I was wondering where he'd gone!

Glad to hear it. Here's something that may interest you Richard, it kicked off in Nairobi recently funded by the UN.

http://www.earthrights.net/projects/globallandtool.html

Not sure at the moment where it will be located.

Hello Richard!

It's good to hear that you all had such a great time.

I'd never heard of the Landmark Forum before coming to Onet. Since then it has cropped up a number of times and not only in relation to David. For instance, I think Robin Leaver also has experience of Landmark.

Can you tell us a bit about what happened - i.e. the general idea, not other people's personal details - and what it has meant to you all?

:)

I'm not sure everyone is familiar with what's involved.

Thanks David and Jeff,

Nothing much happened in relation to Landmark David. We only attended the forum and learnt a few things, which purely in principle,unfortunately or fortunately I am not supposed to share, and which depending on ones perspective and experiences can be deemed of relevance or otherwise.

My principle has always been to learn as much as possible, therefore I just don't ignore issues or brush them aside unexamined.

I still believe Landmark is fabulously interesting. I am especially bewildered by the phillosophies involved,and so far haven't noticed anything I can characterize "spooky".

Be great all!

Hi Richard! Thanks for setting this up. I just got back last night (after many delays, missed connections, lost luggage, etc.)

The quick version of what happens in the Landmark Forum is that people see things about themselves they didn't see before, and which are important to them. For instance, someone wants to make more money, or wants to know whether she should leave her husband, or wants to lose weight and keep it off, or wants to fall in love, or change careers, or just be happy or healthy or both. By the end of the weekend, they see clearly how to do these things and they are in action, doing them, in a way they didn't think possible.

Each person goes into the Landmark Forum with different issues, so each person gets something different. But the common theme is you get to see where you have been lying to yourself, and in a very supportive and safe environment you get inspired to tell the truth, which is cathartic and liberating. People have amazing breakthroughs and produce miracles.

Sounds simple, but creating that safe and supportive space takes something extraordinary. It would be like getting a roomful of people (including your parents and coworkers) to take their clothes off and feel comfortable about that (i.e. no sexual harrassment complaints).

Now, if you're like me, you're pretty sure you are already aware of all the lies you've told yourself. Consider that maybe we are much better liars than we think. How many times would you lie to someone if you got caught every time? You'd quit lying in a hurry. Well, the fact that we continue to lie to ourselves is a strong indication that we get away with it. In the Landmark Forum, you really do get to see what's behind door number 2. It's wild.

One amazing thing about Nairobi is that in all the world it has the least expensive Landmark Forum. I paid for 6 people to take it there, which cost me about $420. In the USA that wouldn't even pay for one person.

So if you are interested, like me, in providing people with access to that, Nairobi is THE place to do it. I have paid for around 30 people to do it in the USA. If I had known about Nairobi, I could have paid for 180 people. This has a huge ripple effect, too.

One reason I went to Nairobi was to learn something about Africa and experience a third world country firsthand. I met people who live on $1/day.

Overall, my impression was extremely positive. Besides being extremely courteous, friendly, and beautiful (compared to every other place in the world I have been*), I was amazed at how economically efficient the people are. In Los Angeles people who make $100/day seem poor.

And yet, the prices of most things are not that different. Gasoline is $4/gal, suburban houses are $250,000 and up, a liter of bottled water is $1.30, prepaid cellphone airtime is 25 cents/minute, music CDs are $15, a men's casual dress shirt is $10, just like at Walmart. Nonprime downtown office space is around $1/sqft, just like in most US cities.

The only thing that is really cheaper across the board is labor. You can hire a fine receptionist for $3000/yr.

• Cities I know, for the sake of comparison: San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Fremont, Hayward, Petaluma, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Gilroy, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine, Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff, Prescott, Seattle, Boise, Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Madison, New Orleans, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Rome, Asheville, Chicago, Denver, Colorado Springs, Las Vegas, Reno, Boston, New York, Burlington, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Greenwich, Portsmouth, Princeton, Newark, New Brunswick, Hattiesburg, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Montreal, London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Genoa, Monterosso, Berlin, Frankfurt, Mainz, Braunschweig, Hannover, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Essen, Strasbourg, Augsburg, Darmstadt, Freiburg, Fulda, Marburg, Baden Baden, Heidelberg, Wiesbaden, Wuerzburg, Nuremburg, Zurich, Basel, Amsterdam, Brussels, Antwerp, Madrid, Mexico, Tijuana, Guadalajara, Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende, Puerto Vallarta

Here are my business ideas for Nairobi. These are all businesses that are difficult to succeed at in rich countries because the cost of labor is high relative to the profit potential, resulting in a large unmet demand, particularly in urban centers like Boston and San Francisco.

