It’s never easy to write an obituary and I have no intention of doing so. A great global leader died yesterday, one of our own…

Indeed she was a nobel prize winner, she walked with great people like President Obama and appeared on the Oprah show and all the rest. But to many Kenyans, she is one of ours because we remember her for never giving up a fight against injustice, corruption and greed and for being that one person who was never to great to forget the most important things in life are right in front of us – like planting a tree and watering it…and that is what we will remember you for…your humility and remaining part of us wananchi…

Only a week ago, we were celebrating Peace One Day in Kenya with the opening of a new kitchen at Ngonzini Primary School next to Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary where we have run projects and commemorated Peace One Day for the past three years running. Thanks to all our volunteers, we achieved this in a very short space of time:

And last week, we officially opened the kitchen with two energy efficient stoves on Peace One Day which will reduce the amount of fuel wood required by at least 50%…

I think she would be proud of us. I think this is how she believed in tackling the divide between the environment, wildlife and people. It’s not just about the tree, or the elephant or the person; it’s about the interdependency between all living creatures and it’s about doing your bit, no matter how great the challenge is, like this little hummingbird…

We would like to dedicate this kitchen to Mama Wangari Maathai and in doing so, I hope it’s not just words that you will be remembered for but your actions that have inspired us all.

Amani…

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Family Volunteer, Gap, Gap Year, Kenya, Life, Project Diary, School Expedition, Team, Teams. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.