There’s quite a lot to say, so this entry is quite long… look at the headlines to decide if you want to read a section. I imagine things will get a bit less interesting from day to day over time, so these updates should be shorter… we’ll see! The hardest thing about being here is the lack of access to all of you – I thought the internet access would be better than it is, and I definitely miss my friends and family. So please comment on the blog and find ways to keep in touch – I’d love to hear from you!
Arrival in Bungoma
My arrival in Nairobi was pretty boring, so I’ll skip it and go straight to getting to Bungoma. As mentioned above, it was a bit of a crazy experience. Shane and I took a small bus (a van, really) from Nairobi to Eldoret, about a 6 hour drive. A good section of the road is pretty terrible, with insanely large potholes, so you’re bouncing around all over the place. The journey wasn’t too interesting until we arrived in Eldoret, where we had to get out of the van and go to the main matatu stage. Matatus are vans that are usually crowded full of people and may make many stops to pick up and drop off passengers. The main matatu stage is a big open area where many matatus, buses, and motorcycles for hire are waiting to take people to other destinations. It’s total chaos. We walked into the midst of the stage, and were immediately swarmed by people asking where we were going, saying they would carry your things and trying to grab at them, and shouting destinations “Kisumu! Bungoma! Kitale!” which made no sense to me at the time. It was honestly a bit scary, and I was so glad Shane was there! We found a matatu with a sign for Bungoma on it, and it appeared to be nearly full, so we got in.
Unfortunately, matatus drivers are fond of hiring “sitters” to make their vans seem full (the matatu won’t leave for its destination until it has a full load of passengers – which is often more than you would think should actually be seated in such a vehicle). To our dismay, we waited for over an hour as passengers got on and a sitter (who had been posing as a passenger) disembarked and was paid by the driver for holding the seat. It’s their way of tricking you into thinking the bus is nearly full, paying for your ticket, and then getting stuck waiting. We ended up finally leaving with something like 16 adults, 3 children, and a live chicken in the matatu (Shane, correct me if this is wrong). The next unfortunate part was that halfway through our trip from Eldoret to Bungoma, the matatu stopped and threw all of us out. Suddenly there was a lot of screaming and shouting, all in Swahili. All of the passengers (and the chicken) were furious that we’d paid to go to Bungoma but were thrown out of the van as they’d apparently decided to go elsewhere instead. At this point, I was getting a bit more worried because I couldn’t really understand what was going on. We were all then piled into another matatu, which was already full of people (I ended up basically on someone’s lap with the ticket taker literally sprawled across me). To fit into the spot, they had to take my backpack from me and give it to someone sitting in the front of the van; I also couldn’t see whether my luggage made it onto the new matatu. So at this point I was really anxious, and beginning to wonder what had possessed me to decide to move to rural Africa. Things got worse when the matatu stopped again and had nearly everyone get off – except me and Shane. The others were also going to Bungoma, so we kept asking why we weren’t going with them, and we were repeatedly assured we would be taken to Bungoma. At this point I was really wondering what was going to happen to us. Luckily we did end up being taken to Bungoma, though it took some arguing to get to the drop-off point we wanted. I had finally arrived at my new home – whew!
Where I live
Things after that were much nicer. I was surprised to see that I have quite a large bedroom in a two-bedroom house (my roommate is Allana, a Kellogg first-year student who is doing her summer internship here; I was her section leader at Kellogg, so it’s great to live with someone I already know!). We had dinner with everyone, and it was great to get to know the group – they’re all really nice. The food was also surprisingly good – and has been since I arrived (we take turns cooking, along with a housekeeper who cooks 3 times a week, and it’s been great so far). I sleep under a huge mosquito net, which is great because I don’t have to worry about the little suckers (though they do a great job of finding my feet/ankles during dinner time). Unfortunately, there are some things to get used to when living in rural Africa. We have no running water in my house; it’s supposed to be fixed but so far the plumber has been worthless. So I’ve learned to take bucket showers (which really aren’t too bad, except when I want to wash my hair, and even that is pretty ok). It’s actually a bigger deal when you want to wash your hands after using the restroom – so I’ve made a habit of going across the way (a few steps) to the other One Acre Fund houses to use their facilities (their water works; apparently we’re hooked up to a different set of pipes). We get our water from a well, and right now the water throughout Bungoma isn’t working, which means we’re pouring water into the toilet tanks and everyone’s taking bucket showers (if showering at all). We mainly work from home unless we’re doing field work or going to meetings (more on this later), which is great since we can be very casual. At night we cook dinner (there’s a set schedule), and we all eat together around 7:30, after which we sit around and play games (Scrabble is big recently) or talk. That part’s really great! Everyone’s pretty excited to have a culinary school graduate here, and it’s been a lot of fun to cook – I do it more here than I did at business school! There are also a few other people who live in our compound – an old woman who speaks to all of us in Kibikusu (a tribal language) despite the fact that none of us understand her; and Mama Rebecca, a woman who lives next to me and has taken me in as a Kenyan daughter (she’s truly a wonderful woman, and wants me to spend all my time visiting her – I love her already!). She’s promised to take good care of me. We also have a housekeeper, Mary – she lives just outside our compound, and her adorable boys (Manu and Delvin) can be counted on to come by daily and keep us company/occupied.
