Maseno farmers conference

(Enough drums?)

(Geckos everywhere!)

This week I am based in Maseno, the MICH headquarters in rural western Kenya. Currently I am sharing the compound with 40 farmers who have been invited to spend the week here for leadership training. I am taking notes and recording the discussions (at least the parts I can understand) and leading a session on environment. Being here alone at night is a bit of an experience as I can hear rats crawling overhead now that it’s dark and the mosquitoes are heavy. Thank goodness for deet, malorone and tucked in bed nets! I am here eating ugali (Kenyan classic meal of mais meal dough served with greasy cooked spinach and in tonight’s case super-greasy kuku/chicken) with 40 people I can hardly verbally communicate with but enjoying the way they laugh hysterically when I make a bad joke or any comment for that matter. I think they’re laughing at my over emphasized hand gestures and facial expressions. But at least we’re communicating. They’re really not a tough crowd and I still can’t figure out why they love white people so much.

They tell me I am a strong lady who should marry a Kenyan man and stay here forever. Almost everyday I am told something like: “You must stay in Kenya for life. You would make a good Kenyan wife. We will teach you to be African!”…… and then the women wrap me in their kangas and laugh at how it looks then they try to teach me to walk with a jug of water on my head, more laughter, then they ask me if I’ve learned to cook a variety of traditional dishes, then I get yet another rather unsuccessful Kiswahili lesson…. it’s a pretty funny recurring situation. The thought of living here for life scares but intrigues me at the same time. I think I could adjust to the lifestyle, but it would be quite hard. More than anything though, it would be oh-so-difficult to leave my family, friends and peaceful/prosperous country, the things that I now realize I have taken severely for granted.

I’ve made friends with a really cool dutch lady who works as a behind the scenes administrator for an NGO. She seems to have made a pretty good life here, ignoring the fact that she’s white and a big deal to people. Her position here is good but I think as far as development is concerned, it may be time for the white-man to really back out. There are far less outside-relief-NGO success stories than I would have hoped. Basically I think that Kenyans (and all Africans I imagine) have the MIND , resources and capability to break the trend of poverty and really develop. White people haven’t been very successful in the past and probably won’t considering how they’re treated and idolized here. This African inferiority complex has got to go and the white person’s efforts, no matter how good intentioned they are, really seem to be more of a hindrance and distraction. These are just my recent thoughts I guess, and there is a place for the development worker here, but the problem can not be fixed by an outsider. It makes sense.

If I were to come back here to try to alleviate some of the pains associated with the struggle, I would want to kick start a self-sufficient factory, marketing unit or something necessary of the sort that would provide jobs for people and therefore a sense of purpose. Unemployment is what most locals seem to consider the biggest problem. I agree. The potential work force here is massive. Yes there is a rather lazy attitude towards work (not surprisingly at all) but at the same time there are young men and women everywhere who are so eager to work. My dutch friend and I were just discussing how if you have money here, you can really become lazy. Everywhere I go someone would jump to provide me with transport or the goods I need. No matter where I might be, if I wanted a job done or errand run, I could have someone on the go in minutes, willing to do anything for the day for $1. I was told that this region of Kenya is the most highly populated region in the world! I doubted it and still do, but it was told with a lot of conviction. Anyone know if it’s true? Anyway, it breaks my heart to see so many people who simply want a job to fill time and make a little money but can’t find one anywhere. Of course they may lack the initiative to start up businesses and actually apply the knowledge attained through their university studies (many people holding degrees are very unemployed) but at the end of the day it just seems wrong that I can go back home and quite easily get a job with job security, good pay and good benefits. So if I ever came back to Kenya, I think that’s what I would do; create and design a home for the work force.

I’ve been traveling a fair bit lately. It’s great. In this month left I want to learn as much about Kenya as possible and hopefully incorporate some travel. I think it should be ok as my work load is not very big at all. Uganda was awesome! It was so, so good to meet up with Sarah, Bryce and Lynda.
Bryce, Lynda and I experienced Ssese islands in all extremities. We set up camp on the beach with high hopes to sleep peacefully under the stars under our mosquito nets and ended up huddled together in one harsh cold rainstorm. Eventually we ran for it and found a hut, but nothing we had stayed dry, so we stayed awake the whole night wet, cold and covered in insects. It was mostly funny, but by the morning we realized how rough of a night we had had, ate some breakfast at the restaurant nearby and passed out on the table for a few hours until the sun came out at which point we polluted the resort with our wet everything hanging off the trees. We made some good connections with the resort owner and the other guests though, so we were set. The nest night we really slept, indoors.




Sick, thick green water of lake Victoria after the storms. Why did we swim in it? I don't know. It was hot. No balarzia that I know of yet. We sure jetted out of it though when Bryce claimed he felt something scaly move from under his foot. Coulda been a baby croc.

Bryce and Lynda had to get back to school (suckas!) and Sarah and I checked out Uganda Christian University with them, toured around Kampala, stayed at a great hostel and went bungee jumping in the nile river!!!! Whoa. 42 meters, body dip into the water, fast moving Irish guide and scary! It was a huge rush. I actually ended up with 2 slightly black eyes from hitting the water super hard and at a bad angle, and my ankles hurt after being hung by them for a while….

(Sarah on the motorised boda boda in Kampala.... fun and scary to weave
in and out of rule-free nighttime traffic)

Christmas season?! How? WELL, I've never laughed like I did when Santa approached me in Nakumatt, the local supermarket, very unenthusiastically ringing a bell and explaining to me some store promotion. I feel a bit bad for laughing as hard as I did but the situation was so absurd and unfitting. Here I am in the tropics, sweating as always and a thin, black Santa just comes around the corner in the grocery store to talk to me. Poor guy. He may not have noticed my hysteria. He was more than willing to let me take his picture.


Lots more to go on about, but I’ll post again soon.