October 11, 2010

This was my first real full weekend here in Ndola. Although I actually arrived last Friday, I spent most of last weekend in a jet-lag haze and can’t remember anything we actually did. To back up a little bit, I came home on Thursday and wanted to play with Chester and Spot, the outside dogs. I got a basketball that was in my room and took it outside, intending to kick it around with them. Instead, I ended up passing it around with the boy who sweeps the lawn. He doesn’t really speak English, and I don’t really speak Bemba, so we just passed back and forth without really talking, except to laugh at each other’s bad shots and say “sorry” when one was really far off. As it turns out, the dogs are scared of the ball. After a while my feet (in flip flops) started to get sore from kicking the kind of flat basketball, so we called it quits. At that point, the boy left. I thought he was having fun, but now I am a little worried that he was just playing out of a sense of obligation and maybe really wanted to go home the whole time. Oops!

On Friday I had an excellent meeting with Bishop Enocent Silwamba, the Executive Director of Prison Fellowship Zambia. He had been in Lusaka since I arrived, and it was our first meeting. I told him that I had already finished most of what he had left for me to do, including reviewing and critiquing the recently written Strategic Plan and revising the handbooks PFZ has created for the Board of Governors, Volunteers and Staff. We talked a lot about my questions and feedback on the strategic plan and Enocent will be taking my report to their review meeting this week in Lusaka. He is also eager to have me out in the field working with PFZ clients and learning more about the microfinance program. This is exactly what I want to be doing, and I am hoping to start going out with the vocational training program as soon as Thursday, and then to see the remaining programs next week.

On Tuesday I will be visiting the Maurigrace School, in the nearby Chifubu township. Maurigrace is another SpanAfrica partner in the Ndola region of Zambia. Maurigrace School provides the community with education on HIV/AIDS, child abuse, women’s rights, and family health to improve the lives of women and children, including orphans. I spoke to the Executive Director on Friday, and we are both excited for my visit.

On Saturday, I slept late for the first time since I arrived. I think I am finally over my jet lag. I went into town to do the shopping with Catherine, which is a process. We first go to a little produce shop and load up on cucumbers, lettuce and garlic. Then we carry these things to the supermarket, Shoprite. Shoprite is a South African store, and has nice selection (though not of produce) but is fairly expensive. We are able to leave the things we have already bought at the bag-check counter, thankfully. Here we get some staple things like pasta, yoghurt, vinegar (so I can eat the produce) and rice. Then, once we pay, we collect all our bags, which are now extremely heavy and go out to the parking lot, where taxi drivers are waiting in droves. Catherine picks one, and we put all our shopping bags into his car, and then we go outside to the outdoor produce market. The selection and quality are excellent. We get peas, carrots, eggplants, Chinese cabbage, spinach, green peppers and tomatoes. Finally, we carry everything back to the car and go home. Once home, we make a big salad and eat with Hannah.

Catherine is always looking for business opportunities, and works very hard at everything that she does. She and Kenneth are instrumental in orchestrating the visa process for many Zambian students who want to study in the Ukraine. Zambian University is very good, but there are only three and it is practically impossible to gain admission unless you are the child of a government minister. The Zambian universities are also incredibly expensive. As a result, even with the transport, tuition and visa costs, it is more viable for most people to send their children to university in the Ukraine. The closest Ukrainian Embassy is in South Africa, and they have asked Kenneth to manage all of the incoming student visas from the Ndola region of Zambia. They are always busy helping kids and their parents sort through the complicated process, and Kenneth is often working late into the night on visas. Catherine also sells second-hand clothing that is imported from the US and Europe, primarily men’s shirts. On Friday, Catherine returned from Lusaka with a large parcel of shirts, and when she cut the parcel open, the shirts un-vacuumed themselves and practically filled the whole living room. We sat for a few hours and sorted the shirts by quality and sleeve length. Catherine takes the nicest ones and washes and presses them so that she can sell them to business men by bringing the shirts directly to them, as they do not like to go to the second-hand market. The rest she will sell from our front yard.

On Sunday I skipped church (again) to work on my grad school essays. I got up, tried to exercise, bathed, and then sat down on my bed to get to work. About two hours later, I woke up. It was about 10 million degrees in my room because I forgot to ever open the windows (it is really hot here, but there is always a nice breeze). I ended up making myself a yummy cucumber salad and settling in to work. I ended up finishing a rough, rough draft very quickly, and then went out for a walk with Hannah and her friend. By the time we got home I was limping because my shin hurt, so Hannah made popcorn and we just watched Slumdog Millionaire until dinner, which is an awesome movie!

