Canada to Kenya

This morning's run - multi tasking

2012-02-23T11:35:00.001+03:00


Centre of our latest finished spring. Pretty hilly terrain all connected by little paths and narrow single track dirt roads impassable by vehicles except motorcycles.

Close up of the above finished spring, 18 to go out of 50

Found this one using GPS on my run this morning

Close up of above spring

I now have combined my morning runs with monitoring spring construction using my GPS.

Field Trip to Bondo

2012-02-22T21:16:00.000+03:00

Monday we loaded a 14 passenger matatu with members from the co-operative group and headed off to Bondo in Nyanza Province (about a 2 1/2 hour drive) to visit some of Alex's groups. Our first stop was Dala Rieko, "a meeting place for sharing of knowledge and good practice". The site is run by a Norwegian NGO headed by Tor Rafoss. Alex has been working with Tor for 7 years and tells us that he used to be a very large donor -- now he has shifted all of his efforts into training and capacity building.

Rod looks on as Alex shows off home-made chicken feed and organic pesticide.

The centre was so impressive. They train youth in permaculture and organic farming. They make their own feed for kukus (poultry) and fish. They are experimenting with spirulina, goji berries, pomegranate, and aloe vera which command a high price in the export market. You can't erradicate poverty by only selling to each other, you need to bring money in. They have a brand new eco-san toilet -- separates "long call" from "short call", composts and both make excellent fertilizer. They have an inexpensive, manual irrigation system when used with mulch means that you can have one harvest after another without having to wait for the rains. Now you might get one good harvest, plus one small one if you are lucky, of maize. With this system, you can expect 4 harvests!

Irrigation system (only 10,000 Ksh) and no-till bed with water hyacinth mulch

Alex promises to get the recipes for mulch, compost, chicken and fish feed, and organic pesticide. Simple, inexpensive, totally do-able solutions that can be implemented immediately without donor support. They were really excited about this stop. We are going to arrange a visit with KASFOOC and Fredrick before we leave.

Meeting under the shade of a fragrant tree.

We also visited a women's group that is doing extremely well -- with no donor dollars! They have two main income generating activities; both are doing extremely well. First is omena (tiny dried fish). These are plentiful in this region, right next to Lake Victoria. The women add value by frying and packaging them. They sell them to Nakumat and bring in 10,000 Ksh every two weeks. "How did you get them into the store?" asked one of the visitors. "We just spoke to the manager of the store." Simple. They did have to get a certificate from public health in safe food handling, a course offered for free.

The group did a demonstration of their second income generating activity -- table banking. This was quite a long process, but we watched the group raise 3,000 Ksh in the course of a single meeting. They have a cash box, with three locks. Three different members each take a key and another member takes the cash box -- for security and transparency. The group has two treasurers and keeps impeccable records.

Table banking: three padlocks, pass books, coloured money bags each fund.

Once the box is open, each member contributes, one at a time, 20 bob to the "social fund". This fund is used if a member falls ill or there is a funeral to contribute to. At the end of the year, if they haven't needed to use the fund for support, they may choose to have a Christmas party or divide the money up amongst the members. The second step is savings. Each member, again one at a time in front of everyone, buys "fish". They speak in a language that makes sense to them. In this region one fish goes for 100 Ksh. So, instead of buying "shares", they buy fish. For each 100 Ksh they put into savings, they get one "fish" or "share". Members "buy" as many "fish" as they want and their passbooks are updated.

The next step is micro finance; paying back loans that were taken out the previous month. Loans are available to each member based on how many fish (shares) they have in their savings. Loans are always for one month and are charged a 10% interest (that's 10% per month). They have never had a default on a loan. The final step is to lend out new loans. When we started, the group announced that they had 8,000 Ksh in outstanding loans. At the end of this meeting, after savings and loans were paid back, they had 11,860 Ksh in loans. All the money that comes in is loaned out again. If it's not, they deposit excess into the bank. The group has a goal of buying a tractor within two years; that will cost a couple of million shillings. No one in our group had ever imagined that a group of rural women like themselves could even dream of buying something so expensive.

We celebrated with a meal and a song before we headed for the long drive home.

Celebration Feast -- ugali, potatoes, rice, omena, fish, kuku, stew, skuma, cabbage.

Don't forget about us!

ABCD -- Session Two

2012-02-22T20:00:00.001+03:00

Saturday was the second session for the second group -- we have two groups: "new group" and "co-op group" which started their trainings in October -- of Asset Based Community Development Training. I wasn't sure how many would show up because I had told Joyce, Carolyne, and Bibiana to let the groups know that I was not going to pay fare this time. Kenyans are used to being paid a sitting fee or at least having their transport reimbursed when they are called to a seminar. I went way over budget on the first session (with over 100 in attendance), and wanted to make up the difference. Not paying fare would also serve to be sure that those who attended were really serious about learning something. Alex made it clear in the first session that there was no money to be had from this training, but then I did pay fare, so that was something of a mixed message -- I'm learning too.

The girls that pull it all together -- Carolyne, me, Bibiana, & Joyce

We were scheduled to start at 9:30am, and at 10am we had 48 present; I guessed my plan worked. Alex told me not to stop counting until noon. He was right, people trickled in until after noon and 112 was our final count.

Late arrivals hustling to their seats

This session was focussed specifically on smashing the illusion that there is no money in Kenya. Self Help Groups are common in Kenya. We've mentioned these before. Groups get together, register, elect a board (Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, etc.), and work together ideally on income generating projects, but at least in supporting each other. These groups get together about twice a month and each member usually contributes 100 Ksh each meeting. Alex did the math with the group, assuming there are 20 groups in Kakamega (there are way more), and assuming each group has 20 members, meeting twice a month, contributing 100 Ksh each meeting. That's 400 people X 200 Ksh/month X 12 months = 960,000 Ksh/year. ALMOST ONE MILLION SHILLINGS PER YEAR. The crowd loved that one.

And then he asked if anyone drank in this town. The group agreed that there might be 100 people that drink in Kakamega (there might be one or two more than that given how many bars there are in town, but 100 is a nice round number). Let's say these 100 people have one drink everyday, yes, even on Sunday, and a drink costs 50 bob. 100 X 50 X 7days a week X 52 weeks a year = 1,820,000/year. ALMOST TWO MILLION SHILLINGS PER YEAR. Don't tell me there's no money in Kakamega.

Alex painting a clear picture of the wealth waiting to be exploited here

Throughout the course of the day participants worked in small groups to identify the projects that they engage in. What are the coping strategies? We came up with poultry, small scale horticulture, and merry-go-rounds. There is also a group doing fish farming (our KASFOOC group). Some want to expand to bee keeping -- bees can be kept on small plots of land and honey demands a high price.

Alex went through a KAP analysis -- Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice. He believes it is the attitude that is killing this country... the continent. And once the attitude shifts and Africans see their own capacity, they will be able to seek out more knowledge, like this training, and put into practice what they are learning. The feedback from the session is so positive -- they are hungry for more. But with only one Alex, and the Canadians leaving in just a month, we are concentrating on how to keep the momentum. The next session will be to train trainers -- leaders selected from each of the small groups, that can carry this work through.

Let's remember who we are doing all of this for!

The fish farm co-op is coming together

2012-02-22T18:59:00.002+03:00

L -->R Grace (widow), Joyce (KASFOOC exec),Tanya, Joyce Makaka (fish farm expert) and Esther (widow) talk about how to expand a pond to make it a viable business

Looking at Graces pond

Respa is 91 and ready to expand her pond

Lots to talk about on our 4 hour hike from farm to farm

The Rotary District Community Grant ($5000) is to get a womens fish farm co-op off the ground. Today the shortlist of who was to receive the first investment of fish and feed was toured by local expert Joyce Makaka. We surveyed each candidates pond and assessed how best to expand the pond to a size that would be enough for commercial purposes.

Sweatin' the Small Stuff

2012-02-21T20:09:00.000+03:00

Terry and I had a fight this morning. He was wearing my socks (again)! My once white, Lulu Lemon socks. I was really mad. Not only are they all dirty now with red dust that gets into everything, but they are all stretched out. And they are mine.

I realized as I was walking into town to meet someone, that I really needed to be mad at Terry for wearing my socks... my Lulu Lemon socks. This morning I needed a cadillac problem. I needed to feel like I had control over something. The socks weren't the last straw for me, they were something of a lifeline. Some normal, ridiculous problem that is easy to place blame (Terry's fault) and easy to solve (Terry will have to buy me new socks). I got to assert my will until he said sorry and promised to buy me new socks. Just like that, problem solved.

Sigh, if only everything were that easy.

How are you?

2012-02-21T18:55:00.000+03:00

Checking on springs

2012-02-21T18:48:00.000+03:00

The girls are coming with their containers (proportional to the size of the girl) to get the (now) clean water

Nice to see some boys collecting (now clean) water. The blue chlorine dispenser was installed about a week ago coincidentally at the same time the spring was completed


Our hero was out verifying more completed springs today (Feb 21)

Take a look at a VIDEO of a spring just getting started.

Just Another Day

2012-02-17T16:22:00.001+03:00

Started the day with a visit to local fish farmer Joyce Makaka- nursery pens hold the newborn fry inside larger pond

Tanya looks at Tilapia broodstock being fed

Right after fish farm visit back on the motorcycle to our 3rd Hygiene training session.

After I gave my rousing speech at training I went back out to inspect more finished springs.

Happy customers, should spend alot less time being sick in the future.

The bag is to protect the cement. The Chlorine dispenser was just installed by IPA, an NGO doing a big scale study.

This is the driest time of the year, so any water now is a very good thing.

Back to the training session to hand out 62 certificates (they LOVE certificates here) with Rtn Grace

They all have evidence that they now have been trained by the Dept of Health of how to maintain these protected springs

Hell's Gate

2012-02-14T21:37:00.007+03:00

We actually took an afternoon off purely for recreation! After saying good bye to the CR Rotarians, Terry and I went to Hell's Gate National Park at Lake Naivasha. This park has no preditors -- well, there are leopards, but they assured us we wouldn't see any -- so you can ride bikes through the park. At the bike rental place (about 2 km from the front gate -- why they wouldn't just rent bikes at the gate is beyond me) I said hello to two young mzungus. I am making a point of introducing myself to mzungus -- it just felt too weird being ignored. Anyway, these two young guys had been camping in the park. One was and Auzie named Jono! I told him that my Jono was heading off to Vegas in a couple of days with his buddies. This Jono said that he will regret not coming with me one day. The other guy said that he regrets that Vegas even exists.

Anyway, the road sucked (bouncy), and so did the bikes (clunky and slow), but it was so worth it. We passed zebras, gizelles, wart hogs, and water buffalos. I didn't get any pictures of the buffalos because ... yep, I was too scared. After hearing that the most dangerous animals in the game parks are hippos and WATER BUFFALOS, I wasn't about to stop and take a picture. I just made Terry come back and get me (he only has one speed and that's faster than me) and pedalled my little heart out passed them. I was pretty sure that the park folks wouldn't let us in with bikes if anything was likely to attack us, but logic doesn't really get a voice when I scared!

It was about an 8km ride to the gorge, where we went for an hour guided walk -- would have liked to have taken the three hour tour, but I wasn't at all interested in getting caught in the park after dark, though Terry would have been all for it. We were chatting with our guide, John, about his life as a Maasai. He says things are improving as more schools are being built. When he was in school, he had to walk 25 km each way to and from school every day. He quit in class 6 after too many of his friends had died from animal attacks on the way to school. Education wasn't worth risking his life. Now, though, his younger brother is finishing Form 4 as a school has been built closer to their home. John will look for work after he finishes the "community service" time (he is a volunteer at the park). All Maasai are expected to do community service for a number of years before they are free to go an work. We asked John what he will do for work -- he is up for anything. He knows his options are limited because of his limited education. He hopes to get something better than working at a flower farm because they only make 6,000 =/ per month (about $70/month).

Anyway, LOOK AT THE GORGE! Flash floods keep carving the gorge deeper and deeper. John is pointing to graphite from "Phil 1992" at least 10 metres up where the ground used to be.

I might have been a little scared climbing out -- hey, it was slippery and I was in flip flops -- so John took my hand (he was wearing dress pants and dress shoes) and just marched me right up! I'll put more pics up on fb, ugh, this was SO COOL!

After biking back to the gate, we were having a drink before we headed out and look who we ran into!

Naivasha Trip

2012-02-14T19:52:00.000+03:00

We travelled by matatu on Saturday morning to Naivasha via Nakuru, leaving at 6:30am for a 6 hour journey. We took the Blueline as recommended by a friend. The Blueline is an express line whereby everyone gets their own seat (a rare luxury here)... turns out, though, that the Blueline doesn't stop in Naivasha. This we found out quite by accident after we had passed the town by about 20km. I had seen a sign awhile back saying Naivasha 17km, but when the bus continued to drive for another 45 minutes with no other signs to Naivasha, we asked the driver. "Naivasha? No, we are almost in Nairobi!" So, after much yelling in Swahili on the phone, the driver pulled over and pointed to the other side of the road and instructed us to catch the next matatu. Grrr. Anyway, after a little bickering, we managed to find one that took us where we needed to be and after a short, squishy, bumpy ride, we arrived.

We were surprised when we met our contact, Richard, from the Naivasha club -- we had both been expecting a Kenyan. Well, after 16 years living in Naivasha, Richard is now a Kenyan, but he has the skin of a mzungu and the accent of a Brit. Richard whisked us off to the Sports Club (seems every town has a sports club -- 9 hole golf course with "browns" rather than "greens", racket club, restaurant) for a quiet lunch.

The Campbell River Daybreak Club is working on a global grant with Naivasha Rotary Club (about a dozen members) on an Adopt a Village Project. The Adopt a Village Project has a water, medical, and educational component. Terry is helping write the grant application... after dotting i's and crossing t's for our Protected Springs Grant, he's a bit of an expert in wording answers in just the way the powers that be want to hear them -- all while telling the truth, of course! CR Daybreak will be taking on the "water" part. I'll let Terry fill you in on the details as I am sure our club will want to be a part of it. It will serve many many people in desparate need of water. Right now they have no access at all to water and have to buy it from one of these guys (who are not very nice to their donkeys by the way).

Wouldn't want to be a donkey in Naivasha.

We met some of the CR Daybreak Rotarians and their spouses on Sunday -- they were easy to pick out, just look for the ones with the hats. Ah, we always get a kick out of mzungus in safari gear! Kenyans are dressed in satin and sequins and we are dressed in khakis and tilley hat! Rats, they took off their hats after I teased them.

Richard (on left) with CR Daybreak Rotarians in front of water tank they sponsored.

The RC of Naivasha's pride and joy is their Children's Safe House that they fully support. This is a home for children who have been rescued from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. The children stay here on a temporary basis until rehabilitation with their families is possible. One little guy was brought in after being neglected by his single mother who had turned to prostitution. The boy was three and weighed the same as Richard's 15 month old baby. He reminded us that this is the outcome of desparation, not of bad people. The children were a little reluctant at first (so were the Rotarians), but after some time, there were smiles all around, only a few tears.

Curious, but not quite sure...

Warming up

Ready to play (I played "football" with a bottle cap with the little girl on the right,
after I put her shoes on the right foot).

Baby Class

2012-02-10T14:07:00.031+03:00

Brenda has started baby class (3-5yrs). Baby class starts with Stream 1, on the left side of the class, and in year two, they graduated to Stream 2, the right side of the class. I think you'll see the difference in the actions of the song. This is almost more cuteness than I can handle!

Children are in school from 7:30am to 3:30pm. There are about 90 kids all day and another 50 come for a feeding program at lunch. School fees (only about 3,000 =/ for a 3 month term) pay for the food, and donations from the church pay the teachers salary.

Circle song -- Brenda is the one on the right in the blue shoes.

Brenda is really good at hopping!

It is a nice school full of happy children (can't fake kids having fun!). I asked Fredrick if Brenda was scared to go to school. He told me that when he took her the first day, the teacher asked how she is doing. In Swahili, she answered, "I've come here to learn."

Fredrick came by this afternoon. He discovered at 10:30 this morning when he went home for tea that Josephine is not feeling well. She later called him in the early afternoon to say that "the pains in her womb" were getting worse. I told him he had better take her to the hospital, but I knew it was getting close to the time when Brenda would be coming home from school.

"How does Brenda get home from school?" I asked. "She usually just walks home with the other children who live near."

"If you are taking Josephine to the hospital, who will care for Brenda?"

Fredrick answers, "Remember I told you there is a young girl next door, sister to Augustine, that cooks for the other childrens. I can talk to her and just tell her to let Brenda in to the house." "Or, I can just come back and open the door for Brenda." The girl we are talking about is in Standard One (6 years old).

"Brenda stays alone in the house?" I ask trying not to sound too alarmed (Brends is four).

"Oh, she just likes to play around, so it is just o.k."

48 Protected Spring Recipients Receive Hygiene Training

2012-02-10T06:40:00.002+03:00


Feb 9th grads of 'how to maintain your health and protected spring'

Terry's Update to Rotary

2012-02-08T17:43:00.001+03:00

For any non Rotarians reading this: Terry and Tanya's Rotary Club, RC Strathcona Sunrise, has an International Committee that meets regularly to coordinate the club's International Projects (we have projects at various stages in India (2) and Mexico (proposed) as well -and maybe more since we left). They have a meeting Fri Feb 10th and this is our update to them. We won't hold it against them if they turn down our request below, they are tasked with stretching the dollars that club members work so hard to raise (selling beer, burgers and ...very heavy bags of soil conditioner).

Hi Guys,

Project Update (feel free to skim Pippa, I don't want to eat up the meeting):

1) Protected Springs GG (PSGG)

Based on previous experience and the scope of this project I expected it to take 12-16 months to complete. I now expect we will be 90-100% completed by March 20th (our return date). 20 are complete, 20 under construction and 10 not started. Thanks to local Rotarians we are under budget. Extra money will go to build steps for some (~3) of the insane access springs (see blog for details) and perhaps a few extra springs (we'll see).

Don't tell Lynn, but I just signed 130 very formal certificates as President of RCSS. I TOLD them I was only PE, but they didn't listen, or spell my name right. These will be given out tommorrow and Friday as we provide Hygiene & Protected Spring Management Training to the recipients of the first 18 springs now complete. The course is taught by Dept of Public Health, but sponsored totally by Rotary (cost is $9/ per participant, for training materials, transport, lunch and certificate (they LOVE certificates down here)). After this 3 more training days to do.

2) Fish Farm DCG
Assessment stage is done. All farmers and would-be farmers have been spoken too, technical training w/ field trips has occurred. One of 3 days of business training has taken place so far- next class feb 18th. Terry has met with local fingerling and feed producers. We have 47 days to form a women's co-ops for widow-headed households.Tanya has taken the reins. The speed of the PSGG is such that it is consuming alot of Terry's time monitoring,administrating and mostly dispensing payments to contractors (via RC Kakamega) and keeping everyone in the loop. Its a good problem to have.

3) Students
Our form 2 student, Mathias, we have met and updated you on. Moses, for whom Michael Pontus is providing medical coverage, has ongoing issues with his now amputated leg, but they are being addressed. Both Moses and Mathias seem happy, clothed, school supplied and marks look good. Our form 1 student will not start at Musingu High as the fees are too much. This was Alinda's recommendation and she went ahead and started him at another school before I could object- but she says the alternative school is very good and she knows her stuff. We will meet him soon.

I concur with Tanya that we keep Mathias at Musingu High school until he graduates at a cost of $700.00 a year (we budgetted for $600). We have until next Dec to decide about our 2013 Form 1 student (Student #3).

4) Other Rotary related.
(i)Tanya is working closely with Rotaract; it is a very $ poor, but very active club. She did a garbage clean up day with them last Saturday and she has not missed a meeting. They were blown away to see her actually picking up garbage. Video on our blog. She is meeting weekly with female Rotaracters starting tomorrow.
(ii) We travel to Navaisaha ( 5 hrs on bus 1 way) to meet Campbell River Rotarians and discuss a ~$50K clean water GG proposal this weekend.

Request : Could RC Strathcona Sunrise sponsor two Rotaracters to send to RYLA in March?

In 2009 we sent two for $150.00 each. This year I expect the fee will be $200 each. Covers travel, registration, room and board for weekend in Nairobi (9hr bus ride from here). RC Kakamega will likely send 1 or 2. These will be 1st or 2nd year students who will be being groomed to run Rotaract in 2 years (older Rotaracters cannot go due to exams). Tanya would select lucky recipients with Abraham, Winnie and Athanacious (VP, Treasurer and President). They are all excellent. Will ensure females are represented (club is 30 strong, with about 40% women). If yay, please record in minutes to reimburse me when I get back after I provide reports and receipts from students.

Have a good meeting, skype probably won't work at Plates, but I am available if it does. My skype handle is Farmsalmon4ever.

Terry

PS Did I ever tell you that the first thing we saw on our first day here at KASFOOC office was a picture I took of about 20 RCSSers bagging Skyrocket? Each beneficiary was told, and shown, exactly how donors worked for the money to provide springs and fish farm supplies. Thanks to that opicture and KASFOOC, they really understand that this money was worked for and, perhaps a little forcefully for my taste, are told that theyhave to work hard to make projects sustainable tosay thank you to donors. Pretty cool, and yes, they make sure to thank us, as we walk around out there, for working so hard to raise the money to build these springs.

Some Miscellaneous Photos

2012-02-07T14:29:00.001+03:00

After about a 1000 years(?) of providing questionable water this spring will be protected next week.

