Birthdays and Earth Day

Gosh, it can be weird starting (and ending) a blog entry. I've started this over at least three times now, which is silly, so I'll just jump in.

I'm glad this week is over.
I am feeling increasingly comfortable with my role at FSD, and this week I started feeling like I was running out of things to read and do to prepare myself, especially when we won't see interns until early June. Yes, you read that right, early June. It's been really interesting working as part of a team in Kenya when the other half of operations is ten hours behind. I guess it's nice in that if I don't get around to doing something right away in the morning and have to put it off until the afternoon, it's not always a huge deal, since they're sleeping and won't see it until I've left work anyway. It can be frustrating though, since if someone is out of the office, or doesn't respond within the day, it means another full day of waiting. The first few days this week involved a lot of waiting. Welcome back to Africa, Katie.

Thursday was tough for other reasons. Even my run in the morning wasn't great. I woke up feeling off, and was on the verge of getting upset with myself, but when I got to work and realized the date, I understood (or at least partially rationalized). It would have been Dan's 29th birthday. It's interesting - I think that because some of my fondest memories with him were traveling around Europe, and some of my most enjoyable travels after studying abroad were with him, he's on my mind more when I'm traveling or in unfamiliar places.

After almost three weeks in country with little "real" social interaction (spending time with people, by choice, outside of work, for the purpose of enjoyment), I decided it was time to venture out of Kakamega to meet up with several friends from grad school who are also working in this part of Kenya. In fact, one had a birthday on Friday, so I met a handful of the expat staff and we had a lovely potluck dinner. I was also fortunate to be able to lump this visit in with an invitation from One Acre Fund to come to Bungoma and see where they operate, as well as some of their programs. If you're not familiar with One Acre Fund, look them up. Really, do it. They're an incredible organization, working with farmers in four different African countries, and doing seriously amazing work.

To give some idea of the scale of what they do: I had the opportunity to go into the field with a field officer (one of over 30 for Bungoma's south district alone), who is the contact person for 110 local farmers; some field officers work with closer to 140 farmers (in Kenya, they work with ~135,000 farmers... that's quite a few). We were driven (along with two others from the office) maybe 20 minutes outside of the center of town along rural (very bumpy) dirt roads until I was completely turned around, and then got out at a field where half a dozen people were planting. They were not One Acre farmers, as One Acre farmers had received their farming inputs and planted a couple weeks prior, but told us they were using One Acre methods, and hoping that they could enroll next season, as they had seen the benefits of being One Acre farmers. They then invited me to help them plant a row of maize.

Let's talk for a second about humbling experiences. Seeing the rope they'd stretched the width of the field (with knots tied every 8-10 inches to mark where each individual seed should go), and seeing how they worked across the field, perfectly aligning the deepest part of each hoe-swing with the little knots in the rope was pretty remarkable. I was then handed the jembe (hoe) and they insisted it was my turn... to take the jembe down the row, followed by a small scoop of fertilizer in each hole, then covering it up with a thin layer of dirt before placing one maize seed in each hole and covering it with more dirt. Wow.

My family has always had backyard gardens with the iconic summer fruits and vegetables (lettuce, carrots, raspberries, tomatoes, etc), and I've helped plant those. I even had my own garden in Lesotho, and a shared garden in Minneapolis, but this was something entirely different. This maize in this field likely represented a fairly significant portion of their entire livelihood, and not only were they planting it seed by seed, they were entrusting a portion of that to me, a mzungu (white person) with zero legit farm cred (as could be seen in my crooked row, unevenly spaced maize seeds, and embarrassed laughter). Maybe maize is something that even I couldn't really screw up, and they weren't really risking much by letting me work that row, but I don't think that would've changed their dispositions or eagerness to share their pride in the field and in their work with me.

Opening the bag of fertilizer

Apparently dirt feels good on your bare butt

The marker stick - you can see the knots along the rope

Demonstrating how to appropriately space the spots for seeds

My turn to try!

Laughing because it is more difficult than it looks

Small scoops of fertilizer into each hole

Another demonstration: how to cover something with dirt :)

Planting maize seeds (which are pink!)

I realized later that it was Earth Day, and couldn't help but grin.

Weeding the older plot

Two weeks old! So cute.

From there, we saw the plots of a farmer who did work with One Acre, and I was again handed a jembe - this time to weed the rows, which had been planted earlier this month. It was neat to see the progression, from bare field to little green sprouts in neat rows (with lots of other green - weeds - in between the rows).

Lots of chickens - 

The last stop on my tour was the livestock research station, where they grow and experiment with several kinds of feed for cows, as well as different breeds of cattle and chickens, including one they call the "local" breeds. They had an adorable 2-week calf, who I befriended, and almost a dozen other very curious cows. There were five different chicken coops; the birds were separated based on the type of bird and amount/type of food they received. From the coop/house, they had long, narrow stretches of ground, which extended into a sort of yard, and there was no fence enclosing the far end! Apparently the chickens knew enough to return to the same yard and house each night, even if the food was different on the other side of the fence. I don't know a ton about chickens (even as the egg lady at my school in Lesotho), so I don't know if we call it smart or dumb, but I was really impressed.

