Been Busy!

I am... doing really well, really enjoying the last couple months here in Kenya.

My apologies for the long delay between posts – here goes a long update:

OAF Update
The sales trial I’ve been working on started out slow but has picked up. We’ve now sold over 500 kits to over 200 farmers! We’re also praying for rain so that farmers can plant, and are expecting an additional bump in sales once the rains hit and people need the inputs. Paul’s sales trial went really well, so we’re definitely expanding this trial and are planning to start up a new district this year that is sales-based. This is really exciting news because if we can make a sales model work, we’ll be able to significantly expand One Acre Fund more rapidly than we can with a credit-based model (see my January 15 update for more of an explanation on this). I’m really proud of the work we’ve done on this trial and hope that we’re able to successfully prove out a sales model going forward. Paul has decided to stay with One Acre Fund until May of 2010 and will be heading up this effort in the longer term – so it’s in good hands, and I’m really looking forward to hearing how it all goes!

We’ve been really busy at One Acre Fund, enrolling farmers and preparing for the long rains planting season. We are currently serving 8,000 farm families in Kenya and Rwanda, and are piloting a possible new district in Uganda! As our Kenya country director, John Gachunga, said recently, “We are waiting for the heavens to open.” In order to plant, we need 3 days of decent rain so the ground will be moist enough and soft enough to successfully have seeds germinate. Usually the rains will have started by now; unfortunately, they’re unusually late this year. We, and many of our farmers, are a bit worried by this. But as I’m writing this it just started to rain – hopefully it’ll last for a bit! Please do a little rain dance or send us some good rain thoughts, we need the help!

In other OAF news, we’ve had two new program associates join us – Matt and Amber. They’re both great additions to the team and culture here at One Acre Fund, and are already busy working on a number of important initiatives. Matt is spearheading a set of maize trials, where we are testing a number of different things (intercropping maize with beans to improve profitability for farmers, testing different spacing so we can see if we can get more maize per acre, testing the value of adding compost during planting, etc.); he’s also working on several other projects and will be taking on my sales trial when I leave. Amber’s primary focus is to improve our Bungoma South operations – this is the first district that Andrew started when he began One Acre Fund. She’s focusing on moving the district more into the core maize program and finding ways to generate financial sustainability (for example, commercializing our nursery operations). Welcome to the team guys!

I can’t believe how much time has passed since I came to Kenya! I’m heading back to the States in May for my Kellogg reunion, so will be wrapping up my time at OAF. It’s been a phenomenal experience, and for those of you that have been so supportive of both me and One Acre Fund, I hope you’ll continue to support this organization even after I am no longer here in Kenya. And for those I’ll be seeing in May – I can’t wait to catch up!

Inauguration
As you can probably imagine, Obama’s inauguration was a huge event for us in Kenya. We decided to make a night of it, and ended up going to Red Hat (our friend Hassan’s restaurant) for dinner. We took up an entire large table in front of the TV there – Anushka even came back from Kakamega to join us for the night! You could seriously feel the electricity in the room – everyone was so excited. We all had a big laugh when one of the reporters commented on Michelle Obama’s “maize-colored” suit – not sure it really looked like our maize cobs, but we certainly found it funny! Watching Obama speak brought tears to my eyes just like watching the election coverage had – I felt he was inspiring but very controlled, which felt really appropriate given the problems he’s inheriting! Less controlled was Reverend Lowery, who made us all laugh out loud with his plea to “... help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right." Probably not the most politically “correct” statement, but relevant and humorous and somehow appropriate, in my mind anyway. The best part, however, had to be when ex-President Bush walked to the helicopter with his wife, Laura. As the helicopter started to take off, cheers erupted throughout the entire room. Sid’s sister, Lakshmi, and I couldn’t help ourselves – we stood up and sang “Hit the road, Jack, and don’t you come back no more, no more no more no more” at the top of our lungs. We then left Red Hat and went to the Shariff Centre, one of the biggest bars in town (not really saying much). As we watched George W. board the plane to Texas, the cheering and applause was overwhelming – Lakshmi and I were again inspired to jump up and sing, this time dancing a pretty silly little jig. The next day, the national Kenyan papers had massive pictures of Obama and his family on the front page – I bought a copy to take home with me. Everyone was feeling really happy and hopeful – it was a great night!

Rafiki – the saga continues
Short update on her – she’s VERY pregnant. Apparently it only takes cats a couple weeks to recover from giving birth and to get pregnant again. After walking into my house to find Jake’s cat on top of her, I promptly had her injected with some sort of “birth control” shot. Well, apparently it was too late as she’s literally about to pop with kittens. Good thing there’s a waiting list of people who want her babies – I can’t take an entire litter back to the States with me!