Centre is the village elder. He will let contractor store materials on his land and make sure they don't get pinched. He will also ensure big rocks and sand is collected and labourers will get fed a hot lunch.

This homemade protected spring is constantly failing and having to be re-assembled

Zico the contractor getting a read of a spring to be started on Feb 7th (today)

One of 1000's of beneficiaries from our spring project

RC Kakamega Meeting poolside

Homemade toy: a truck made of wire being pushed with a stick

Signs of stress on the "running gear"- no infection yet

Google Map of Fish Ponds and Protected Springs

2012-02-06T19:29:00.000+03:00

Can someone click on the link below and send me a comment to tell me if the link below works? You should see a google map showing the exact locations of each pond and spring we are working on. With Norms help all my GPS data was loaded in. Now I am trying to stand on my own two feet and add a before and after picture for each point. Don't hold your breath. You can see the name of the spring or the pond by clicking on the marker or scrolling down (I think). Our house is about 3km due south below the biggest cluster of points.

Google Map of Rotary projects near Kakamega:
http://batchgeo.com/map/f7c919ede59cc1f147199dd13c0abecf

Wanted: Cement Steps

2012-02-06T09:13:00.001+03:00

Yesterday (Sunday Feb 5th) was another day of hiking among the springs. This time we were alerting the next community to receive springs that 1) it was time to gather sand and rocks, 2) introducing them to Wycliffe the contractor and 3) making arrangements for material storage and lunches for the workers. Three of the springs we are about to construct are at the bottom of short, steep cliffs. How the ladies transport 50 lb buckets of water up these steep sections is beyond me- let alone in the rain. Wycliffe, the very gentlest of fellows, will put together quotes for concrete stairs. The video shows one of these sections. If we have money left over we will install steps where we can.

Mzungu Weekend

2012-02-05T20:46:00.000+03:00

We had a delightful weekend with two social do's in a row. Saturday afternoon we were in line at Nakumat and smiled at a mother and son in the checkout next to us (mzungus). Nakumat is kind of mzungu central, but they are not always friendly. We always give a Canadian smile, but are often met with barely a glance or even an outright "I'm too cool for you" snub. Our smile Saturday, though, was met with an invitation for dinner and games night. Against our introverted nature, a smile is as far as we usually go, we accepted the invitation and arranged to meet later at Naku to be guided in.

Erik & Joel

At the appointed time and place, we were met by two boys who hopped off their piki piki and began chatting up a storm. I asked the older one, Eric, what it was like being a young guy in Kenya. I was quickly corrected, "I'm not actually that young. I will be 14 in June." The young one, Joel, asked me if I had money and it's o.k. if I don't because he can pay for me. We hopped on a couple of piki pikis and headed off. They were as comfortable as can be, smiling and chatting the whole time.

Leading the way to Miraba

We hopped off the bikes a couple of blocks before we reached the house to walk with the boys' friend, Meghan, who was also coming for dinner. Meghan is just a regular American 24 year old girl; kinda soft, glasses... who is a member of the Peace Corp. She is living with a Kenyan family in the middle of nowhere, teaching at a rural school. She is a 700 shilling taxi ride from town -- the Peace Corp doesn't allow the youth to ride pikis. When we asked her why, she said because they used to have a mortality rate! O.K., so it was probably only one, but the western safety mentality couldn't take it. Her stories blew us away... you would never guess by looking at her that she would have the adventurous spirit that she did. Throughout the evening she and Brent, the 16 year old son, exchanged war stories of nightmare flights to China and other world adventures.

Joel takes care of the calves -- Daisy is 2 weeks old

Dennis and Michele have lived in Kenya for three years with Michele's four boys (her 19 year old daughter went home to the states) Joel (10), Erick (13), Brent (16), Jeremy (18). They are missionaries who work with a rural school and also teach dairy farming to local mammas. Their cows produce 17 litres of milk a day. Michele whipped up some butter right before dinner. I asked the question a little reluctantly, but I really wanted to know... "What exactly is a missionary." They told me that basically it can be any type of humanitarian project, often involves building a school or a church, with some element of teaching about God. Some missions have a stronger proselytizing factor than theirs. In fact, they are getting quite a bit of flack from their organization for not thumping the bible hard enough. We ate, played Turkey Foot (a dominoes game), drank tea with fresh milk, laughed, and exchanged stories. They were possibly the nicest, friendliest people we have ever met. Glad we accepted the invitation.

This afternoon we went to CHES for a potluck. The usual mzungu suspects were there -- Rod & Pat, Alinda, Marie, Norm & Cheryl, Sandra, and the young couple from the states, Miles and Katie. Miles and Katie delighted us with some toe-tappy songs. Ah, another lovely social afternoon.

Rotaract Kakamega Clean-up

2012-02-04T15:45:00.001+03:00

The Rotaract Club of Masinde Muliro University coordinated a Community Clean-up for today. Around 70 students met at the university at 8:30am where we organized and marched into town carrying banners and placards to bring awareness to the clubs in the hopes that others may join in to keep Kakamega clean. There is garbage everywhere here, plastic bags, corn cobs, mango seeds, wrappers, broken flip flops. I don't really know what system they have to manage it all. Every night around four o'clock, the air is full of smoke from burning garbage. I have asked about recycling and get mixed responses... some say there is recycling here, but I haven't seen any evidence of it, other than the 15 bob deposit for soda bottles. We are separating our garbage out of habit, compost bucket, paper, plastics, but I don't have much hope. There is a pit in our back yard which I thought was for compost, but I have seen it smoldering on more than one occasion, so ...

It was so refreshing to walk with the students in to town... these kids have no problem taking up space, unlike the submissive demeanor that is more common in the Kenyan small towns. The university has had quite an impact on Kakamega. It has brought some new money into the town and also some new ideas. We have even seen boys and girls holding hands which is quite a taboo for the conservative town. The university students have brought fashion with them too, with girls in tank tops and even shorts or skirts above the knee and hair in all kinds of styles and colours. They make the mzungus appear even more frumpy, in our wrinkled khakis and stupid back packs.

Anyway, I think the little video says more than I could describe. It was a dusty, dirty job, but I felt privileged to be a part of it. These youth are such an inspiration.

I was chatting with one young woman who is in her third year at MMUST. She is interested in business, but studying social work. I think there are certain programs, like teaching and social work, that must be fairly easy to get into because I meet a lot of students that are in the teaching program, but have no interest in actually becoming teachers... just another of the many things I don't quite get about this place. Things are not as they seem, there is always some complexity.

Anyway, I mentioned I was a life coach, which I always feel stupid about here -- argh, life balance, follow your passion... it really makes me want to gag when I put it in the Kenyan context, but it does slip out sometimes. Regina said she has read about life coaches on the Internet. She says it doesn't apply here though because unless you are from the right tribe or know someone close to government, you will always struggle. So you just give up. Inside I am thinking, OF COURSE YOU WANT TO GIVE UP! But, I could tell by her smile that Regina wasn't going to be one to give up! She's got spunk and she will make it. And I know in my heart, and I said it out loud that you must never give up. You are the future that Kenya needs and you will make it.

She comes from Nairobi and will be here for another year to finish her schooling. I don't know what her family does, but she did say that they have always worked to be sure she can stay in school. She asked her father to buy her a popcorn machine after looking around town to see what kind of business she can do. She is just waiting for permission from the Dean to sell popcorn on the university grounds. I told her about another Kenyan young woman, Carolyne, who is selling caramel popcorn (made with ground nuts, vanilla, and honey) directly to high schools so she doesn't have to sit all day on the corner. Regina asked if next time I come to the university, could I look for her and buy some popcorn. Of course I will. Regina is going to be just fine.

Tanya Grocery Shopping Video

2012-02-04T08:25:00.000+03:00

Here's a few minutes of video of a typical shopping trip to local market. The old lady in the pink dress that appears just plopped herself beside Tanya. She quietly mentioned, eventually, that she wanted a pineapple so Tanya bought her one. Her earlobes were the size of baseballs, not sure what that was, didn't look healthy.

Video of completed spring Isembe

2012-02-03T19:28:00.002+03:00

Tanya and I went and checked on a couple completed springs this afternoon. The protected spring in video is the very first spring (called Isembe) where we had the groundbreaking ceremony Jan 9th. More pics to follow , internet is a little slow tonight.

VIDEO CLICK HERE

Onto the 2nd batch of 18 Protected Springs

2012-02-02T15:47:00.004+03:00

The day started at 6am I was "at" a Rotary meeting in Courtenay for about 5 minutes via Skype. Ironically it was the Canada side that failed.

Then, as usual, I jogged out the front door for 2 minutes, hopped on the back of a motorbike and got driven out about 5km to the back roads. Paid with a 50Ks (60 cents) and started running into the bush. Quite a few good trails in behind the tea fields. Remember that big pig? This time the same guy (Im pretty sure) had two small pigs. I don't know why, but with all the rick shaws and bikes and people walking around barefoot and beautifully dressed women among others in rags, pigs just add to the pageantry of it all. I did about 13km.

At 10am we met with KASFOOC and discussed:

1. Details of hygiene training logistics (for 3 contractors too). Jackson had painstakingly walked through the entire community over a couple days collecting the names of all 124 attendees, effectively registering them and then printing and making photocopies for Rotary. What a guy.

2. Alex business training for KASFOOC widows and Impact farmers. Part 2 is on Feb 18th transportation fare will not be supplied.

3. Protected spring status. First 18 are 95% done. Shallow wells may be needed in two places at extra cost.

4. Virtues training. this is a one day course in cooperation. it can be scheduled for after we are gone as everyone's plates are getting pretty full with the training.

5. Inspection of next 18 springs does not require a special trip just for Terry. Let me know when Jackson tours contractors and he will tag along.

6. Fish farmers DCG. The grant I have to empower fish farmers is the toughest challenge of the trip. Its easy to train fish farmers, give them fingerlings, feed, fertilizer etc But how to make it sustainable? I am hoping the Alex training will have an effect. Right now the hands are out, but is the committment to run these ponds like a business really there? Will they just grow the fingerlings Rotary provides and give them all away with no saving for the next re-stocking? A one-hit wonder? We discussed several ideas here, but it is tricky. Oh for the days where charities just threw stuff out of the back of the truck, had a party and sailed into the sunset . Damn Rotary's policy to make the grant self sustaining ;0)

The first 18 PS's are 95% complete. A few more need fencing; to be done by Sunday. So it was time to show the contractors the next batch. Jackson, 62, gave me about 10 minutes notice it was time to go. I ran out the door, met them at Nakumat, a motorcycle was arranged and waiting for me, it was about 33 degrees, and away we went. Me on the back of one and he and contractor Nixon on the back of the other bike. These sites are closer than the last 18 so less hiking was involved. Jackson and Nixon were wearing dress pants and dress shoes and they nimbly raced through the rough steep terrain to one spring after another, leaping ditches as they talked on their phones and to the folks who came out to greet us. It was a great pace, a good workout.

I learned from Nixon that 2 of the springs were dry and would need a shallow well at a cost of an extra 10,000 Ksh per ($122). The problem is thy were not flowing and they were in a flat spot. They showed me a shallow wel (28 feet) that Nixon had just built for Tembo Nov 2011.


Shallow well by Tembo. It costs about 15% more, but is good where flow is intermittent.

This is a cheap protected spring, costs about 1/3 of ours. No steps,standing in muck.

PS# 25 Mulusiola- Will be finished by Sunday. Right beside the cheap PS above which villagers are not allowed to use.

PS#19 The chlorine dispenser was put there by http://www.oneacrefund.org/. They will install 300K. Its a good back up to ensure water is safe year round.

PS#22 Mwichina. This is widely used spring on a steep riverbank. Nixon the contractor is checking it out. His crew will start working on it this Monday Feb 6th.

Mwitubi PS#20 at least there is still water after months of no rain.

Nixon pointing at eucalyptus trees that suck all the water out of the ground PS#21

PS# 27 Shikangia-One of the worst I have seen so far. A source of dirty water and malaria. May have to be a shallow well as it is in a flat spot with no flow.

PS#23 Shipera just a wetspot, but enough water to justify a good source.

I am not sure if I mentioned this but we will be under budget for the springs. The reason? our Rotarians from Kakamega had a good look over the costs and said that villagers must supply sand and big rocks. Now it t'would've been lovely if RC Kakamega had said this a year ago when we collected the estimates, but better late than never. So we will have extra money as we come across extra challenging water sources. So far 3 have been identified as costing an extra $122, but RC Kakamega has saved us $140 PER spring (so far). I am assuming our co-grant sponsors will be OK with building a few extra springs if funds allowed? RC Kakamega would like to see supplies go to Rotary High School. We shall cross this bridge in a few weeks.

As we trekked at high pace, on and off the bikes, Grace called. The hygiene training was set for Feb 9 and 10 for 124 villagers (62 each). The costs were estimated for food, books and transport. Good news.

The Balanced Stone perched at the very top of a hill. The sun was so glaring this is the only angle we could snap a pic from. Kids were lying around under it getting shade- it was 34 degrees celsius.

We finished the high pace tour after 2 hours and I had time to have a Krest Bitter Lemon soda before heading to Rotary High School (this school is hurtin' for supplies, teacher salaries, everything) to meet the Rotaract Club which was launching an Interact Club. It was a packed room, but very efficiently managed by the 15 Rotaracters who spoke very easily to the 40 or so high schoolers present. Tanya, Alinda and Sandra all gave very rousing motivational speeches as they were asked to do. I got big applause for saying "Good evening, my name is Terry, I am from Canada" in Swahili. After that it was a big photo shoot (pics in Tanya's camera). Nice to see the Rotary Wheel on the school uniforms.

Asset Based Community Development

2012-01-31T15:05:00.001+03:00

Short video of KASFOOC breakout Group

Here's a video of one of the many singing breaks. I mean, you gotta sing while learning business right?

This Saturday was the first of a series of training sessions for a new group with Alex Omino. Another group, also funded through our Canada to Kenya efforts, has been working with Alex since October and have made great strides towards forming a co-operative. They should be in full swing before we leave.

We had a successful turnout for this new group -- too successful really -- with 102 participants. A group of 70 would have been ideal, but I was having familiar fears of a roomful of empty seats, so I invited too many, being sure that many would not come. Well, they almost all came!

Waiting for training to begin

Like what I'm hearing so far

Hmmm, we'll see...

This group on Saturday was sitting right where the first group was three short months ago, unclear as to what to expect from the training. I am curious to see what path this journey will take them on. When Alex asked for their expectations, these were some of the responses:

Education
To be identified to our seniors and supporters of the group
How to run the groups better
To know the moral support we are going to get -- He called them on this one... "you mean material support, isn't it?"
To know as a group how to grow... so that we are assisted.

Come on, be honest... Who came hoping for some material support.

After some coaxing he was able to get out of them that, yes, they were there in the hopes of getting some support. This is the mindset that is killing Africans. Kenya has been receiving Aid since 1963. Alex asked how much has been done to alleviate poverty... "Very little. According to me... none. In 48 years, there is Nothing Going On -- N.G.O."

Alex Omino

Alex went on to talk about the bleak state of the world and it's direct impact on the world's poorest countries, Kenya being among them: Global Warming, World Economic Crisis, High Ranking Poverty, Deep Rooted Corruption. The state of the European Union has a impacted aid to Africa as European efforts are directed away from Africa to serve their poverty within, especially in Eastern Europe. "If Africans cannot change from becoming beggars, they will die."

The approach of NGO's in Africa has been that of charitable donations to the needy -- Participatory Rural Appraisal. The well meaning mzungu asking the poor African to tell them their struggles. The focus is on community needs and problems in order of severity. Sounds reasonable enough. They give some money where they feel it will do some good and walk away feeling like they've done a little something good.

This is exactly what I was doing just two weeks ago when I visited women's groups. After a song and a prayer ;o), the group would tell me what they are doing and what they are struggling with and what they want. This approach seemed better than me, the all knowing, all powerful mzungu coming in with answers. I was curious, asked lots of questions in an effort to learn from the women.

Patience Group Song

What Alex is teaching, and what he believes is the only answer for Africa, is Asset Based Community Development. What are you STRENGTHS and how can you build on them? What RESOURCES are available to you right now? What are your COPING STRATEGIES? This is what some of the groups came back with:

Patience Group -- a group of retired professionals.

Most of the community has small plots and undertake small scale farming
Poultry, Fish Ponds, Bee keeping
Maize/vegetables -- subsistence farming
Farmers have formed a co-operative for sale of milk

KASFOOC -- Kakamega Supporting Families of Orphaned Children (our fish farm widows)

Kufanya biashara
Ukulima (farming)
Miradi kwa fmawo

Unfortunately this one was in Swahili, so I'm not exactly sure what they said... But, the gist of it is that they support the needy. The question Alex posed was, with whose money do you support the needy?

Faith Women Group

Helping one another in problems

e.g. funerals, sickness, famine

Helping one another in ceremonies
Merry Go Round (each member contributes 50 /=
Helping needy people in the community

e.g. sick people, bringing for the water, firewood

Small scale farming

Faith Women Group

Mulakha and Bidii Groups

Small scale farming
Small scale business
Merry Go Round
Table banking

You get the idea... Two groups shared what they were doing in the way of small scale business, and also included the "But..." listing some of their challenges and what's stopping them from going forward.

Alex wrapped up with an emphasis on PRODUCTION. What can you produce that will support you? He used volunteers in skits to demonstrate what it is like supporting the needy. Piggy backing, blindfolded person leading a sighted person, etc. It brought lots of laughs and I think helped to drive the point home. He also talked about who is the NGO... not a big corporation, but individuals, with families, children in school. These are the people who are bringing the donations. And they are going to get tired. "Can't we let Tanya come next time as a tourist, not a well wisher."

He stressed to me, I need these lessons perhaps more than the participants, and to the group that there is an appropriate time for a donation, or an investment, but ONLY as a boost to efforts already in motion.

The answer for the group and for Africa:

Create wealth
Build unity

Stay tuned for session two which will cover: Resource Analysis, Economic Analysis, Production and Value Addition, and Building a Strong Group/Organization Profile.

Long day!

Big Pig

2012-01-29T22:45:00.001+03:00

Ok, hands up: who ran by a guy walking a black, very loud, huge 300+ lb, oinking pig this morning down the middle of the road?

I did. Complete with oinking.

The motorbike (piki piki) dropped me off about 5km from home. On a 13km frisky run (4:35/ km on the rare flat, non technical sections) through tea fields and trails behind thereof. The pig and his owner were on the "main" road which makes the road out to Zeballos look like the Transcanada high way.

Exciting day of entering the names of all my waypoints and reading my GPS manual cover to cover. Tanya got our accounts up to date on an Xcel spreadsheet. We have spent.... what we thought we have spent. And that is good.

Sorry, no picture of the big pig; the light was all wrong...and he was too big to ask to turn around.

Protected Spring Before+ During Photos

2012-01-27T20:20:00.003+03:00

Today was a filing day. All the paperwork, receipts, reports, videos and pictures are piling up and needed to be sorted or lose all value. Below is a 'Before' and 'During Construction' photos of a protected spring.

The Rotary meeting last night was good in that we made some decisions about releasing money to contractors. Basically the first 18 springs are 80% complete but only 30% paid for. So there was some catching up to do, we released some funds today. We have 2.4 million shillings ($30K CDN) over the next 6 weeks so we need to have a system for moving 400,000 Ksh/ week,which is tricky the way banks work down here.

Enough about money, here is some photos:

Emulakah PS#13 80% done Jan 26

Me and Jackson- back-filling and fence behind this wall to be completed

Alot of digging required to ensure water is filtered and spring not flooded

Emulakah PS#13 Before construction Jan 9

During Spring check came across another Rotary water project

2012-01-26T16:18:00.001+03:00

Just back from a spring check up. It was about 4 hours of walking (short video here), the springs are getting close to completion, but the fundis say they need more money. So far we have only paid about 30% up front (21,000Ksh or $258). The unskilled workers get $3 per day and have not received full pay yet. I will update the Rotary club at our meeting tonight.

As we walked by a school Jackson mentioned that Rotary had done a water project there. They had built a borehole pump and plumbed the roofs with water catchment pipes and tanks. This looks very similar to a proposed project that I am looking into in Navaisha (7 hrs away) for the Rotary Club of Campbell River Daybreak. This is a VERY low income school. The tanks are dry (no rain in a long time), but the borehole still provides water. The head teacher was dying for us to stay and talk to teachers and students, but we had to keep going. They think RC Kakamega was behind the water project, I will find out tonight. Here's a 2" video of school.

Amongst the kids is a water pump. In behind you can see the black water tanks and pipes coming off the roofs

Rotary rain catcher tanks and plumbing at a very poor school in the boonies- note kids do not have uniforms, very rare. Good national results at Elufwahfwah Community School. 220 kids.

In Your Face

2012-01-26T06:19:00.000+03:00

We started the day by heading out on two piki pikis to visit Esembe Spring to record the progress in a video Terry is putting together to present when we get home. Terry had told me it was a pretty gnarly ride, but I didn't want to be left behind. I won't pretend I wasn't nervous, but we`ve been getting a lot of Praise Gods since we`ve arrived, so I figure we must be in good hands. So glad I went. Without the thought of what could happen if we crashed, there is no nicer way to travel. Wind in my hair, cool breeze, bouncy ride... just being part of it all is so fantastic.

I think that's what I love about this place... it is so in your face. At home, partly because of the cold and the dark, but mostly because of... I don't know what... we are so isolated; in our cars, in our buildings, behind doors, beneath our helmets. Here, whether walking, on a bike or a motorcycle, you share the path with neighbours, children, animals, food, goods for sale of all kind just strewn out on the street -- everything from undies to text books, to mangoes, to pad locks and tools and solar lamps. It`s all just right there.