Today I spent SIX hours at the Ndola airport trying to change my return flight so that I can leave with Mom and Hayley when they come to visit. I am so excited, but it was a really frustrating day. Eventually we got it done, but the whole thing was so confusing and drawn out that I nearly gave up. I am heading home soon, so it’s time to sign off. Off to Maurigrace tomorrow!

October 11, 2010

After running the loop in Philadelphia, I started having intense shin pain. Despite not running for nearly two weeks before leaving for Zambia, and getting new shoes (for the first time in about two years -mine had holes worn down to the frame in the heels), the pain continued in Zambia. After a consult with Dr. Cobb, we determined I have yet another stress fracture. Being grounded in Africa is hard, as walking is an integral part of life. Still, I am trying to limit my walking. As a result, Dan and Greg came up with some no-impact exercises that I can do at home. They include lots of circuits, crunches, and other such painful activities. I absolutely hate this kind of exercise, and after just a few days my muscles hurt. However, these exercises have been a big point of bonding with the women in the house. As I started the first time, Catherine and Hanna joined me. We each grabbed a bathmat for crunches and lay down in a space on my floor. I tried my best to explain the different crunches, and we did ok, except with the sculling crunches (looks like a rowing stroke, and requires a lot of balance) and the bicycles. I love bicycle crunches, and could do them all day, but Catherine and Hannah couldn’t get the hang of it. I think the first day we got a better ab exercise from laughing than from the workout.

We are also working on an exercise that looks like it should be easy, but is actually really hard that required you to hold your body in a push-up position and then lift each limb for 10 seconds in succession. This led to lots of falling over and rolling around on the floor. By the time we were done, we all needed a bath, so we started heading pots of water on the stove. My arms were barely able to carry the pot from the kitchen to my bathroom!

We are going to keep trying, and hoping it will get easier. The women love the idea of “reducing”, as they call it, and we are having a lot of fun, and I enjoy the good-hearted company.

October 5, 2010

I am now getting accustomed to life in Zambia, although my jet lag is still terrible. I wake up really early, so at least I have had time to go running around our neighborhood before work, but I am getting into a routine and hopefully that will help soon!

On Sunday I walked into Ndola town with Hannah and John. Nothing was open, but it was interesting to see the town so quiet. I also discovered that in Zambia, traffic lights are called robots, which I find hilarious. When I saw a sign that said “Robot Ahead” I couldn’t believe my eyes!

There are flowers and blooming trees here that are absolutely stunning. I am totally obsessed with trees, and as we walked I couldn’t stop taking pictures of trees. I think Hannah thought I was a little crazy at first, but eventually got into it with me and would point out cool ones if she noticed them first. Some of them are beautiful with flowers, or are in crazy shapes (lots of what I like to call Dr. Seuss trees) and the just some huge majestic ones, with trunks thicker than I am tall.

After my morning run, I typically leave with Kenneth around 7:45am. I have met most of the team and they are all very helpful and kind. I know everyone’s names, and look forward to getting to know everyone even better. At the end of the day, the driver takes most of us home together, which gives us a nice time to talk. I have gotten to be friends with Swensi, who shares the office where I work with Kenneth. She is not much older than me, and has been really helpful in my failed attempts to connect my laptop to the internet. She even arranged to have the head of network administration from a university in town come to help, unfortunately it was unsuccessful, so I am at the mercy of internet cafes, other peoples’ computers and my blackberry (thanks to Sydney!). Swensi and I have gone into town together a few times during lunch hour, but it is incredibly hot at that time of day. I much prefer walking around in the evening after work.

The office is about a 5 minute drive from town, and the driver is available should anyone need a ride. The office is situated around a beautiful courtyard with lawns and lots of flowers and interesting plants. One of the things I found interesting was the homemade sprinkler that the groundskeeper created to water the plants. He took an empty plastic water bottle, poked holes in one side of it and taped it to the end of the hose, causing water to shoot out the holes, just like a sprinkler. It wasn’t until I got quite close that I realized what that it wasn’t a manufactured sprinkler after all! The offices border the courtyard and are clean and comfortable. I have been into town a few times, but it is very hot in the middle of the day, so it isn’t exactly the best time to go. There is also a nice grocery store around the corner to get lunch, and it also has a wireless café.

Currently, I am still familiarizing myself with the strategic plan for Prison Fellowship Zambia (PFZ). I also helped Kenneth with a proposal for a micro credit program that was due on Monday. I am going to be working on refining and evaluating the strategic plan for PFZ, as well as working with some clients on their own business plans.

I am also setting up times to meet with the other SpanAfrica partners in Ndola, to go over the Organizational Management Manual and Workbook that SpanAfrica Director of African Operations, Cameron, and I created over the summer in Kenya. It will definitely be helpful to see where all of our partners are, and better evaluate the potential for offering additional services and directing new volunteers.