Jinja
For Valentine’s Day weekend we decided that rather than sit and stare at each other here in Bungoma, it’d be more fun for the entire OAF crew to head to Jinja, Uganda for some fun on the Nile River. It was a fantastic weekend – Uganda is absolutely beautiful. Several of us decided to risk our lives by going whitewater rafting on the Nile – Grade 5 rapids! It was really fun, except for my twisting my knee (the one I had surgery on years ago) pretty badly – on the first Grade 5 rapid of the day. Amazingly, there was an orthopedic surgeon on another raft – he hopped over, moved my leg around, and pronounced me safe from serious injury. I just bandaged it up, and stuck out the rest of the day – it ended up being sprained, but after a couple weeks I was walking without limping and now am feeling 100%. It was so worth it in the end – the rapids were great, and swimming in the river was amazing. I couldn’t get over the fact that I was floating in the Nile! Not to mention some of our favorite ladies from Busia came along – it was a great trip!

The Fun Stuff/Highlights

• Girls’ weekend in Kampala, Uganda – full of dancing, wine drinking, and late night conversations with a group of totally amazing women


• Learning to bake French bread in a Kenyan oven because you just can’t get decent bread around here – it’s been a HUGE hit (and a major quality of life improvement!)


• Girlfriends in general – I’m really lucky to have a fantastic group of women here in Kenya to spend time with. A group of us in Bungoma have started getting together on Sundays – see the picture below (thanks Joanna for hosting us!). And the girls in Busia are awesome – Katie, Jamie, Anuja, and Simone – thanks for the fun ladies!



• Watching the sunrise in Kakamega forest – while eating freshly baked French bread (baked by me) and Nutella – what a morning



• Visiting the local orphanage in Bungoma where our friends Hannes and Felix work. The little boy holding his arms up in the picture is Johnny, he’s the only child in the home who has HIV. It was really great to spend the evening with all the kids – they’re so full of life, and made us even more committed to the work we’re doing to help farmers and their families. And it was pretty funny – within minutes of arriving, all of us girls had babies in our arms while the boys were all roughhousing with the older kids – typical!



• Staying overnight with one of our One Acre Fund farm families. It was an amazing experience – they took me in, fed me ugali and tiny fish, and pored over an atlas with me while discussing Barack Obama and corruption in Kenya. The kids were so cute, they were all hanging on to me as we took a walk around the village in the morning. Again, made me really proud of the work we’re doing and all the more committed to seeing OAF succeed.



• Dealing with a Kenyan stalker – I had no idea who this guy was and he was calling and texting me several times a day, I think to ask for money. Here’s the best text I got: “Hall.vero.why.cant.u.help.me.baby.open.your.heartbaby.1.day.iwill.byour.driver.goodnigth.say.hall.2.moses.andrew.and.paul;” – clearly the guy knew us but I never figured out who he was. I just love the part about one day he’ll be my driver!


• Even in Kenya, I somehow managed to wind up dancing on top of a table with a group of friends, singing away to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” – so fun!


• Here’s a photo of one of the coolest kids on our block, Griffin. He’s only two years old but is nearly as big as Manu (our housekeeper’s 4 year old son). He’s usually really afraid of mzungus, but for some reason seems to like me. So I picked him up and we were playing a game, bopping each other on the nose and making fun noises, when all of a sudden I felt something very, very wet. And sure enough – he’d peed all over me. But he’s still super cool.



• Learning patience by listening to our staff explain that we are “waiting for the heavens to open up” – I hope the rains come soon!

Hope you’re doing well, keep in touch while I’m in the final stretch!

Veronica

Happy New Year!

I am... very happy to have my kitten back. And to have survived being attacked by a swarm of African bees!

Wow – now it’s really been a while since my last update. For anyone who’s still interested in following along, here goes the first entry of the new year:

OAF Update
Our irrigation system trial is still going; we ended up selling 37 full kits and are now monitoring the success of those systems. We already have a list of learnings that we hope to apply when selling these on a broader scale next time around, and farmers are just beginning to harvest so we’re starting to track their yields to see how much impact the kits can have for farmers during the dry season. And believe me, it’s dry here!