More later...

Rotaract Meeting &Tilapia

2012-01-25T20:58:00.001+03:00

Tanya and I just returned from a Rotaract meeting at the local university. The club is just starting its semester with 20 members and a full plate of activities planned. President Anathasius and Secretary Abraham led a good meeting.

Short video of Rotaract meeting HERE

Feb 4th there is Kakamega clean up. Their motto this year: "Everyone is blessed to be a blessing to be a blessing to others". Saturdays they visit Rotary High school to give talks, tutoring and organize games (kids got o school on Saturdays but not all day). They will also visit childrens homes. Last year they volunteered at a Womens maternal Health clinic. They were touched by one 18 year old girl who had 5 kids and a 24 yr old with 6 kids. They want to continue with adult education. They also plan on sending a few students to the annual Rotary leadership conference in Nairobi March 14th (RC Kakamega usually sponsors 2, but they hope to send 4 first year students (because older ones have exams and it sows seeds for future Rotaracters).

After that we met with Nahn Nygeun from Houston who has alot of info on tilapia. He is keen to do aquaponic fish farming. We met him through our neighbours Sanford and June. He gave me a much needed feed table for tilapia showing feed rates in % bodyweight per day for various size classes (ages) and water temperatures. I have spent hours unsuccessfully googling for this format. Fantastic. He gave me a great tilapia aquaculture meta study I am eager to review. He has a great story of being born poor poor in Vietnam and coincidentally Rotary sponsored his family's escape from Viet Nam in 1980. Now here he is, like me, with a fish fetish and a whole country dying to farm fish.

During the day I met with a local hatchery operator. She, Joyce, is new to the game and somewhat self taught, so I think I will get fingerlings from Kisumu. But she is independent woman fish farmer and willing to teach our widows what she knows, and she does have the real -world experience and the tilapia economics down pat. She is also on the committee to bring a fish processing plant to the area, so she is an excellent contact for marketting our widows fish.

First 18 springs almost protected (video)

2012-01-25T15:19:00.001+03:00

Just a few more days...

Video of Tanya and Terry visit to Isembe, Spring # 1, 9 days after start

A Day of Fish Farm Training (video)

2012-01-24T19:01:00.001+03:00

From a Rotary District Community Grant 26 fish farmers were given a full day 0800-1700 of technical training. We rented two minivans, filled with 14 passengers each, no seat belts headed out along terrible roads to get instruction from nearby fish farmers recommended by local government.

Two instructors joined us, extension fisheries officers they are called. The take home messages for me was 1. "Ponds are not dug, they are constructed",
2. They must be 300m2, "kitchen ponds" will not make money
3. Use all-male fish and,
4. Feed, feed, feed.
All these topics were gone into in great detail.

This Saturday we have business training for 80 people. This training is provided by Tanya's NGO Tembo, eg Norm O, Jon F, Wayne C, Cathy C, Bent H, Chip R, Carole M, Lee C., Lance T, Catherine P, Al B, Leeanne R, Wendy L, Carol P, Christine H, Richard C, Dona H and many other pals who donated. Working cooperatively is the emphasis. After this we will do one more round of technical training, followed by Virtues training which teaches the "spirit" of cooperation- the paradigm shift. You will be honoured this Saturday at 9am at the Social Hall that you rented. You also supplied lunch and boda boda money so our widows can get home afterwards.

It was a long dusty day. I have some video which I will insert below as soon as it is uploaded.

Video 1
Video 2

New Normal

2012-01-24T12:45:00.002+03:00

Things I don't love so much here:

Corruption
Dust
Cacophony of dogs howling and barking all night
Feeling of constantly being ripped off for being white (i.e. rich)
Feeling constantly like I should pay more because I am white (i.e. rich)
Burning garbage
Arriving for a 9:30am meeting, to be told at 11:20am that madam will not arrive until 2pm
Hearing that madam has been delayed because one of the staff members who had been sick in hospital was given acid to drink by her husband who didn't know how he would pay the hospital bill

Things that are becoming our new normal:

Hearing stories like that everyday, told with a smile
Sleeping under a mosquito net
Boda boda rides to town
Piki piki for three (driver and me and Terry... no helmets)
Locking the padlock at night
Bars on windows
"How are you?"
Power outages (conversations don't even skip a beat as the room goes from light to black and back again)
Questionable toilets

Things I love here:

Sequins and satin and fancy hair-do's that are more than the dusty roads call for
Hand claps and songs to welcome and appreciate guests
Handshakes and smiles all around as a greeting
Karibu! (Welcome in Swahili)
Herds of scruffy cows, or goats, or chickens that pop up out of nowhere
The scurry of geckos as I approach the front porch
The song birds that are our constant companion
Purple and orange and hot pink shops
Mangoes, paw paws, passion fruit, and sweet bananas
Ground nuts
Hot sun and cool breezes
Lush, green hillsides
Faces that tell a thousand stories

Village Enterprise

2012-01-23T20:17:00.000+03:00

We are starting a new group through business training with Alex on Saturday. It will be a bit of a mad dash getting everyone together, but I am confident (she says a little hesitantly) that we can pull it off. We are inviting 100 people and hoping for 80.

I met with Grace from the Kakamega Rotary club this morning to talk about the women's groups that she works with. Grace is a retired Head Teacher and a dynamo volunteer with Rotary and in the Community. Since 2008, Grace has volunteered for an NGO based out of California, Village Enterprise. This group provides grants to small groups of 3-5 members to start small businesses. Volunteers like Grace, visit rural communities and identify groups that may be eligible for a grant. The groups fill out a detailed application form, which includes a home visit for verification, to determine their living situation. Some of the questions on the application are:

How many dependents do you have?
How many meals a day do you budget for?
How many times a week do you have meat?
What is your house built out of (mud, cement, bricks, etc.)?
How many towels in your house?
How many mosquito nets?
Do you have an iron?

The groups that are selected are put through training in how to choose a business and location, how to get and retain customers, how to convert profits into savings to keep the business going, book keeping, etc. Then, each group puts 1,500 Ksh in and Village Enterprise gives them a grant for 7,500 for a total of 9.000 to start a business. The groups are monitored to see that they are keeping good records and the business is continuing. After three months of good standing, the group is given another 3,750 Ksh to boost their business even further. After another three months of monitoring, groups that are excelling are given a bonus 5,000 Ksh for their business. Grace says there are only a few that qualify for this bonus.

New groups chosen every three months. Grace says that most of the groups are still going strong, even after 3 years. She has seen people rise out of poverty with even this very small start. This is not microcredit. These are grants. Village Enterprise also pays their field volunteers like Grace a stipend of 1,000 Ksh per group application, and another small stipend for the training day. The training is free, Village Enterprise provides lunch for all of the participants and pays their fare to the session.

Grace says I can come with her to the training session in early February for the most recent approved groups.

We had a good discussion about training with or without the promise of money for business. The training that we are providing through Tembo lead by Alex is focused on starting from where you are and NOT waiting for a western donation. Grace believes that without start up capital, training is meaningless -- certainly for the client group that Village Enterprise is targeting.

We also talked about the very African idea of paying volunteers. As mentioned in a previous post, this has been an issue that has come up with the Rotary Grant. The Rotarians with the Kakamega Rotary Club do not think that KASFOOC should be paid for the work they are doing in co-ordinating the Protected Springs Project. Rotarians are not paid a stipend, so neither should the CBO (Community Based Organization) that will be benefiting from the project. They believe in pure volunteerism... which is all very well in theory, but as Grace pointed out, when she is working for this NGO, it means she is not able to work to put food on her table.

Terry and I have found money for KASFOOC (I'm not sure which pocket it will come out of) because we know the incredible time and energy that they have put into this project. It just doesn't seem fair to us that they not be compensated in some way. We also didn't want to put up a fight with the Rotary Club, so we just gave them a small amount to keep them going.

It will be good to see training from two different schools of thought. Nothing is black and white.

ICC rules against Kenyan leaders

2012-01-23T19:04:00.003+03:00

As I type a couple Kenyan locals have come by to watch the TV news (in swahili) regarding today's ICC ruling that 2 Kenyan presidential candidates (this is an election year) will have to go to the Haig to face charges of crimes against humanity for the 2007 riots (following last national election). Trouble could take place-the closest MP is 3 hours away in Eldoret. They vow to stand for election irregardless of the ruling. Two other ministers were also charged.

Fish farm update

2012-01-23T09:48:00.004+03:00

Esters' ponds above are the best I have seen so far- actually have economic potential. Most are too small and we must expand.

Yesterday was touring the last of the KASFOOC fish ponds and a few protected springs. Today is prepping for tomorrow: a field trip, technical training day for our fish farmers led by local Min of Fisheries extension officers. I will give a "rousing" talk as well. We have 2 mini-vans rented and will visit 3 fish farms- one is a tank farm. That will be new to me- not sure what to expect.

I have a RAS (recirc aquaculture system) expert from USA to talk to, he wants to introduce hydroponics into tilapia farming here. That will be fun to hash over as I have licensed a couple of those in BC, but I think a bit of a reach for here. He has contacts with some big money (?), USAID?, we'll see.

I have been doing the math and these women should be able to make Ksh150,000 ($1700 CDN) profit every 8 months from a 300m2 pond- that's huge money. Depends on good feed, good fingerlings and good husbandry (do NOT feed fish feed to the chickens! Do not give all your fish away to the neighbours etc).

Here is a video of what we do not want to do. Only 86 fish were harvested, 42 of any size were sold for a paltry 150Ksh (2$ CDN)

Lazy Sunday

2012-01-22T12:36:00.000+03:00

I'm having my first lazy day since we arrived. I was tempted to go with Terry today for a fish farm harvest, but I had promised myself a much needed day off, so here I am. Sundays are filled with the sounds of birds singing (every day is filled with song birds), cows, drumming and music from the hillside... oh, and really angry sounding preaching. I've got to hand it to the Christian Missionaries. Kenyans around here are crazy about God!

Fredrick and Josephine are coming over today (they are an hour late so far). I have hired Josephine to clean our house. Terry is a little reluctant, assuming that she has never cleaned a house like this and won't know what to do. I'm not worried. I trust her, their family needs the money, and this will be an easy way for her to earn a few extra shillings. And I get my floors washed and some time with Brenda and Emmanuel! Fredrick sent me a text message last night when I asked if Josephine wanted a job once a week cleaning house --

"Yes she can, even if 2 times, although me am not happy. I have worked for somebody from Thursday up to now (Saturday) he has paid me 300 and on the way to home the byscle break one of it's spair so hes money i can not buy food and make biyscle that's why I don't like working for people."

On Friday I went with Sanford and June (our neighbours) to speak at a high school that Sanford had started. Sanford wanted to motivate the students and tell them that we love them. The students didn't quite fit in the assembly hall, so a few put their chairs close to the windows outside the hall so they could see. As the kids (Forms 2 to 4, Grades 10-12) were settling in, there was lots of laughter and chatter. This is the first time I have seen kids relaxed in a school setting, it was really nice. Sanford and June told their stories of growing up in Kakamega, going to school with no shoes, and eventually achieving a scholarship to Alliance (the Harvard of Kenya). Even with the scholarship, Sanford could not afford the living expenses of Nairobi, so he did his post secondary education at Moi University. The take home message was that you can do anything, regardless of your home situation. Most of these kids, probably all of them at this little rural school, come from very poor homes. Fifteen graduates from this little school have gone on to achieve university degrees and a number of them have made it in the U.S.

I told them about my first trip to Kenya in 2009, when on our first day in Kakamega we were swarmed by the street boys -- I didn't expect such a big laugh at this story! I told them I saw so much struggle here that I thought it was hopeless. And then I asked to see Kakamega through God's eyes (the G word is a good hook); and on day two I fell in love with the strength, courage, and generosity of the people here. I read them the story of The Little Hummingbird (one drop of hope, I'm doing what I can...).

They asked lots of questions, in a voice louder than a whisper (also very rare in Kenya). June and I were talking after about how soft spoken Kenyans are. It is a sign of respect. When June went to the U.S. she had to learn to yell at people. Some of their questions were:

What are the salaries in America compared to Kenya? How do I go to a university in America? How does land inheritance work in America? If you love Kenya, why did you leave?

Our 30 minute scheduled talk stretched into 2 hours. Sanford had arranged to bring sodas in for all the kids. As we were leaving, one of the boys had quietly asked Wen (Sanford's friend who was with us) if he could pay his registration fee. Wen didn't know how to answer so he told the boy to speak to the principal. June and Sanford both went on about how courageous it was for the boy to ask, and they will find out his name to be sure his fees are paid. Huh. I guess you've got to take every opportunity that comes along, but it seems a little opposite to "You can do anything with God in your heart." Anything, including asking a mzungu to sponsor you. Sigh.

Terry and I have this conversation almost daily. Are we doing more harm than good by helping. A wise friend has said many times, the money is better spent here than at Starbucks or Walmart, so we can't go wrong. Another wise friend reminds me to go by my feelings. That one is tougher. I would be quite broke if I went by my feelings!

Entertainment Consumed in Kenya

2012-01-22T08:31:00.000+03:00

Thought it may be time for a non-humanitarian post.

Just back from an excellent run 1;10 Sunday morning run, joined a boy named Marcel for a couple kilometres, he was late for church and did not speak,just answered my 2 questions breathlessly.

Just found out about a huge international cross country meet in Eldoret (3 hours from here by bus), with lots of Kip Keino's athletes competing- today! If only I had another days notice. Lots of international stars, Indias team for example, are going to test their legs here after a couple months of pre Olympic training in Kenya. I'll have to go seeking autographs when I get there; I would think for the next few months the running superstars will be buzzing around.

They are fixing the roads near Nairobi so that the Kenyan hopefuls can train on London-like roads,because the Swiss cheese tarmac and dry-riverbed roads that are the norm here are not conducive for training.

Kinda funny to go bed 11am your(home) time, then wake up at 6:30pm your time. The internet keeps us quite connected to home,mentally. There's no TV here worth watching. The news , on 3 channels that we get, is a commentator reading the newspaper most of the time. Lots of soap operas and music videos shot in video. About 5% of homes have TV and the stations are no doubt govt-run. Virtually zero commercials.

So far I have 'read' (audiobooks) Ayn Rands "Atlas Shrugged", Bart Ehrman's "Jesus Interrupted" and Christopher Hitchen's "Hitch 22". They were all great. There is something intriguing about listening to atheist audiobooks while rubbing elbows with the most intense Christians I have ever met.

Tanya and I are watching "Prison Break" at night. There are many episodes. The story is dumb, ugly and the acting is mediocre. But there is something sedating about zoning out on US drama-action after seeing so much real-life chronic, tedious drama of poverty all day.

I am about a 1/4 of the way through Tolstoys' "War and Peace". It is excellent.mostly because it was written in 1860 about 1805. I just cannot get over how cool that is. Being in Kenya where so many people walk and have not travelled more than 5km from their hut in their entire lives brings it home. Many people living out in the rural area lead very quiet, slow lives, much like a Russian peasant from 200 years ago I imagine. Checking Wikipedia I have now read, in my life, 5 of the top 20 longest novels ever written.

Saturday on the Rotary-sponsored fish farms

2012-01-21T19:16:00.001+03:00

Today I joined KASFOOC to watch a pond being harvested. It was not pretty I am afraid to report. Only 86 fish harvested. No money from previous harvest profits has been put aside for the next order of fingerlings or feed. I had a long talk with the farmer about kiloes of feed in, kiloes of fish out. We want the farmer to get 8ksh return on 1Ksh every 8 months.

I spent the next 3 hours hiking around visiting fish farmers and discussing inputs, outputs. The good news is that all are keen to attend the training on Tuesday. My hope is that they are there to learn and not to receive a hand-out. They will be disappointed if they are there for the hand-out. These ponds are about 1/3 to 1/2 the size they need to be to be to be economical.

This Tuesday we have arranged a full day of technical training and field trip to nearby fish farms that have been sponsored by the Kenyan government. This is training given by local extension officers that I met with last week at Zachary's harvest. It will be a rare opportunity to have all the Rotary sponsored farmers in one place. One of the objectives of the Rotary District Community Grant is to convert these independents into a cohesive group that share labour and pool capital. We have two mini buses rented for the day for 28 farmers for $100. The trainers are free.

Meanwhile, a couple kilometres away from the ponds, the construction of Protected Springs continues and is going well. Today's big decison was what signage to put on the springs. I chose the cheapest, simplest most permanent option: "Rotary & KASFOOC 2012" etched into wet cement. The metal plates we put on the last springs are great and have the name of all the supporting Rotary Clubs, but will not last more than 5 years.

Self Help Groups

2012-01-20T19:15:00.000+03:00

On Wednesday, Bibiana and I headed out in a little matatu to meet some of the groups that have been organized in her community. Just when I thought the roads were better, this trip was more like the Kenya I remembered from 2009, with roads more like riverbeds. Nissan should shoot all of it's ads from rural Kakamega! Most of them are pretty beat up, after the bashing they take it is amazing they keep running.

Our first stop was Mulakha Group. We met at one of the members homes and were greeted with a song and a dance. Bibiana and I were each presented with a garland lei (you know, the shiny stuff for Christmas Trees) and introduced to the members of the group that were present. Mulakha is a registered group with 26 members who meet twice a month. They practice "table banking" whereby (they love saying whereby here) at each meeting every member brings 200 Ksh. That money is put on the table for anyone that may have a need to borrow it. If someone chooses to borrow some or all of the money, they first pay 10% interest and leave that for the group account. They have one month to pay back the full amount of the loan. With the 10% interest from table banking, the group has managed to save 10,000 Ksh.

They started a joint project of keeping poultry. They started with 2 chickens and now have 12 that have just hatched. Some of the challenges they are having are: the feed and treatment for the chickens is expensive. They are hoping if they had a machine to crush the feed, they could make it themselves and sell some as a source of income. They also require a structure to keep the chickens (timber, iron sheets, poles, wire mesh, etc.). And some training in how best to keep poultry along with bookkeeping and business training. They do have very nice uniforms though.

Bibiana decorated with garland... with Mulakha Group & their chickens

It was a short walk in the dust to visit the next group, Bidii. This group really touched me. They are very small, they were 5 members, but one could not manage the weekly contribution they agreed on, so now they are four. They meet weekly and contribute 150 shillings each.

Bidii Group

Of that, 100 Ksh goes to one member to start a small business (selling tomatoes, onions, or small fish in the market), and 50 Ksh goes into a group bank account. Of the members, one is a widow, one is separated with 6 children, and one is has been caring for her sister's child who is an orphan. These women have agreed to make a meal for the two youngest vulnerable children in their group to take to school.

When we say small business, we mean small.

Bidii Group has also started keeping poultry, but they doubt that it is viable for them. They each put in 250 Ksh to buy two chickens, and now have 10 chicks (some have died... I couldn't quite get it straight). For poultry to be viable, they will need training and definitely some assistance with a structure and feed. They have managed to save 5,400 Ksh so far.

10 chickens live here? I think they need a better plan for poultry.

The next group was a crazy matatu ride away. This group is involved in table banking and poultry (do you see a theme here?). Shikhambi has been a registered group since May 2009. The advantage they have is that their chairman has electricity, so they have a dream for a machine for chick management (I think they were referring to an incubator). They have had project training in how to raise poultry, so from what I could see, they were doing quite well.

I asked about their bank account. The treasurer hesitantly gave the report. In December they had accumulated 11,000 shillings, but "they developed the culture of Christmas eve." They decided as a group that it would be nice if each member could enjoy a nice meal for the festive season, so they divided the money up between the members and had a good Christmas. I can't say that I blame them, but 11,000 shillings would have gone a long way toward purchasing some of the things they would like to grow their business.

Shikhambi Self Help Group

Finally, after another long, dusty walk, we met the Courageous Women. They are a fairly new group, having been together since June of last year. This group has been through all three trainings -- Virtues Training, Poultry Project Training, and Business Training. Each member contributes 150 Ksh per meeting, twice a month. 100 Ksh goes to the owner of the house who is hosting the meeting and the remaining 50 Ksh is pooled together for the group to discuss how they would like to spend it. They have two projects -- farming vegetables (they have leased a plot of land for 2000 Ksh per year; but there is no water, so during this time of drought, the vegetables are not happy), and ... da da da daaaa... Poultry! Kakamega is a bit famous for poultry, so they tell me. So far they have not accumulated any savings.

Bibiana (right) with Courageous Women

Bibiana and I were quite tired by the time we reached this group and I think Bibiana must have been a little grumpy. She fell into Preacher-mode and spoke to the group as if they were school children being scolded by the teacher. When it was my turn to speak, I asked BibianaBibiana's translation lasted well over 5 minutes with lots of animation. "Madam," I interjected, "I don't think you are translating what I said." She assured me she was just driving home my message. Hmmm... somehow, I doubt that.

My favourite part of this stop was chatting with the gentleman of the house, who had recently been hit by a piki piki, and is recovering from a broken hip and collar bone, and playing with the little girl who was quite fascinated with my hair and my skin.

Highlight of my day!

