Ian and Shelagh are Shared Interest ambassadors and the views in this post are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Shared Interest Society.

Well, we’re all packed and ready to go. It’s surprising how much you can get in a middling sized rucksack, though we’re both glad we don’t plan on any very long hikes, just long bus journeys.

We’re both pretty excited now, though not looking forward to a very early start in the morning. Thankfully we are flying from Birmingham so are not facing the long slog to Heathrow, but it will be a long day as we are not due to land in Nairobi until the evening.

Rachel and Jane in Nairobi have been so helpful sorting out a hotel for our first few nights and arranging for a taxi to meet us at the airport. We are really looking forward to meeting Rachel again and Jane for the first time.

A Bulletin from Traidcraft arrived in the post this morning, with a story about Crafts Caravan who work with Undugu in Nairobi and are facing difficult times due to the credit crunch and falling tourist numbers in Kenya. It’s amazing to think that we will be visiting Undugu in three days time, it really brings home to us again how vital Fairtrade is in enabling people in the developing world to make a living and how we can be a part of that.

Hopefully we will be able to post something from Nairobi before we move on to Eldoret in the west of Kenya.

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