About once or twice a week, I lie awake at night pondering the scale of the task I volunteered to take on last summer. How on earth, I worry, am I going to keep my growing list of fledgling businesses moving forward? When we arrived in September, that list consisted of livestock trading, bead craft and micro-lending. Tourism hovered on the horizon. There were business plans for wild silk and bananites seed processing sitting on my desk. Then came mangos: 40,000 metric tons or 93,000,000 of them rotting on the ground in a poor conservancy on the Tana River. Then fish: boat loads of them freshly caught and spoiling on the beaches of our coastal conservancies, all for the want of ice and refrigeration. The pastoralist herders in the NRT conservancies just south of Somalia and those in the Turkana region below the South Sudan want access to reliable and fair markets for their cows, sheep and goats. “Green” brokers are hot to harvest carbon credits from our conservancies’ vast grasslands. I’m sure there are more coming. What’s a girl to do?

Pray (and make calls) and Angels volunteer.

The first was Robin who took on the project of expanding the bead business’s customer base in the United States, particularly in US zoos. A pioneer Angel, Robin arrived at Lewa during the rainy season and immediately hopped into the front seat of a pick-up truck with two Kenyan strangers and headed into the bush to experience a bead market. She came back with penetrating questions about our production processes (which we’re now looking into. Thank you Robin) and a lot of mud on her shoes. In the US, Robin is sticking with us, pushing for new marketing material and lining up calls with zoos. She’s coming back for a visit in June to hold our feet to the fire (and show Jed what a great place this is).

Next came Tim (the architect) and Susan (the sales woman). Between bird watching (102 species in 10 days) and game drives, Tim took on the task of designing new lodgings for long-term volunteers (like us) and transient Nature Conservancy staff and scientists. His drawings were exactly what was needed and we’re now in the final stages of raising funds and gaining approvals. John and I will not be homeless next year, we’ll have indoor plumbing and space for guests. Quigley Architects will be a global firm.

Susan devoted days to shooting professional quality photos of all of our bead products and laying out a new brochure. After collecting and sorting, Susan strung bracelets on poles, dangled Christmas stars from acacia branches and had tiny elephants marching across the table on big palm leaves. She timed her shoots to make best use of the sun. Her photos will help us sell more beads, support more women and protect more wildlife.

Currently in residence is “Mango Bob.” Bob played hard to get for about three months last fall; perhaps he sensed that the mango project was big and complex and not quite as fun as driving his new Tesla through the Texas hill country. Fortunately Bob likes mangos and loves a challenge and he finally agreed to come for three weeks. Despite being urged to “pack light,” Bob arrived with the maximum allowable luggage. For school kids he brought 50 calculators, 10 headsets, 30 world maps, about 20 child-sized anatomical charts that show the skeleton, organs, digestive track and circulatory system and 3 soccer balls. For adults he brought a suitcase full of good quality, used shirts that he leaves behind as he travels for whomever is lucky enough to pick them up. For us he brought a bottle of Don Julio 1942 sipping tequila.

Bob’s applies his sharp business instincts, inquiring mind and wry sense of humor to every situation he encounters. After spending 15 hours sandwiched between me and Moses (the head of NRT’s coastal conservancies) in the front seat of a pick-up truck, bouncing along dusty, unpaved, pitted roads in absolutely the middle of nowhere, Bob saw fit to entertain us with Willy Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” and Asleep at the Wheel’s rendition of “Miles and Miles of Texas.”

The next Angel, Julie, arrives in Nairobi this evening. She has agreed to use her creative mind and world-class branding experience to help NRT work through three levels of brand strategy. I pick Julie up at the Lewa airstrip at 10:30 tomorrow morning and she starts work immediately.

We are grateful beyond measure for all the help we are receiving. We hope the Angels are glad they sojourned, however briefly, in Kenya’s northern rangelands. We invite each and every one to return. And, if there are any other volunteer Angels out there who are interested in a project, let me know.