On Tuesday night I walked over to the Technical College with Hannah to visit Martha, who is there training to be a census worker. Martha is also 26, and will be returning home on Saturday to live with us, but will be traveling around to collect census data.

On Wednesday, the PFZ staff gathers to discuss the bible and pray in the morning at a meeting called Devotion. At my first Devotion this morning, I was a little nervous that I would not fit in at all, not coming from a religious background. Kenneth and Catherine know that I am not religious, but I know that it is considered peculiar here. There was a lively discussion, and I felt included and even participated in some of the discussion. At the end, several people prayed, both in Bemba (the local language) and in English for PFZ and other family members and friends in need. It was interesting to see the different way that PFZ operates, compared to my corporate job in the US.

Some of you have asked about what I am doing here. I am primarily working with an organization called Prison Fellowship Zambia, but I will also be working with the other SpanAfrica partners in Ndola once I am settled.

Prison Fellowship Zambia (PFZ) works to rehabilitate prisoners and support ex-prisoners and their families. Essentially this is done though vocational and entrepreneurship training, by means of micro credit (very small loans that are given to groups of people working together). I am going ot be working on PFZ’s own strategic planning, as well as working with their clients directly on business planning and development as well as entrepreneurship and introducing them to the facets of microfinance. It is really interesting! I never actually have to go to prison, as the clients come to our offices in Ndola. Even some of the inmates are able to attend with a guard. In fact, I am not able to due to government restrictions on foreigners entering prisons. I imagne this is because the state of the prisons is so poor and generally do not meet UN Health Regulations for prisons. There is a terrible stigma here associated with prisoners, so that is a huge issue for many ex-prisoners and their families, because even being associated with a prisoner is a marr on your reputation. PFZ has a very interesting support model to give people the tools to live in society legally, and one of the main focuses is to reduce recidivism rates for the 45 prisons where the operate across Zambia. PFZ also works extensively with the families of prisoners (especially women whose husbands are in prison and suddenly are responsible for providing for their families) in entrepreneurship as well. It is very interesting, and provides a lot to the clients. 
 
Essentially I am doing business development and strategic planning, which is what I really enjoy!

October 2, 2010

As I brushed my teeth getting ready for bed, a cockroach came scurrying out of a crack between some tiles in my bathroom. I braced myself, took off my flip flop and smacked him dead. I didn’t feel like dealing with it right away, so I left his little body on the floor and went back to sitting in my bed. About 45 minutes later, I went back in and there was a smarm of tiny ants having a frenzy around him. I felt kind of bad, so I was going to flush him, but then I realized that the tiny ants were working together to actually carry him away! The roach was huge in comparison, and then I felt bad squashing their dreams of a big roach feast after all the effort of carrying him around, so I left them carry on. I wasn’t sure where they’d ever take him, but I didn’t really care.

About 25 minutes later, curiosity got the best of me and I went to check on them again. They had carried him all the way over to the corner of the bathroom (it is a pretty big bathroom) and it seemed like they had realized he wasn’t going to fit through their little ant hole, so I think they were just eating him up right there. I left them too it, and then when I went back about another 25 minutes later, all evidence of the incident had vanished! I guess it saved me the trouble of picking up a dead cockroach. I feel like I have watched tons of discovery channel shows about ants having super strength and being able to tackle prey much larger than themselves, and now this is happening right under my nose. Fascinating!

October 2, 2010

I finally arrived in Ndola, Zambia yesterday, and have so far been extremely happy with my experience here.  I am staying with Kenneth Kasweshi, the SpanAfrica Regional Director for Zambia. I flew into the capitol city of Lusaka on October 1st, and was met by Kenneth’s wife Catherine as soon as I cleared customs. Lusaka is a 4 hour bus ride from Ndola, so it was very nice of Catherine to come so far to meet me at my plane! After going to get some food at one of the nicest supermarkets I have been to in Africa, Shoprite (a South African market), we decided to spend the night in Lusaka and travel to Ndola in the morning. We spent the night in the flat of Catherine’s cousin, Mayana. I was so tired from nearly 35 straight hours of travel (not to mention the 4 sleeping pills that kept me sedated enough to tolerate the first 16 hour plane ride) that I fell asleep on the couch at about 7pm!

