Lions, Giraffes, and Waldo

A group of interns and I decided that we really wanted to go to Nakuru, the fourth largest city in Kenya. With a little bit of planning and a bit of haggling, 9 of the FSD interns met up after work at the matatu station and took off for Nakuru. The driver spoke little to no English, and insisted up blaring the speakers on full volume. It made sleeping a little difficult but we got quite some exposure to the local music. We arrived in Nakuru around 11pm and got dropped off at the hotel where we had rooms reserved. We walked up to the receptionist, ready to crash, only to discover that our room had been given away. We had called ahead and told the hotel that we would be coming late, but reservations don’t hold much weight in Kenya. We found out the hard way that if you haven’t paid for the room, it’s not yours. Thankfully, there was a really helpful Kenyan man named Willis in the same position as us and in need of a place to sleep. So we walked with him to another hotel a few blocks away. We were in luck: the Shik Park View Hotel had plenty of open rooms and each was only 600 shillings a night (about $7 US). We fit 3 people per room and each paid less than $5 US for our two nights combined.

Saturday morning we got up ready to spend the day in Lake Nakuru National Park. We found a great safari truck driver (with Willis’ help) and were off to the lake. The 9 of us stood with our heads through the pop up top looking out on one of the world’s most beautiful lakes in the world. As we drove around the lake, we came within feet of animals I had only ever seen in zoos. We saw hyenas (not nearly as menacing as Disney makes them out to be), water buffalo, and TONS of flamingos right on the lake. Lurking in the grass and under the trees were impalas, zebras, rhinos, giraffes, and lions! The rhinos were the most rare sighting but I loved watching the giraffes. Their sheer size and movements were very surreal. We even saw two lions sleeping on top of a large rock (pride rock?). Near the end of the ride we went stopped in a touristy hotel to get our afternoon chai tea fix. We inquired about the price of a night there just for fun and learned that it was about 50 times as expensive as the place we were staying. The hotel was the most “western” thing I had seen in a while (real bathrooms!), but I was happy to go back to our simple Kenyan hotel.

That night we explored the city and stumbled upon a nice Chinese restaurant which was a nice change from our nightly ugali. There was a TV in the restaurant and we were hoping to be able to catch the night’s episode of Soy Tu Dueña (the majority of the interns are actually hooked on the show), but alas the restaurant didn’t have the right channel. After enjoying our Chinese food and booing a man wearing a UNC jacket under our breath, we went to explore Nakuru’s nightlife. After consulting many strangers in our hotel about the best place to go on a Saturday night, we settled on a “disco” called Dimples. Despite the name, the club was actually very fun. We took a tuk tuk (three wheeled taxi) to Dimples and danced the night away. There was a great combination of American music and Kenyan music, but the locals seemed to know the words to the American songs better than they knew the Kenyan ones. There was one guy dancing who was dressed EXACTLY like Waldo from Where’s Waldo. Tight blue jeans, the red and white horizontally striped shirt, and black rimmed glasses. The only thing he was missing was the hat. He was also a hilarious dancer, teaching us all the local moves.

The next morning we got up early to see Nakuru’s second biggest attraction: the Menengai Crater. We hired a matatu to take us the 9 kilometers to the rim and we were off. The driver was friendly and we were trucking along until suddenly the gear shifter started smoking and the car shut off. We quickly got out of the matatu, struggling with the very broken door handle, as we realized how beat up the matatu really was. The driver assured us that he could fix it in 10 minutes but 30 minutes later, we were still stuck on the side of the road.

So, we decided to walk the rest of the way. After walking a ways we asked someone how much farther the crater was. We got answers ranging from half a kilometer to 3 kilometer but after about 45 minutes, we made it! It is hard to capture the magnificence of something so vast (7km diameter) with a camera, so here is a small slice of it.

After eating a nice picnic (food from the local “Tusky’s” supermarket) at the top and enjoying the view, along came our matatu, not in much better shape but moving nonetheless. We talked to the driver and he agreed to take us back down to Nakuru so we could get back to Kakamega before nightfall.