We’re kicking off a soil testing project which should really help us understand more about how to help farmers get the best yield from their plots. Jeff, a soil expert from the United States, is here for a couple weeks to help us collect 500 soil samples and analyze them. We’re really looking forward to the results – it may help us advise farmers about what portion of land they should use our inputs on, or even help us tailor our fertilizer offerings to farmers depending on the condition of their soil…

I’m currently running a trial to see whether we can successfully provide our inputs and education to farmers using a sales model instead of offering our services/products on credit (which is currently the core of our program). Although credit is very useful to very poor people because of their lack of access to capital, running a credit-based program is quite a bit more complicated and more expensive than if we were to offer our program through up-front sales only. With our credit program, we have to be much more strict about who we enroll and must monitor their activities very closely, since we are paid back through their harvests (so we need to make sure they harvest as much as possible, or at least enough to pay us back and still have food for their families). This obviously takes a lot of staff support to monitor farmers throughout the growing season. We then also take payment in the form of maize (we also accept cash, but many farmers pay with bags of dried kernels) – this requires a lot of logistical effort to quality check the bags, pick them up, aggregate them, and then sell them to local traders.

By offering our inputs and education through an up-front sales model, we can avoid repayment risk and minimize our program costs. This benefits farmers because ultimately they pay less to receive our products. To test the viability of a sales model, we are running two trials – Paul is running one where we are selling kits for ½ an acre of land to farmers, and I am running one where we are selling kits for 1/10th of an acre of land. We’re trying both because we are concerned that farmers will have trouble saving money to purchase a ½ acre kit (if farmers can buy in smaller sizes, they can theoretically buy a kit at a time as they have money available).

The planting season is still a couple months away, so we’ll have to see what happens, but so far for my trial we’re not selling nearly as many kits as we’d like. I’m being told this is due to cultural factors – that farmers won’t buy until just before they need the inputs – so I’m a bit nervous but doing what I can to motivate sales. My field officers came up with the brilliant suggestion of giving away a kilo of sugar if farmers buy a certain number of kits – so far the farmers say they love it, but they’re not showing me the money yet! Cross your fingers this ends up doing well – if it does, this could be a really important win for One Acre Fund as it will help us expand our reach much more easily/quickly.

For more OAF news, please check out our latest 6-month report: http://cts.vresp.com/c/?OneAcreFund/e9b9e6fe27/f3432cc8e1/9af70b49c4

More Circumcision Stuff?!
So apparently it’s not enough to hold an expensive, colorful circumcision ceremony in August (see my post from August 5, 2008). The boys are treated like royalty for several months – from August until December they’re not allowed to do any physical labor while they “heal” from their snippages. I find that pretty shocking – it’s not like they’re carrying firewood with that body part, and four months seems like an awful long time for recovery, but apparently that’s the custom. In December, the post-circumcision ceremonies begin. I was invited to attend one with Melissa, and it was pretty interesting. After returning from church, the boy sits with all of his family elders (literally anyone older than him, so it’s a lot of people, some of whom are still in their teens) and listens to their words of wisdom. He’s also allowed to ask questions – it’s basically a way to pass all your knowledge on as they enter young adulthood. I thought it was pretty great – at least they’re communicating with their youth! Everyone there is asked to share a piece of wisdom, even American village idiots like me. Here’s what I suggested: 1) stay curious. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions – it’s the best way to learn. 2) be good to others, and they’ll be good to you. Sounds ridiculous, but honestly I’m constantly taken aback by how amazing all of you are to me; I’m sure I don’t deserve it, but I try hard to be as good to other people as I can and I feel like it comes back in spades. I hope it was good advice!

Rafiki – the good, the bad, and the ugly
Not even sure where to begin with this one – you may want to skip it if you’re squeamish. Short version of the story – I decided to have her spayed, it was hairy for a while, she disappeared for a month but is now back and seems healthy. Read on if you dare…

Rafiki has turned out to be the light of my life in Kenya – she’s absolutely adorable, and loves to snuggle which helps when I’m so far away from all of you! Unfortunately, she suffers the terrible plight of having been born female, and so begins this woeful tale… To avoid having litters of kittens running around my house, I made the very developed-world decision to have her spayed. After finding a veterinary surgeon in town, I arranged for him to pick her up and take her to a clinic for the operation. When he showed up, the surgeon surprised me by telling me he’d decided to do the surgery AT MY HOUSE, as he felt bad that I’d said I was going to come along and wait for her at the clinic (I didn’t want her to have to go off and go through all this alone). Imagine my shock as we carried a desk out into the front yard, and he laid a white sheet on top of it! Next, the nurse administered a sedative to Rafiki. During which she peed all over the jacket I was covering her with (to hide her head so she wouldn’t see the needle coming). I have to admit, watching her try to run but make it only a few steps before going into slow motion and finally passing out was pretty funny. What wasn’t funny was that her eyes remained wide open the entire time. Oh, if only that was as bad as it got. But no, they proceeded to shave her stomach and then sliced her open right there in the yard!

