Off to Kenya

By now, you are all wondering what in the world we are doing with our lives.  First we spent a summer in Uganda, then I graduated with a degree in accounting and turned down all of my opportunities to work with the national accounting firms, then we moved to India, then to Paraguay, and now to Kenya.

So, either we are crazy or..... crazy.  Let me explain what it is I am trying to do.  Uganda changed our lives in a way we can never really articulate.  It was the catalyst for over a year and a half of reading, networking, and learning about international development and social entrepreneurship.  I went do a bunch of conferences, took classes, read tons of books, and met amazing individuals in the industry and found a passion in what they were doing.   I am so excited about the opportunity to solve social problems through markets.

We spent a few months in India working with some amazing social businesses, and now have spent a month in Paraguay with another internationally acclaimed social enterprise.  All of these opportunities have given us great experience in this international social business space.  Next stop Kenya.

We'll be working for the Asante Foundation (Formally the Pope Foundation).  It is the umbrella organization that owns and operates Yehu Microfinance, Coast Coconut Farms,  Basa Body, and Bonvi.  All of which are social business start-ups.

We'll be living on the beach with the CEO and his wife.  Louis Pope (CEO), is an LDS business owner who recently moved from Springville to Kenya.  He founded US Synthetic, a artificial industrial diamond company.  It has been rated as the best company in Utah to work for, and at one point was the fasted growing company in the United States.  Louis is a very experienced social entrepreneur.   We are really excited to learn from him and work in the industry.

The plan for now is to live in Kenya for at least a year.  My hope is to continue getting international social business work experience for a couple of years and then return to the States to pursue an MBA with an emphasis in social business.

We feel really good about where our life is heading and feel blessed to have so many awesome opportunities.  We are sad to be away from family for so long.  We miss everyone terribly, but feel that this is what we are supposed to be doing at this stage in our lives.