1. Drawing/Painting/Graphic Design
2. Music Instruction, Performance, & Recording
3. Poetry/Short Stories
4. English/Swahili Translation
5. Photography & Video
6. Fruit Juice Canning Factory
7. Childcare Center/Pre-School/Boys & Girls Club
8. Hotel/Resort, Beauty/Health Spa

For the fruit juice David, last year I had a contact by the name of Seth Coleman who was brokering imports of fruit juice and other perishables to support his charitable efforts and had contacts with some of the big US importers. It proved successful, to a small degree being hampered by good quality produce being spiked in transit or watered down. Tightly managed it might do well.

David,Its great to hear that you arrived safely.It was pleasure having you in Kenya and all the experiences you made us experience in our own city;Nairobi

Thanks, Moses, it was really great being there. I can't wait to come back.

Jeff,

The Konza Project, which I visited, is producing mangos, papayas, oranges, and bananas for sale in local markets. If we can juice those on site and put them in those tetra packs I think they could be profitably exported all over the world. Because they keep much longer than fruit, it would smooth out the cashflow.

Arrival

When I arrived in Nairobi airport (flying from Frankfurt via London) the first thing I noticed from looking around was that pretty much everyone on the plane with me was white, mostly American & British, plus a few Germans, Swedes, and Australians. Overhearing conversations and talking with people myself, most of them seemed to either be there to go look at the animals in the wild for a couple weeks, or else on some kind of humanitarian mission, building schools, preaching the gospel, or working with CARE international or something like that.

Whereas when I've flown to Guadalajara, for instance, it seemed like the plane was mostly full of people visiting their families. Flying, say, from Phoenix to Detroit are mostly people who live in Phoenix and have family in Detroit, or vice versa.

Once in Nairobi, white people can be spotted here and there, but are relatively scarce, kind of like black people in Frankfurt. There is no way to really "blend in", and people's reactions to me seemed to range from curiosity to the reaction you'd expect from a bus full of tourists who just spotted a rhinocerous or a giraffe. Everywhere I went I got treated with honor I'd normally reserve for celebrities. I mean they really know how to make a guy feel welcome.

School children migrating home on dirt roads would break into a gleeful chorus of "HA waaaah Yu". I puzzled for a while at their intonation until I realised that's how a British schoolmaster might say it. Think Mary Poppins, or Benny Hill. Americans say "hauer YEW".

Money

To get into Kenya, you have to buy a visa. The price was posted as $50, or 40 Euros, or 30 Pounds Sterling, but then another sign at the counter said now they only take dollars.

I handed the money to the official, and he scrutinised each bill, picked out two of them and handed the rest back to me, politely asking if I had any newer ones. Luckily, I had an assortment, and managed to satisfy him with some combination. I got this treatment at several places; apparently the banks there don't like bills older than series 2000, and they should also be in good physical condition.

At fancy resorts they seem not to care about this, I suppose they deal with lots of foreigners and can use the older bills as change. One of the money changers offered me a lower exchange rate for the older bills (60 instead of 68.5 KES/$) so apparently they can use them, it's just more difficult.

A couple times when I didn't have Kenyan Shillings I paid for things with a combination of dollars and euros and pounds, most shop vendors seemed to be quite comfortable with those currencies.

Hotel

Coming out of baggage claim into the airport lobby, there were a large assortment of drivers holding placards with names on them, and many more who seemed to be just looking for someone to take in their taxi. Many of them REALLY seemed to want me to go with them.

Not knowing where I wanted to go (I was just winging it) I went up to an official-looking information booth, and asked if they could recommend a hotel near downtown. After talking with them for a while, and observing their muted conversations with one another, my impression was that they were a taxi service working for a group of hotels. They booked me in the Hotel Meridien, for $63, plus $21 for the taxi ride, which seemed a little pricey but it was midnight and I wasn't particularly choosy.

