.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)