Wikimania 2025 —Nairobi Dream

When I was very young, long before it was time to study geography, I first heard the name Kenya from a friend whose father worked there. Listening to her stories, I developed a fondness for that country. And now, at this age, suddenly I got an opportunity to visit that dreamland.

One March morning, I received an email from the Wikimania organizing team: I had been selected to attend Wikimania 25 in Nairobi with a full scholarship. I was overjoyed beyond words. There was a lot to prepare before the trip—the conference was, of course, the main purpose—but how could I skip a jungle adventure? That had been my dream for years.

Gradually, I got to know who else had been selected. A group was created for all participants. Among the Bengali participants, five were from Bangladesh. Along with me from India, we formed a Bengali group. I asked everyone, in every group, who would be interested in a jungle safari. There wasn’t much response. The organizing team had shared some contacts for travel companions, but even after emailing them, I didn’t get any suitable replies. I was starting to feel disappointed.

Then, about ten days before the journey, a participant posted in our Bengali group that he had found a lead for a safari. It wouldn’t be the dream destination Maasai Mara, but there might be a way to visit Nairobi National Park within the city. That was good enough—at least I’d get a taste of the wild!

We, a large group from India, landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi via Delhi. It was already night according to our country’s time, though it was just evening there. Nairobi is three and a half hours behind India. A bus was waiting for us, but by the time we reached the hotel, it was late at night. My Bangladeshi friends hadn’t arrived yet, though I heard through the group that our safari was happening early the next morning. That day was the pre-conference day, so I didn’t have much to do, except that I would miss a bit of the morning session of the Wiki Women Summit. I exchanged some dollars at the hotel for Kenyan shillings to cover the next day’s expenses. The exchange rate was a bit high, but what could I do? It was too late at night to go anywhere else.

Our safari started a little late, and we set off in two jeeps together. Thankfully, there were no further delays on the way. We arrived at the Nairobi Safari Park, I was taking some photos when a few people dressed in Maasai attire claimed that since their pictures had been taken, they were entitled to get some payment. I gave them a few shillings — as they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do!

After entering the safari park, our driver opened up the car’s roof, so the top became quite open for a better view. I immediately took off my shoes and stood up on the seat. Soon, I noticed that almost everyone in the other car had done the same.

We saw many birds whose names I didn’t even know. I witnessed an amazing trick by a hawk—it dropped its food midair, but before it could touch the ground, the bird swooped down and caught it again.

A little further on, we saw a small mound. A nearby board explained that this was where confiscated elephant tusks, from the poachers, were burned—so they could never be sold on the black market. The ashes were piled up right there.

As we went on, we saw countless giraffes and zebras. Among one group of zebras, there were also a few bisons. We spotted some hippos too—though only the tops of their heads, since the rest of their bodies were underwater. A pair of two-horned rhinos were busy in their own romantic world, paying no attention to us.

By the water’s edge, we saw a flock large birds. They are close relative of the lesser adjutant stork from our Sundarbans. It was quite big. Like vultures, these birds feed on carcasses and help keep the forest clean.

We also saw many ostriches, but I must mention one particular lady ostrich. She was sitting comfortably in her garden—but that was exactly where the safari track ran! She refused to move, so our driver had no choice but to take a detour around her.

Everything was wonderful—but where was the true king of the jungle? Our driver started asking the returning cars if anyone had seen a lion. One of them said there was one nearby. We turned the car around and followed the direction eagerly.

Finally, we saw him—walking alone. As we drove past, we took photos excitedly. But he didn’t even glance at us. Our jungle safari was complete—our journey fulfilled.

After returning, the joy of the conference began. I joined the second half of the WikiWomen Summit. I met many familiar faces and got to know many new people—it was a lively, cheerful time. As a scholarship recipient, we had several responsibilities. My work started the next day; I was assigned the job of note taking on Etherpad during sessions, which could be used later. At first, I was quite nervous, unsure if I could do it. But I managed to overcome my fear and did well. Sometimes, when other designated scholarship recipients couldn’t come up, I covered their tasks too.

On the first day, I had two note taking sessions in the morning. I prepared myself by going through the session topics. Then used the etherpad template provided to us for note taking and I was ready before the start of the session. After a nervous start, I steadily went through my job. In the second half I enjoyed a session named Undeclared AI-generated text in Wikipedia: A tale of caution. As sometimes I review the articles in edit-a-thons, I face the challenge of detecting AI backed articles. As various detection approaches were discussed, It actually helped me.

The group photo session on the second day was a real fun, to find out the numbers and positions of all the cameras!! On the second day itself, there was a discussion on the Wikimedia Foundation’s recent litigations. It was interesting to learn about Foundation’s support towards it’s volunteers trapped in litigation. That day itself there was a distress call in our telegram group for a note taker for the session Give Me A Beat! Creative Commons licensing, and ethical considerations for cultural heritage collections. I readily volunteered for the work, now I was a bit confident.

On the third day, the session on How we can handle Wikimania scholarship applications with the invasion of AI? was very much interesting. After that it was our day, the Wiki Women Lunch, a memorable get together with all the lovely women in the world.

After lunch there was Cup stacking with peers, without your hands! a Let’s Connect program to build community together, without talking to each other. Our team got the special prize for the most innovative model! At poster session, I had the responsibility to click the photo of the selected posters send by the volunteers from my country. After that we had our Bangla community meetup. In the evening we enjoyed the Karaoke program with all the singers, and with this gorged on some pizzas!!

On the last day, I had to answer again for a note taking distress call. At the second half I enjoyed the session with WikiGames: Play and learn about games and design your own! We all tried to design our own game. It was a fun learning. Actually I didn’t know we had so many games to play here in Wiki. The next program was Hackathon Showcase and the Coolest Tool Awards.

Attending different sessions and listening to the discussions enriched me. I thoroughly enjoyed both the opening and closing ceremonies with everyone. The auditorium at the Trademark Hotel, where these two events were held, was quite small. There wasn’t enough space for everyone inside. However, there were plenty of LED screens all around, so it wasn’t too inconvenient. Still, the feeling of sitting inside the auditorium and watching the event was special. While some of us had to watch the opening ceremony from outside, on the last day, we lined up early for the closing ceremony and managed to watch it from inside. It was a fantastic program. After this, everybody was waiting for the closing party at Tribe Poolside. Enjoyed the elaborate food spread and shook a leg with music.

All good things come to an end. So, my time in Nairobi also drew to a close. For some particular reason, my return flight was cancelled and postponed by a day. With an extra day in hand, I went out to visit Nairobi’s famous bead-making factory — the Kazuri Bead Factory. From collecting special clay from a certain hill to various stages of production until the final product reached the market, everything was described before us. There was also an opportunity to shop there. Some of the others who came along did buy a few things. But the prices were so high that, though the items were beautiful, I couldn’t bring myself to buy any.

Lastly, I remember one of the participants in Wikimania. I did not ask his name, but I noticed he always carried a tiny shoe with him. When I asked about it, he told me it belonged to his late daughter. The other shoe lay buried with her in the grave. My eyes filled with tears. But he comforted me. I understood his sayings, which is similar to something in Sanskrit: “Charoibeti” — which means, “Whatever happens in life, keep moving forward; never stop.”