Thursday July 16 - The Banana Box

The Banana Box is one of Nairobi's most successful craft stores - full of funky gorgeous gifts or treasures to selfishly keep or give away to share Africa with the world. The shop retails my photo greeting cards well - on the counter beside the cash register. This is a good as it gets when it comes to passive income!

The shop makes me feel good every time I go inside. It represents what I believe is possible for Africa - value added, beautiful and fair. To most people it may look like a bunch of crafts but to me it's a promise for the future we are all working hard to create here. In a nation where every aspect of making a buck is a monumental hurdle to overcome, this little shop is like a museum of talent offering the world Africa's fantastic ingenuity, imagination and flair.

Raw materials, transport, energy, labour, legal affairs, taxes - the systems of trading in Africa are so labourious and complicated that to bring almost anything to market is worthy a nobel peace prize in my mind. A broken axle, a power cut, a death in the family - as a business person you have to be able to improvise and flex on a moment's notice while being gracious, cunning and resolute. There are so many reasons to fall on the floor in a heap and yell, "I can't take this anymore!" But you can't because you have to survive and you have to find a way - to fix the truck, light the room and give the staff an advance to head home to bury their dead.

PHOTO; The Banana Box window in the Sarit Centre - Nairobi