In Phoenix or Indianapolis that room would probably go for around $45/night, whereas in Newark or San Diego it would be about that price. In the USA though the room would have a sturdier door and lockset (this one was like an interior bathroom door) and the electricity would most likely stay on. During my stay in Nairobi, the power went out it seemed about once a day, usually for only a few minutes. I'm not sure if it came back on due to backup generators or what, but it's something to think about if you're working on a computer; save your work often. I don't think it was weather related, because the weather was beautiful the whole time. (Nairobi's weather is sort of like Orlando FL).

On one of my many bus rides though, I saw an accident scene involving a car that had just knocked down a power pole with a transformer on it. Wires were everywhere. I'm not sure if that's common though. The first day I visited New York City I witnessed a carjacking and then the car owner chasing after his car and catching up when the carjacker got stuck in traffic (bumping into the car right next to me). The owner chased the assailant away, recovered his vehicle, and did a joyous victory dance in the middle of 5th Avenue. It's not always easy to judge how "normal" or "flukey" our experiences are.

Ooooh! Great to hear from you David. Great too to hear you got back home well, but am sorry that you lost baggage on your way... hope not in Nairobi. Thanks for the credits you have given our city, I share the sentiments that Nairobi is a wonderful place, though am not widely travelled.

Landmark was an amazing experience to me! Hope to continue learning more.

You are welcome to Nairobi any other time!

Thanks and best wishes,

Richard

Sound And Motion

I woke up before dawn the next morning and looked out the window. Thousands of people were silently walking on the streets and on dirt trails coming into and out of the city. These people were definitely going somewhere, from way up in the hotel the scene below resembled an ant colony.

There seemed to be about ten males for every female in this scene, and the average age was about 20. Everyone looked well groomed and well dressed, considering the scarcity of laundromats.

I didn't see any fat Kenyans, nor did I see any body builders. In the USA we often find the two extremes (couch potatoes and athletes) outnumber people of "average" build. I didn't see the extremes in Kenya. There are 42 tribes, and they each have their own characteristics. They seem integrated in Nairobi though, and Kenyans themselves can't usually tell which tribe someone belongs to just by looking at them. Accents may give a clue, and some last names are peculiar to one tribe.

Nearly all the Kenyans I met and observed were soft-spoken, quiet, and gentle. Their movements seemed graceful and deliberate, kind of like Ninjas, Samurai warriors, or trained dancers. Even the matatu drivers and street hawkers trying to lure in customers were not loud by American standards.

Kenyans sitting next to me, I mean squished up against me in a matatu (minibus), would have conversations that I could barely hear. Receptionists in fancy offices would answer the phone while I was standing there and it was like all the sound energy from their voice went into the handset and stopped there. It reminded me of being in a recording studio with soundproof walls.

On the other hand, loud hip hop was standard fare in buses and matatus. Some of the matatus have fancy DVD players and you get to watch hip hop music videos while you ride. I stuffed my ears with tissue paper for each of these rides. The nightclubs I went to were similar to American ones -- about 200 db. They do love hip hop. (I like it too, I just want to keep my hearing intact for a few more years.)

Space

I remember my culture shock living in Germany when without hesitation, strangers would sit next to me on a park bench or on a bus. Where I grew up we gave people a wide berth. You wouldn't sit on a park bench if someone was already sitting there, even if the bench could hold 4 people and they were sitting at the other end. There were plenty of other benches, after all.

Germans seem to feel that seats are for sitting in, not for buffering you from other people. Well, Kenyans take that a step further. You may as well leave your personal space bubble at home, because in Nairobi you are entitled to the space you physically occupy when compressed, and that's it.

Thankfully, Kenyans do not smell bad. I don't know how they do it with water rationing and all, but if I have to be squished together with a bunch of strangers for several hours each day, Kenyans would be my choice.

I love the efficiency of it. Matatus are basically Toyota Vans, you know, the Japanese 1980s response to the VW bus. In America those vans seat 5, or 7 if you max them out. In Nairobi, that same vehicle seats 15 plus luggage, and a couple times we managed to squeeze 17 or 18 people in there. Very cozy. Not a good place to be big.

One of the shopping centers I went into was like a hall of walk-in closets. The ceilings were about 6 feet high, I think they converted a one story building to two stories so they could cram about 30 shops into the size of a McDonalds restaurant. At a big Walgreens-type place downtown, after you went through the checkout, you had to turn sideways and dance around the baggers to exit. The aisle was like that of an airplane. No shopping carts.