Rotary-suppported boys boarding school

2012-01-20T13:13:00.002+03:00

Just got back from Musingu High School for Boys. My Rotary Club sponsors 2 students there: Mathias in Form 2 and a Form 1 boy soon-to-be-chosen. The form 1's dont start school until Feb. We also met with Moses a one-legged boy (lost through a series of infections he is still dealing with) whose significant medical bills are paid by Michael Pontus from RC Strathcona Sunrise. And we met Brian who is a boy supported by our daughter club Cumberland Centennial (I wish I knew how to put names on pictures). all students are boarders there. It now costs $700/ year. Prices have gone up, so our club will have to pony up more money or we will have to look for a cheaper school. It was only $500/ yr 2 years ago and we have budgetted for $600/ yr working our way towards having 4 boys in school per year.

The stories are just terrible, drunken fathers, orphans. I'll let Tanya tell that part. The boys are very quiet, asked for nothing. We talked to them, but they were very shy. They were told Rotary works hard to raise your school fees, therefore you must work very hard to get good grades, and, we they love you.

Hats off to KEEF for handling the beaurocracy and confusion. It is far, far more than writing a cheque to select these boys and fight through bad parental units, no phones, bad roads and beaurocrats to get them into school. Musingu is a very good school, but may be getting to a point of unaffordability. Alot of KEEF's sponsors are individuals where $500 was alot never mind $700 per year.

L to R is Alinda, Mathias (RCSS), Brian (RCCC), Moses et moi.

Marie (from KEEF) & Tanya talking to the boys. Tanya and I haven't met the boy we support through KEEF yet because he does not go to Musingu HS.

Highlight

2012-01-20T08:30:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I took a boda boda from the junction at Yako to Nakumat, about a 30 bob trip. In the course of being here I have been charged everything from 30 bob to, "even a thousand is o.k." I only had a hundred note, so as my rider was looking for change, I told him, that's o.k., it is a tip. "It is a ? He looked at me laughing. No, no, it's o.k., it is a tip. More laughing. A gift, it's for you, an offer.

Laughing quite histerically now. "At least let me give you something small". More laughing as he handed me a 50 note.

There is hope after all!

Kinda Scary Spotcheck

2012-01-19T15:23:00.007+03:00

I hired a couple dirt-bikes (w/ drivers Mark and Robert) to take us (Matano and I) out to the protected springs to do a "surprise visit" / spot-check. Its been 4 days since they started and I wanted to see the progress, make a video of the "during" part of the building and generally learn more about the stages and construction. Also, we just issued our first payment from the Rotary account and I wanted to make sure I knew where the money was going...AND remind communities to pitch in with lunches and materials, see if any problems ETC. So for $10 I hired two bikers for a four hours.

It was well worth it. And everything checked out well. We rhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifeached 5 springs. We got lost a couple times, the dirt-bikes had some trouble http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifspots. Usinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif the GPS worked out well, I knew when we were close, but it was tricky to find the right path. You can see how gnarly the terrain was from the video below.

The lady pictured is carrying sand for the spring with a basket on her head.

Video of my surprise visit for Spring number 1, Isembe ("caught" everyone working hard):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJlB52TYagI&context=C3041569ADOEgsToPDskLF3UsSD8kWZ4MIqGmtdwEe

Bonus farm catfish video (90 seconds) from our trip to Kisumu the other day.

Fish Farm Hatchery & Hippos

2012-01-18T19:23:00.002+03:00

Tuesday was fun, we hired a car and driver to take us to Kisumu.

1. Tanya was to meet with a trainer for business education. We want our fish farm widows to understand the concepts of running a business. The Kenyan way is to give money to whoever asks for it whenever you have it; otherwise you are considered greedy and may not gethelp when you need it. This makes saving and growing a business impossible.

2. The other reason is because I am a fish nerd and want to learn everything about aquaculture wherever I go. The hatchery was awesome full of wandering cows; completely opposite to the hospital-like conditions at BC salmon hatcheries. I giggled constantly. A 70kg bag of feed costs $20 and a male fingerling 3" long costs 10 cents (volume dependent,transport not included).

3. I wanted to make contact with suppliers of fingerlings and quality feed so that I know what we are getting when/ if we make make some purchases for our widows.

While waiting for Tanya I wandered to the shore of Victoria lake and saw that for $20 a guy in a very rickety boat would take all 5 of us out to look at nearby hippos. It was very neat. We saw soo many species of birds and creatures.

The videos are very short to give you a taste. It was a very long day, but also very productive. Thank goodness the roads have improved, it would have taken 3 days to cover this much ground last time.

tank of tilapia broodstock:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t1Y5GjQAb0
hippos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HPYYu6N2LY&feature=related
male tilapia (what we want to farm):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DwWYYUUvWI&feature=related

Who told you Africans don't have money?

2012-01-17T19:44:00.002+03:00

"I hate it when people say there is no money. Who told you Africans don't have money? Many people hate me for this."

Alex Onino is fighting for Africans... for change. At the beginning of his training session on Saturday, after a prayer and a song of course, Alex addressed the group, "You think the mzungu will bring you money. The African mindset was damaged from the donations from the Western world. We have to change it. If you are sitting here thinking of money, you can go out."

Energizing with a song -- When Jesus says yes, nobody can say no!

I sat in on Saturday with a group of 12 who is has been through four "business skills" training sessions lead by Alex Onino. Patricia had told me that Tembo had found an excellent trainer, but the day delivered so much more than I had expected. Alex is a master trainer with a mission of changing Africa from the ground up. And I believe he will do it. What he is teaching truly empowers people to break the cycle of poverty... from within... together. I intend on putting my energy into seeing as many people through this training as possible.

The training with this first group has gone like this:

Two training sessions of 80-100 people (mostly women and youth, though men are included as well) held two to three weeks apart. These first sessions focused on an attitude adjustment and driving home the message that YOU can do it YOURSELF -- with the help of your community. You CAN NOT rely on mzungus to succeed for you. Alex brings a sense of humour to his trainings and expects a lot from his participants -- he is a gifted facilitator, not a lecturer, which has been the African way with the teacher standing at the front of the class writing notes on the blackboard and the students copying what has been written.

Working together in small groups

The next two sessions, also held two or three weeks apart, are for designated leaders of smaller groups within the original large group. Sixteen were identified (by the members, not by the facilitator or Tembo). These sessions focused more specifically on leadership, co-operatives, and some specific project analysis.

At the fifth session, 12 were in attendance and this is where things are really starting to happen. The group had decided in the fourth session that forming a Co-operative, a legal entity, was the way to go for the best shot at continued success. The leaders had been tasked with going back to their groups to get consent from their members, choose projects or income generating activities they were interested in or already performing, identify available resources (financial, agricultural land, skills, knowledge), objectives, goals, etc. It was quite an assignment, but they came back prepared. At the end of the day, the group had selected an executive and 10 promoters who will see the co-operative come to life.

Tanya with Rod & Patricia and the newly elected Co-Op Executive

Today I met with Alex to discuss next steps. We will follow through with this group for several more training sessions until they are on their feet. These will include Management Training, Project Specific Training (i.e. poultry, bee keeping, rabbits), and Resource Mobilization (i.e. fundraising). Alex believes that after all of this training is when donor dollars would be appropriate to boost the success of all of their work and planning.

We are also going to start with a new group which will include KASFOOC and our fish farmers. I can't wait to see the growth of the original group and the birth of the new group! I have high hopes.

Terry is at home with fish, I am at home with people! Life coaching African style.

Video of Protected Spring Groundbreaking

2012-01-16T20:09:00.006+03:00

Sorry I referred to Campbell River Daybreak as "Sunrise". I had to make the little speech off the cuff, but all the key figures present were recognized. The village elder, RC Kakamega, RC Canada, locals, contractors, local government and KASFOOC. As casual as it may appear it was an important recognition event as well as a much-needed opportunity to meet for all participants. Plans were laid to organize the sanitation training component of the Global Grant. It was an excellent idea of RC Kakamega President Robertson that we have an opening ceremony; he gets full credit.

At the end of the video Matano of KASFOOC is translating the words of the village elder. Its a bit hard to hear, but the elder is saying that 18 of the springs (the first group of 18 we are building) will help 4-5000 people have access to clean water. 50 families will be helped, each family is on average about 10 people.

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWhbBe7LDoM&feature=youtu.be

The local district officer arrived late and the Kakamegan Rotarians were able to emphasize the importance of the fact that all had agreed, in writing, that these springs were never to fall into private hands or be to the benefit of any one individual. I have a video of this discussion, but the sound is not good.

I am optimistic that we may complete alot of these springs before we return to Canada. KASFOOC is going to be very busy as they coordinate the contractors, the sanitation training and the fish farm training.

Augustine

2012-01-16T17:41:00.002+03:00

Fredrick told me about a little boy, his neighbour, that needed to go to hospital for sores on his ear. The mother is a widow and her parents are also dead, so she has no family support. Most of the time, Fredrick says, the mother is not around and the children just play around outside or come to his house to play with Brenda. There are three children, ages 5, 6, and 7 or 8. The girl, the oldest, goes to school sometimes and is in Standard 1 or 2. Fredrick noticed that the girl had not been to school for a few days and asked her why. She said she could not pay her exam fee (why there would be an exam fee for Standard 1 or 2 confuses me, but many things confuse me here). Anyway, the fee was only 50 bob, so Fredrick gave the girl the money and she went to school. When the older one is in school, the two little ones are left on their own, the older girl takes care of her two little brothers when she gets home from school.

The problem with the mother, says Fredrick, is that she does not work, so she has become a prostitute to get money. The other problem, says Fredrick, is that when she does have money, she usually goes to buy changaa (local brew).

I agreed to take the child to the hospital. Fredrick picked me up on his boda boda with the little boy on the back and the three of us went by boda boda to the hospital. I was quite shocked when I saw his ear. He also has sores on his chest, back, and head. When we got to the hospital, Fredrick called the mother to ask the boys name; Augustine, 5 years old.

Sorry for posting this, but it helps to tell the story of these children.

I should say that I was very impressed with the hospital. It had large signs saying this is a corruption free zone and had listed all the fees for each service that is offered and the wait time. It is free to see a doctor and receive outpatient care and counselling. Treatment for children under five is free, you only pay for the medicine. It is a very different story if you have to be admitted (expensive), but our experience today was very good.

The clinical officer (there is a shortage of doctors here, so clinical officers see many patients; they are like physician assistants) said the infection is very bad and was quite angry at the negligence of the mother.

Augustine waiting at the hospital

They spoke to each other in Swahili, so I didn't understand most of it, but I did hear Ministry of Children. We were given a prescription for three types of medication -- to treat septic worms and the bacterial infection on the skin and in the ears. I asked what caused it and the C.O. said water, but mostly from food that is not washed or cooked well enough; soil carries many parasites. Fredrick told me that the children will just eat whatever they can find at times -- if they find sugar cane at the side of the road, they will just pick it up.

On the ride home I asked Fredrick why he doesn't want to report to the Ministry of Children. He said he is afraid they will put the mother in jail. I am going to ask around to see how to help. For now, I paid for the medicine (1,500 Ksh; almost triple what medicine for Brenda cost) and gave Augustine some lunch. Fredrick will ask Josephine to make sure to give Augustine his medicine everyday, I don't trust the mother to do it. I also asked Fredrick not to tell the mother how much the medication cost. I don't want her to see Fredrick as wealthy. For now, Fredrick will feed the children as if they were his own.

After Augustine had something to eat at our house, he perked up quite a bit. Terry thinks he liked the slippery surface of our floor because he was sliding along on his belly. He was also pointing at all of the cords for our gadgets (camera, computer, tv, etc.), and all of our shoes. He was speaking softly to himself, counting maybe.

Fredrick's parting words to me, "These childrens who are orphans are really suffering."

Kenyan Traditional Hospitality

2012-01-15T19:35:00.000+03:00

This morning we went with Joyce and Matano to Moses' home. We took a matatu (only 20 bob each) and then walked in from the road with Moses. This is the first time that I have seen something like a western residential neighbourhood... O.K., it's not really anything like a Canadian neighbourhood, but the closest so far. On either side of the dirt road are "plots" with houses on them, in a row, like we have in our neighbourhoods. Some of the houses were brick, some mud with tin roofs. The plots are skinny and long, maybe a quarter acre or so.

Moses gave us a tour of his property, starting with where he breaks stones into ballast -- he carries the stones up from the river and then breaks them down by hand. Then we moved a few feet to where he makes bricks. He demonstrated mixing the soil and water and forming the bricks in a wooden mould. They are then left to bake ... Maybe they are "cooked" and then left to dry in the sun, or maybe they are left to dry in the sun and then baked, I'm not too clear. We walked down to the bottom of his plot where the "river" runs (the river is more like a stream, but is quite swift in the rainy season. This is where he gathers sand, which he carries up to the front of his property to sell and/or use for brick making.

Moses showing Terry the bricks he has made

He has three small mud houses on his property -- one for he and his wife, Jennifer, with a sitting room and a bedroom; one for his six children, I didn't ask how many rooms it had, but I would guess (hope) a sleeping room for the girls and one for the boys; and another building for the kitchen. There was also a pit latrine structure.

Left to Right -- Joyce, Matano, Moses

As is tradition in this region, when a "good friend" comes to visit, we shared a meal of chicken, cow peas, and chapati. It was delicious, but as always, we hate the thought of having an elaborate meal when we know how much work and precious money goes into it. We are planning on hosting a party soon to return the hospitality.

Before the meal, we drank Fanta and Moses gave us a demonstration in fly tying. Though he said he didn't have the proper materials, he tied three beautiful flies using hen feathers and the few materials he had. Back in the eighties and early nineties, Moses worked in Kisumu flying ties -- he was paid 3 shillings per dozen. Back then you could by two sodas for three shillings (today a Fanta is about 40 shillings).

All of Moses' children came in to greet us -- two girls and four boys from Form 4 down to Standard 6. Moses showed us all of their report cards from school. One of the girls did quite well with an A in Biology, another had an A in History, the others... well, it seems as though they struggle in school. The girl who is the highest achiever has been called to a school that is quite far away, so she needs to take a matatu. She leaves the house a little before 6am and returns around 6pm. The matatu costs 50 bob a day, which is quite a burden on top of fees, but it is a good school.

We also learned that Jennifer, Moses' wife, was the buyer from the fish harvest last week. They didn't want to confuse things by introducing us at the time. Three days a week, Jennifer sells dried or fried fish in the market. She purchased the fish last week for 1,600 shillings and sold them all for 2,000, a reasonable profit.

Moses and his family -- I had to trick them into smiling!

After a wonderful meal, we took a picture of the family -- the kids had all changed into their school uniforms, likely their best outfits. On the walk back to the road, Moses was telling me that his two children in Form 4 have to pay a sitting fee by the end of the month to write their exams -- 4,200 Ksh each. Then, as we were saying good-bye, he handed me a little piece of paper... a cash deposit slip with his bank account number on it.

Read for the Top

2012-01-15T16:17:00.002+03:00

I attended a training session on Friday with Rod & Patricia for teachers who will be hosting the "Read for the Top" programme at their schools. Patricia received a Rotary Grant to provide the programme in a number of schools and is having excellent results. How it works:

All students from class 6, for example, break into teams of 5 or 6 students. Each team is given 6 books -- 4 in English and 2 in Swahili. All the kids read all of the books and then there is a competition, jeopardy style, with bells and all, at the end. The teams are given new t-shirts, each team has a different colour, and there are prizes for the winning team at the end. The school gets to keep the books and the bells and the children keep the t-shirts.

One teacher had this to say about Read for the Top when the idea was first presented by Patricia, the crazy Canadian lady, "When robbers rob somewhere, you rarely hear that a bookstore has been robbed. Nobody likes books, isn't it?" Kenya is not a reading culture. Another teacher wanted to know, "how do I teach my content?"

Patricia assured the teachers that they can use the story books to teach all of their language content -- grammar, vocabulary, spelling, comprehension. I continue to shake my head at how things are done here... how else would you teach English than by reading?

Three teachers were present from schools that have hosted the programme and all reports are extremely positive. Not only did scores in English and Swahili rise, but truancy went down (everyone was present on Read for the Top days), and scores in other subjects increased as well. One girl, who had been a poor student, scored 100 in math after her class participated in Read for the Top. It was because she could now understand the question. Some schools have adapted the programme on their own to include Social Studies, CRE (religious studies), even Science.

The programme teaches team work and leadership skills, "the better ones boost up the self esteem of the weak ones." A teacher told the group about a boy and a girl who "were not even able to say their names, they were too shy, but now they speak." One school saw an improvement in their KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) scores of 40 points, which is incredible, unheard of.

A highly competitive teacher on the Elephant Team

As part of the training, the teachers were divided into two teams and given three short stories to read and then come up with questions. They were the Lion team and the Elephant team. They ran a mock competition to experience what the kids would experience and see some of the potential problems. The competition was fierce and the teachers behaved exactly how you might think the children would -- the weaker students sitting back and letting the stronger ones answer all of the questions, arguing with the judge when a question was incorrect, giving a team member the stink eye for answering a question wrong, ringing the bell before the question is finished... it was priceless. There was lots of laughing mixed in with the fierce competition!

It costs between $350 and $500 to deliver Read for the Top in a school depending on the size of the class. The rewards continue well beyond the competition.

I can't wait to see the real thing with the kids in March!

To see more, TEMBO has a video of the kids in action.

TnT have a bad night

2012-01-14T13:59:00.004+03:00

Terry awakes at 3am to go to the bathroom. No news there. Power was out, no news to that either. Pitch black. Gets to the toilet suddenly its not pretty. Sweating,moaning from nausea. Tanya comes to rescue brings water sits in living room, suggests calling someone. After awhile Terry tries to get up and go to couch from bathroom. Terry passes out on hallway floor, sweating profusely. He wakes a few seconds later. Where's Tanya? She has semi fainted on the couch, with the sweats. Terry crawls to couch, pain in guts subsiding, but still in shock. Where's Tanya? After Terry mumbled "Its not getting worse" she has gone to bed and cannot get up due to wooziness. A few minutes later Terry feels better and ever-so-slowly walks to bed. Tanya is starting to feel better. Both sleep, wake up feeling fine. Tanya out the door to do Virtues training, Terry stays home and fasts for the day, gets caught up on paperwork.

The only thing they both ate in common was a beef samosa. They always ask for vegetarian, but they were out. They think meat is always bad news nutritionally, so they will go from being 90% vegetarian to 100% forthwith.

Fredick made us tables

2012-01-13T17:24:00.001+03:00

There is so much good stuff happening here, I find myself at a loss for words. So many things happen in a day, and there are so many sweet moments...

Just coming home by boda boda today... I am on the back of a bicycle, looking at the back of my driver. He is wearing a bright green, very clean, St. Patrick's Day t-shirt with a shamrock and the words, "The consuming will continue... until the morale changes." His waist and hips are no bigger than my right thigh. The fare is 30 bob... I give him 50.

Yesterday when we were touring fish ponds and spring sites, I was shaken, again and again throughout the day, with reminders of just how tough it is here. It is inspiring and heartbreaking all at the same time. No matter how many times I see it, I am just in awe of the women and young girls carrying water, firewood, sugar cane, bundles for the market, babies, and yesterday, huge buckets of fish.

It was beautiful to see how many people, neighbours, family members, gathered at harvest time. Word is sent to the community when someone is planning on harvesting their pond, so that buyers can come. And then there are those who "are hanging around hoping to get a free fish." At Grace's home, Joyce handled the selling of the fish to ensure a fair price and that all the money made it to Grace! Some of the widows are able to handle the selling on their own, and others are lacking the necessary literacy and book keeping skills. Grace kept a few fish for herself because "as the owner, she should have something to consume." The sales totalled 2100 Ksh ($24)...

To paint a fair picture, though, this was the third harvest for this pond and the first two had much higher yields (about 200 "honest" fish). Not long ago, Grace also sold 1,500 Ksh worth of fingerlings. The fish ponds and farmers are definitely not where they need to be, but we are hopeful that with some more training and support with feed and equipment, the farmers will be in a better position to work cooperatively toward sustainably.

Another moment... we were walking along a beautiful rural road. Terry and Matano were up ahead. Jackson was laughing, saying "if you walk at that pace in Kenya, soon you will find yourself lying down." Terry is still Terry, even in Kakamega. He is quick and to the point. Grace gave us a piece of sugar cane as a gift of thanks for the support and Terry's initial response was... "No. No thanks... but we don't want it... we don't like sugar cane... surely she needs it more than we do." Terry, it is a gift. Just say thank you. So, we accepted the sugar cane with a smile and an asante sana. Matano carried it for us and shared it with Joyce and Moses as we walked.

A little later... Moses and I were walking together chatting about trees, maize and other interesting scenes we passed. He had invited us to come to his place on Sunday to meet his daughters. How wonderful... and then he started telling me about his struggles. How he had worked as a fly tier in Kisumu (or was it Nairobi?) from 1981 to 1994, when he decided to come back to Kakamega to be with his family. When you work away from home, you work very hard for very little. It is also more expensive to live in the larger centres, so it is not worth it. At home Moses makes bricks in the dry season; in the rainy season he collects sand from the river. He has six children that he is supporting and putting through school. Two were sent home because he wasn't able to pay their full fees. He told me that there have been times when Joyce has paid the fees for his daughters. She is very generous. About half way into this story, just before he started praising God for sending Terry and I... rats... I clued in... he's looking for a sponsor.

I forget sometimes that I am a walking ATM here.

Anyway, we will go on Sunday, to see his home and meet his children.

Oh, and Fredrick made bed side tables for us. We paid him for the materials and then gave him a little something for his labour when he delivered them. Fredrick delivered the tables on the back of his boda boda, the varnish was still wet. I love them.