Bungoma town is bigger than I expected (see pic). There are a couple supermarkets, an outdoor vegetable market, and many other small businesses. You end up negotiating nearly everything (especially as a foreigner – whenever there’s not a posted price it’s pretty certain the price you’re quoted has been increased by a sizeable factor). I was surprised at the things you can get here – and also by the variability in prices. At the supermarket, where prices are posted so not so negotiable, grapes were 700 Kenyan Shillings (Ksh) per kilo – that’s over $10/kilo! I don’t care if they’re imported – it’s ridiculous! But you can get fantastic fruit (bananas, mangoes, passion fruit). Unfortunately the internet access here leaves quite a lot to be desired; we use a wireless card that is shared among all of us in the houses to get access from home; it costs 3 Ksh per minute before 6pm and 1.5 Ksh after. This may seem cheap, but it’s so incredibly slow that I can’t seem to get online without it taking at least 30 minutes to download something (which is 50 cents). There are a couple internet cafes in town, but they’re not much faster and not all that reliable (though we do go there when we have the time).
To get around, there are several options. Matatus are always available (though I avoid them unless necessary). Boda bodas are bicycle taxis – basically bicycles with a padded seat behind the driver that you can sit on. This is the most common way to get around Bungoma, but not so fun when the boda driver hasn’t bathed and isn’t wearing deodorant. The day after I arrived, Shane and I tried to take bodas back to the house from town (it’s ridiculously close) and mistakenly ended up on the other side of town. We finally had to have Andrew come get us in the car because we couldn’t figure out how to get to the house (there are no street numbers, you have to figure it out by looking at the little shops on the road). What should have cost 20 Ksh (it’s 10 Ksh to take a boda anywhere in town) ended up costing 200 because I didn’t know that was ridiculous when the driver told me it was the charge – oh well, a good learning experience that a 9X foreigner tax isn’t unheard of! Another method is to ride on the back of a motorbike – this is how Shane and I went into the fields on Tuesday to meet some of the farmers and see the program in action. Once you get over the fear, it’s actually pretty nice to be out on the open road in Kenya – it’s quite beautiful. But I wouldn’t recommend it for driving down the main roads, it’s probably too dangerous. It is, however, uniquely suited for driving to fields when the only way there is over a rough dirt road.
One Acre Fund (OAF)
The day after I arrived (Monday, July 21), Shane and I started out by going to the Monday meeting. Every Monday, the Bungoma OAF field officers, managers and directors meet to go over their plans for the week, conduct any necessary training, resolve and problems, and discuss anything else of importance. Given the lack of communication infrastructure here, the Monday meetings are the primary way of communicating with the OAF staff. After my nerves were frazzled a bit traveling in on Sunday, it was great to start out the week with this meeting – it totally validated why I decided to come. Everyone at the meeting is committed to doing their best to mitigate hunger. They made me feel so welcome, and I am privileged to be working with and learning from everyone here. In Kenya, most people speak at least 3 languages – the national language (Swahili), their tribal language, and English. The entire meeting was conducted in English, and it was a great learning experience. I got to see firsthand how training is provided to the field managers, who oversee and help train the field officers, who then go out and train the farmers. I learned about drying maize (the staple crop), and we reviewed processes for a large experiment we’re doing to determine whether a cheaper and more effective fertilizer combination may be available so OAF can cut costs and serve more farmers.
After the meeting, we went to see Paul (another Kellogg grad from my class) as he was instructing marketing agents what to do in launching a new project within one of our locations. It was very informative to see the agents interacting with Paul and to learn about how best to communicate with the staff here. We then went to the OAF nursery, where we are conducting a fertilizer experiment similar to the one we are conducting out in the field (we are using this data as a more controlled data set). The nursery is quite impressive, with several experiments going on (cash crops, fertilizer configurations, irrigation tools, etc.).
Tuesday, we went into the field with Josephine, an OAF field director.
We followed her to several farms, where we observed weighing of the maize that was being included in our fertilizer experiment. I learned more about the process of growing maize, and was overwhelmed by the reception that we received from the farmers – they are so appreciative of the work we are doing and really seem to be positively impacted by the increase in crop yields that they get as a result of being given good farm inputs, solid training on farming technique, and market access. It was really amazing to see the conditions in which they live – mostly mud huts with thatched roofs (which means leakage during the rains).
You can see from the picture the difference between maize grown without OAF help (to the left of me) and maize grown through our program (to my right). Our goal is to have crop yield increase by 100% for farmers in the program. We also went into the fields on Wednesday, and this time observed more cash crops being grown through the program (mostly passion fruit). These are much trickier, as they are much more complicated to plant, maintain, and harvest. But again, the farmers were very happy to see us and seemed very grateful to OAF for the support we provide.