That didn’t happen. We got back to town without much of an issue and enjoyed the local market. We made a deal with the driver to take us back to Kakamega for a fixed price as a private matatu (in a new, less broken vehicle). But when it came down to getting back, the deal had suddenly changed. He wanted to wait for 5 more people to ride with us so that he could make some more money. But unfortunately, not that many people want to go from Nakuru to Kakamega on a Sunday afternoon. Looking at our watches and not wanting to arrive at our host families extremely late, we grudgingly agreed to pay for three of the empty seats in order to get him to start driving home. We finally left around 5:30, knowing that sun sets around 7 and that we were embarking on a 4 hour journey. We headed home as fast as we could only to be stopped by the Kenyan police within the first hour. Knowing that the Kenya’s police are ranked as the third most corrupt police force in the world, I was not excited. Two policemen pulled the matatu over and started circling the vehicle. One went up to the front and started demanding the equivalent of $200 US from us for not wearing seat belts (side note: I don’t think I have ever seen anyone wear a seatbelt in a matatu, it is usually difficult when you are sharing three seats between 7 people). The alternative he proposed was taking us all to jail. After some reasoning with him for a while, we assured the police that we meant no harm and he finally let us continue on our way. Despite demanding an increased price for riding it the matatu, the driver was kind enough to drop each of us off very near our separate houses. I was the last one out and even though it was 10pm, my host dad was up and happily waiting for me with a nice bowl of mushrooms to get me ready for the week ahead.

Half Way There

Time is really flying by. On one hand and I feel some comfortable here that I feel like I’ve lived here forever (other than the fact that I’m still not fluent in Kiswahili), but on the other I feel like I just arrived yesterday. There is so much more I want to do here and yet I’m already half way through my time here. Four weeks from now I will be at the University of Sydney attending my first day of classes. So, I’m going to make the most of my remaining time here.

I think I did a pretty good job of making the most of my time in Kenya this past week. My goal of last week was to go from the 87 applications for the EBM position down to 12 finalists. I read through all of the applications for the 4 villages. The most entertaining and revealing part was the documents that people attached. I received everything from botabota (bicycle) race participant to intramural volleyball champion to a business school diploma. One candidate listed “foot baler” as one of his activities. After reviewing all of the applications on Monday and Tuesday, I selected about 7 of the best candidates in each village for interviews on Wednesday and Thursday. All was going well, I had my 29 picked out and was ready to call them each to notify them of the interviews, until the biggest thunderstorm I’ve seen all summer appeared out of no where. The power went out (big surprise) and the rain beating down on the tin roof of the office was so loud I could barely hear my coworker 10 feet away from me, much less the candidates on the phone. Nevertheless, the storm finally blew over and I was able to get in touch with all 29 semi-finalists.

Wilson (my boss) and I visiting a school in Khayega on our quest for EBMs

I received a nice wake up call at 6:30am on Wednesday from one of the candidates letting me know that he was at the place where the interview was going to be held. I told him the interview wasn’t until 10 and he said he knew that, he was just calling to let me know that he would be waiting there. The interviews went surprisingly well. I jumped on a matatu that morning headed for Khayega, our first village we were recruiting in. I talked to the chief who had kindly reserved a room for the interviews. Once all of the candidates had I arrived, I had all of them fill out the form that Village Enterprise uses to document new businesses (name, members, skills, business description, inputs, outputs, expected profit) as I read them a scenario of a hypothetical business group. It is important for all of our BMs to be able to fill out this form so it was a good check to see if they were able to do the more formulaic part of the job. I also wanted to gauge their teaching skills since a large part of a BM’s job is teaching. So, I taught them each one by one how to grow mushrooms (thanks to my host dad for the info!) and had them each teach the skill back to me. I have now taught the same 5 minute spiel 29 times so if you would like to learn how to grow mushrooms, let me know and you can be my 30th. After looking over the forms they had filled out, hearing them teach me how to grow mushrooms, and talking to each of the candidates about their relevant experience, I had what I needed to pick the top 3 in each village.