Terry's report to MIG

2012-01-13T16:05:00.003+03:00

MIG (Mid Island Group of Rotary Clubs International Committees) is a group of 19 International Committee reps from 19 Vancouver Island Rotary Clubs. They take pooled money from the clubs and oversee several projects per year all over the world. They have contributed $4500 total to the below projects.

They have a meeting in Nanaimo Jan 14th. Below is Terry's update for that meeting:

1. Fish Farm DCG $5000.00

I have met with fish farmers, KASFOOC and local govt representative in charge of Ministry of Fisheries Fish Farm Productivity. They have agreed to provide 3 days of onsite technical training for all 21 of our fish farmers within 2 weeks. The cost will be for transportation and lunch only. As I visit individual farmers I am assessing and consulting on need for supplies. I am also trying to determine if this group can indeed become self-sustaining. If they cannot I may have to withhold funds. There is no point to just dumping a bunch of charity and leaving. I see many hurdles, but I will learn more about their willingness to work together in the coming weeks as I sit in on the training and work with them on farms. After 20 years in aquaculture I think I have a pretty good eye for fish farmer potential; even in another culture, we'll see.

2. 50 Protected Springs Global Grant Project $51,129

We have toured the first 18 springs,GPS'd them all, notified community to have rocks,sand and lunches ready (their contribution) for contractors next Monday. These communities have been falsely promised much in the past by churches and politicians. Seeing and talking to us made them believers and several started collecting more sand and rocks right away. The RC Kakamega has a committee for this project and have met several times, with and without 3 contractors, to discuss logistics and payment system per stage of construction per spring. They have brought in an extra contractor and have hopes we can get all 50 springs completed before I return, under budget. We have not yet started organizing Hygiene Training Program component for the communities. That will be done with Alinda and Dept of Health later on- Alinda is extremely busy with her 90+ KEEF students right now. We are having a groundbreaking ceremony Monday Jan 16th at the first spring.

In closing it is all going very well. KASFOOC's volunteer board members, namely Jackson, Joyce, Matano, Zachary and Moses (so far) are a key part of this process acting as a liasion between Rotary, the contractors and the communities. I wish I could help them more but their knowledge of the language, the territory and the communities is not something I can add to.

I will have more substantial a report to make once things get rolling here in the next 2 weeks. See you after March 2012,

Fingerling Transfer

2012-01-13T14:16:00.003+03:00

This morning we seined and re-seined a pond nearby. The bigs were harvested, the male smalls were transferred to a neighbouring pond and the female smalls were sold to nearby fish farmers.

It was hot. After a few hours I can almost sex a small tilapia. Not easy, magnifying glasses were needed. The job would have been so much easier if we had a saw-horse and a door for a table with some small dipnets. Also proper deep buckets would have been a bonus to keep fish cool and a little tarp shelter to keep humans cool.

The extension officers there are the likely trainers that will provide technical training to the widows in the next 2 weeks. We want to have them together, on a properly run fish farm, learning the best practices from feeding to harvesting to basic pond maintenance.

As the pond was being seined we also made plans with KASFOOC to tour the 3 protected spring contractors this weekend so they know exactly where to go on Monday.

So a productive morning. See a video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBSUYGvP26w&context=C3041569ADOEgsToPDskLF3UsSD8kWZ4MIqGmtdwEe

Fish Farm Harvest video

2012-01-13T06:16:00.004+03:00

Yesterday we headed out to the rural area at 0900. We participated in a harvest of tilapia pond. Check out the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0f7DIMgDXQ&feature=youtu.be

After the harvest we went on a long hike to see the last of the first 18 protected springs to be started this Monday.

Later that evening we attended the local Rotary Club meeting. we invited our very friendly neighbours Sanford and June who are from Kakamega but have been living in Houston the last 6 years or so.

President Robertson threw in a surprise: he wants a ground-breaking ceremony on Monday. I'll work on the logistics of this later today (the challenge of getting the contractors to the right sites was going to be interesting in itself, but a little ceremony is a good idea- if someone donates some 4x4 transportation for guests). I'm heading out early this morning to a fish fingerling transfer at another fish farmer's. Tanya is off to a TEMBO meeting so she won't be with me at fish pond.

My first morning in Kenya without a run :0( (its been 3+ weeks since I missed a day- maybe I'll have energy to do my first evening run, it'll be hot).

Home for a bicycle

2012-01-12T08:10:00.000+03:00

I think I have found a recipient for the first bike (Eatmore Sprouts & Greens, being cycling enthusiasts, have sent donations to gift bicycles to assist people here). I haven't offered it yet, but this young man seems to be a perfect candidate. Don't worry, my eye is on lifting women, but for this first one... As with anything, it is never as easy as just handing something over. There is a lot to consider to ensure you don't do more harm than good. You have to worry about jealousy, dynamics, culture, theft, just to name a few of the complications. This young man has proven to have very good character and because of his position, I think it will work out.

He has just graduated university. He finished Form 4 (grade 12) in 2001 with a "B"... I'm not exactly sure what that means as Kenya has quite a complex scoring system, but I do know that he would have been invited to a university, but at full fee. His parents could not affort the tuition, so he "just stayed at home" and tried to find work. For four years. Finally, when it was clear he wasn't getting ahead, he went back and repeated Form 4. Just take that in for a minute. He went back and sat in a classsroom with Form four students. This isn't like going to college to upgrade a few courses. It is putting on a school uniform and going to school every day. Anyway, that blows me away.

This time he scored at the top of his class and was again called to University... this time with a scholarship where 70% of his tuition was covered. He has now graduated university, with a degree in teaching, at the top of his class.

As an inexperienced teacher, though, he has accepted a job in a private rural school. The offer was very good -- 10,000 Ksh a month. He thought he must be very lucky. It takes four to seven years to get a position in a government school where your salary is higher and paid directly by the government.

At the end of the first month (payday is comes at the end of every month), September, he was paid 2,000 Ksh and promised the rest was coming. It is now January. You guessed it... Nothing. He says it is difficult to stay motivated and to teach when you are hungry. But he perseveres. He is looking for another placement, but in the mean time he needs to gain experience.

He starts teaching remedial classes at 7am and after teaching all day Forms 1 through 4 (grades 9-12), he finishes teaching at 5pm. He told them he was not willing to work on weekends. He walks just shy of 4km to school every morning and home every evening as he has no money for a matatu or even a boda boda. In his spare time he does some work for Tembo -- translating teaching material from English to Swahili, teaching basic book keeping and project training (bee-keeping, poultry, etc.).

He has been engaged to a lovely young woman for 6 years... they are just waiting to have money to be married. He knows he will be a Professor one day. He will not give up.

He told his whole story with a smile.

Off to see a farmed tilapia harvest

2012-01-12T07:35:00.002+03:00

Yesterday was a bit of a down day for me. I got a million things to do (too many to list), but not sure how to dispense without overwhelming beneficiaries. March 18th seems like its only a few days away considering the to do list.

After a run this morning through farmlands (see pic) I am feeling good. We leave in 1 hour to see (and hopefully help with) a harvest. During the harvest I will discuss to do list with KASFOOC.

Terry meets local Ministry of Fisheries Fish Farm specialist

2012-01-10T16:34:00.004+03:00

Meeting with Fisheries went well. They may be able to sell us some fingerlings (5Ksh each) and do some training for our widows at zero cost (except transportation and lunch). I also now have a contact with the big private fish farmer in Kisumu called Dominion. Kakamega needs a processing plant, hatchery. But getting land is hard here as it is all parcelled into tiny farms. Also there is no fish farm education in local schools or university and no laboratory for fish health.

This makes me think that Kakamega is ripe for an investor to come in and set up shop. It is bound to happen soon. The critical mass of tiny fish farmers like ours is approaching. They demand supplies, feed and fingerlings. Fish prices are high because demand cannot be met.

For now I will see if we cannot get our widows better trained and supplied. Ideally we would have bigger farms so that our ponds could be bigger (at least 300m2)

Today's Headlines

2012-01-10T16:30:00.000+03:00

Zimbabwe imposes ban on second hand underwear... sparking protests from traders who say the move will push them out of business. "How does this happen? If you are a husband and you see your wife buying underwear from the flea market, you have failed."

Kenyans pay dearly for mitumba clothes... The cost of second-hand clothes, known as mitumba, has shot up limiting availability in the local market... Those who managed to get the clothes at a higher cost also doubled their selling price. This consequently led to a shortage after traders failed to replenish their stocks.

Police kill five, arrest city criminal group... Separately, another robbery suspect was shot dead in Uthiru, Nairobi. Officers who shot him said he stole 1,000 Ksh and a mobile phone from a pedestrian. Yikes!

I think that's enough for today...

Uwezo Community Based Organization

2012-01-10T15:14:00.001+03:00

This morning I met for the second time with Bibiana Andabwa. Bibiana is the only female elected councillor in the Kakamega area, responsible for five districts. She is a volunteer child protection officer and trusted committee member with Tembo. Bibiana works with women's groups, widows, and orphans.

This was my second meeting with Bibiana, the first was 3 hours long, where she shared her vision of groups working together to rise out of poverty. Here is her idea in a nutshell. She sees groups of 20 members coming together for training in:

1) Virtues: Virtues Project™ is a global grassroots initiative to inspire the practice of virtues in everyday life. It has been honoured by the UN as an effective and powerful tool for eliminating violence in the families, communities and schools of all cultures.

2) Business Skills Training: This is the training that Tembo has started with some groups in how to organize, choose, and run a successful business -- starting small with a plan to grow. The stress is on self sufficiency.

3) Project Training: Project specific training including technical skills, basic book keeping and literacy where required. This could include training for keeping poultry, rabbits, bee keeping, or soap making, etc.

4) Civic Education: Education in women's rights, children's rights, and human rights. How to choose (with your vote) leaders that are there to serve, not to fill their own pockets!

Once people are armed with this kind of education, Bibiana believes that they will be able to lift themselves out of poverty. Her vision goes on further... she sees groups of 20 members, having been trained as above, breaking down in to groups of 5. Each group of five will have a project that they work on together and each group of five will identify a vulnerable child or orphan that they will collectively care for. She sees each small group having three bank accounts; 1 for each individual member, 1 group account, and an account for the child.

Bibiana told a story of a pilot group of five old mammas who identified a child that was being tortured by the step mother. With some encouragement from Bibiana, the women reported the father of the child to the police. The father has been arrested and the case is now in the system. One of the women was grandmother to the child, which means that she reported her only son. This is unheard of in Kenya. Sons are highly valued and normally mothers would just put it on the shelf. This example brings such hope to how attitudes can change once people know their rights. Bibiana showed me pictures of the girl... she is about 11 years old. Her back was covered with scars -- she must have been whipped. The girl is now safe with the grandmother.

So far the whole picture is just a vision, but many groups have been formed and have received some of the training, like the old mammas. I asked Bibiana to get me a list of groups, what training they have received, what training they are missing, if they have projects underway, what challenges the projects are having, and what are their specific needs. We have talked for over five hours so far and I have heard the vision in great detail... I am just not clear yet what she is asking of me. Bibiana told me that "normally what disturbs me is the funds," so that is a hint.

Before our meeting ended today, she invited me to be a member of Uwenzo Community Based Organization. This is a group of professionals, or retired professionals, that will monitor and mentor the other groups. She asked me to become a member so that I am not seen as a visitor, and so we can work together... O.K. So I signed on the dotted line. Uwezo means "ability". Some of the other group names are: Humanity, Denguagutu, Courageous, and Blessed to Bless.

Fish Farm Update

2012-01-10T09:56:00.006+03:00

During yesterday's tour of protected springs we ran into a few fish farmers that were sponsored by myself, my Rotary Club and Marine Harvest Canada (MHC) in 2009- they donated a salmon farm tour out of Campbell River that over 50 Rotarians agreed to pay $30 per head to enjoy. The $1500 raised went to nets, feed, fingerlings, PVC pipe and fertilizer to start 15 family fish farms for households headed by widows who were raising grandchildren because their parents had died from AIDs.

The first two pics show a 10mx16m pond that is doing very well. The owner just restocked with 500 fingerlings from our widows ponds nearby. Unfortunately he is out of feed as he has been sick. The third picture above shows one of the widows ponds that is not being managed well. The owner keeps giving her fish away too small and does not have the funds to keep herself going. The last little pond was started by a boy who wants to be a fish farmer. Another lady was sick for almost a year. We met her in 2009. She was not able to sell any fish because she needed to consume them for her own family. Right now I am focussed on clean water, but more fish farm updates will come.

This morning I am off to the local Minister of Fisheries office. I see from the sign that they have a "Fish Farming Productivity Branch". KASFOOC has told me who to talk to. I told them how government stifles fish farming back home, but they say this branch has not done any harm yet. I want to learn from the local government but was worried about alerting them to our little group for fear of unleashing beaurocratic smothering. We'll see if Masava, the contact I was given, is in today.

On Thursday one of our KASFOOC widows that MHC sponsored is harvesting, so I will post pictures and maybe even video from that. I have a Rotary grant to help the fish farmers, but I am just info gathering for now. I have a plan, but do not want to divulge it (my Kenyan friends are also reading this blog on their cell phones) until I have seen the complete supply chain from hatchery to feed mill to market. Its no secret that THIS fish farming component is the highlight for me. I understand that clean drinking water is the priority but for me its getting these farms productive that is the most exciting and I think will yield the biggest boost out of poverty and have a huge ripple effect through generations. I am starting small(tiny), but dreaming big.

Thank God for Sugar Cane

2012-01-09T19:50:00.002+03:00

We left at nine this morning to meet Jackson, Matano, and Joyce to visit the first springs that will be protected starting next week. We took a matatu (Nissan van, public bus system) down a SMOOTH road -- we are still blown away by the difference in the roads compared to our last visit -- to the area where the springs are. From there we walked... and walked... and walked. We were met by the village elder who led us through the rural areas to each of the springs.

Indangalasia Area

I love being outside of busy Kakamega. The landscape is so lush and bright green. We see so many little kids and are met with warm handshakes and offers for lunch at every home we pass. As we walk Jackson we laugh a lot and dream of KASFOOC one day having their own helicopter to monitor their sites. We spend a lot of time worrying about if the other is getting too hot or tired. After two hours and 6 or 7 springs, we agreed that we would go for another hour. Somehow that morphed into 17 springs and 5 hours! I would not have made it without the stick of sugar cane one of the farmers gave to us. It's not pretty to eat (it involves a lot of peeling and tearing with your teeth, chewing and sucking to get out the sweet juice, and then spitting out the fibres) and it can't be good for your teeth, but it's really delicious and quite refreshing. My other saviour was the "Cool Band-it" that mom got us for Christmas. It is a little tie that you soak in water and wear around your neck. It is filled with some kind of gel that expands and hold moisture so that you stay cool. I kept soaking it in the springs as we went. Joyce thought it was quite wonderful -- mom gave me an extra so I will give one to her.

About half way into our tour, Jackson remembered to introduce our leader as the recipient of the One Drop of Hope spring! The spring that One Drop of Hope funded is on his land. We will visit it next time. He gave great thanks to us and told me that there is no more typhoid fever or cholera since the spring was protected. When we did that spring, there was an old man in the village who said he had never had been using that spring for his whole life and this was the first time it was clean. He has since died, but was able to enjoy clean water for a year.

Each spring serves between 25 and 50 homes. Each "home" may have six houses on it and each house may be for 7 people. So the impact is huge. Every spring we visited was being used by women, young girls, and very small kids helping their mothers. Some of the little ones couldn't have been more than two years old with their own little containers to fill. Some of the springs are at the bottom of incredibly steep and narrow trails. Two were especially bad. I hope there are funds for stairs. We will check in with Alinda to find out. If not, that may be a fundraising opportunity. Jackson told us that "this spring causes lots of divorces" because of the steep, steep hill. We had a hard enough time getting up it, let alone trying to imagine carrying a 20 litre bucket on our head!

Steep access to spring

When we had visited the last spring for the day, Jackson told us that it would be too far to walk back to the road and we should take a piki piki... oh boy. KASFOOC had other business to take care of in the community, so we could go on ahead. He negotiated a fare of 150 shillings for the both of us back to Nakumat. Terry and I got on the back of the motorcycle -- yes, we were on the same bike -- me behind the driver and Terry on the back. Despite the lack of helmets and protective gear (I was wearing a halter top because I split my pants when I was bending down for a picture... oops... and had to tie my blouse around my waist), and the packed dirt road, it felt surprisingly safe. The driver put on his winter vest for the ride. At the main road we had to switch to another piki piki because our guy ran out of petrol. This one had a helmet, but only for himself. It was really a nice way to get around and we will use them more I am sure.

Yep, this is where I split my pants.

By the time we got back to Nakumat at 3:30pm, I was burnt to a crisp (forgot to put on sunscreen this morning), and totally exhausted. We stopped in for a large water, Fanta, and chips before we came home to veg out watching episodes of The Office on the computer and snoozing on the couch.

A very, very good day.

GPS of todays walking tour of 17 protected springs

2012-01-09T19:00:00.006+03:00

Click here to see GPS walking tour of 17 protected springs- zoom out to see satellite map

It was 4+ hours of walking difficult terrain today. I turned on my Garmin watch at about halfway. I used another GPS to take waypoints at each protected spring. Plus my camera has a GPS so I have long and lat w/ each photo. This should make tracking easier (for present and years to come). (note to self: camera battery dies quickly when GPS is on).

Very hot. The people had piles of sand and rock ready for construction. Amazing how these women walk this difficult terrain with 20L of water on their head. It was more than enough of a challenge without water.

The purpose of the tour was to give communities heads up that contractors will arrive next Monday. We also needed to ensure they were ready with rocks and sand..and lunches for the skilled labour that will be arriving. KASFOOC reps also pointed out that some of the sand and rocks was not good enough quality. Many of them have been given false promises in the past, but seeing mzungos was convincing. This is good as it means once we start we will proceed quickly.

One group did not wait for us and went ahead and built a low - cost UNprotected spring. Its no good: prone to flooding and the water is not filtered through sand/ gravel. We will de-construct and rebuild- this one should come in under budget.

Spring Project update

2012-01-09T08:36:00.002+03:00

A couple weekend meetings later...3 contractors have signed on to the new conditions set by Rotary Kakamega to complete the first, most badly, needed protected springs in Indoanglasia- a community about 1 hour from Kakamega. They will start Jan 16th.

Its Monday morning, we are heading to Indanglasia via matatu this morning to let community know the start to date and to prepare the hardcore (>4" rock) and sand.

Off we go,

[this mornings run cheer from crowd: "White Man!! Strong, strong!"

Fredrick's visit with his mother

2012-01-08T17:57:00.000+03:00

Fredrick and his mother arrived on Friday. She looked beautiful in her bright orange and yellow dress. It didn't seem right to request a picture. I had prepared a few snacks, maybe too Canadian... orange and pineapple slices, crackers and cheese, vanilla biscuits. Next time I will go with white bread and Blue Band (margarine) with milky, sugary chai.

Fredrick's mom had just come from selling her crop of sugar cane. She was hoping to get around 100,000 Ksh (the rate can be anywhere from 80-95 Kenyan Shillings to the Canadian dollar), but it came in at 85,000. Fredrick had asked when he was here earlier in the week if we could assist him in buying land with his mother.

In Kenya, land is passed down from father to son. Fredrick's mother left his father; I don't know the details, but I can only assume it must have been very bad because a divorced woman is choosing a very difficult life. For a time Fredrick and his mother lived on his uncle's land (this was the situation when I met Fredrick in 2009). When Fredrick's grandmother died, the uncle forced them off the land. Since that time (about a year and half ago), I have been paying rent for Fredrick and Josephine (about 2,500 Ksh/month). His mother was living with one of her sisters, until recently something very bad happened. I get the stories in pieces from Fredrick in fairly clear, but incomplete English. Fredrick's mother (I don't know her name) was stabbed in the eye by either her sister or her sister's husband. The family suspected her of withholding money from them. The police came and the uncle said that she and others attacked him. So, Fredrick's mother along with 2 others (I'm not sure who the others are) were taken to jail. Fredrick (the youngest son, so I don't know why it is up to him... probably because I support him) had to pay 9,000 Ksh (no small amount) to post bond for his mother and the other two. The police eventually said that this is a family matter so should be dealt with in the family. He never got his 9,000 Ksh back. Grrr. His mother is now living with another sister who is kind. So I think she is safe.

Fredrick and Josephine live with the two children in a house that is o.k., but they have no land to grow their own food. They spend about 6,000 Ksh a month on food. Fredrick, between carpentry and boda boda, makes between 3-4,000 Ksh a month. Josephine's little business of selling clothing only is making enough to keep the business going and a little to put towards food. So rent and food cost 8,500 Ksh. Soon Brenda will go to "baby school" (nursery school) which will require a fee and a uniform. There is no money for medical expenses. I asked Fredrick to take Brenda to the doctor because I saw that she has sores on her head. The visit to the doctor was 300 Ksh and she requires medicine now to treat septic worms (from water I think). I gave Fredrick 300 Ksh for the medicine which I am sure is more than enough. Anyway, it is pretty clear to see that the numbers just don't add up.

My hope with the carpentry training was that Fredrick would have a way to earn an income and support his family. In the long run, that is certainly the plan. Right now, though, the Kenyan economy is in the tank. Food prices have doubled even tripled for some items. Fredrick gets work from some carpenters who either pay him far less than they promise, or don't pay at all.

