Mom’s Fear Comes True – I’ve Adopted!

I am... a new mom. To an adorable little kitten - no, no Kenyan babies yet! Also – please see the new link at the top of this page; we’ve set up a way for anyone who’s interested in sending a care package to see what things we’d love to get. Thanks!

OAF Update
Our three new Program Associates (Lukas, Melissa and Sid) have arrived! We’re really excited to have them here, and they’re already hard at work making improvements to One Acre Fund. Lukas is working on a few things, from putting together a sales effort to sell irrigation tools to farmers, to running an in-depth survey of farmers’ spending and consumption habits. Melissa is helping to standardize and put into place HR policies and procedures, which is going to do a lot to help smooth our processes going forward and provide guidance to employees where previously we didn’t have much. Sid is a tech genius – he’s fixing our outdated and virus-ridden computers in our offices, as well as working on long-term Information Technology solutions for OAF.

We’re also making great strides with our Children’s Health program; Margaux has mapped out our processes and is now working on fixing any gaps and standardizing things we want to make part of our core model in each district. Jeff’s wrapping up his Early Harvest and Active Drying experiments. He brought back some dried kernels from the Active Drying trial, and it was pretty amazing to see! We ask our farmers to “Actively Dry” their maize, which means they should put the maize out to dry in the morning, and put it inside at night or if it starts to rain. Many farmers don’t follow this simple procedure – they simply spread their maize out on the floor inside their house and let it dry there. It’s easier, as they don’t have to move it around as much, but we were worried that this may lead to increased rotting and loss of maize (due to a longer drying period and more likelihood of pests). We don’t have the final data yet, but just from looking at the two sets of maize it’s quite visually obvious that the Actively Dried maize is much whiter and not rotten, while the other maize is more discolored, has rotten bits, and generally looks darker. This is important, because we can’t sell maize to our buyers if more than 2% is broken, discolored or rotten – and based on the sample of the non-Actively Dried maize we saw from the experiment, this maize wouldn’t pass inspection with out buyers. So it’s good validation that the Active Drying technique is important – nice job, Jeff!

So, the Baby I Adopted…
Er, kitten… I can’t help but tease my Mom, she’s afraid I’m going to come back with a real Kenyan baby! Anyhow, the kitten is totally adorable. I decided to name her Rafiki, which means “friend” in Swahili (apparently this is also the name of the monkey from The Lion King, which I’ve now been reminded of a few times – that wasn’t my inspiration though). She’s pretty funny – she’s quite affectionate, and sits on my lap while I work (sometimes she’ll just perch there with her paws on my leg, as in this photo).

It’s really nice having her around for the company, though I’m honestly a bit worried about whether taking her in was a good idea. I can’t buy pet food in Bungoma, and apparently it’s really bad to feed a kitten an all-meat diet (which is what Jake has been feeding his cat, Paca). I attempted to cook her some cat food before leaving (chicken, rice, and carrots boiled together and blended up a bit), but she doesn’t seem to like it (though I hear Paca does). I’m a bit worried that something’s wrong with her, as she wasn’t eating much when I left and seemed to be really lethargic – I hope I don’t end up killing her, that would definitely be an indication of sub-par mothering skills!

Leaving Already
I’m headed back to the States (tonight, actually) for a quick two-week trip. It seems so soon, I’m not really feeling quite ready to leave (I’ve been here 2 ½ months). You may wonder why I’m heading back – good question! It may sound a bit silly, but I was in a musical show at Kellogg called “Special K!”. I sang, danced and acted (somehow they let me into the cast). It’s completely student-run, and each year the show is performed in May. Every October, there’s a repeat performance of the prior May show, so new Kellogg students can see what it is all about and hopefully get excited about participating in creating the new show for the next year. There’s an understood expectation that cast members from the May show who graduated in June will return to do the show in October. Clearly I told everyone that I wouldn’t be able to make it, as I’m living in Africa and not making much money, so I thought that would be it. However, I’m incredibly fortunate to have some truly AMAZING friends – they started a campaign to raise money, and ended up raising enough to fly me back to the States to do the show. I also am lucky enough to work for someone (Andrew) who gave me the ok to leave for a couple weeks to do this – thank you so much to all of you who contributed to helping me visit my friends and do the final show! Words honestly can’t express how much this gift and all of you mean to me!

Indian festival
Another reason I’m really lucky is that Tejash Unadkat, a friend from business school, is from Kenya and his parents live in Nairobi. His mother wanted me to take a package back for him and his sisters, and invited me to stay with them rather than staying in a hotel in Nairobi. They have been truly amazing – Mom & Dad, you’d be thrilled to know that they’ve treated me like a daughter for the past two days. We went for a walk together, I got up and did yoga in the morning, and the best part was that “Auntie” (this is what Tejash’s mom wants me to call her) dressed me up in the most beautiful sari ever and we went to a Navratri Festival at the community center they attend. I felt like a princess – it was so amazing, she pinned the sari together so it would look right, and gave me orange and gold bangles, beautiful earrings and a stunning gold necklace. I couldn’t believe how amazing it was to be dressed so beautifully after nearly 3 months wearing convertible pants! The Festival was fantastic – there was a lot of food (bhel, panipuri, sevpuri, chips, potato curry, chevdo, coconut sweets, mixed fruits, tea, soda and biscuits), as well as a lot of singing and dancing. I couldn’t keep up with all of it, but Auntie made sure I did my best and taught me a few dances,

including a really fun one where you dance with sticks and trade partners down a long line.
They’ve also been feeding me tons of great Indian food – Tejash, you’ll be jealous to know your mom made me thepla, dhokla, chapati, dal dhokli, masala dhosa, jalebi, sata, flower curry, and lassi. So good!

I owe a big, hearty thank you to Tejash and his family for their generous hospitality – I was a bit scared of coming to Nairobi alone, but it’s been a great experience!

(how adorable is he?)

The Fun Stuff/Highlights

• Dancing with sticks at the Indian Festival – so much fun!
  
• Heading for a night out on the town with everyone from OAF (sans Lukas, unfortunately) – it was a great time!
  
• Doing “Ladies’ Night” with Margaux, Anushka and Melissa – wine, cheese, pedicures and lots of girl talk
  
• Hiking Sangalo Rock with the ladies.
  Partway up, a young girl named Corazon decided to join us and served as our informal tour guide. She bounded up the steep trail – barefoot! Put us to shame
  
• Watching Rafiki walk into my shower, squat over the drain, and pee into it – she showed up potty trained! I promptly bought a plastic basin and made her a litterbox with some dirt in it
  
  (one more of me and Rafiki)