EBM Candidates in Ilesi filling out the written portion of the interview

I spent the day Friday reviewing all of the applications and my notes from the interviews and finalized the list of the 12 finalists. I called them all it wasn’t much fun to tell the ones who didn’t qualify that they were not finalists but such is life. I’m really happy with our group of finalists. We have a few teachers, a few social workers, a few entrepreneurs, an agri-business major, a few hospital counselors, and a few that just want to help out in their community. I’m getting attached to some of them and am hoping we can take a few more than the 4 we set out to hire. Once I had finally confirmed with the 12 the time and date (next Wednesday at 10am), I was ready for the weekend. More on the weekend’s trip to Nakuru to come.

High Score!

I just got out of a matatu (mini-van/bus with 12 seats in it) with 27 other people in it. 27 is a new high score for me (hence the blog title).

In other news, I have been in Kenya for exactly four weeks now and wanted to share a bit about what has happened since my last post. Where do I begin?

Two weeks ago my host family gained two extra members: two teenage host-cousins. Their mother is my host-mom’s sister who has been in Canada for the past few years. My host-cousins just stopped school and are staying here with my host family for a few weeks to prepare for their journey to join their mom in Canada. They have been a great addition to the family; it’s been nice to talk to others close to my age. They are taking math lessons before they leave and I’ve offered math help in exchange for Kiswahili help. They know a lot more math than I know Kiswahili but so far so good.

Lots of changes have been happening at work. First, we changed our name. We went from Village Enterprise Fund to just Village Enterprise, removing the monetary element from our name as we focus more on mentorship. Second, we are moving from a Volunteer Business Mentor (VBM) system to an Employed Business Mentor (EBM) one. Our Business Mentors are an integral part of our operations as they train our grant recipients and mentor them as they create small businesses. However, some of our VBMs have other jobs and don’t have the time needed to follow our businesses from creation to sustainability. So, we are employing full time BMs who can take on more businesses and spend more time helping them grow and overcome difficulties. So what have I been doing? I’m in charge of hiring these new EBMs. So this week I’ve been traveling everyday to the four new villages where we are employing these EBMs. I’ve meet all of their chiefs (which is a legitimate government job here), assistant chiefs, and many of their village elders. I have held interest meetings, explaining what the position entails and what the qualifications, and traveled around these villages collecting applications. It has been great to get to meet so many different people from these neighboring communities. I’ve met older ladies who have never had a job in their life, recent high school graduates, hospital counselors, maize farmers, and small business owners. Plus lots of really cute kids. They all have such interesting stories of where they’ve been and how they arrived where they are.

I’m actually comfortable here, much more so than I thought I would be. I feel like I know Kakamega like the back of my hand, including all of my favorite shortcuts through dark alleys. I can have a basic (very basic) conversation with the people I wait in line with at the local supermarket. I’ve got my most reliable pikipiki (motorcycle) driver on speed dial and I can catch a matatu on the side of the road without fearing being overcharged. I’m also growing to love the food. The staple food here is ugali, cooked cornmeal that has a consistency somewhere between bread and mashed potatoes. At first it was very bland but now I feel like I haven’t eaten if I don’t eat it. I’m even getting into the kitchen a bit more. Last Sunday I cooked classic bowtie pasta with marinara sauce for my host family, something that they had never had before. They didn’t finish it (I made a lot) but reassured me that they actually ate it for lunch the next day so I think they liked it. I still get frustrated by this wonderful thing called “Kenyan time” (everything and everyone is late, pretty much all the time), but the more I grow to accept it for what it is the more I can just relax and enjoy it. I am also constantly approached by people asking for money just because of the color of my skin. It is frustrating that some people look at me and all they see is money, but I try to talk to the people who ask for money and show that I am a human being just like them and that there is more to me than my wallet. It’s a work in progress.

The other interns and I have been hanging out a few times each week which is great. Every few days we meet up at a local hotel with free (but spotty) wifi and discus our Kenyan experiences. From drunken attacks on pikipiki rides to chickens moving into bedrooms to bull attacks during 6am bullfights, we have a lot to share between the 12 of us. Last Sunday a group of us went to Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya. We crossed the equator, wandered around the city, saw Lake Victoria, went to a huge market, and had a great lunch, chapatti (similar to Indian nan) and ndengu (similar to lentils). It was a great trip and even though we traveled for about three hours, we only paid about $4. Tonight some of the us are going to the “disco” in town which should be quite an experience. Just in case we didn’t stick out enough, we are going to get together and dance in the middle of Club Westlife. I guess it’s one way to experience the local culture!

