Capacity, not charity.

It’s hard to believe but June has come and gone, which means Kedge has completed its pilot program!

In our final class, Alexa and I taught the participants some of the basics of sales and marketing for their businesses.  Split into teams, each group was charged with trying to sell the other a mystery product (that turned out to be rocks and wood!). Armed with what they learned in class, our students had to rely on their sales abilities and marketing to convince the other team to ‘buy’ their product. As the group learned: presentation can make all the difference!

After our marketing session, we moved outside where Alexa taught the group some basics of wilderness first aid. Once briefed, everyone took turns trying treat a different ailment. As it turns out, the most popular role to play during this exercise was the victim!

To close out the course, we held a small ceremony where everyone receive...

After a big storm came through and dropped some much-needed rain (but also knocked out some of our network) your favorite Kedge field team found itself incommunicado until things could get up and running again. 

Fortunately, all's back to normal, and not a moment too soon: yesterday marked the official start of Kedge classes, and we are pleased to say that it went excellently!

After our ten students piled into the Chief of Kawai's office (which he so graciously allowed us to use as our venue!), Alexa and I launched right into teaching the group about business basics (how local vs global markets work), and the pros and cons of owning your own business. After the business module, we introduced the basics of ecology, biome and ecosystem-level conservation, and niche theory. Finally, our brilliant colleague at the Anne K. Taylor Fund (AKTF), Elias , taught the team the basics of using binoculars and bird...

And they're off! 

As you know, we're launching Kedge with our first mini-training, starting in the western Maasai Mara Region of Kenya with the Maasai people on June 1st. We're very excited to get on the ground and start working, and we're delighted to have the support of the Anne K. Taylor Fund, Optics for the Tropics, and Duke University to get us started.

Joe and Alexa are already on their way to Kenya, while Courtney & I will hold down the fort here in the States. Our intrepid teammates will be touching down in Nairobi, picking up our Kenyan-bought teaching items from local vendors, and then packing up the jeep to head down to the Maasai Mara! 

Fair winds and following seas, guys. We'll eagerly await your next blog post.