The next morning Mayana took us to the intercity bus terminal in Lusaka, where we boarded what I can describe as nothing less than the nicest bus I have ever been on in Africa, and possibly ever. After spending more hours than I wish to recall traveling by bus across East Africa in July (I can only estimate that it was over 60 hours on a bus in one month), I was not exactly thrilled with the prospect of ever boarding a bus again. However, this bus was different. I received a luggage tag from the very friendly conductor who stowed my bag in the boot. He turns to me and says, “Your bag, it is extremely heavy!”. “If I can carry it, you certainly can. You look very strong.” I replied. He laughed and shook my hand as he handed me my tag. “You board now. It will be safe here” he said. Catherine confirmed and we boarded the bus and took our seats in very comfortable cushioned seats! I noticed as we boarded that there was actually a bathroom on the bus, marked “for urine only”. I smiled to myself, thinking of the pained hours on unpaved roads just praying for a “choo” (Kiswahili for bathroom) on my East Africa trip. Then, as the bus left the station, promptly ON TIME, air conditioning started on and I was actually cold! Then, to top it off, a kung fu movie came on to the functional screens at a pleasant volume. I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. Then I fell asleep.

Two hours into the trip, we stopped at a real rest stop, with a ladies room with clean flushing toilets and toilet paper! As we took off, a very pointed movie began about the coming of age of a girl in a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was clearly a production of the church, and had an extreme message about Christians, and how non-Christians (even non-Jehovah’s Witnesses) were not to be trusted. It was then that Catherine asked me which church my family attends. I am not religious, and explained that while my family does not attend church, we believe that it is important to love others and live good and honest lives. This seemed to satisfy her, and she responded, “God loves all people”. I told her I would like to attend her Pentecostal church one for the cultural experience, but that I would not attend each week, and she seemed to understand.

Catherine is ever concerned that I feel at home and that I have things that will ensure I do not miss home. She took me again to Shoprite in Ndola, and was very concerned that I do not eat much meat and avoid too much cooking oil in my daily meals. She laughs when I talk about how I eat, and says she wants me to teach her how I cook. For those of you who know me, you must be laughing by now. I am not a good cook, at all! I got some yoghurt, instant soup, bread and spicy looking powder stuff. Then we went to the outdoor market and stocked up on tons of veggies.

Only later after we were home did I realize that there is actually not a refrigerator here, so I have a weird system of moving the yoghurt back and forth from the big freezer to the cupboard.

When we got home I began to meet the family. Catherine and Kenneth have 5 children. Martha is the oldest, and she is currently working on the Zambian census and is in training nearby at a technical college in Ndola. She came by to help cook dinner, but then left to go back to her training. Job is the eldest son and is studying medicine in the Ukraine. Hannah is 21 and was enrolled in pharmacy in the Ukraine, but had a visa issue and is currently still in Ndola running a small general shop across the street from the house with a friend. John is also 21 and wants to study medicine in the Ukraine. He went with Hannah, but also had to come back due to a mix-up with his visa. Emmanuel is the youngest, and is graduating from high school in two months. He loves music and plays the guitar and the keyboard. He wants to go to university to study law, and said he loves debating. In the African tradition, people were in and out of the house all day, and I couldn’t keep track of everyone who I met. Catherine’s sister came, and her aunt, and a friend of Emmanuel’s named Blessing. Blessing immediately started asking me about what music I like, and we immediately bonded over our slight obsession with all versions of a certain Gyptian song that I am know to listen to on repeat for longer than is probably healthy.

One of my favorite parts about this house is that hey have four dogs, and one looks like a miniature scrappy version of Lyla! Although I nearly burst into tears (I have dog-separation anxiety issues apparently) upon seeing him, he is really fun and cute. There are two awesome dogs who are really friendly and playful who live outside. The one who looks like Lyla except about ¼ the size, a boy and not nearly as elegant is called Chester.  Spot is a bit bigger than Chester and is extra loving. They will jump up and vie for attention, and are both super cute. They sit at the kitchen door just waiting to play. There are two little fluffy dogs who live inside, but they are very timid and I their names haven’t stuck yet (they are Bemba names, the language spoken in Ndola). They are brother and sister and also very cute, but I am always a sucker for a scrappy dog.

I helped Catherine prepare lunch, and made grilled eggplant, which I think was only slightly tolerated by the rest of the family. Catherine made boiled cabbage with carrots and green peppers, which was very good. After lunch I spent some time unpacking, and then decided it was time to venture out to see where I live. Hannah took me on a long walk up to the shopping center and then to the army barracks, and now I should have a good starting route for running this morning.