While they were here, I think his mother had her heart set on walking out with the rest of the money needed to buy the land they looked at. They found a fertile acre and a half in the rural area for 450,000 Ksh. An acre close to town costs about 3,000,000 Ksh, so they have found a very good deal. Terry was pretty solid with a flat no. I told Fredrick that the answer right now is no, but to protect his mother's money. I told him to concentrate for now on how he can make more money through carpentry. I will buy some tools for him, as I promised I would last time I was here, but he has to have a plan for what he is going to make and be sure there is a market for it, so that we put our money and energy in the right direct. I also told him that he can continue to do research into land... how much money will it take to hold the land until he knows what he will get for his sugar cane. Terry and I will brainstorm ideas as well -- maybe we can be on title and carry a mortgage for them... I don't know.

I told him that I will not abandon him, but I am not just going to just buy him land either. It has to benefit both of us. I also have to see how he will be able to support his family even when he has land. Where will he get money for seed and fertilizer, how will he survive until the crops are ready...

There are so many questions yet to be answered. I told him we will go slowly and will not come to any decisions until March so that we get the best advice. He should carry on as if our answer is no. I asked him if he understood. He said, "Me, I am satisfied. My mother... I don't think so."

I'd be kinda cool to own a shamba in Kenya, don't you think?

Garmin run data test

2012-01-08T12:56:00.001+03:00

Sunday Jan 7th run- Details

Just attempting to upload run data (off my Garmin watch) from this morning to blog. Not sure what this will be...

...now I see: click on the link called "Sunday Jan 7th run..." link to see google map of where I ran this morning. Lets you see the neighbourhood as I started at our Kenya house.

2nd KASFOOC meeting

2012-01-08T09:18:00.006+03:00

As I ran by the little girl pictured above this morning I heard the barest audible of whispered "Howareyou?"'s. Her fear could not quell her training to be polite. She is in her Sunday best holding a flower.

We met with KASFOOC, the Community Based Org (CBO), for 3.5 hours yesterday. We went for lunch at little banda shown above. We relayed info from Rotary Club about how the spring project will proceed. One of the contractors was also present. We will reduce the cost of each spring by having community gather sand and stones and supply labourers with lunch. This will give them skin in the game. At each of 3 stages of building I will supply RC with certificate verifying stage has been reached so more money will be doled out. We also advised that we will start in the area that KASFOOC recommends as most needy. Tan and I will visit this area Monday morning to ensure community has gathered materials and they are good quality and they are ready for contractors soon-hopefully Wednesday. Seeing us will hopefully convince community that this is real. Various politicians and churches have broken promises before. I will make a video documentary showing all stages of spring construction.

We also talked extensively about feed, fingerlings and Virtues training for fish farm co-op. We will be travelling to Kisumu so I can meet suppliers and get a feel for logistics. This will cost about $90.00 to hire a car for the day, but I think it is a good investment. To get these farmers to next level, ie multiple crops per year, we need to move towards monosex stock and good feed at lowest cost.

We also gave KASFOOC 15000 KSh (~180 CDN) of our own money for their own discretion as well as for administration. We want them to have the funds for paper, photos, photocopying, internet, cell airtime etc to keep Rotary happy by staying on top of communities and contractors throughout project. There will also be money leftover to give food and supplies to the widow families they care for.

found a run buddy

2012-01-07T09:52:00.000+03:00

Terry here, 10am Saturday Jan 7th.

This morning's attempt to get lost in the back roads was a success. Unfortunately I decided not to take my camera, so i cant show you Godfrey my run "buddy".

Just got back from my morning constitutional (Im 11 hours ahead of you). Another beautiful sunny morning, I'd say 15-18 nice degrees. Nice breeze.

At about 30" into the run just when I was turning around, on a narrow red dirt track coming towards me was a runner. He was wearing dress pants, a short sleeve dress shirt and sandals, but he was running smooth. He looked about 25 (as does everyone, very youthful here). I turned to join him saying "Habari, wapi kimbia?"= "Hiya where run?" he did not look unfriendly, but he did not answer. we were running uphill, to keep up with him I had to go from my slow 5"/km downhill pace to his 4:35/km UPhill pace. It felt good to have a reason to push it. We ran quietly for a few km, he was going my exact route I wanted to go so I just went with it; winding trough little dirt roads between tiny farms, families out front cooking maize. After about 3-4km another runner of similar description fell in for a km. I said "Jina lako nani?" and his name is Godfrey. after 5km together we were in the heart of the town. It's market day, it is packed, I mean packed. I left him there with a "Kwaheri!" because we were brought to a walk and I headed back out of town. Great run 1:07 12km.

Last night's meeting with Rotary procurement committee went ok. Looks like things can start moving next week ie first spring dug. A little too complicated for my taste, but we have to give local Rotarians the control. Now (10am Saturday morning) I'm off to meet with KASFOOC to discuss the plans. Tricky balance between CBO KASFOOC, Rotary, community receiving spring, me and contractors. Alot of egoes involved.

Pics from run this morning

2012-01-06T20:56:00.000+03:00

Visit with Fredrick

2012-01-06T15:22:00.000+03:00

I was so happy on Wednesday to see Fredrick! When he saw Terry in town, he gave him a boda boda lift home and said he would come at 2pm. He arrived with Josephine and little Brenda (now 4) and Emmanuel (just 13 months and already walking). I wasn't expecting the whole family, but was so happy to see them.

Before we sat down, Fredrick insisted on praising God for bringing us together again. He prayed in Swahili in earnest for quite a good long time. I understood, Terry and Tanya and Amen.

The kids are gorgeous and just like any other 4 and 1 year old. They played and laughed and fell down and cried and got into things they shouldn't. When they fell they would only cry for a minute until Josephine would scoop them up by the arm and send them on their way. Not a lot of muss or fuss, but there is definitely a lot of joy in this family. The kids both loved looking in the mirror and turning on the light in the hallway was a real hit.

I gave each of the kids an outfit from Canada and Josephine promptly changed them into their new clothes (she changed them back into the clothes they were wearing before they left). Josephine was tickled when I took pictures of the kids.

Brenda and Emmanuel

I am just waiting now for Fredrick to arrive with his mother. They are asking for assistance in buying land. Oh boy. This will be my dilemma to sort out for this trip. I am accepting (and pleading for) any and all feedback, comments, ideas, or suggestions on this one.

Sanford and June have bought an acreage which they have subdivided for their family members. They have also provided seed and fertilizer and have said the rest is up to you. With land, at least, there are opportunities to be self sufficient.

Terry read an article in Runners World about an olympian from Unganda who supported family members on the condition that they take in orphans. His parents now have taken in 11 orphans and he sends $100 a month for food. I think Terry got a little excited and proposed, as an idea, not a promise, that maybe Fredrick could take in some orphans. Ei yei ei... That sounds terribly complicated.

We will not be jumping in to any decisions. I intend on asking lots of questions of lots of locals on how best to support young families toward becoming self sufficient. I have no doubt that Fredrick is trustworthy and hardworking. I don't like that his mother is asking for something this big. That annoys me a little. In the three years I have known Fredrick, he has never asked for anything. I have provided a lot -- rent, money for seed and fertilizer, very small amounts of money on a couple of occassions for medical bills...

They have just arrived... more later.

Rotary Projects at Daisy School (Update)

2012-01-06T13:52:00.000+03:00

Strathcona Sunrise Rotary club built 50 student desks and 10 teachers desk through a District Simplified Grant in 2009. We are pleased to report the desks are still there, being heavily used.

Cumberland Rotary paid for windows to be installed with iron grates. All are installed, looking good and working well.

Cumberland also contributed to the building of a well. The contractor abandoned the job too soon and the well only produces 4-5 buckets of water per day before requiring 24 hrs to recharge.

Despite this they have addressed their water shortages thanks to a grant from a US NGO.

The school is working properly with 306 students, a 140 of which are boarders. Many are handicapped. They could use many things but they are benefitting very well from Rotary support. We will keep them in mind, but for now are not high priority.

Neighbours Sanford and June

2012-01-06T12:43:00.000+03:00

We are just back from tea with our neighbours, Sanford and June. What an amazing couple. They were both born and raised in Kakamega and have lived in the states for the last 14 years or so. They shared their story by saying they came from humble beginnings.

June's father is a bishop in Kenya with about 75 churches. She was able to go to the U.S. to study because her parents sold their land so that she could go to school in the states. Once there she worked two jobs to pay her tuition and went to night school. She was in the U.S. for five years before Sanford decided to join her. She had gotten a professional job and was doing quite well for herself. Sanford, who was raised by a single mother, was doing quite well for himself in Kenya. He had a masters in Finance and Project Management. The company he was working for did not want to lose him to the U.S., so they offered to match June's salary if she would stay in Kenya and not take Sanford away to the U.S. June was working on her master's degree and was not willing to sacrifice her education. Strong woman!

Sanford took the risk and moved to the U.S. Because of his black skin and strong Kenyan accent, prospective employers did not take him seriously. So he took jobs working in a gas station and as a cleaner -- you didn't need to have a clear accent to clean toilets. Sometimes the manager of the gas station would have trouble posting accounts at the end of the day and Sanford would help. Ah, who are you? She eventually promoted him to assistant manager, which involved a $2 and hour raise. And he rose from there until he eventually got a professional job where he was doing quite well for himself. As was June. They struggled so hard those first couple of years and now that they are successful, most of their money is sent home to assist in Kenya.

They have to be "quite mean" sometimes and say no to their family. They used to just give money, but now they expect the family members to have some contribution. For example, Sandford will be willing to assist with school fees for a child, but he asks what the parents are willing to sacrifice. "If you are willing to go without sugar in your tea, then you will save approximately 13,000 Ksh per year."

June and her sister want to help a cousin who lives in a shanty home in downtown Kakamega -- just two rooms, living room and kitchen, with a pit toilet outside, for a family with five teenage children. June asked the cousin to come up with a plan of how much it would cost to build a three bedroom home -- one bedroom for the parents, one for the girls and one for the boys (right now all five siblings sleep on the floor in the kitchen). She wants the children to have their own rooms for their dignity and self esteem. They came up with an agreeable plan and June first sent 30,000 Ksh for the timber, then followed with installments as each stage was ready. She went just three days ago to pay the final 10,000 Ksh (about $100) and almost cried when she saw that the new house has only two rooms with a kitchen. Terry asked what had happened with the rest of the money, was it spent because someone was ill. June said that she just used some of the money for luxuries like rice and clothing for the children. 30,000 Ksh is just too much to be tied up in mud walls.

She is now considering a way to expand on this new little house as she feels it is important for the kids to have gender separate bedrooms.

More stories to come... we are on our way to Daisy School to follow up on some school desks we had built through Rotary and donations from friends last time we were here.

I am so grateful for everyone we meet! Still need a secretary to get all of this down!!!

2012-01-06T10:01:00.000+03:00

Just got back from a deliciously warm, hilly 30 minute jog around our area. Saw some breath taking extreme poverty at the same time as enjoying a run. Saw lots of garbage and amazing scenery. Weird paradoxes I know. Hard to explain. I took some pics that I will upload later. I think it is good to be here, good to see it all and it is good to run. In fact many of these nooks and crannies can only be visited on foot and only by running can I see so many.

Ok, gotta get dressed and go do some good. Today we drop in on Daisy School where in 2009 Rotary and our friends had 55+ desks built for over 160 kids, including special desks made for handicapped kids. Rotary built the basic 55 desks. Wayne & Sharon, Cheryl J. and CWG friends added funds so that each desk could get upgraded with a shelf (important) and build 18 customized desks for (severely)handicapped students.

I want to ensure desks are still there, that they lasted and say hi to a couple friends we made there. The Daisy principal we dealt with got fired for corruption last year. His assistant Alfred we also worked with in 2009 now has principal position. We are told our projects were unaffected. It will be good to see and to look in on results of RC Cumberland's efforts to supply a well and windows in 2010.

Just back from Rotary meeting

2012-01-05T21:29:00.001+03:00

In the picture above Secretary Alice Muhindo addresses the club and guests, thanking the speaker.

We had a good Rotary meeting tonite at the Golf Hotel. President Robertson was very gracious. I gave greetings from Strathcona Sunrise Rotary and the partners of the spring project from Campbell River, Comox Valley and rest of VI. I stated we were eager to get 20 springs done before we returned. President Robertson said: "we will get them all done before you get home!" with a big smile. That seems a little optimistic, but we'll try.

The guest speaker at the meeting was a "Clinical Practitioner" from local hospital. CP's are 75% doctors. There are only about 2000 doctors in Kenya for a population of 40 million (1:20,000) A couple other young doctors were there to thank the Kakamega club and the local Rotaract club for supporting a recent clinic that allowed 500 mothers to have a doctor visit for the first time

After the meeting we attended the board meeting. It was decided that another meeting take place tomorrow night, after contractors were contacted, concerning the spring project. The President said we are eager to start, all that must be decided is if we can start Saturday or Sunday! Fingers crossed our 2 contractors will be given the green light to begin this weekend.

Just out and about

2012-01-05T16:36:00.000+03:00

Terry got a haircut yesterday in a very upscale salon. He practiced his Swahili with the barber (there was plenty of time for that, as the barber was being very precise). After his haircut, he was treated with a very nice wash and head massage from a young woman, and then passed back to the barber for a comb. They offered a blow dry too, but Terry politely declined.

Terry with his barber, Jack

I read the newspaper while I waited for Terry. Some of the headlines from yesterday were:

Police arrest suspected amorous teacher. 580 of 600 teachers were found guilty of the offense that shames the teacher profession. -- This was a story about a teacher who had been having relations with one of his students for two years. The girl is 13.

Who desires to make polygamy repugnant. Opinion piece in favour of keeping polygamy legal. The writer argues that if it is disallowed, it will encourage illicit relations as even a former US President has proven.

Village in shock after coffee society boss is murdered.

It's not all bad news. There is much hope for the upcoming election. Kenya has a new constitution that promises to be more fair. There is a new law that will give one third of the parliamentary seats to women -- I believe this may be the highest in the world! And also a woman representative from every district.

On another note... yesterday we passed by this football pitch with students playing in grass up to their knees. This morning there were two men cutting the grass -- with machetes.

School children playing football

After our shopping at Nakumat -- we will get as much as we can from local vendors, but we are still stocking up with basic supplies that we can only get in the bigger store -- I was chatting with one of the men who worked there while we waited for a taxi (luxury we indulged in this one time because we didn't know how else to get our chairs and big jugs of water home). I can't tell if the Nakumat is helping the community, by providing jobs, or hurting the community, like the Walmarts and Costcos have done to small businesses. Nicholas was dressed very smartly, in a dress shirt and slacks (not a uniform), so I imagine he has a relatively important position, maybe a manager of some kind. I asked him if it was a good job. He said it is quite tiring and the pay is small relative to the cost of living. Every employee works 13 hours a day, with one day off a week. Some lower employees only get two days off a month. The law is for eight hours, but no one monitors it.

Matano was telling us that in order to get anything from the municipality you have to make a lot of noise. When we asked him why we hear so many dogs barking at night, but never see any around, even when Terry runs for miles around, he told us that the government has a poison programme when the dogs get too many. People want guard dogs on their property, but then they just let them wander around and don't care for them properly. The government will announce that they will be putting poison around, so those that are responsible will keep their dogs in. The last time this happened, Matano said their was such a smell afterward. The town had to make a lot of noise before the municipality came around to deal with the carcasses.

We learned in a visit from Fredrick, which I will tell you about in another post, that the students at the university were very angry. We didn't understand why. There is much we don't understand here and overtime through many conversations, we put pieces together. Matano told us today that the Engineering students were so angry because they had paid their tuition and they were just being taught under a tree. The university accepted more students than it had classrooms in which to teach them.

Students, teachers, doctors and professionals are beginning to demand more from their government. There have been many strikes in recent months, most fail, but hopefully this new constitution will bring about change. One drop of hope... right?

This trip feels much less... I don't know. I am less heartbroken, so far anyway. The need is huge. The Kenyan economy is in deep trouble. But, I'm pretty clear that I can't fix it. I have some ideas on how to contribute. Anyway, the trip has only just begun...

More Players... KASFOOC

2012-01-05T15:38:00.000+03:00

I wish I had a dictaphone and a typist to follow me around to capture everything. Each meeting, or even walk into town is so full... sigh. It reminds me of last year when we were on safari; I was so torn between trying to get the perfect picture of an elephant or lion and not wanting to miss the experience by having my nose in a camera the whole time. I'm sure as we settle in I will be able to give myself to the present moment and trust that the memories will be there when I need them.

Yesterday we met with KASFOOC, Kakamega Supporting Families of Orphaned Children, at their office which is just down our street.

Left to Right: Terry, Moses, Matano, Jackson, Joyce

We met the members of KASFOOC on our last trip and have formed a good relationship with them. KASFOOC supports a group of 10 widows, who raise 40 orphans between them, with agriculture (bananas, vegetables, casava), education (school uniforms for the children -- just uniforms, not shoes or sweaters), fish farms (samaki shamba in Swahili -- this is the project that Terry started and many friends have contributed to; we also have a small Rotary grant to further support the farmers), fresh water (One Drop of Hope has funded one protected spring and Rotary has funded four others -- now there will be 50 springs constructed over the next year which Rotary has provided a grant for and KASFOOC will help administer), and finally health (guiding and counselling only).

You will hear us mention KASFOOC board members Jackson (Chairman), Matano (Secretary), and Joyce the most as we know them the best. Other active board members are Moses, Zacharia, Amos, and Esther (there are others, that I am forgetting 12 or 13 in total).

We were greeted warmly by Jackson, Moses, Matano and Joyce yesterday. Jackson told us that we are growing younger. And Joyce confirmed saying, "Yes, you have also put on weight." That got me up doing P90X this morning! We had much to talk about but agreed that this first meeting would be devoted to discussing the Protected Springs.

The Rotary Grant money has arrived and will be managed by the Rotary Club of Kakamega. KASFOOC has the relationship with the community members who will benefit from the springs and so will coordinate the priority of construction and visits, etc. Terry will crack the whip and I will help decipher the Kenyan accent for Terry and take notes to keep it all straight.

The relationship with the community is so important and can be very fragile. It might seem simple -- they should be happy, they are getting clean water, but as Jackson explained, "they have been cheated several times... for several years Church groups and politicians will promise and then after election they just forget it." KASFOOC has developed trust in the community and also with officials because of the good work they have delivered. Members of the community will contribute by unearthing grass that has grown over the springs, collect sand and stones for the construction and filtration.

The Rotary Club here is moving a little more slowly than we would have liked -- they are a small club and each of their members are very busy in their businesses, so we certainly understand. Terry and I are hoping that we can take some of the burden of the work to get things rolling quickly. One hold up is that the Rotarians here seem to want to choose more contractors to spread the employment opportunity around. We have chosen two contractors that have a good track record with KASFOOC and also with Tembo. Jackson says their can be problems if you don't know the contractor, "some might escape and we don't know where they come from." We are going to the Rotary meeting tonight and will propose that we get started right away with the two contractors we have and if the Rotarians find other contractors, then we can bring them on later.

One of the tricky bits is in compensation for KASFOOC. They are putting in a lot of leg work, visiting every spring, building relations with the contractors and most importantly the community, gathering quotes, etc. Rotarians are all volunteers. Terry and I have come here on our own expense, the Kakamega Rotarians are all volunteers, as are Rotarians everywhere. We met with one Rotarian on our first day, Vaghela, who said KASFOOC can own the project, but there will be no fee for administration, they should be volunteers like we are. It keeps it very clean that way. That is one of the things we love about Rotary -- they are impeccable with their accountability and volunteers are truly volunteers.

Jackson told us about KASFOOC, "We are not so financially fit." He told us, for example, that when we left sugar was 70 Ksh and is now maybe 160 Ksh.

Moses said of why they do it, "When we are old men, we can look back and see this as our legacy." Clean water for the majority of the community (about 75%) is a legacy both Rotary and KASFOOC can be proud of.

2012-01-05T06:23:00.000+03:00

Meeting with some KASFOOC exec (helping Rotary with Fishfarmers & Springs) in their office (L to R) Terry,, Moses, Matano, Jackson, Joyce

Tanya with family she has been helping since 2009 (L to R) Tanya holding Brenda, Josephine (holding Emmanuelle), Frederick.

Rundown on Tembo-Kenya

2012-01-04T20:23:00.000+03:00

Thought I would just do a quick run down on who is who in regards to our projects so as not to confuse anyone. We have basically come in with three separate projects which are separately funded, and a pocket full of cash from friends to spend as the need arises.

Tembo Kenya; teaching, empowering, mentoring, building opportunity
This is the group that the Canada to Kenya funds (and on-line donations from our generous friends and family) are being funnelled through. I am working as an agent for Tembo to help coordinate business skills training and vocational scholarships. Many of the applicants who were interviewed yesterday will be gaining a skill that will help to support their families because of your donations! That is so amazing to me.

The business skills training is another stream for the fundraising you have taken part in. Two groups have already started. Tembo has a commissioned a trainer from Kisumu, Alex. Alex holds two sessions to hammer home the idea of self sufficiency. He tells them straight up there is no money coming from the Mzungus, so if that is what you came for, go home now!

The groups that come are already a part of an organized self-help group (they may have organized just for these purposes). After the initial two sessions, the groups go away and put together a plan for a joint enterprise. Some that were discusses were bee keeping, rabbits, chickens, and yams. The next two sessions are done with the leaders of the groups (chairman, secretary, treasurer). The focus again is on choosing a viable enterprise that can be undertaken independent of support from Mzungus.

