Back in 1989 at age 40 Charles Mulli had a vision: helping street children. Some might call this an extreme midlife crisis – that reminds us how barely we use this term in a positive sense. With the internalized negative stereotypes about, people all too often see the negative contexts of such an extreme crisis. Charles Mulli made a Christian interpretation of his vision. This is not uncommon in Kenya, where missionaries not only had a devastating effect on local traditions, believes but also on secular reasoning. Possibly one reason why we had to make a journey through a hostile terrain on the countryside where I already saw clear signs of Al Qaedia. Three month later the first murders of Western foreigners stated even in the capital Nairobi.
Well, we safely arrived in Machatos, Kenya.
Here we visited Charles Mulli's children center
Having grown up in extreme property and working himself up from the street by himself to be a successful entrepreneur Charles Mulli earned all my respect already. It was a pleasure interviewing a man with such a range of experiences. He somehow reminded me of my own development starting as a car mechanic, starving through my time as a student and finally having to make the decision: going into international business making real money or going the high road becoming a professor with a meager salary but contributing to knowledge and educating students. No comparison to a man like Charles Mulli who currently serves more than 3000 children in his child centers, but there was a deep understanding and we immediately connected.
What a warm welcome:
Kids and their toys:
Much more social than playing Nitendo games:
I gave an improvised lecture about ASIAN in their geography class:
We had some “authentic” African accommodations on the road. So it was a pleasure hanging out with some boys of the crew in our Hotel in Nairobi:
