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!
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
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