One of the youth groups have chosen liquid soap. They call their co-operative "Hope for Soap." Tembo has made an arrangement with the Golf Hotel to have their used water bottles, and are assisting the group in finding contracts for the soap (schools, restaurants, etc.). The youth are thrilled. They can sell a 500ml bottle of liquid soap for 50 Ksh and make it for about 1Ksh. Great mark up.

Quality control and co-operation is stressed to the leaders. Once a group is a formal co-operative (there are lots of rules that I don't yet understand) and have proven some success in business, they may be eligible for a loan from an already existing Kenyan institution.

Tembo believes it is important to work within the community with institutions that are already in place. So, rather than foreigners coming in and telling them what to do with pockets full of money, Tembo is calling on Kenyan expertise, local schools and trainers, and local financial institutions. Building community with the resources of the community.

Rod and Patricia Crossley are the founders of Tembo-Kenya. They are also Rotarians from Victoria. Nancy is from Vancouver (a board member of Tembo) and is in Kakamega for her fifth time; she will be here until March. Caroline, Tony, Vincent, Julius, Richard, Johnstone, and Grace are on the Kenyan Advisory Board and all volunteer their time and expertise (there may also be others I haven't yet met).

More to come tomorrow... lost power for a couple of hours, now I am sleepy.

Tembo Interviews

2012-01-04T09:29:00.000+03:00

We had a very full first day. Terry and I took a boda boda through town to meet Rod and Patricia at the Virtues Centre where Tembo is interviewing for scholarships for vocational training. This is the final step for twenty people, who have been vetted by the Tembo Kenyan advisory committee, to apply for a scholarship for vocational training of their choice.

I was so impressed -- Tembo really knows what they are doing. Applicants hear through word of mouth (usually through the advisory committee -- for full info on Tembo Kenya, visit http://tembokenya.org/ ) that there is an opportunity for a training scholarship. They choose the school and program that they want to attend and submit an application letter stating their need, what program they want to take, and how it will help them. Applicants are shortlisted and invited to interview.

Applicants waiting for an interview at Virtues Centre (Tembo)

It is important to note that some of these people may have to walk three hours or more for the chance if they can't manage the fare. Some will come the night before and sleep outside so they are not late. Of the twenty who were invited, all of them showed up -- which is a big deal in Kenya. In Canada, of course you would show up for an interview for a scholarship, but there are obstacles here that we just wouldn't think of. Having a dollar or even 50 cents for the bus for one thing.

The interviews were held by the Kenyans to help put the applicants at ease and also for the language barrier. English and Swahili are the official languages and taught in school, but in the rural areas village languages are spoken (this region is home to Luiya people). Applicants are selected based on Need and Potential, Number of years out of school, Number of dependents, and how they interview (confidence, enthusiasm, etc.). Tembos mandate is to put food on the table, so priority is given to those who are the primary bread winners. The Kenyans on the advisory committee interview and make recommendations, but it is the Canadians who make the final decisions. This is to follow CRA rules as well as to relieve pressure on the Kenyans. They can say honestly to their friends, "It is not up to me."

Tembo Interviews

Of the twenty who applied, only two were not selected. Patricia had received a negative report about one young man, and one girl was just out of form 4 (grade 12) and had not yet received her results. The committee felt that "it would be wrong for us to mentor"... and they would be limiting her by setting her on a path of tailoring when she may have greater potential once her results are in to be called to a university.

Eleven young men (aged 23 to 36) will go to driving school (about $100 for a commercial license), one for carpentry, and one for computer training. Two women have selected motor vehicle technology, three for tailoring, and one for computer secretarial. Some of the comments from the interviewers were:

"Looks successful and determined."

"Looks very determined. This one was a house girl for a year trying to raise funds for school. She is widowed raising three children."

"Worthy to be sponsored."

Debrief after Interviews

I also want to mention that Tembo only has one paid employee. Mary is the office assistant and works very hard for very little pay. She is a great asset and Tembo couldn't get on without her. All of the others on the advisory board are volunteers. This is extremely rare in Kenya, as most charge a sitting fee -- something we are faced with with our friends at KASFOOC. After the interviews (four hours), we all went to the Sports Club for lunch.

We had lots of time to chat and laugh as we waited for our meal (it took 25 minutes for Terry to get his coffee)... the toasted chicken sandwich and chips were a least another half hour or more.

One story that came out over lunch... Caroline's fiancee (they have been together 6 years, waiting for enough money for a bride price and wedding) completed university last year at the top of his class with a degree in Education. He accepted a teaching position for 10,000 Ksh/month (about $100). Salaries are paid at the end of each month. On payday, he was given 2,000 Ksh and promised that the rest would be forthcoming. At the end of the next month he simply was not paid. He is now looking for another position. Given his marks, he should be called to a government university soon. Teachers are talking about striking again.

Another story... Our friend discovered some time ago that she had a lump in her breast. She went to one hospital that wanted to operate immediately. She did not have the money, so went to another hospital where they told her the same thing. A friend directed her to another doctor who gave her some medicine and within three days the lumps were gone. Surgeries are big business :o(. She feels lucky to have met this doctor and has another consultation this week. She is not sure how she will pay the consultation fee (500 Ksh... about $5).

I promised you baby elephants

2012-01-04T08:39:00.000+03:00

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150448719801927.363935.632656926&type=1&l=c292c4888c

Here's a link to some pics from our first couple of days.

what a run & Rotary update

2012-01-04T08:31:00.000+03:00

Its Terry here, 0830 am,Wed (9:39pm Tues your time) just got back from a fantastic 1:20 16km run through the back roads of farms and mud huts. Men plowing fields with oxes and others herding cows with motorcycles. Women dressed to the nines walking along the dirt paths in high heels alongside barefoot 4 yr old girls in rags carrying water.

The roads were very dusty, red and hilly. Perfect temperature.

The kids are terrified of the running old mizunga if they are in a group of 4 or less. They swerve away in there blue school dresses with big eyes. If they are in a group of more than 4 they grin and yell "How are you? How are you". For the entire run I was saying, in swahili: "Mzuri", Mazuri Sana" (Im fine, Im very fine) or "jambo-jambo" (howdy) and of course "Habari" (hello). Sometimes I could even see where the salutations were coming from.

I took a wrong turn, at 1;20 I was pretty tired by the time I reached the outskirts of town. Then, from the crowd ( I had left the country roads by this time), I heard a voice beside me. It was Frederick on a boda boda! He's the guy Tanya has been sponsoring since 2009. I jumped on the back and he navigated me through the 2km of thick crowds and dropped me at our door.

ROTARY
The great news is the RC Kakamega is taking charge of protected spring project with gusto. At least four issues to deal with on protected springs 1) RC wants more contractors involved, but have been saying so for several months and have not obtained more quotes. 2) KASFOOC wants recompense to cover travel costs to monitor project 3)the two contractors we have quotes from have waited a year for the job, and trhey, like me are wanting to start ASAP and 4) Sanitation training will have to invlove some government which COULD be complicated

Now to shower and get ready for KASFOOC meeting at 10am

Kakamega is all grown up

2012-01-03T20:00:00.000+03:00

As soon as we landed in Kisumu, I felt as if we had arrived in Kenya. I don't know what it is about Nairobi, but I just can't relax there. Though I did cross the street all by myself and buy our modems so that we can have internet in a stick that will follow us anywhere. We only just now figured out how to use it... with the help of a very patient young woman here at the Safaricom shop in Kakamega.

The drive from Kisumu to Kakamega was so different from when we were last here. What a difference a smooth road makes. The scenery did not disappoint -- it is so lush. Everything is bright here -- bright green trees, tea, and sugar cane, bright red dirt, blue sky, brightly painted buildings (hot pink, purple, yellow, and orange -- like REALLY bright), bright white teeth. Gorgeous.

And the sounds... went to sleep last night under our mosquito net to the sounds of our askari's (security guard) blaring radio show (sounded like a preacher -- the preaching here is very in your face of the fire and brimstone variety) and the dogs barking. I had forgotten about the dogs. They haven't started yet tonight, but I do recall it was a nightly event. Funny, too, because you don't really ever see dogs. Another Kenyan mystery. The sounds of the morning are much more inviting... sweet song birds and distant mooing. Such a delight.

Terry started the day with a run. I've decided not to run on this trip. I may change my mind as I acclimatize, but I remember from last year that I could never quite catch my breath (dust and altitude), and I was never quite comfortable prancing by as people were toiling in the fields or in the market or whatever. So, it will be P90X and yoga for me -- Yoga for Fearlessness, Yoga for Insomnia, Non harming Ahimsa, and Yoga to Prevent Digestive Distress. I should be all set!

More sounds... constant hum of crickets from sunset to twilight. As for the changes... When we were last here, it seemed pretty bustling, with boda bodas (bicycle taxis) and people walking in droves to and from work or school or to the markets. There were a few motorcycles around, very few taxis, almost no private vehicles and of course matatus (little nissan van buses, usually decked out with blaring music, and named Blessed Angel or Gospel Praise or some other such holy name); which reminds me of the names of the shops we passed on our drive here... Nice and Lovely (I'm not sure what they sell, but there shop is very nice and lovely with bright pink paint), Blessed Tailoring, Graceful Butchery, etc. They are crazy about God and Jesus here.

One of the shows on tv on our way here was "The Groove Party," which seemed to be some kind of MTV countdown show. After each performance, the host would ask the performer, "What are you praising God for in 2011?". A young Massai rapper with blue jeans, a gansta hat, sunglasses, and a tribal blanket tied over one shoulder, answered, "All the whistles, all the dances, it is all Jesus."

Back to Kakamega... Now there is an actual mall! When we left in 2009 they had started construction on a Nakumat, which is kind of like a Walmart. We were sure it would be finished by now, but were not expecting anything like this. It is an actual mall, with a parking lot and two fountains in front and stores with doors and windows. There is a butcher shop with glass cases and COOLERS. The Safaricom store sells cell phones (Blackberry's and iPhones), lap tops, iPads. The Nakumat sells flat screen tvs. We are absolutely stunned. Who is buying flat screen tvs in Kakamega?

I asked Patricia, whom you will hear me mention a lot (Patricia and Rod are the founders of TEMBO), that very question, and what effect the mall is having on the locals. She said there is a new middle class that simply did not exist before. The University was recently upgraded and there are 10,000 new students in town; which means professors, staff for the grounds, bookshops, cafeteria, cleaners, etc. So, while the mall and new grocery stores are busy, the divide between the have and have-nots is getting wider and much more apparent.

We have shopped twice at Nakumat, but I am determined to find a vendor at the outdoor market or on our street that I can support. I think Nakumat may buy from some local suppliers, but I'm not sure. And I do wonder what will become of the farmers who rely on selling their produce to pay for their children's school fees. Inflation has been crazy. The price of food has tripled and schools are passing on the costs to parents.

Kakamega is ALOT different- whoa

2012-01-03T19:02:00.000+03:00

Terry Here. Jan 3rd

WOWOWOW

Our minds have been blown. We land in Kisumu at a brand new airport opened 4 months ago. Like a real air port, not the wooden building with pretty lawn outside of 2009.

Then the drive to Kakamega is not 1:40 of bone jarring pothole dodging- its smooth and only takes 1 hour!

THEN we get into Kakamega. The number of cars and people looks to be double. There are two new malls in town- the first two ever. They have real food, eg gouda cheese. We are not sure if we are happy. This is going to be a very different experience.

Whats more we now have modems. I'm not sitting in a crowded internet cafe, but from our house. Our house has also gotten more modern. We have a toaster and a washing machine.

I went for my first run this morning. Out on my favorite route around the tea fields. New buildings going up everywhere. The run felt great.

Afterwards we met TEMBO and interviewed 20 candidates for vocational scholarship. Almost all these shortlisted youth will get scholarships precisely, and only, because friends of ours donated funds. Two young ladies will be able to attend auto mechanic school. Life changing, amazing. 5 sit on sidelines just in case more money shows up hoping to go to eg driver school.

After that we met with local Rotarians at their place of businesses to kickstart protected spring building. We meet with KASFOOC tomorrow morning to discuss fish farm projects.

Busy, hot , good day.

Jungle Run near Nairobi

2012-01-02T09:22:00.000+03:00

Terry here. Jan 2, 2012.

I finally slept last nite from 830pm to 4am. Read til about 6am then went for a quick drinky poo of juice b4 my run. Ran into my economist buddy from Harvard. Got delayed chatting to him. I argued that stimulus spending doesnt work unless your goal is to get re elected. He argued that he thinks more stimulus (ie whats called teh Jobs Bill, stimulus is no longer a fashionable word in Washigton) is needed. Ah well, we'll see (translation: I'm right, he's wrong).

I would really like to go to Somalia with him tomorrow. Chatting to him and another guy from Toronto yesterday at elephant rescue place got me excited. They both go to war-torn countries. The Toronto guy takes his family because its super cheap and you get the run of the place. As I ran this morning I thought my dream job would be foreign correspondent for Runners World. They would pay my flights and give me a card and I would run through war-torn countries and report out. Who would arrest and torture a innocent jogger? I'll have to write up some stories and pitch it to them.

Afterwards I retraced a run from 3 years ago on my then last morning in Kenya. Then I was mosquito-bitten and my left ankle was full of cuts and puss- all taped up to fit in my runner. So today was a breeze; I'm wearing my socks pulled up as a preventative measure. There is a jungle park about 2 km from downtown. Its called The Arbotoreum. Hilly trails zig zag thru steep brush. Fantastic run, lots of monkeys. I did about 1:10 then came back to have brekky with Tanya. This hotel food is pretty good.

People often ask what we eat here. Now I remember: curry with rice or chapti, fried 'kale" with chapati, samosas, toast, nuts and junkfood with chai tea and coffee with lots of sugar.

Today we leave for airport at 1pm for Kakamega. Then the Rotary work starts. Im looking forward to it- all this self-pleasuring tourism is getting a bit much. Did Tanya mention that border guys did not check to see if we had vaccines? Again. Yup, so dont believe public nurses who say you must get vaccinated to enter African countries. I regret getting the Yellow Fever vax 3 years ago (made me ill for a week), but at least I said NO to the other $700 worth they wanted me to take, and NO to any malaria medication. We'll see how it works out because this trip I plan on working in the mud alot more- which is exactly what they warn against.

Did Tanya mention our driver yesterday? James got wiped out business-wise in Kisumu by a mob that burned him out. He now has a small farm near Nairobi and |Im gonna visit him on our way home to start a fish pond.

Dont tell Tanya, but Iam still looking for a way to get to the Somali border before we go. Maybe if I splurge and send her on a safari with a friend....hmmm

Nairobi: the good, the bad, the ugly

2012-01-01T20:58:00.000+03:00

The good: Warm sunshine, baby elephants, giraffes, little girls in Sunday dresses, and the sing song Kenyan accent

The bad: That sinking, edgy feeling that I may be robbed, or bitten by a mosquito at any minute… it will take me a few days to shake this one (don’t worry mom, it’s all in my head)

The ugly: A sweet little girl (maybe 3 years at the most), in her pretty Sunday dress, begging from us as her mother watches from the curb

We arrived safely in Nairobi last night, New Year’s Eve, at around 9:30pm. As soon as we walked off the plane, we noticed a familiar smell in the air… it’s the smell of heat with a touch of exhaust. Our blue jeans and sweaters will be at the bottom of our suitcase for the next three months. Things went smoothly at the airport; bank cards worked (which is important), visas were accepted, and we had a nice taxi driver who charged a reasonable fair. Our hotel, the 680, is over-priced, but just fine. We passed many ladies of the night on our way to the hotel.

Terry’s sleeping is still wonky… I am expecting him to crash any minute now. We were up until well after 1am and Terry got up at 4am and was out for breakfast by 6am this morning. I think he’s had about 9 hours sleep total in the past 3 or 4 days. Anyway, I joined him for breakfast around 7am… which would be called one in Kenya. They start their day at 6am, so if you are meeting someone at what we would call 10am, you would say, I will meet you at four. Six is their midnight – just one of the confusing things about Kenya.

On the way down to breakfast, I bumped into an American fellow, Chris VanDuyne, on the elevator and asked him to join us for breakfast. He is a fascinating guy. He is completing his third master’s degree at Columbia University in New York and has just been accepted to Harvard for his PhD. His degrees are in Government and Non Profit Organizations, Healthcare, and Education. He will do his PhD in Urban Planning. Chris started a charity, Fearless Charities Inc. (fearlesscharities.org), after reading an article about a hospital in Somalia that had no equipment because no one would take it to them. He decided he would be the guy that would. Hospitals donate old equipment and pay him a small fee to deliver the equipment to countries like Somalia, Haiti. The hospitals get a $20,000 charitable write-off for about $1,000 and the cost of his travel expenses. He has stopped in Kenya on his way to Somalia. He is a pretty focussed guy, that hasn’t done any touristy stuff on all of his trips to Africa. He came with us to the Elephant Orphanage and The Langata Giraffe Centre. Terry was pretty happy to have someone new to talk politics and economics with.

Before I get to cute little elephants – and boy oh boy are they ever cute – I’ll just touch in on that sinking feeling I was mentioning. After breakfast we went to find a cash machine. It is a holiday and the streets were very quiet, but every 50 metres or so, there would be 3 or 4, sometimes half a dozen, security guards on the street, just kind of hanging around. It’s creepy. They seem quite bored, very skinny, so not very threatening to the bad guys I wouldn’t think, and, I don’t know… there’s something just disturbing about a deserted street covered in askaris (Swahili for guards).

I asked Maina (pronounced May-eee-na), our taxi driver, why all the askari. He says some people want to steal. It threatens them. There is no problem. Alright, I guess. We stopped at a look-out point over Nairobi and three young men asked us to sign our names here… a petition? Then we saw they were looking for “sponsors” for school. Maina pointed out that they do not want to work. It is not good. They should at least do a little something if they want money. You see now, why we need the guards. There are people who just don’t want to work. But they want to eat.

O.K. Now for the baby elephants! The baby elephants are rescued and raised at the nursery for up to three years, the time they need milk to survive. They are bottle fed every three hours for the first two years and then every four to six hours for another year. At three, they are transferred to Tsavo Park where they can eat large amounts of vegetation and will eventually integrate into the wild. I could go on and on, but I see this entry is getting quite long enough. The September 2011 issue of National Geographic has a great story with amazing pictures about the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. The elephants are rescued after their mothers are killed often by poachers or from starvation. This little guy (picture to follow) was rescued when he was only a week old – he is 4 weeks now. The elephants look out for each other and form very close relationships. Their trainers have to be sure to rotate so that the elephants don’t become too attached. I think I know what I want to be when I grow up.

More tomorrow…

Pork Scratchings, Mushy Peas, and Mick Jagger

2011-12-31T00:32:00.000+03:00

It has been a full couple of days. Yesterday started with a longer than expected run along the Thames. I paid for it later with very sore legs, but the scenery just got more interesting and more lovely with every step. The rain and wind held off until I turned around to head back home. Song birds, grey squirrels, brick palaces, rowers gliding gracefully alongside swans, cathedrals, and arched bridges made it all worthwhile.

Central London is quite a different experience. I was thinking about my comment about how everything is quaint and little here and then it dawned on me that everything is HUGE in London. Quite the contrast.

We did lots of walking and peeked in on Buckingham Palace, which is not very palacey in my opinion, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (too long of a line-up to go inside), the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery (wish we had more time here), the Calvary Museum (complete with guards on horses with signs that say these horses will bite and kick... being a guard at the Calvary Museum seems like a terrible job to me), and my favourite, Westminster Cathedral. This was my first experience inside a cathedral of this magnitude. I lit a candle for my Dad and just stood in awe at all of it. I was reminded of "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet as I stared up (and up and up) to the mosaic ceilings and marble pillars. I wondered how many years it took to build and how many people lost their lives and how many babies were born during the construction. And then of course I thought of how much it must have cost.

The other London highlight was Billy Elliot. Thanks Ma, for insisting that we see a show while in London! The brochure promised "unforgettable music by Elton John, sensational dance and a powerful storyline, this astonishing theatrical experience will stay with you forever"... it will.

After the play we headed out on the train and bus to Twickenham for a Rotary meeting. Our lack of sleep showed up looking something like bickering about which bus was going where. We ended up hopping on and off two buses after asking the bus driver if it was going to Trafalgar Street (who knew there were so many ways to pronounce Trafalgar). Turns out either of those buses would have taken us where we needed to go, but my questioning confused the matter and caused us an extra 20 minutes of standing in the rain. When we did make it to our destination, we found the pub where the meeting was to be held, but the meeting had been cancelled for the Christmas break. A disappointing end to a great day.

Terry's British breakfast of champions

Today we walked the Thames with friends Andy and Maxine whose commentary added a whole new element of delight to our walk which we have become quite familiar with after only two days.

The quaint little (or not so little) brick buildings we have been passing all have a story. Little did we know that we have been walking on Royal ground. Here is King Henry I's house, first occupied in 1125. The sign out front boasts of many Royals who died here... hmmm... Edward III died here in 1377, Henry VII rebuilt the palace and then died here in 1503, and Queen Elizabeth also died here in 1602. Not sure what all the dying is about, a hospice of sorts maybe.

River Frontage of the Royal Palace

A little farther in our walk we passed homes owned by Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend. Shops and alleyways, pubs complete with more kids, dogs, fish and chips, and mushy peas, ooo, and a cheese shop. A very excellent day. We had plans to go to a meeting tonight, but our afternoon nap, extended a little longer than planned. So, it will be a quiet, likely sleepless, last night at The Swan Inn before we fly out in the morning to Nairobi.