Catherine and Martha cooked while I talked to Kenneth about Prison Fellowship Zambia (PFZ), the organization I will be spending most of my time working with here.  PFZ works with an array of populations effected by incarceration. PFZ works in close partnership with the Zambian government, and is a part of the intake process for prisoners in 45 of the 54 prisons in Zambia. It is PFZ’s belief that all people are able to reform their lifestyle, and need support to do so, regardless of their crime. As the Zambian government underfunds reform activities, it is often necessary for prisoners to receive additional food and other items (such as toiletries) from the outside. PFZ works with the families of prisoners to assist them with entrepreneurship training so that they can support their families, and help provide for their incarcerated family member. They also work directly with inmates and ex-inmates, teaching them skills that they can use to earn income honestly once released from prison. One of the major programs that they are currently teaching is in tailoring. I will be working directly with many of PFZs Ndola clients on business planning, as well as with PFZ on their own strategic planning and creating policy directives. Kenneth is the head of the microfinance activities for PFZ, and I will be working on establishing that program and determining the best way to invest the limited resources available to the vast number of potential recipients.

Towards the end of our conversation, the power went out. We scrambled for candles, and as we sat in the dim candlelight waiting for the power to return so we could finish cooking, I fought the pangs of tiredness that were making it nearly impossible to stay awake. After about 30 minute (and not a minute too soon) the electricity returned and we had dinner. Catherine prepared a boiled vegetable medley that was really good, especially with my spicy powder. It had eggplant, pepper, carrots and onions. There was also some leftover boiled cabbage, boiled spinach, rice, the Zambian version of ugali (name to come in a later post) and chicken. Everything was excellent! After dinner, at about 9:30, I headed to bed, but got distracted in my excitement to run again tomorrow making a good new running playlist, thanks to Dan for lending me his ipod and giving me all his music!!

Finally, I fell asleep at midnight, only to wake up at about 3am completely awake. So here I am, writing my blog in my bedroom, waiting for the sun to come up. Oh, and I have a very nice big room with my own bathroom. Life is good in Zambia!

On a VERY exciting note, Boabab Branch Educational Programmes has a new home!! After many long conversations about how to grow the Baobab program strategically, Amos was able to identify a house just outside the Nakuru CBD (Commercial Business District) that was a good fit for our ideas of an expanded Baobab. We created a project budget requesting initial capital for the expansion, wrote a proposal and submitted it to Transparency in Action, a Ft. Collins, CO based non-profit that has a relationship with Baobab. The immediately agreed to fund the first year of rent, and hold a fundraiser to assist with other initial costs that will become sustainable as Baobab is able to expand its’ programming in the new space and with some additional new resources. A down payment has now been made on the space, and we are making lots of preparations for the upcoming expansion.

We expect a Grand Opening will take place in early August, once we are back from our East Africa exploration trip. I am not going to get into the details of each organization here, but full explanations of each are available on the SpanAfrica website at www.spanafrica.org.

On the trip, we are finalizing our travel plans, and everything is working out very well. We will leave on July 10 with Mama Vicky and Paul to visit their rural home outside Kisumu, near Lake Victoria. From there we will take a bus to Kampala, Uganda, where we will be staying in a homestay hosted by TDMI, a SpanAfrica Grassroots Partner. We will travel with TDMI to many of their program sites in Uganda. We will also visit the Northern region with TDMI and to visit a new potential partner in Gulu. This is an area where the Lord’s Resistance Army is very active, which is notorious for its use of child soldiers. We will also travel to Kasese to visit FEFO another Grassroots Partner.

All along the way, we will also be reintroducing SpanAfrica and the benefits of our partnership and SpanAfrica’s goals in Africa and with our partners. The most exciting part for me, in my role as Operations Support Coordinator, is that we will be delivering and introducing our partner organizations to the Grassroots Manual and Workbook. This is a set of documents that Cam and I have been working on for a few weeks that will help organizations thing through and document all of the processes and elements necessary to help them clearly identify and succeed in achieving their goals.

From Kasese, we hope to travel directly to Kigale, Rwanda. We are still finalizing plans for Rwanda. We will spend a few days there, and then will return to Kigale to spend another day with TDMI. We will then go back East to Iganga, where we will meet with FORDAR. We will travel back into Kenya through Kisumu, where we will depart for Tanzania. We will travel to Arusha, and hopefully to Ngorororo to visit Daphne Murphy, Daphne Rowe and Pinky Rowe, who will be volunteering at the Rift Valley Children’s Village. From there, we go to Dar es Salaam to meet with Wazesha, another Grassroots Partner. We will then drag our travel weary selves to Zanzibar for a few days of recuperation on the white-sand beaches!

We will then return to Nakuru, where the Baobab branch Grand Opening will be just about ready. All in all, it will be a busy and intense and highly productive trip. For me, it will continue in October when I head to Zambia!

I was walking through Nakuru town today post-hiking in a tank top, running shorts and sneakers when I heard a Kenyan call out, “Hey Marian Jones!” I realized my attire was not exactly typical, but I needed to run a few errands before leaving for the weekend in Nairobi, so I carried on. About one minute later, I heard another call, “Are you running in the marathon?” I got what I needed and hopped in a matatu home. My legs and feet were aching from our second and more challenging hike of the week.