Don't get me wrong, they have spacious stores and hotels and restaurants and busses too. I'm just pointing out things we take for granted but they don't. It opens up opportunities we might otherwise miss, when people are willing to measure things in inches rather than yards (or centimeters rather than meters -- incidentally, I was surprised that many Kenyans seemed conversant in feet and degrees Fahrenheit, etc. Real estate is measured in sqft, not sq meters.).

I am glad that David you had the time to be in Kenya and experience all these.For sure you were learning alot.Keep on sharing what you found and compare it with the other parts of the world that you have been to so that we can also virtually visit them. While you were in Kenya you looked very comforatable and coped very well unlike many foreigners.You had the chance to go through what common Kenyans go through in their day to day lives.

For those of you still in and around Kenya, I wonder if you will be able to attend the World Social Forum? I have been able to attend twice, and with me on one occassion I brought six high school students who learned a tremendous amount about their host country and international development issues. It was very much a learning experience.

Check it out here!

Thank you David.

I agree with you that Nairobi is great. I dont have to have travelled wide to say that.But being a resident,I know that we Kenyans are hospitable and we love visitors.I am not the city mayor but I do say......Welcome again David.

And thanks alot for helping some Kenyans attend the forum.

Oh wonderful,David. Good news to hear that you are back in Phoenix Arizona.I`m glad to know that Nairobi was such a wonderful place to visit.`Nway i`m also sadened by the loss of your luggage and perhaps some of your treasures.

David, i must say that i`m extremely happy for giving us an opportunity to attend Land mark forum and the seminar that will start on feb.Thanx a million. I must say that this forum was so wonderful that it revealed me to my SELF.It was a turnaround for me.

Hoping to see you back in Kenya, you will forever remain in my heart. Thanx.

Thank you all for your great contributions on this thread. I am impressed David enjoyed his stay in the country but saddened that he lost his luggage on his way back home but I hope it is not in Nairobi because he was in secure hands. David, please be our spokesman in the US and articulate our needs amongst your contacts.

Samuel, you were a great host and I appreciate all you did to take care of me. My stay in Nairobi was really special because of you.

Yesterday I received my luggage! Hooray! So I got to divy up all the little trinkets I bought, it was really fun. The carved wooden spoons with rhino heads and giraffe heads went over really well, as did the rosewood antelope, the colorful scarves, the soapstone jewelrybox, and the massai picture made from thin wood strips. One of my giraffes broke a leg and one of the gazelles broke an antler in transit. The bongo drum was for me. Did you know drums like that cost around $60 here but $10 in Nairobi gift shops? That seems like another possible business. I'm sure many people have already thought of that, but maybe they were overly greedy. Walmart would probably sell those drums for $30 and we'd all get rich.

I thought of another really great business idea for Nairobi, Mombasa, and other cities.

9. Detailed City Guides, Restaurant Ratings, etc.

This is something that people who live in the location can do better than anyone else, and it's also of enormous value both to visitors and to the local businesses, who get rewarded with good ratings when they provide good products and services and treat customers well.

Trees & Flowers

Nairobi is very green. Even in the central business district (which feels similar in size to downtown Oakland, Phoenix, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or Frankfurt), there are tall trees here and there, and many stonework planters and median strips full of flowers, bushes, and shrubs. Nairobi felt greener than any of those other four cities.

Especially encouraging are all the young new trees. Big old trees and mature vines are what make an urban area really inviting, but the young trees and new plantings are the future. It takes a wealthy attitude towards the present to plant for the future.

If you google Phoenix and look at the satelite photos, you can see where there are trees; it's pretty striking, some neighborhoods have them, others don't. And that one distinction lines up exactly with the price of real estate, the quality of schools, crime levels, etc. The same mentality that causes us to plant trees (or cut them down) causes us to take care of everything in our lives, causing an upward spiral (or poverty).

Trees don't end poverty all by themselves. But those who really want to end poverty, plant trees.

Tribes & Diversity

In the Landmark Forum one of the conversations is about prejudice and stereotypes and the Forum Leader had some fun with it by asking people to share some stereotypes about the various tribes. There were at least a dozen different tribes represented in that group of 250, and probably more.

The stereotypes were funny, one tribe is lazy, another is overly ambitious, one is male chauvinist, another is snobbish, and another is always looking for approval. You could've had the same conversation at a European Union meeting, or a United Nations gathering.

On my trip home I read a book called "In My Father's House" by an African American philosopher, who brought up those studies on race that concluded there was really no biological basis for our social concepts of race. That was when I realised I was a racist.