I decided I was going to watch to make sure things went all right, but was having a hard time keeping my eyes on the scene unfolding in front of me. Things that you really never want to see from inside your pet were sticking out of her as the surgeon poked around to find whatever it is he needed to make it impossible for her to have babies of her own. Just as I was cursing myself for deciding that being female was reason enough for my 4-month-old kitten to be sliced open and violated like this, the surgeon looked up at me and said, “Oh – she has already been served!” Just like that. Not really comprehending what he meant, I replied simply, “What do you mean?” To which the nurse looked up and said in no uncertain terms, “She is already pregnant.”


This is a photo that Paul snapped of me just after I heard those words. It is quite possibly the best photo of myself in a state of utter horror that I have ever seen.

Because she was already pregnant, the vet couldn’t finish the surgery. He closed her up and told me she’d likely abort the kittens given the trauma of the surgery. I spent the next two days thinking I would find her dead at any moment – she took a while to wake from the sedative, couldn’t really walk, wasn’t eating and wasn’t making any sounds. In the meantime, the popular theory was that she’d been impregnated by my coworker Jake’s cat – who happens to be her FATHER! I (and several of my expat and Kenyan female colleagues) decided this was a prime example of the plight of women everywhere. Too young to consent, impregnated by her father, and made to endure a ridiculous surgery just because she happens to be female – ugh. And all the while Jake’s cat was preening himself around the yard, probably patting himself on the back for his exploits (we also think he’s responsible for getting our housekeeper’s cat, which happens to be his sister, pregnant around the same time). I wanted to crawl into a hole for putting her through the ordeal, but luckily she pulled through. I had her stitches removed just before I left, and she seemed to be doing very well (and even still seemed to be pregnant).

While in the States, I did what any ridiculous developed-world pet owner would do – bought her a few treats, a couple catnip-filled mice, and a pet carrier to use when bringing her back to the U.S. (if I can). Though somehow I sensed that something was amiss – I kept wondering if she would still be there when I got back to Bungoma. And sure enough, when I walked into my house for the first time, I saw that all the food I’d left for our housekeeper’s son to feed her was still sitting there. And my little ball of furry meows didn’t come running to greet me. Hesitantly, my coworkers told me that she’d disappeared the day after I left to go home for the holidays. At this point she’d been gone three weeks – as it turned into a month since she’d been seen, the hope I’d been holding out for her return became a small twinge of sadness each time I saw her favorite toy that Brittany and Kathi sent her from the States. We decided she must have gone off to have her kittens and died in the process, and I hid her pet carrier so I wouldn’t have to look at it anymore.

Two days ago, as I was sitting at my table intently working, Jake walked in carrying something furry in his arms. At first I refused to believe it was her, even after I saw the blue dye on her fur from the sterilizing fluid the surgeon had used. I made Jake hold her while I looked at her nose – and sure enough, the markings proved it was Rafiki! She looked remarkably good for having been gone a month, though she was ravenous. As soon as she was wolfing down food and sufficiently distracted, I clamped her new collar around her neck (complete with my Kenyan cell number on the tag). Although I originally thought the little jingle bell on it was going to have to come off or it would drive me crazy, I have to admit it makes me smile every time I hear it from afar – I just can’t believe she’s back! I really hope she sticks around long enough to move to the United States with me. And she may still be pregnant – we can’t decide if the bulge around her belly is from scarfing down all that she can over the last couple days or whether she might be about to give birth. Regardless, I’m really happy she’s home – now I have to figure out whether to go through with another surgery to finally spay her, or just take my chances and deal with it in the United States!

Safari!
I’m not going to do this trip justice since this post is already too long, but we did take a fantastic trip to Lake Nakuru in November. I’m posting a few of my favorite safari photos – we drove ourselves through the park which was a lot of fun. My favorite sighting was a leopard – apparently really rare. Still haven’t seen a lion though, so more safari trips are apparently in my future…

(Jeff and I at the Equator) (Kellogg crew 13,687 miles from Evanston per the sign)

(view of Lake Nakuru)

The Fun Stuff/Highlights

• Being treated to yellowtail sashimi, fresh oysters, and Prosecco within hours of being picked up at the airport by my parents. They’re amazing! I did a decent amount of cooking when I was home, making dinner for my parents (the one pictured is turkey, brussel sprouts braised in Madeira, and cauliflower souffle) and making fresh ceviche with my dad (I love how it looked!)