On Sunday, Cameron, Trevor, Nick, Cliff, Ibu and I all skipped church to go hiking at the Menengai Crater, one of the largest craters in Africa, which is about 25 minutes outside Nakuru. We all met at Top Market and began looking for a matatu. We were 3 muzungu so it was about 10 seconds before we were surrounded by matatu conductors trying to take us to any destination that we could imagine. It turned out that there wasn’t one going directly to Menengai, and the one conductor tried to arrange a matatu to take us for 200ksh each. Balking at the price, we decided that the crater couldn’t be that far away, so we would just walk. We started off, when one of the other conductors ran up and offered to take us in his matatu for 50ksh each. We accepted the offer and set off for the crater. It turned out that it was quite far out of town, so we all were very glad for the ride.

When we arrived, we climbed up the back of the crater. It started out pleasantly, as we passed though some houses to the trail. We came out of a wooded area to the edge of the crater, which was unimaginably enormous and beautiful. We walked along the side looking for the trail when we came upon a big water tank where a family was filling jugs and loading their donkeys to carry the water home. Nick and Cliff asked how to get up the crater, and we were directed to a small footpath that was leading up the mountain. We started up the footpath, and were soon in a swarm of mosquitoes. We ran trying to get out of the swarm, but it was never ending. We walked fast, in the hot sun up the mountain. I waved my arms constantly in front of my face, like mosquito windshield wipers. We got to the top much faster than we anticipated. There were a few curio shops and a large directional sign, indicating the direction and distance to many famous (and some not so famous) destinations around the world. The view was stunning (see Facebook album for photos). We sat for a bit and then ran back down, dodging mosquitoes again. There were mountain goats on the cliff face grazing, and we came across some as we turned back onto the path back to the road. We had a lot of fun, and all went home to Amos’ house for a big pasta lunch afterwards.

On Wednesday, Cameron, Emily (Cam’s cousin who joined us on Tuesday from Canada) and I joined Steve (Executive Director of the Morokoshi Nursery School) to hike up into the mountains near Morokoshi to investigate the impact of deforestation in the areas. Many trees have been cleared and the mountain land is being used for farming. However, the deforestation is leading to significant erosion, which is stopping rivers, and streams that feed into Lake Nakuru. In the past few years, especially during the drought of last year, the drying of Lake Nakuru has had a significant impact on the famous flamingo population. A local tree farmer escorted Cam, Steve and me into the mountains to look for sites for a potential tree-planting program that would operate through SpanAfrica and would also serve as an income generation program for some of our Grassroots Partners.

I think it might be opportune at this point to announce the very exciting news that I have joined the SpanAfrica volunteer staff team as the Operations Support Coordinator. In my new role, I support our Grassroots Partners with organizational management, structuring, operations and strategic planning. I also support any volunteers who come through the SpanAfrica volunteer program who have skills or interests in organizational development.

For those who aren’t as familiar with SpanAfrica, SpanAfrica works with Grassroots Partners, or small NGOs and CBOs around Africa to provide non-financial support such as expertise and volunteers.

Additionally, I have just confirmed that I will be travelling to Zambia in October and November to work with the SpanAfrica partners located there in the Ndola region of the copper belt. This will be a great opportunity for me to become even more familiar with the Grassroots Partners there, as well as gain experience with the microfinance programs operating in Zambia.

But I digress….

We started the steep climb into the mountains just before 11am and from the start we had a stunning view of Lake Nakuru. This time there were no mosquitoes, but the climb was much steeper and longer. It was beautiful walking up the long path to the forest, and the forest path was rocky but shaded and the air was fresh. As we ascended the path, we passed many people coming and going from the mountains. We passed two women who must have been in their 80s carrying huge bundles of wood on their backs, strapped to their heads. This feat became more impressive as we hiked further, realizing the difficulty of the hike. Our guide took us to see his seedlings in this nursery, and then we proceeded up into the mountains. We reached the first peak and saw many young trees that had been planted by an organization as a part of an initial reforestation effort. Reforestation efforts are taking place all across Kenya currently, especially in the Mau mountain range. There is a growing understanding of the impact of deforestation on the lakes. In Nakuru, the shrinking of Lake Nakuru would have a great impact on the economy (especially tourism), yet many of the impoverished local farmers rely on their mountain shambas for survival. There is an effort to encourage the mountain farmers to plant trees among their crops as a way to protect the young trees once they are planted. There are several policy initiatives being investigated to encourage the farmers to protect the trees.

