away and away

A couple weeks ago we traveled to the Kakamega Rainforest for a weekend away. Friends of ours cooked us a marvelous Indian meal and shared drinks and laughs with us into the night. Then we headed out at 4am to hike up to a gorgeous viewpoint to see the sun come up. It was beautiful and so worth the early rise. Here are some photos from the trip!

Here in Kenya, 3 of our Project Managers and our Project Coordinator unfortunately missed their convocations. After their years of hard work to get their degrees, we were sad they would be missing such an exciting day, so the rest of us wanted to do something special for them.

First we assigned roles for the big day. Our oldest Project Manager was considered to be the wisest among us, so he was given the prestigious role of Keynote Speaker. Our PM who is from England was asked to be Dean because… well he’s just “Dean-material.” Another of us would make and disperse diplomas. Finally, my job was creative director (aka hat-maker) and photographer/videographer.

While our Keynote worked at perfecting his speech, I went on a bit of a journey to find some black paper. There was none to be found. But I came across a stationary store in the Mbale Market that seemed to be stocked up with all kinds of crafty goodies. A big sheet of blue, pink and yellow paper had to suffice. Then my crafting abilities would need to kick in… Much to the entertainment of my housemates, I started cutting up the paper with a pair of rusty old scissors. They doubted my abilities but I persisted. One of the graduates had to help me with the tassels though, I must admit… And voila! They were perfect! Pink for the ladies, blue for the boys, and the Dean got a bright yellow one to wear. 

I printed up some awards using the most sophisticated calligraphy font I could find on Microsoft Word, and added some cheesy borders. The diplomas were lovely and colourful, with big smiley-face suns on them. It was all very official. We made a trip to the bar where they have by now, memorized our “order,” loaded up, and walked to the venue (one of the yards of the Host houses where a few PMs stay). The sun was shining, the cows were grazing nearby, and the beer was cold. This would be a graduation like no other.

A stool with a towel draped over it and a sign that read “Kenya Grad 2013,” was our podium. The 4 graduates were fitted with their caps and squished onto some stools we found. The 3 most common graduation songs ever, played continuously throughout the ceremony: The Time of Your Life by Green Day, Graduation Song: Friends Forever by Vitamin C, and the Graduation Walking March. Our Dean opened up the ceremony with a hilarious few words, and cued in the Keynote Speaker. His speech was funny, moving and thoughtful, and everyone appreciated how much work he had put into it. It was great! Next, the Dean presented each graduate with their diploma by bopping them on the head with it (an English tradition he says…). And just like that, the studious graduates with their cardboard tassels flowing in the wind, were officially graduated! We made sure to grab the “famous” shot of the cap-throw, and gave it some Kenya flavour with a cow grazing in the background.

We celebrated, drank drinks, played Spoons, and had a competitive game of Grad vs. Undergrad soccer. It was a beautiful day and lots of fun! Hopefully the emptiness in their hearts from missing their real convocation was filled with our Kenya Grad. It was truly unique, and an event like no other. What I know for sure, is that some parents will shed tears of pride because I made a video… (to come). 

Congratulations to the graduates: Becky, Kaitlin, Greg and Josh!!

It is official! My project proposal and budget have been approved by the SID Executives back in Toronto! This means I can go ahead with what I had planned, start allocating the funds that I raised and start making my project a reality. 

I will be working with a CBO called Kenyan Harvest, that is made up of 5 different groups of farmers, each specializing in their own techniques and fields. Together with some professionals in agriculture, we will be coordinating agriculture training days to further develop the knowledge and skills of every single member. The sessions will focus on mango and passion fruit management and care, understanding soil fertility and how to make your own organic compost, adding value to goods by producing juice or drying fruit and learning to market products and increase sales. These skills along with others will potentially make each of the groups more successful in their field, and will open up more opportunities for them to grow and share their knowledge with others.

I am excited to be a part of this project. I have already learned a lot from each of the groups and am seeing how on-the-ground development works. The other day I visited KARI (Kenya Agricultural Research Institute) for a meeting with someone there and was amazed at how large the space was and how much they had going on there. They are doing great work and educating a lot of local farmers. I had a small tour around and was able to go into a Banana Tissue Culture lab to see how they produce their own banana trees. 

Things are moving along and I will have a busy few weeks ahead of me!

So, who is the SID team this summer?

We are 8 Project Managers in Health, Agriculture, Micro-finance and Child Welfare and 1 Coordinator overseeing each project, and leading a site research team.

Each member of the team comes with different experiences, knowledge and personalities to offer. We come from backgrounds in engineering, international development, health studies, economics, finance and political science. Our diversity makes for a lot of interesting conversations and everyday we are learning more from each other.

We are having an incredible time together! Weekend getaways, trips to Tusky’s, running at 6 am, enjoying a few cold Tuskers on Fridays, competitive games of soccer and FYB, hikes up mountains, hikes into rainforests, finding the best food in town, and laughing a whole lot.