• Freaking out said parents by carrying an enormous amount of stuff back to Africa from the States, including the best thing ever – an ice cream maker! I’ve already made Cherry Garcia ice cream (with California cherries my mom gave me that somehow made it through customs all the way to Africa), ginger-citrus sorbet, and mango sorbet. The Cherry Garcia ice cream received rave reviews – this is a serious quality-of-life improvement for us!
  
• Loads of fun with amazing friends in San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. I miss you already!
  
• Our new firepit and the couple parties we’ve had so far have been a blast. Sid treated us to homemade fireworks (those of you who know me well know fireworks are a big thing for me), and Melissa treated us to S’Mores (so good!). I treated myself to a bucket of water after my firework landed on my hand (not nearly as bad as it sounds, it hardly did anything)



• Meeting other non-profit workers from Innovations for Poverty Action and Nuru, two NGOs (non-governmental organizations) here in Kenya. We all hung out for a weekend in Kisumu – it was a blast!
  
• Literally crying – crying! – with laughter while watching our housekeeper’s 4-year old son, Manu, go crazy dancing to Chumbawumba’s “Tubthumping”. If I can post the video at some point, I will – he’s going to be a star someday. Best part was when he ripped off his jacket and threw it on a chair. I nearly died laughing

(quite possibly the two cutest things in Bungoma - Rafiki and Manu)


• Celebrating the first weekend back in Africa with a “Sex and the City” brunch. I brought back the entire DVD collection, and made ginger-citrus sorbet, vanilla-cinnamon pancakes, and mimosas for myself, Katie, Anushka and Melissa. It felt so luxurious – Katie brought a delicious sparkling wine from Italy, and Anushka gave us all gorgeous shawls from Yemen. Yay for girlfriends!



• I got perhaps the best compliment ever today from one of my field officers – he told me I’m so good at driving, I could be a matatu driver. Given how crazy it is to drive those things here, I figure that’s a pretty serious compliment
  
• Speaking of driving, I nearly managed to land my van on its side as I slid into a ditch two days ago with our fundraising consultant, John. He and I honestly both thought we were going to have to find people to help us tip it back over – but luckily it sort of hung there, then we were able to inch it back and forth until we were free
  
• Years ago, I tried my hand at painting (with limited success). I’ve decided I want to get better at it, and that the first step is learning to draw properly. So I’ve started a drawing course (using a book). My mom got me some drawing pads for Christmas to help me get started – thanks Mom! I finished my first few exercises, they’re pretty embarrassing but at least I’m on my way
  
• In keeping with the learning theme, I’m also attempting to play Ultimate Frisbee with the guys (they’re preparing for a tournament in Uganda and are trying to convince me to play since they need a girl). I’m definitely very girly – I’m terrified of getting hurt so am not that great, but am having fun and was able to assist with scoring a few points this last time – man, it’s good exercise!
  
• I managed to escape an attack by a swarm of bees with only a few stings to the head – for a few seconds I was really terrified as I wasn’t sure if I had a bee allergy (I think I’ve only been stung once in my life, as a pretty little kid). Then I was terrified at the thought that these might be African Killer Bees (and not the Wu-Tang kind). But aside from a pretty tender patch, it’s turned out to be ok – I didn’t even stop working despite my field officer telling me my head was going to swell up like a balloon (it didn’t)
  
• Receiving the most unexpected care package from a Kellogg friend – Jason Tarn sent us a season of The Office so Paul and I can get a feel for what our b-school colleagues are going through at their desk jobs. Thank you so much Jason, it really means a lot!
  
• Being fed by farmers during the hunger season – this is truly amazing. It’s tough sometimes being in the field all day; our field officers rarely stop to eat so neither do we. Today I was running around keeping tabs on the sales trial, and was stuffed full of goodies by farmers I visited. These aren’t even farmers who have harvested with us yet! It’s the hunger season, and I was given the following by two different farmers: tea with milk and sugar, bananas, Coke, and boiled sweet potatoes. They were all delicious, and it was so touching to know that despite their own hardships people find a way to show hospitality to their guests. I tried not to let them feed me, but was told it would be really rude if I didn’t accept (Adel, this totally reminds me of you feeding me during college!). I really hope we’re able to increase these farmers’ harvests this year to repay them for their kindness!
  
• Best of all, hearing the jingle of Rafiki’s collar and knowing she’s on her way to snuggle on my lap. :)

Happy New Year and best wishes for a phenomenal 2009!

Veronica