Seeing familiar faces (and meeting new faces) in the evening was a treat, and a very enjoyable way of ending the day. I know some very motivated, talented people who are doing some really meaningful work. Even a slight change in environment has been refreshing. The gorgeous banda (round hut) where I've stayed the last two nights has wifi (not to obsess over having internet access or not, but wow, is it nice), and I've been able to stream the Current's Prince tribute while writing this... it feels right.

I'm optimistic that this next work week will be busier and a little more interesting. It's hard to believe that May is just around the corner.

Love from Kenya,
K

Karibu Kenya

I’ve been in Kenya for just over two weeks now, and after assuring many people back home that I did indeed intend on blogging while abroad, I’m finally writing. And so it begins...

After perhaps the most stressful departure I have experienced (I don’t recommend trying to travel with a ticket where your name has been misspelled – TSA doesn’t especially appreciate it), my long layover in Amsterdam was perfect. I found my way to the center of town and met a dear friend for lunch outside on one of their first real spring days, followed by a bike tour of the city, complete with several stops for beer. One more overnight flight, and I made it to Nairobi, only to find out that my luggage had not left Amsterdam. Whether or not this was my fault, I’m still unsure, but there was nothing I could do except talk to the desk to figure out when/how I could get my luggage and be thankful that I’d thought to pack a spare outfit in my carry-on.

I arrived in Kisumu and was greeted by Peter, my supervisor, who remarked as to how well I had heeded his advice to “pack light.” Hah. I explained what had happened, and we were off to Kakamega, my new home.

My position with Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) is only a six-month contract, so this international stint has already been very different from my experience in Lesotho. No pre-departure staging in Philly. No group of volunteers to travel with, to compare anxieties and aspirations as we crossed the Atlantic and the equator. No central training center to stay in, no official language instruction, no other Americans. This time, I’m largely in charge of my own training, doing a lot of learning on the fly.

Kakamega is a town of about 80,000 (I’ve seen different numbers from different sources), just across the equator from Kisumu. The neighborhood where I’m staying is definitely in a nicer area of town – it’s mostly pretty quiet and very safe. Unlike my home in Lesotho (which I very much liked for the most part), I have reliable running water, semi-reliable electricity, a hot shower, a fridge, and a few other kitchen appliances I never could’ve dreamed of in Lesotho (microwave, toaster, waffle maker?!). Plus a TV and DVD player in my sitting room! I’ve been reminded, however, that although I pay rent, I am in no way am I the sole inhabitant of the house. At least one rat lives in the ceiling, and I’ve seen three slugs (one was at least six inches long, and the other two made it into my bathroom and bedroom), a handful of gecko/lizards, many (big) moths, and countless other insects. At the end of the day, I’m thankful for the mosquito net above my bed.

The FSD office is in the busy part of town, a 15-20 minute walk from my house, depending on how long it takes to cross the two main roads, which can be quite an undertaking as there are bicycles, motorcycles, tuk-tuks, plus normal cars and trucks, all competing for space, traveling different speeds (along the left side of the road), equally unconcerned with pedestrians. I’ve discovered that if I can time my crossing to coincide with that of a local, I’m usually safe.

Work has been a lot of reading, trying to learn my way around both geographically and in terms of policies and procedures. The first interns won’t arrive until June 11, but there’s plenty of prep with host organizations and host families. I’m working on learning Swahili, but it’s slow going without formal instruction, and my brain commonly reverts to Sesotho or Spanish. I went with my supervisor to see the host organizations last week, and meet with the individuals who will be guiding our interns and their work. I’m reminded how well I learn both by seeing and by doing. The others in the office laugh at my requests for them to show me where something is located on a map (I think I have my father to thank for the map infatuation).

Speaking of running, it continues to be how I truly wake up in the morning, and for that I am thankful. My mileage is down from where it was before I left, but that's to be expected. I had a nice break between leaving Minnesota and the day my bag (with all my running clothes) arrived. I'm settling gradually into a routine: my alarm goes off at 6 and (usually after a snooze - old habits die hard) I stumble out the door by 6:30, as the sun is starting to rise. I’m acclimating to being at mild altitude; the challenge now is really just the temperature and humidity combination. I'm told this is the cool season, and that it will heat up again once the rains stop, maybe mid-June, so I've got that to look forward to. It rains most afternoons, and again sometimes later in the evenings, never on any sort of predictable schedule, but the sky always gives it away. When it doesn't rain one day, the next is noticeably hotter. Gotta love the weather.

As my iPhone is finishing its reboot (I'm practically holding my breath that the power doesn't go out and take the WiFi with it while it's still updating), I've got some other stuff to check on while I have WiFi. I've got regular (low-volume) internet access, so shoot me an email! Skype with video is a bit more of a novelty, especially with the time difference (I'm 8 hours ahead of CST), but is definitely doable.

I miss everyone from home, as well as screens on windows, fresh salad greens, craft beer, and good ice cream, but I'm still confident that my decision to be here was the right one for this point in my life, which is a really encouraging feeling.

-K