6 months in Kenya...crazy

Yeah so me posting regularly might be a little bit of a pipe dream. Sorry. I have some good stories to share that I'm sure I wont get to in this post so maybe a few will come rapid fire. No promises though.

Before getting down to business I have to quickly note that I have now been in Kenya for a whole 6 months. That's nearly 1/50th of my entire life. Spent in Africa. Not an insignificant fraction. Still kinda crazy to think I'm here doing this, much less have been doing it for 6 months.

Anyway, on to the updates.

So I've been at site for more than 4 months now. At this point I have a good feel for what I can be doing in a kind of formal way and what the smaller less formal things I can be doing to gently push along progress. It's funny, in a slightly embarrassing way, how long it has taken for me to put together what I've observed and what I've been told to see the root issues that I now hold to be blindingly obvious. I've had more than a few "why didn't I ask myself that question 3 months ago?" moments over the last few weeks. Well I guess at least I eventually got around to it.

So here's what I got going on:
The Kitile Village Development Committee, my official partner organization, is now one of around 75 sub-groups that make up a newly formed Community Based Organization (CBO). Because of their size and reach, CBOs are able to get big government grants and are positioned well to attract NGOs that only do bigger projects. I'm working with the management committee on figuring out how this thing should be structured (which is proving to be pretty difficult because A) the thing is an unwieldy beast - around 1,500 people populate the 75 groups, and B) some key members of the management committee seem to think their job is finished now that they've won their respective positions' election) while trying to take advantage of our CBO status and get some outside help. To be honest I think it's likely the CBO collapses. There are some forces working in its favor, but when it comes down to it if the leadership doesn't have interest in doing the required work then it's not going to pan out. But I think one of the reasons I was put in this role is because I'm a little bit of a relentless optimist (naive, foolish, slightly pathetic - they could probably all replace "relentless" accurately enough) so we'll just keep pushing with the members who obviously do care and get whatever we can out of it.

Dairy cows are tremendous weapons against poverty in places like Mbumbuni. They provide a steady stream of income as well as a great source of nourishment. Over the last few years a lot of farmers have invested in dairy cattle and it's proven to be mostly successful. I've just started talking with the local dairy cooperative on ways to increase dairy production in the area. This initiative breaks down into three categories 1) increase outputs of current farmers, 2) help farmers who are capable of supporting dairy cows acquire cows, and 3) get very-small scale farmers to start planting different types of cattle feeds because right now the cooperative ships in massive amounts of hay from far away places for a hefty sum. This area has the right climate for cattle feeds, and they're extremely low maintenance crops, so it's what you might call a low hanging opportunity. It really is remarkable how dairy can be a micro-industry capable of supporting an entire community. There's a town about 30 miles (I think in the metric system these days so coming up with 30 miles just took some effort) down the road that faces the exact same conditions as we do but it's a prosperous, bustling little place. All because about 20 years ago an old man with some foresight bought a few dairy cows and told everyone that would listen to do the same. Now they have all types of value adding facilities and produce so much milk that it's dirt cheap locally and they still have enough left over to sell to big buyers. Most of you who know me well may be surprised to learn this, but I actually have no knowledge whatsoever on dairy cattle, or the dairy business for that matter. Mostly I'm just facilitating meetings with groups who might benefit from meeting, mobilizing the community when appropriate and helping write proposals.

Lastly I'm helping a group of mango farmer find ways to get more money from their mangoes. This is actually the area that I think has the most potential to help the most people the fastest. There are a ton of people with a few mango trees, and there are a few people with a ton of mango trees, and that adds up to an absurd number of mangoes come mango season. The problem is there isn't the access to markets needed to get a decent amount of money for these mangoes. Historically farmers only sell locally or to the few middlemen (appropriately coined "exploiters") that come through the area en route to bigger cities, and that usually results in a selling price of 3-5 shillings (4-6 cents) per mango. And these mangoes are gigantic and incredible, it really is criminal that they get such a paltry sum of money for something so ridiculously delicious (on a related note, if anyone is considering visiting, come during mango season,December to March...every day we'll eat 8 mangoes, each one contending for the best mango you've ever had in your entire life). So this group is looking into ways to cut out the middle men, start doing value-adding processes (drying and packaging, juicing, etc.), tap into export markets, or really anything that will fetch them a fair price. There are of course some hurdles, but this group is run by smart people who are approaching this professionally, so I think their likelihood of succeeding is good. In fact, they've got their act together enough that I'm not even really sure how it is I can be of assistance, but this has potential so I'm going to stay engaged in case something does come up.

Those are the formal things I have on my plate. They're not yet specific enough to be termed "projects" but they are on their way. And actually earlier this week the not-for-profit arm of Land O' Lakes (the U.S. dairy company) started a project in Mbumbuni around building water harvesting capabilities with the goal of using the water to increase milk production. That pretty much encapsulates what I see as the solution to many of this area's problems - harvesting/conserving water with the consideration of then doing something with the water to create food or money. The Land O' Lakes development should stimulate more formal projects with this mission.

My other focus and key to quality of life improvement, education, is coming along as well. It turns out Wings of the Dawn will be sending around 20,000 books (Have you not donated yet? Is your credit card readily available? How convenient because here's the link to the fund raising page:
www.change.org/wingsofthedawn/projects/view/a_library_with_no_books) so that might end being enough for two libraries, one at Nduluku and one at a new high school that they are in the process of building up (or maybe at an all girls school down the road a little). The President of Wings of the Dawn, Mr. Ade Otenaike, has said this is fine as long as the libraries are fulfilling the mission of Lifelong Learning Centers where people of all ages have access to educational materials. I think the two library approach will serve this purpose best. On top of the library I'm still loving teaching two days a week. I just got all the XO One Laptop Per Child programs from a Volunteer on the coast. Some of the programs are really good, now it's just a matter of putting them to use. There are a few other things in the works but none are worth mentioning in any detail right now. Maybe if I wait another 3 months to post again they'll be full blown paragraphs by then. Well regardless of when I post again hopefully they'll be worth at least a paragraph in 3 months. I digress...

In general, life's still good. Peace Corps is definitely an emotional roller coaster. Some days I feel like I'm making a big impact (because it popped in my head, we've just about finished our first sand dam on a near by dried river bed. Getting that done will be nice...sorry, digressing again) some days it feels like everything is falling apart and I question if anything I'm doing is going to make a lasting difference. The latter moments usually don't last too long though. Anyway, I shouldn't complain. Because I live on a General's property people seem to think most of what I do has his support and that leads to an unusual amount of cooperation for the work of a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Moms and Eliot (middle brother) are coming for a visit in July. I'm really excited about that. We're gonna go on a safari and visit my host Mama and do a bunch of other fun stuff. I'll give them all my pictures on a flash drive so they can upload them with all their pics once they get back. That means lots of pics come some time in August (should be for real this time).

Over the last few weeks I've had a few epic battles with horrifying spiders (get excited Mom and Eliot!). I wont talk about them right now because these are worthy of full posts in themselves. Heck, maybe even novels with some type of cinematic adaptation. For now I'll leave it at spiders are awful awful creatures.

Well a lot has happened in the last 6 or so weeks, and I'm sure I'm leaving out some important stuff, but this will do for now.