View from our room in Old Isleworth

Big Ben & Buckingham Palace

2011-12-29T01:19:00.000+03:00

Our sleep was definitely a little wonky -- Terry fell asleep by 8:30pm while watching a biography of Susan Boyle on the tele. I woke up in the wee hours of the morning (3am-ish) to Terry just turning off the tele (I really like saying tele) to go back to sleep after being up from midnight. I think we'll have it down by tomorrow as it is ten to ten and we are both still awake.

We started the day with an easy jog along the river Thames. Aside from the picturesque views of swans swimming under little bridges and cobblestone pathways and brick buildings with Christmas wreaths and widow boxes of pansies and ivy, oh, and holly with yellow berries, my favourite part of the run was when we past an older Italian man walking his 3 pooches. Terry was about 200 metres ahead of me and I could see the man point to him and say something. As I neared I heard him ask, "Is she with you?", to which I replied with a smile, "yes." He then quite sternly in a strong Italian accent gave Terry what for for not waiting for me. We carried on with a smile and a wave.

We passed a church with a little cemetery -- everything seems little here -- with headstones from as early as 1676. I love the detail in the architecture; every nook and crannie is adorned with a goblin or a flower or some kind of swirl or curl. The detail is just breathtaking, right down to baby chub rolls on the legs of cherubs.

Anyway, on the way back from our run, Terry was waiting for me up ahead and I was thinking, Oh, it's so nice that he is waiting for me... and then I saw our Italian friend and knew didn't want to get caught again. We had a little chat about which way is it to London and then he asked, "Where are you from, America?" We told him we were from Canada, to which he replied, "Oh, Canadians are nice people." So are Italians!

We spent the afternoon in Central London, which I will write in more detail a little later... I think it's time to sleep soon. We saw Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square, many many old, beautiful, white and gold buildings, and many many statues. Oh, and the Canada Memorial...

Here's just a couple of my favourite signs before I sign off:

way out -- aka exit
give way -- aka yield
look left (or right) -- painted on the street at crossings for us tourists
mind the step
mind the gap
alight here
park here and your car will be clamped

Sleepy in London

2011-12-27T23:26:00.000+03:00

We boarded the plane, on schedule, with a nice surprise... we ended up in "world" something or other, which is not quite first class, but very comfy, with extra roominess, fancy headphones, soft blankie, and a little pack with slippers, a toothbrush, an eye pillow, and a pen. We needed the comfort as we sat on the runway for 2 1/2 hours (TWO AND A HALF HOURS) while the engineers sorted out the starter on engine number 3.

Once up in the air everything went smoothly... until the hour and a half (HOUR AND A HALF) line up for customs in Heathrow! A little sleep deprived, we found our way to the tube, then to the bus and finally to our little room at the Swan Inn Pub.

After some haddock and chips (and a Greek salad -- I've got to get greens while I can, though I'm not sure that iceberg lettuce really counts as greens) in our crowded, but friendly, neighbourhood pub complete with dogs, babies, kids, and rugby on the tele, we are tucked away trying not to fall asleep too early. It is noon:fifteen Vancouver time, 8pm-ish London time. The goal is to stay awake for a couple of hours so we are not up at 4am.

Tomorrow will start with a run along the Thames, which is just outside our door. Then we will try to find some maps and plan out our three short days here.

One hour to take off

2011-12-27T06:37:00.000+03:00

It feels like we have been saying farewell FOREVER! But, the time has actually come. I have been reluctant to blog... still am, a little, I guess. I can't quite find what I'm feeling. And I haven't actually left yet, so there is very little to report at this time.

I do want to say how incredibly grateful I am.

This has been quite the year -- saying good-bye to my Dad in January, Rancho la Puerta in February, Maui in June, going back to school in September, sitting with Adya in California in November, and now Kenya. Sigh. It's almost too much! Thank God for good friends and copious episodes of The Office that have kept me grounded, or helped me numb out when needed, in the face of overwhelm.

I'm also so grateful to Terry... it's pretty amazing that we both want to go on a trip like this (twice!), and that we both love Rotary (though Terry wins the Keener prize for sure), and we both like our quiet little life in our funny little house.

Anyway, forgive me if this blog feels a little "Dear Diary-ish" from time to time... I was going to have a "public" blog and a separate "friend" blog, and perhaps a private journally blog, but I'm going for simplicity in my life, so this will be the catch all.

Here we go... weeeeeee!!!!

Day of departure is here

2011-12-27T01:28:00.000+03:00

Ok, I think I'm ready. Tanya is out saying goodbye to friends. Plane leaves in 5.5 hours.

I have figured out how to use 5% of my new camera's functions, I've downloaded several audiobooks (War&Peace, Dead Aid, The Fountain Head, Hitch 22 and various podcasts about the metals market and atheist debates), I have gone for a 1 hour run, laundry is done, travel "outfit" picked out (I hope they let me into London theatres with a Mulder Marine pro fish farmer hoody on), wireless headphones,camera, cell phone, itouch, GPS, Garmin watch, backup itouch powerpack are all charged up, gifts are packed. Couldn't fit about 4 pairs of runners I was going to give away.

Time is ticking pole, pole (slowly, slowly). I'll go practice some swahili...

Our trip, in the news...

2011-12-26T00:25:00.000+03:00

Below is an article on our trip that appeared in local newspapers and Rotary newsletters:

By Boxing Day three members of the Rotary Club of Strathcona Sunrise will be off to India and Africa to carry out the Rotarian motto: "Service Above Self". Tanya Harmon and Terry Nielsen are returning to a small town in Kenya on boxing day. Peg Carswell will be returning to Assam, in northeast India. They will be gone for several months after investing many months into fundraising.

The main Kenya project is the construction of 50 protected springs bringing clean water to 20,000 Kenyans at a cost of $51,000.00. The funds were raised by both Rotary clubs in Campbell River, together with the Strathcona Sunrise and Cumberland Centennial clubs.19 other Vancouver Island Rotary Clubs contributed significantly as well. The other African projects besides the springs range from fish farms to education. Non- Rotary partners are Comox Valley Roadrunners who have supplied $600.00 to develop impoverished Kenyan runners. Local Optometrist Dr. Elaine Kerr provided 24 pairs of reading glasses. Eatmore Sprouts & Greens provided $400 towards the purchase of bicycles. You can follow the Kenya projects' progress on CanadatoKenya.blogspot.com.

In India, Rotarian Peg Carswell will continue the work she has long been doing with farmers and tea growers, to help promote traditional and more sustainable farming practices. She’ll also be working with her husband, Kel Kelly, to help growers develop markets for their organically-grown teas. Rotary has contributed over $1000 towards the purchase of educational equipment that will be used to provide training to students and farmers in the region.
All three Rotarians travel at their own cost and volunteer their time and energy to complete the projects above as well as several more. To learn more about local Rotary you can visit rotarystrathconasunrise.org.

1 day before lift-off

2011-12-25T23:09:00.000+03:00

It's Horus the Sun God day. Dec 25th.

If I have to be politically correct on this blog I'll never write anything as it takes too much effort to filter my...opinions OUT of my posts- so be warned : Terry is an atheist libertarian.

We are leaving on a jet plane tomorrow night. After 4 days in London we go to Nairobi.

So far we think we have remembered everything. Our house is all readied for Mary B to clean and the tenant to take over. We are nervous, but now that we are together in Vancouver the bickering is subsiding as our fear-of-unknown binds us rather than pits us.

We have many individuals who have supplied funds. I'm tempted to post them all to honour them, but I'm aware Canadians may not appreciate that. On the other hand if I was to post it then it would help me keep track and ensure no one was missed. For now I'll keep the cards close to my chest. Suffice to say that we have about $64,000 CDN for designated projects. $51,129 for protected springs, $5000 for fish farmers, $6000 [corrected] for vocational training workshops (through TEMBO.org) and $600 for developing a runner or running program for the Comox Valley Road Runners. We also got a big bag of reading glasses from Dr Elaine Kerr and $400 for bikes from Eatmore Sprouts & Greens.

We also have a couple thousand in mad money from friends and family to do random acts of kindness with. We will no doubt match that with our own funds cuz changing lives for the better is addictive. I'm thinking of putting out some micro-loans. Having just listened to the 55 hour audiobook of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" I am poignantly aware that our emphasis has to be on investing and making sustainable changes rather than merely dispensing charity. Not only is sustainability mandated by Rotary, it is also something we belive in as essential. This is tricky and will be the central premise of each interaction. It is much simpler just to hand out goodies and get the big smiles. But decades of humanitarian experience by others, including Rotary, has shown this not to work, and even to cause more harm than good in the long run. It's a whole other challenge to cross the culture and language divide and say "Now, take this and stand on your own two feet". We want to return in 5, 10 years to see that teh projects of 2012 are still yielding returns.

As much as I like it here in BC I am eager to escape this culture-o-plenty (and work) for a few months.

Horus gave us a new camera for our trip: it takes video in frikking 3D!! No one told me that had been invented yet. It also has a built-in GPS. So we have lots of gadgets. I'm bringing a GPS so that each spring can be mapped. But I am not getting too attached to all the goodies because being robbed is a real possibility.

Kwaheri for now

Count down...

2011-12-13T21:32:00.000+03:00

In less than two weeks, Terry and I will be taking off for Kenya! We will be busy while we are there overseeing the construction of 50 protected springs and coordinating sanitation training. Vocational and leadership training to empower women and youth with skills to increase family income and alleviate poverty is already underway in Kakamega.

The trip for me this year is about building relationships and learning as much as I can from the women in the community. I am hoping someone will be willing to help me with my Swahili too!

Thank you to everyone who has supported our work with donations, time and interest. The need is great, but more importantly, so is the potential.

Some of you have said that you would still like to donate. If you would like a tax receipt for 2011, please donate on-line http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=10931 as soon as possible. If a tax receipt is not important, then we can accept cash, cheques, and on-line donations at any time. We found last time we were there that it is nice to have some money available for unexpected needs that will undoubtably arise. Last time a friend gave us $200 and said, "Change someone's life." We were able to buy a bundle of clothing ($50) for Josephine to start a little business selling clothing at the market. The business is still going and has been an important source of income for Josephine and her family.

Anyway, what I really want to say is thank you so much for your support! I shake my head sometimes in awe of the life I am living. Kenya penetrated my heart last time we were there and I feel so blessed to be going back.

If you'd like to follow along while we are gone, we will be blogging here CanadatoKenya.blogspot.com.

Asante sana,

Tanya and Terry

p.s. These pictures show why we are going back!

Toonies for Tools

2011-10-17T01:06:00.000+03:00

Terry and I are heading back to Kenya in December for three months this time. Here's what we will be up to:

1) The Strathcona Sunrise Rotary Club in partnership with Kakamega Rotary Club has been successful, due to the many many hours of paperwork and PR that Terry has put in over the past two years, in securing a grant which will fund the construction of FIFTY protected springs in the Kakamega area. What this means is that the parasite-infested puddles that serve as drinking water for thousands of people will be converted to endlessly flowing fresh water springs. This will have incredible health benefits for about 20,000 people in the community. Yay!

2) In addition to overseeing the water project, I will be coordinating training for women and youth in skills which can be immediately applied to increasing family income and alleviating poverty. The local trainer we will be working with, Alex, is very direct about what is needed to bring people out of poverty. Mainly it is changing attitudes about handouts so people believe in their own capacity to succeed. Also working together in small units to foster accountability and responsibility.

Toonies for Tools is what I am calling this fundraising effort. If you would like to provide tools for a woman or youth to build a brighter future for themselves, their children and their community, please Donate here (http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=10931). Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated so generously through One Drop of Hope and the Canada to Kenya Run! We already have funding secured for the first group and all future donations will enable us to expand our efforts and reach more people.

I am calling it Toonies for Tools to get the message out that every dollar helps. So, whether you are able to donate:

$1,000 ... provides business training for 40 women and 40 youth, or

$150-$300 ... the average fee to learn an income generating trade such as tailoring or carpentry, or

$12 ... what I paid for lunch today, or

$2 ... what a woman earns in a day picking tea or a young man earns as a boda boda driver (bicycle taxi driver).

Your donation makes a significant difference. Thank you for your kind support -- whether it is backed with dollars or with love.

One last thing... if you are thinking about donating, the sooner the better. Even though we are not leaving until December, training is already starting and we'll need to start planning and selection for January sessions. Here's the link to Donate (http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=10931).

Tax receipts are provided through Tembo-Kenya.

I would love to hear from you and answer any questions you may have and share stories.

Asante sana, Tanya
onedropofhope@gmail.com
(250) 898-7728

Going out on a limb

2011-06-11T00:38:00.001+03:00

On January 24th, in a seize the day kind of moment, I launched an ambitious initiative to raise money for Kenya -- The Canada to Kenya Challenge. I gathered a team of people together to collectively run the distance from Vancouver to Kenya... that's 15,000 KMs, with a goal of raising $15,000 ($1/km) to provide opportunity through mentorship and entrepreneur training to women and disadvantaged youth in rural Kenya. I signed up for the Edge to Edge Marathon which would mark the final KMs of the challenge.

Six days later, Dad died.

Needless to say, I lost my spark and the challenge was the furthest thing from my mind. But just as life keeps on living all around us, the challenge carried on without me. People kept running and logging their mileage; the challenge had taken on a life of it's own. I did begin running again, for Dad and for Kenya. The group met the challenge and have run all the way to Kenya -- over 15,000KM! This Sunday is the Edge to Edge Marathon in Tofino. I will be running the Half Marathon to mark the finale to the Canada to Kenya Challenge.

We have fallen short of our fundraising goal, however -- who would have guessed that asking for money was harder than running across continents and oceans? I will take the lead on the asking part...

To support our work in Kenya, please make your tax deductible donation here. (http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=10931).

I'd like you to consider if $660 would change your life. I have personally put in 660km for this challenge. And I am asking, if it won't change your financial life, if you would consider pledging $660 ($1 for each of my kilometres). It is a lot to ask, I know.

I can tell you that $660 will definitely change the lives of many, hard working, responsible, deserving young people in Kenya. The opportunity this money can bring will change the course of so many lives for generations to come. I know, I've seen it first hand.

At the Gordon Harmon Memorial run last weekend, Julie Miller told a story about Dad fundraising for the Rotary Seawalk Run. He had signed Prudential Sussex Realty on as a title sponsor. Julie said that he had forgotten about the money part of the sponsorship and had one hour to raise $10,000 to honour the sponsorship. He asked individual realtors to write a cheque, on the spot, for $750. He said it in a way like there wasn't really a choice and it would be a good business move for those who did it. In one hour, he had the $10,000 needed.

Dad also used to tell me that when someone would ask him for change on the street, he would tell them if they want to get ahead,they should be asking for bills, not small change.

So, here is the link for tax deductible donations http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=10931. Whether you choose to pledge $660 or more, or $20 or whatever feels right for you, know that you donation will make a life changing difference in a family's life.

I would love to share stories from Kenya if you would like to hear more, please don't hesitate to contact me. You can read our blog from our first trip here http://tntinkenya.blogspot.com/ and follow it when we return to Kenya at the end of this year. You can read more about the Canada to Kenya Challenge here.

Thank you for your kind support -- whether it is backed with dollars or with love.

I just had to ask.

Love, Tanya

Tanya Harmon
2952 Lupton Road
Courtenay, BC V9N 3V3
(250) 334-8045

Donate here http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=10931

Almost There!

2011-05-14T04:32:00.000+03:00

As of May 13, 2011, only one month until the end of the Canada to Kenya Challenge, we have collectively run and recorded 13,656km! Thank you so much to each of you who put your time, energy and sweat into making this possible! I have no doubt that we will reach our goal of running 15,000km by June 12th; when the challenge will end with the Edge to Edge Marathon in Tofino, BC.

We have been working hard, putting one foot in front of the other on the road, trails, treadmill, beach and even in the snow! Now the real work begins... to raise $15,000 ($1/km) for Teaching, Empowering, Mentoring and Building Opportunity for women and youth in Kenya.

Make your tax deductible donation to TEMBO Kenya here. Read on for stories of how small investments can make an enormous difference.

I received this note from Fredrick about two weeks ago:

Hello Tanya, I with my family are all fine. We appreciated for all what you have done for us as now my mother she is not serious the way she was. She is getting treatment and enough food to add her weight so she is now feeling better. True nothing that I can say the way you have helped me since we met up to now. My life is not like before I will never forget you in my life up to the end of my life. I wish you the best in your life otherwise may God bless you abundantly.

Fredrick represents the under educated, under employed youth that populates rural Kenya. They need only an opportunity to prosper. Fredrick and his wife Josephine are good, hardworking young parents to their 3 year old little girl, Brenda. For circumstances outside of their control, they were not able to attend secondary school and when I met them, had no formal training in any marketable skills. They are capable farmers, but with no land. When I met Fredrick he was my boda-boda driver (bicycle taxi) and he said to me, "I will not be able to do this work when I am an old man." He did not ask me then, nor has he since, for money. Only for a chance to learn a skill that could help him earn his own living.

I paid for his fees to attend trade school and purchase a few tools. Fredrick finished high in his class and is now a certified carpenter. He will be able to use this skill to earn a living and eventually build a business for himself, provide a needed service to the community, perhaps employ and mentor other young people, send his daughter to school, care for his family... you get the idea.

The $15,000 we hope to raise through the Canada to Kenya Challenge will fund training for women and youth in skills which can be immediately applied to increasing family income and alleviate poverty. Many Kenyans, like Fredrick and Josephine, living in rural areas have never completed more than a few years of schooling if that, and are limited by their present poverty to subsistence farming and selling a few vegetables in the local market. They are hard working, very responsible individuals, that just need a chance.

You can help to give them that chance with a donation (click here to donate). The money raised through this challenge will directly fund literacy, trade and technical skill building and business training.

Thank you for your kind support!

Jessica Jackley: Poverty, money -- and love | Video on TED.com

2011-05-14T02:03:00.000+03:00

Jessica Jackley: Poverty, money -- and love | Video on TED.com

Sometimes very small investments can release enormous, infinite potential that exists in all of us.

2011-03-13T08:24:00.000+03:00

Jacqueline Novogratz: Inspiring a life of immersion | Video on TED.com

One month in and over 5,000KM already!

2011-02-26T10:49:00.000+03:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you! To everyone who is running their heart out for Kenya! Thanks especially to Norm for stepping in for me as administrator as I've been wrapped up in some pretty important family matters. One thing I learned in Kenya is how quickly the best laid plans can change. And how important it is for the community to step in and help each other. Thank you for being there.

We are doing a great job as Team HOPE in adding up the miles and now, one month in, it is time to get serious about fundraising. Our goal is to collectively run the distance between Vancouver Island and Kenya (approximately 15,000KM) AND raise $1 per KM to support Teaching, Empowering, Mentoring and Programs to Build Opportunity for women and youth in Kenya.

As a little incentive to get the fundraising rolling and to reward you for your efforts, how does a one hour massage sound? Everyone who submits pledges at http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=10931 will be entered into a draw for a one hour massage (in the community where you live, of course). Please share the link with your friends and let's see if we can cover our first months worth of mileage (over 5,000KM combined!). Ask your friends to put your name in the comment line when they make their donation so that you are credited for the pledge. You will have one entry for every pledge received.

Happy trails. The first draw will take place March 15th. More details to follow next week. Terry and I are off to a health ranch for a week, but will continue to log our mileage while we are gone!

Canada to Kenya

This morning's run - multi tasking

Field Trip to Bondo

ABCD -- Session Two

The fish farm co-op is coming together

Sweatin' the Small Stuff

How are you?

Checking on springs

Just Another Day

Hell's Gate

Naivasha Trip

Baby Class

48 Protected Spring Recipients Receive Hygiene Training

Terry's Update to Rotary

Some Miscellaneous Photos

Google Map of Fish Ponds and Protected Springs

Wanted: Cement Steps

Mzungu Weekend

Rotaract Kakamega Clean-up

Tanya Grocery Shopping Video

Video of completed spring Isembe

Onto the 2nd batch of 18 Protected Springs

Asset Based Community Development

Big Pig

Protected Spring Before+ During Photos

During Spring check came across another Rotary water project

In Your Face

Rotaract Meeting &Tilapia

First 18 springs almost protected (video)

A Day of Fish Farm Training (video)

New Normal

Village Enterprise

ICC rules against Kenyan leaders

Fish farm update

Lazy Sunday

Entertainment Consumed in Kenya

Saturday on the Rotary-sponsored fish farms

Self Help Groups

Rotary-suppported boys boarding school

Highlight

Kinda Scary Spotcheck

Fish Farm Hatchery & Hippos

Who told you Africans don't have money?

Video of Protected Spring Groundbreaking

Augustine

Kenyan Traditional Hospitality

Read for the Top

TnT have a bad night

Fredick made us tables

Terry's report to MIG

Fingerling Transfer

Fish Farm Harvest video

Home for a bicycle

Off to see a farmed tilapia harvest

Terry meets local Ministry of Fisheries Fish Farm specialist

Today's Headlines

Uwezo Community Based Organization

Fish Farm Update

Thank God for Sugar Cane

GPS of todays walking tour of 17 protected springs

Spring Project update

Fredrick's visit with his mother

Garmin run data test

2nd KASFOOC meeting

found a run buddy

Pics from run this morning

Visit with Fredrick

More Sanford stories

Rotary Projects at Daisy School (Update)

Neighbours Sanford and June

Just back from Rotary meeting

Just out and about

More Players... KASFOOC

Rundown on Tembo-Kenya

Tembo Interviews

I promised you baby elephants

what a run & Rotary update

Kakamega is all grown up

Kakamega is ALOT different- whoa

Jungle Run near Nairobi