My Role
Thursday Shane left me, and my real work began in more earnest. I am taking the role of Director of Program Innovation, which means all of the Special Projects (the fertilizer and crop trials, cost-cutting programs, administrative support, etc.) will eventually report to me. So I have quite a lot to learn! It’s not quite as operations-focused as I had expected, though there is a lot of interaction with the field staff so I get exposure to operations (and have been encouraged to provide suggestions as I see them) which is good. It’s a great role because these projects are going to be very important in shaping the OAF program as it is rolled out to other areas (we are currently operating in multiple areas in Kenya, we have a program in Rwanda, and are launching another in Uganda). Any innovations we can make will ultimately translate into serving more people and/or increasing their yields, so it’s exciting work.
Just because I have a fancy title, however, doesn’t mean I don’t get my hands dirty. On Friday I helped harvest soya with our night guard, Cosmos. He had a great time laughing at me (see the fun stuff, below). And tomorrow I’ll be in the field most of the day putting stakes and string around maize for an experiment we’re running (though I should have a laborer who will do the hard work - see my “soft hands” below).
The Fun Stuff/Highlights
- Cosmos making fun of my “soft hands” and my lack of strength as I was trying to pull up the soya (soybeans). I ended up with a blister on my hand in a matter of minutes.
Cosmos telling me that “God willing” I will find a husband. Then asking if I would take a Kenyan man – I think he wants to be my matchmaker (apparently he has several sons)
- A Kenyan “Mama” (female head of household) at one of the farms hugging me and telling me she’ll be my Kenyan Mama. I told her my mom would be so happy to hear it, and she kept hugging me over and over and thanking me for the work we do at OAF. She told me to come back and visit, and wanted to feed me lunch – unbelievable given how little her family has to eat! She was super sweet (she’s to the left of me in the picture).
- Putting my negotiation skills to work after being taken advantage of too many times
I negotiated hard with the manager at the supermarket for a discount on a fridge (ultimately getting 400 Ksh off a 16,000 Ksh item – about 2.5% or $6). Not much money, but it was actually quite amazing to see all the negotiations tactics in play. He used an agent (he made a call to his “boss”, then said he couldn’t give me the discount I initially asked for – we learned about this tactic at Kellogg). I kept thinking – oh no, he’s picking up the phone, damn him!
I then managed to talk a driver down to 200 Ksh to deliver our purchases vs. the 500 he originally wanted. Over 50% less – nice!
- Yesterday I successfully bought a sofa, chairs, coffee table and bookshelf for 13,000 Ksh (the original price was 15,050). Though the joke may be on me – when I went to pick up the sofa today (when it was supposed to be ready), the guy looked surprised I’d actually shown up and told me to come back tomorrow. Luckily I haven’t paid him anything yet – we’ll see what happens!
- Seeing boys practice for the traditional circumcision ritual (to take place in August). They were running down the street being chased by groups of people waving tree fronds and making a bunch of noise. Apparently when they do it for real, they run naked all over town with a huge crowd of people running behind them. Should be interesting! Already people are posting signs for circumcision discounts…
- Getting a great reception to the first meal I cooked here (chicken cooked Thai style in coconut milk, lemongrass, chilies, etc.). I even managed to make some passable mangoes and sticky rice – yay!
Still being surprised by people staring at me and kids yelling “Mzungu! Mzungu!” as I walk by. Mzungu means white person or foreigner; we’re rare in these parts. Some kids get really scared and run away; others run up and want to shake hands or slap a high five; most kids just say “How are youuuuuuu” over and over again. They’re incredibly cute! People will often randomly stop me to welcome me to Kenya or say “Good morning, madame.” And they get excited when I try to greet them in Kibusuku or Swahili – it’s very nice.
The Interesting but Not Necessarily Fun Stuff
This past Saturday Paul and I went to see the marketing agents in action as they drummed up interest in a new OAF product we’re launching. As we drove along the road, I saw a huge group of people standing around. We stopped nearby as apparently we needed to pick up one of the agents and he was among the crowd. While we waited, I asked the guy taking us around what was going on. “Oh, that’s mob justice,” he said, as if it needed no explanation. Then he continued… “Someone stole a cow, and he was murdered for it. They’re looking at the body.” And sure enough, right there in front of us was a dead man laying on the ground. We found out a bit later that he had actually tried to steal a radio. In Kenya it is apparently very common for thieves to be killed by mobs (before you get too alarmed for my safety, keep in mind that this actually means it’s incredibly safe here. People are afraid of being killed for stealing the smallest thing; I was told that harming a mzungu is a really big deal so it’s hopefully unlikely to happen). The Kenyan people are actually incredibly peaceful for the most part (though clearly exceptions may happen). So anyway, interesting – my first dead body.
What’s up Next
Tomorrow I’m in the fields most of the day; then I’ll be taking on some projects from Moises, a fantastic OAF employee who is leaving Bungoma to run the expansion into Uganda (we’re really going to miss him). Wish me luck on getting the furniture I ordered, as well as on getting running water (it could take a while). And keep an eye out for more updates – I’m sure I’ve forgotten some funny incidents and will have plenty more! Please keep in touch – I hope you’re well!
(As you can see, it's quite beautiful here.)