We found several water sources high in the mountains and followed them to see where they all came together to drain to Lake Nakuru. At one point, the path disappeared and out guide used his large machete to chop our way through the brush. We say where seedlings had been accidentally trampled by donkeys. We climbed higher and were a spectacle to the farmers working in their fields. Steve had never even been up to this area, and surmised that we were the first whites to come up to these mountains. We passed two women tending to maize, who had a small baby sleeping in the field under a small tent. We started back down along the stream that we were following, and started singing Disney songs. Along the stream were enormous cactus trees, with completely wooden trunks and large cacti leaves. (Facebook album hopefully coming soon). We had many good ideas about the tree planting program, which will likely be available though SpanAfrica as a way for people to easily offset their carbon footprint.

Gloria is now very good at saying my name, and we have taken to talking in small conversations, although she generally thinks it’s very funny when I speak Kiswahili. Our conversations typically start as follows:

Gloria: “Alex?”
Alex: “Gloria?”
Gloria: “eh?”
Alex: “Eh?”
Gloria: Something I don’t understand in Kiswahili
Alex: Say anything I know how to say in Kiswahili in response
Gloria: makes a funny face.

Friday, June 11, 2010

I woke up at 5 am on Friday to meet Milka at the Mololine matatu station to go to Nairobi. We had an appointment to meet with the Jacaranda Workshop, a workshop that employs mentally handicapped graduates of the nearby Jacaranda Special School. Milka met Tina, the Operations Director of Jacaranda earlier this year at the European Union conference in Nairobi, and Tina had expressed an interest in helping to sell the Nina bags. We arrived with a large supply of both the recycled bags as well as a few leather bags and some jewelry that Milka and the women have started making as well.

Jacaranda has a serene campus in Nairobi, and we took a tour of the facilities, which included four buildings that serve as workshops and a gallery. Jacaranda focuses its efforts on creating jewelry, and the employees do everything from making the beads out of clay, glazing them, firing them in the kiln, designing brass ornaments and assembling full jewelry designs. The beads are beautiful and the designs are simple and interesting. After our tour, we met with Tina in her office in the main design studio. She explained that while Jacaranda sells some of its products directly from it’s gallery, most of the pieces are sold in the states through Ten Thousand Villages, one of the top US based fair trade organizations. (It is actually based in Pennsylvania). We discussed pricing options, and decided to leave ten recycled bags and one leather bag with Tina on consignment to see if she could sell them through her Ten Thousand Villages connection. She seemed confident that the bags would sell well, and we agreed on prices that would give her some flexibility to earn a small income for Jacaranda as well as a fair payment price to Nina.

I was interested to learn about the Ten Thousand Villages connection, as Ten Thousand Villages has been a very helpful resource for me before I came to Kenya when I was investigating possible US sales methods for Nina. Ten Thousand Villages was very helpful, but strict about the fact that they did not want to add any new artisan groups in Kenya. Tina explained that this is because they have a very difficult time getting the artisan groups to deliver their goods on time for their scheduled shipments in Kenya. While it is worth investigating further, perhaps working through Jacaranda now will serve as an introduction for Nina to become a partner in the future.

Milka and I had planned our next stop to the office of Cooperation for Fair Trade in Africa (COFTA). I had the address in my notebook, and we asked Tina if she could direct us. After some significant debate between Tina and a few of her staffers, we were given some directions that has the interesting ability to be bother elaborate and completely vague at the same time. Milka and I packed up the remaining bags into large sacks and set off to catch a matatu. We took two matatus and as Tina’s directions indicated, ended up in Yaya, an upscale shopping district of Nairobi (my interpretation). We started asking around to see if anyone could direct us to the COFTA office. We received lots of answers, none of them were the same. “Go back that way for two kilometers and then find such-and-such road and then go further…” As Milka and I stood with our heavy sacks full of bags, we decided to get a second opinion before walking several kilometers in any direction. We asked a security guard, who didn’t know. We asked a passerby who looked like a businessman, who told us to walk in the opposite direction from the first man, and then ask someone else for directions somewhere along that way. This process repeated and we walked in every direction without finding the office. We called Tina and still couldn’t find it. We called COFTA, and there was no answer. We finally reached a street where Milka realized she could easily catch a matatu to her brother’s home, where she was staying, so we decided we would get better directions and try again another day.

While it might have been a disappointing end to our day, Milka and I agreed that although we hadn’t made it to COFTA, we had a better understanding of what steps we need to take to get Nina connected with a fair trade organization. We are getting on the radar of one of the most recognizable organizations (Ten Thousand Villages) and have a great resource in Tina and Jacaranda Workshop. We can take some time to do more work and set up the fair trade status, so that we are ready for any opportunity.

