Peace Corps - Kenya: February 2009

Whenever I strike up conversation with town folk I am inevitably confronted with a comment that goes something like “help bring this area out of poverty” or “lift these people out of poverty.” I often wonder what exactly they mean, and if they even know what they think they mean, but the general point is clear enough – improve the quality of life of the people in the area. If the conversation continues a common question is “do you have poverty in America?” I tell them: yes, but it looks different. We have tons of people who struggle to make ends meet and parents who can't afford the basic necessities for their children. With their vision of America as this place of endless wealth, curiosity has been piqued. “These people, are they employed?” is the follow up. Many Americans in poverty do have a job. “Their homes, do they have electricity and running water?” Yes they do. “Don't all Americans have cars? Do they have cars?” I try to explain that the ones that do have cars, well they aren't nice. Like it makes a difference to this person who couldn't afford a car if they had 10 life times to save up. The topic of conversation usually closes with them glaring at me with a look of extreme skepticism. But I do consider many Americans to be impoverished. Even ones with a job, electricity, running water and a car. That led me to think: What is poverty? And since I'm on the subject, how am I supposed to lift anyone out of it?

Poverty is usually expressed in monetary terms, one's annual income or daily living allowance. While the amount of money someone has is an indicator of the quality of life they are able to lead, something about defining poverty as a financial matter didn't sit right with me. Because of currency conversion rates and purchasing power differences trying to capture life in a country like Kenya in dollars and cents paints an inaccurate picture. And, worse, it creates such a narrow focus that the most troubling parts of the true picture are missed entirely. Living on less than two American dollars a day is the standard that is commonly used to identify someone as suffering from abject poverty. Two dollars is a little more than150 Kenyan shillings. 150 Kenyan shillings a day is enough to have shelter over your head, food on your plate, water in your cup and education bills paid. Granted all these would be done at an extremely basic level, but it seemed that if certain conditions were in place the worst of poverty could be avoided.

In Loitoktok, where our training was held, there was a large population of Maasai. The Maasai tribe is Kenya's most primitive group of people. Nearly every other tribe has adopted Western dress and a Western way of life. For whatever reason, most Maasai have decided to continue to live in isolation with the same culture and traditions they've had since the tribe's inception (which was probably sometime shortly after man as we know it came into existence). If you're watching TV and you see a group of present day Africans wearing colorful beads, carrying spears and doing crazy jumping dances, you're likely seeing Maasai. They are also unique because they are roving herds people. A traditional Maasai man spends most of his life wandering around with a massive herd of cattle, sleeping in temporary huts and eating a thick cornmeal-like substance called ugali mixed with a little bit of sour milk. It is a common thing for a Maasai to have over 50 pieces of cattle in his herd, with each animal valued at 30,000-40,000 Kenyan shillings. By Kenyan standards their net worth is pretty outstanding. But no non-Maasai Kenyan would accept that wealth if it came with that life. By any Western measurement the Maasai are in the gravest need of immediate assistance. I dare you to go tell a spear wielding Maasai warrior, who hunted and killed a lion as part of his coming of age ceremony, that he is a member of the poorest and most pathetic classes of men.

It has been through the work with my community organization – learning about past failures, hearing the members discuss current goals and then seeing how they approach those goals – that I think I have begun to get a grasp on this issue of poverty. The challenges mother nature poses in this area are very real, and they are great, but it's not the lack of water that seems to weigh the most on the people. And it is not necessarily the lack of food and the lack of money that result from water shortages. I have come to understand the worst of poverty to be the exhaustion of the spirit that is caused by a lifetime of feeling held captive to your circumstances. It is the overwhelmingly pessimistic worldview that robs one of hope and stifles life itself.

My high school football team went 3-27 over my three years on the varsity squad. Now I can't claim that we were uber-talented underachievers, but we certainly had enough talent to compete and win games in the subpar conference we were a part of. Unfortunately we could never break free of the loser's mentality. We went into every game fully expecting to be defeated. If you haven't played seriously competitive sports, especially an effort intensive game like football, this might sound like it should be an insignificant thing. But it isn't. The second an opponent got up on us, we just gave in. Why try? We were going to get smoked anyway, just like the last game and the game before that. And that attitude brings out a look in the eye and an atmosphere on the sideline.

That look, that feeling in the air, is exactly what I'm confronted with when I discuss projects with my community counterparts. They tell me “We want to harvest the fish that are in one of the reservoirs...but we don't have a net...and we're not really sure if there is a market to sell them here anyway.” Why try? The operation would fall apart just like the honey harvesting project they tried six months ago and the commercial tree nursery before that. Instead they choose to sit and look to the sky hoping that this will be one of the off years that rain comes and they actually have a harvest. Besides, when things get bad enough relief-food will come.

I don't want to be an apologizer for my community, and others in similar situations, because that is the exact opposite of what is needed. But it is important to acknowledge that the human causes to their condition are just as real as the worldly causes, and the former is the far greater challenge to overcome. Moving earth might be an expensive, capital-intensive endeavor, but it takes a lot less time and diligence than moving a worldview rooted in 40+ years of experience and a belief system that credits divine entities for all life's events.

So what can my role be in lifting Mbumbuni out of poverty? First it's to inject a little confidence in what they are currently doing. As far as the struggle against mother nature goes, there is already a pretty smart long term plan, devised by the General and a Danish NGO working to develop the region. Because I'm white and from the most developed country in the world, the community gives me more credibility than I deserve. If I just show up to a dam site and work with a sense of purpose it seems to help convince people that they are on the right path. Next it is to get people to feel good about small victories. A day of gathering stones and digging holes might not end with a landmark event, but it puts the group a day closer to having much more water than they did before. And that's something to get excited about. Lastly I want to make sure people see the connection between the work they are doing and the results that follow, and in a bigger way; the results they are creating and the improvement in their quality of life. Now in no way, shape or form am I claiming to be some champion bringing all these changes on my own. Over the last few years solid progress has been made and I can see why. There are a few individuals who are fearless and attack their tasks relentlessly. I'm just trying to leverage some of my status as an interesting outsider to get more people to adopt those attitudes.

Of course these efforts to improve the psyche of Mbumbuni must be applied to projects that break mother nature's painful grasp and knock down other barriers to opportunity, freeing people to pursue more fulfilling lives. That's one of the reasons why I'm so big on improving the education facilities here. The more you know about the world the less scary it becomes. The more you know about opportunities the more you can work to seize them. The more you know about the problems you face the more solvable they become. I don't have any misconceptions about education being some cure-all. But I do believe it can be a source of empowerment that would give people the confidence to more aggressively take on the big external issues they're up against. And that's something that will continue to be felt long after I leave.

Peace Corps - Kenya

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Poverty

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

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