Sunday night – Maxs 24th birthday and Fathers Day

June 18, 2012 johncohn 1 Comment

Today was Max’s 24th birthday. Max, Jac, David and Bridget are up here visiting which made it really special.
Max, you are such a great person.. we are very proud of you and love having you in our lives !..

What a great way to celebrate Fathers day having Max up here … and a quick shout out to my dad Hugh and Dianes’ dad Gabe.. We love you both ! Fathers day has never been a big deal for me.. though I do appreciate the several folks who checked in on me today..

Maxs birthday wish was to start the day with a Yoga class from Diane..

Then we had a great brunch with Diane’s homemade sourdough bagels. Yum.

After breakfast we headed u[p the Catamount trail for a dip in the stream up there.. It was freezing and clear as usual..

We had dinner around 9.. then birthday Rhubarb pie with Ben and Jerry’s that Gabe brought home from his second day of working there.

Max lit the Sam candle before blowing out the candles on his pie

I gave max 5 meters of RGB LED strip and an arduino which I know he’s going to like having

we also gave Max a funny present .. Last week when I went to Kenya I went with my freinds David and Karen to a farm that took care of orphan baby elephants and rhinos / I’d found an adolescent orphan Rhino named Maxwell We decided to sponsor him in Max’s honor.. Here’s max looking at the sponsorship docs

And here’s Maxwell.. He’s a BIG baby.. !I could have reached out and petted him.. but I was told that he could take off a finger wiht no trouble.. so I kept my hands outside of his paddock.. But it was still pretty cool only being about 2 feet away from him.

So.. it was a really great day.. now it’s 1:30 AM.. better get soem sleep.. I’m still kind of jet lagged..

Happy birthday Max !> We love you very much

and happy fathers day all you dads out there !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Saturday night – out of Africa

June 16, 2012 johncohn Leave a comment

Ahhh. home again after a long flight home. it was about 26 hours of travel getting home, but actually not that bad. I slept, worked, read and watched the same movie 4 times (The most exotic marigold hotel.. not bad !) ..
it was a long way to go for a 3 day trip, but I really enjoyed it. The people were great, the country was nice.. and the meetings very. very interesting. I came back so excited about the future of Africa. I loved the people I met.. This short visit made me realize just how much I don’t know Africa.. but I did get a few strong themes. One thing that struck me is how much they smiled..i find myself smiling so much back at them that the smile muscles in my face hurt at the end of each day.. no joke ! They also all have a strong sense of family and community.. I learned about things like susu’s.. which are community groups that raise funds for common purpose. I like that concept…Anyway.. I hope to be spending more time in Africa in the coming years. it will be so much fun to watch the place evolve.

I have a few photos to share from the last few days.. the workshop i attended was fun and productive.. no such meeting goes by with out some group photos.. here’s ours.. group. there were folks from at least 12 countries there …

The meeting ended at about 6:30 last night… and we had an 11:40 flight so a few friends and I went out to a great seafood place.. Before we did, I met with my friends family because his kids wanted samstones.. it was nice meeting them.

traffic was gnarly as usual in Nairobi

The place was called ‘Tamarind’ and I really recommend it

bibs were not optional…

Dinner was fun and I enjoyed learning a bit more about my colleagues.. Some cool surprises there.. The biggest surprise , however cane when they delivered out dessert plates.. each had a nice message written in chocolate sauce.. but what made them really special is the fact that they’d written our names in chocolate at the bottom…. now.. how did they get our names ? we hadn’t really introduced ourselves, they hadn’t at that point seen our credit cards.. It was very cool and a little freaky from a privacy perspective…

the lace was so friendly.. and they had a great sense of humor..

we got to the airport around 10… and sat in the sweltering airport.. then began the long flights home ..

i was pretty beat by the time I got home.

Seeing family and freinds revived me though. Max is up with Jac, Dave and Bridget. Gabe had his first day working at Ben and Jerry’s.. .. We had a cookout to celebrate all being together.

So, so nice to be home..

so, so jet lagged.. time for bed.. more tomorrow

nite all, nite sam

-me

Friday night – middle seat

June 15, 2012 johncohn Leave a comment

10:30 pm just got to the Nairobi airport. Hit as hell lounge full of sweaty people like me. I just found out that I have a middle seat on a packed flight to london. Im drenched with sweat, reeking of garlic from dinner, and… Believe it or not, pretty darn happy. The meetings here were absolutely fascinating. Despite the fact that I didn’t get to present the charts I slaved over . And that I hardly saw a thing outside of the hotel, I’m really glad I came The people were great and the technology was really interesting. I always wonder why I say yes to gigs like this when I’m on my way there… And always remember why on my way back.
I have some pictures fro
Today, but they will have to wait until I can get some wireless. I hope this makes it out o. My phone. In any case talk to you on the other end of this long, long flight.

Note all, nite Sam
-Jc

Thursday night – inside Kenya

June 14, 2012 johncohn Leave a comment

Ok.. Thats a deceptive title… I should really say …Kenya inside.. Today was a long and very interesting day… So long and interesting that I just realized at midnight that I just went 24 hours without going outside even once.. I spent the day with a bunch of very interesting and very smart people from all over the world..

One of the real treats today was that the organizers of the conference brought in a group of college students from across Africa to talk to us. They were really great… They gave us some great perspectives on what it was like being a young adult in modern Africa. This place is so exciting.. Here’s so much talent and so much potential. I really look forward to working more in Africa in the coming years.