Pineapple

So as you may have discovered, I love pineapple. And the AMAZING pineapple I had last week that I blogged about came from Uganda, which boarders Kenya. So, when I found out that VEF Business Mentors were going to Busia, a town right on the Kenya-Uganda boarder, to train members of our Peace and Business program, I immediately made sure I was part of that trip.

I left early Thursday morning to go to a savings training meeting in a small town halfway to Busia. The village is the smallest town I think I’ve ever been to; it was just a small collection of houses, an open-air market, and a church. They local women were gathered outside the church and they all were very surprised to see a mzungu ride up on the back of a motorcycle. We joined the organized savings group in the church where we held the training. Savings is one of VEF’s newer programs as we organize ten businesses we are funding into a savings group of 50. The session provided information on different ways to save and facilitation of the election of officers and creation of a constitution to minimize later disputes. The Business Mentor did most of the training but I jumped in to help explain some of the areas where she was less clear. Overall the session was a success and everyone was very grateful.

We went straight from the village to Busia where we checked into a fancier hotel than I was expecting. It even had a real toilet and a hot shower, two things that are not part of my daily routine. After settling in, ordering lunch, and waiting an hour and a half (everything runs on “Kenyan time” which I’m almost getting used to), I was ready to explore Busia. I walked half an hour to the main town which was very active. There were street vendors everywhere and even 18-wheelers rolling slowly toward what I assumed was the boarder. I was approached by tons of locals, asking me for money, if I wanted to get in their car, and for my phone number. No, no, and no. Because Busia is larger than Kakamega, the locals are more used to mzungus and aren’t shy about getting in your face. I followed the road and two minutes later, voila, there was the boarder with Uganda. I took advantage of the opportunity and bought the biggest, ripest pineapple I could find. After exploring the town a bit more and hearing all of the “Mzungu, mzungu!” calling I could take, I walked back toward the hotel, pineapple in hand.

On my way back to the hotel I passed a group of kids kicking around a ball that seemed to be made of the outside of a pineapple in their front yard. I watched for a minute then asked if I could join. The three kids welcomed me with open arms and a friendly pass. But before long it had turned into an intense match of soccer. Even though we didn’t speak, soccer (well, football to them) was our universal language. The teams became apparent as did the goals between fence posts and shoes that I’m sure they had been using for years. Man did they wear me out. I was able to keep up for the most part but they knew what they were doing with this homemade “soccer ball.” Time flew and before I knew it, it had gotten dark. The kids could have gone on for hours but I finally decided I had to leave. The nicest boy said he lived near the hotel so he walked back with me. He told me his name was Ian and that he actually enjoys school (the first time I had heard that in Kenya). He said he wanted to be a pilot and I told him that if he set his mind to it, he could be anything he wanted. Hopefully 10 or 15 years from now, he will be flying around fulfilling his dream. I went back to the hotel and enjoyed my big yellow dinner, all sliced up and juicy as ever.

Friday morning I went with a new Business Mentor to train a group in the town of Nambale, not far from Busia, as part of VEF’s Peace and Business program. A little background/Kenyan history: Kenya has five major tribes and tribal loyalty is very important in the Kenyan culture. In the 2007 Kenyan presidential election, one candidate rightfully won but the incumbent president refused to step down and proclaimed that he had won. Violence broke out all over Kenya, especially against those of the president’s tribe, and tribal conflict ensued. So, our Peace and Business program requires that members coming together to start a small business must be from at least two different tribes. Friday morning we taught basic business principles and how peace is good for business just as is business is good for peace. At the end of the training, the business groups received grant money to start the micro-enterprises they had been planning for months. All of the recipients were incredibly thankful; some stood up and gave speeches in English just for me and the other mzungus present. It was heart warming to see the connection between the paperwork I had been doing and the actual people who benefit from the program. Hopefully sometime in the next two months I will be able to come back to Nambale and see the outcomes of these businesses. And if I’m in the area I’m sure I’ll make it back to Busia for some more pineapple and pineapple soccer.