We also have already started to work very hard on our projects. Setting up meetings, getting to know the people we will be working with and determining what is feasible this summer. Currently we are waiting for approval from the SID Executives for our budgets and proposals. Once we get our feedback, projects will be in full swing! It is an exciting time for all of us and I am so happy to have such a solid group around me this summer.

I’ve now been here for 19 days and am totally settled into life in Mbale. I live in a 1 story apartment with 4 others, that has come to feel more and more like home each day. 

We were a little shocked when we first arrived, as reality set in that we would be living here for 3 months with no running water and no working toilet. But as we moved our things in, made our beds, stocked up on some snacks and let it all sink in, we all adjusted just fine. 

Every day we fill up a few buckets of water at the pump in our compound and lug it back inside. It definitely provides a new perspective on water usage when you have to work so hard to get it. We dump it into a big bin and boil it to drink and shower. We use buckets and cups to shower and latrines outside (holes in the ground) for our… business. 

We are about a 5 minute walk from the market and main street where we buy our fruit and snacks. The group of us have become regulars at Mosaic Lounge, a restaurant in town, when we need a hardy lunch. And we hardly go a day without visiting Events, a bakery with delicious fresh juice.

We drink lots of tea, boil many eggs, mix avocado into everything we can, and spend our nights playing cards and getting caught up with Breaking Bad. Life is good here and we’re all getting busy with project work now.

We woke from our beautiful slumbers at the YMCA and felt quite refreshed after having a legitimate sleep finally. We took about an hour to properly pack our bags plus all 10 passengers into a Matatu (a van of sorts…).

I’ll just mention again - an 8 hour journey from Toronto, a 15-turned-27 hour layover in Amsterdam, an 8 hour flight to Nairobi… and next? A 7 hour drive in a Matatu.

But hey! We were in Kenya! And almost all of our group was together, so spirits were high. We saw a few zebras and antelope on our drive in. The scenery was lovely and green, and it was finally sinking in that I was about to start my adventure in Kenya. But I must say, I dozed off a few times… Jet lag is a real bugger.

We had to avoid a few bumps and potholes in the road on the way, but it wasn’t so bad. Then, after 5 hours we veered off the smooth, paved road and set forth on the most wild ride I have ever experienced in a moving vehicle.

I don’t know if they can be considered potholes when they spread across the road’s width. But we were met with a few of those. And every few feet we had to slow and whip side to side to maneuver over the mangled road. The odd time, the bumps were hard to see, especially when the monsoon rains started, and our heads grazed the roof of the Matatu, and all the bags fell on the poor guy in the back seat. 

It was wild. I’ve never been so jostled to a point of exhaustion before. It was like spending two full days on a roller-coaster. I wanted to kiss the ground when we stepped out in Mbale… but I decided against it. I looked down at my feet and saw I had the nastiest “cankles” anyone has ever seen. Well… second worst. I looked at the ankles of a fellow traveler and was immediately in second place.

Our driver dropped us and our bags at an Easy Coach where we waited for rides to our homes for the next 3 months. 

So, as I mentioned, we originally had a 15 hour layover in Amsterdam. This was the longest layover I’ve ever had, but I was excited that it would give me lots of time to explore and see the sights!

What I didn’t really take into consideration was how tired we would all be. Leaving Toronto at 5:30pm, and arriving in Amsterdam at 7am going on no sleep, meant for a very sluggish group. But we rallied and headed into the city, falling asleep often on the canal cruise. Still, it was fun. But after 6 hours we found comfy chairs in the airport and slept.

At last! Time to board and get to Nairobi, to meet with the rest of our group. Flight delayed 1 hour and 30 minutes… Okay I can deal with that. 2 hours later… still not on the plane… 3 hours…. Something is wrong.

Then we get the announcement that our plane is too dangerous to fly, so the flight is cancelled. It is 11pm and we are herded through a line to make hotel arrangements. We would fly out the next morning, meaning some of our other SID members would be stranded in Nairobi until we arrived.

New plane. New day. We make it to Nairobi and of course, wait at baggage for about 2 hours because one bag didn’t make it. We sort it all out and get picked up and taken to a YMCA to spend the night with a few others from our group. We collapsed into bed and prepared for the next leg of our journey…

A few days ago I arrived in Kenya for my 3 month placement as a Project Manager for SID (Students for International Development). As I am getting more and more settled into my home in Mbale (Western Province), I am finding some time to load my photos, and compile some entries of my experience thus far.

The people are beautiful and gracious, the scenery is very lush and green. I have already learned the ways of the piki piki (and am working on not freaking out every time we make a turn or hit a bump), have been jammed into a Matatu to travel to Kisumu, ate fish from Lake Victoria, have eaten ndengu and ugali, been called “Muzungu” more times than I can count, and am learning the ways of properly “squatting”… 

This summer will be an adventure like I have never had and an exciting challenge. Being a Project Manager with SID will give me the field experience I need to better apply my knowledge in the development studies to real-world issues.

Incredibly excited to be here and feeling privileged to have been chosen to be on the 2013 SID team with 8 other intelligent, kind, humble and lovely Project Managers.

Keep checking back for photos, updates and stories. I’ll keep you posted and share with you my time in Kenya.