Kenyans seem totally different than African Americans, and different from one another. They completely break the stereotypes typically encountered in Los Angeles or Chicago. If you really want to mix up your idea of race, first admit you are a racist, and then go take the Landmark Forum in Kenya. I wasn't so sure before, but now I am clear that our concept of race is completely and utterly useless. Firsthand experience will do that to a person.

Now, I already knew there was lots of diversity within "races", and I also have believed for a long time that every human deserves complete respect. But in the USA, if you're careful not to meet and get to know too many people, it's possible to conclude from limited experience that all black people have something interesting in common, and all white people do, and all asian people do. Going back and forth between the USA and Kenya, this view just doesn't work at all. I can only imagine what I'd discover if I now did the Landmark Forum in Cape Town, or Mumbai, or Beijing. The world is a lot more diverse than we realise.

Another book I partly read while waiting in airports was "How To Read People", by that lawyer famous for picking winning juries. Her three most important traits for predicting behavior: compassion, socio-economic status, and satisfaction with life. Why don't we base our races on those features instead of skin color, hair curl, etc.?

Security

If you google "Travel to Nairobi" and read lots of blurbs, one recurring theme is the streets are not safe. Some of them make it sound like muggers are lurking in every corner. There are signs in hotels advising guests not to go out after dark, lock valuables in the safe, take a taxi even if you're just going across the street, etc.

Well, it didn't look dangerous to me, but I did stay in my room until dawn on my first night. Then I set off walking through town with my little hotel map, intending to look for the Landmark offices, but really just out to see what this place was like.

I considered what would happen if someone stole my wallet, cash, etc. so I divided things up into pockets and bags such that no matter what I would always be left with a credit card, ID, and some money. Then I said to myself that anyone who wants something from me bad enough to steal it can have it as a gift. This makes me impossible to steal from, you know. It opens up the possibility of unexpected giving, but I know from experience that isn't necessarily unpleasant. Kind of like when a seagull snatches your sandwich out of your hands. Tragedy, or Kodak moment? (If you've never involuntarily shared your lunch with a seagull, you've got to try it!)

The streets of Nairobi are different than those of other cities I have visited. There is a somewhat hectic confluence between old European and selfconscious postmodern architecture in varying states of disrepair or repositioning, and a swhirly mix of urban hustle and hurry on a relaxed background of lethargy; many people just hanging out in their spots, where it seemed like they were going to remain all day. It's kind of like the feeling you get at a flea market or amusement park, some people are going as fast as they can while others are just sitting there watching.

There seemed to be private security guards everywhere. In one matatu ride I looked down at a passing car (an old Toyota Tercel) and noticed all the passengers had assault rifles on their laps. This alarmed me until I saw that they were following a Wells Fargo van. I'm not sure I will ever get used to being around people carrying assault rifles. I tell myself they are on my side, but I don't know, guns still bug me. Even the regular police guns. I try not to look at them, and I try to remember that the policemen have families and like to watch sitcoms and eat french fries. They are human, after all.

Once I had to pass a soldier standing on the sidewalk of a relatively deserted street, and he gave me a very suspicious look as I walked by. I didn't turn around but in my imagination I could see him raising his rifle to shoot me, it was a very long street, and I walked and walked and still felt his eyes targeted on my back. With every step I imagined being riddled by bullets and my blood spurting out everywhere. The rambo soundtrack in my head was really thumping, until finally I managed to pass another pedestrian who then would obscure the soldier's aim. I glanced back 100 yards and the soldier was indeed still watching me. Ha. I lived. (Did I mention I have a fear of guns?)

One time coming home late to Samuel's apartment I saw a guy creeping around in the alley with a bow and quiver of arrows. Seriously, this guy was for real. Samuel said he was a security guard. Wow, now that's pretty cool! I want all my security guards to carry bows and arrows. And nunchucks and throwing stars (oops, wrong movie).

Anyway, there was a fair amount of litter in the streets, and I suggested that we buy a rake and pick up some of it, but Samuel was worried that in this instance it would cause such a spectacle that it might create a problem for the neighbors. I didn't push the issue; Samuel has to live in this place after I leave, after all.

And anyway, my experience is that picking up trash and cleaning up common spaces has a profound impact on people's wellbeing, provided there are jobs available. I am not sure this is the case in that neighborhood, so our first move should probably be aimed at employing people.