Work has been moving along quickly, and I am not sure where to begin. Since Cameron arrived (the Director of African Operations for SpanAfrica) we have set up lots of plans to move forward on projects with many of the Grassroots partners (Baobab Branch, Nina Initiative, Morokishi Nursery School, etc.) as well as several large projects for SpanAfrica itself.

We are nearly finished setting the curriculum for the Baobab Branch’s Business Development Course, which began last week. There are several students, including Felix, who also helped on the Bright New Ideas solar lighting project when I first arrived in Kenya. Cameron and I facilitated a class on CV development, but haven’t been available for several of the other classes, but it is going very well.

On Friday evening, Cam and I did a major clean-up of the Baobab Branch office, and were able to create a lot more space in the room. I am still working with Amos on an operating budget, which I will use to create several budget projections to forecast outcomes of various expansion strategies for Baobab Branch. Baobab is already bursting at the seams in the current space, and it is exciting to examine all of the ways that Baobab can grow from here.

On Saturday, Cam came over to my house and we spent the afternoon on the porch next to my room (the porch where people go to find themselves) planning our goals for the next few weeks. We have a lot to do! We are setting projects for incoming volunteers, and establishing goals for our local grassroots partners and scheduling visits for some of the other partners as well as a few potential partners in Kenya.

Cam and I are working on putting together a complete package for all the Grassroots Partners to help them understand the role of SpanAfrica, and all of the services that Span has to offer. We are also creating a manual (that Cam calls our Colouring Book) that will serve as a simple informational guide to organizational management for all our grassroots partners. We hope to have both of these packages done ASAP so that they are ready and printed by the time we start meeting with the grassroots partners in about 3 weeks.

One very exciting development is that Cam and I have planned an extensive trip to visit with many of the East African Grassroots partners, and will depart for about 2 ½ to 3 week tour beginning on July 20. We will travel from Nairobi to Tanzania, where we will visit Daphne Murphy, Daphne Rowe and Pinky Rowe at the Tanzanian Children’s fund for about 2 nights. We then will go on to Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, where we will spend a few days. There is one partner organization that we will meet with in Zanzibar, but then we feel it is absolutely necessary to spend a day or two on the white sand beaches. Work is rough.

From Zanzibar we return to Dar es Salam, and travel across Tanzania to Uganda and Rwanda, where we will meet with additional Grassroots Partners. Finally, we will cross back over into Kenya from the Northwest and back to Nakuru. While we have a lot of preparations to do, such as contacting all of the Grassroots Partners to set up meetings along the way, finalizing all our documents and creating a solid presentation for each, there isn’t a lot we can do as far as travel preparations. Paul (my Kenyan dad) is in Dar es Salam today on business, and is checking out the overland transportation options for us to travel from Dar to Uganda. Otherwise, we will be catching cheap busses and sleeping in the least expensive places we can find!

Today Cam and I went to the weekly meeting for the Nina Initiative. We toured the new greenhouse, constructed recently by a member of the TAWA Group, another women’s group in the area. We attended the Nina Initiative meeting, and then walked up to the local Agriculture Officer’s office to inquire about local grant and support programs. He wasn’t as informative as I hoped, but did provide us with some information on a hunger prevention initiative called Njaw Marufuku Kenya (NMK) that I am going to write a proposal for Nina to apply for funding. The funds support a variety of programs and award project and administrative awards ranging from 80,000ksh to 2.4million ksh. The Agriculture Officer indicated that it is a competitive process, but it can’t hurt to try. In the meantime, there is much work to be done to get Nina prepared to submit such a rigorous application. Nina has experiences a great deal of administrative difficulty over the past year, and after much discussion, it makes sense to really start from scratch in creating new goals and establish a timeline of objectives and strategy for achieving them. This will be a good exercise for the Nina women, and will also help me and I work with Cam in creating a workbook on organizational management for all of the SpanAfrica Grassroots Partners.

We met this afternoon with Steve at Morokoshi Nursery School and discussed the plans for Morokoshi, especially in relation to the upcoming arrival of Emily and Trevor, two new volunteers who will be dedicated primarily to Morokoshi. It was a great meeting, and ended with a great game with a bunch of brightly colored bouncy balls in the yard.

I am also starting to work with some local businesses on strategic planning and business plan development. Amos is connecting me with a Baobab Branch graduate who is currently operating a hair salon in Nakuru. I also spoke at length with Steve from Morokoshi today about his business in the Top Market, and using the various branches to maximize his profit. We are planning to meet later this week or early next to go over his current model and identify any areas for improvement.

All in all, work is insanely busy, but I love all my projects and all the people who I am working with. It’s hard to keep up with everything, and sometimes it’s hard to roll this into my more descriptive blog posts, but there will be a lot more to come in the next few weeks!