Finally, internet.
Mobile Telephone: (the group number, but my cell phone so call/skype whenever!): 254 073 77 01 784. Possibly subtract the zero in front of the seven , haven’t figured that out yet. And of course, US country code first.
Hot and dry morning here in Malaba for our first day at the People Micro-Credit and Investment (PEMCI) office. Yesterday’s ride went rather smoothly, well, as smoothly as possible on an incredibly bumpy road. We left Salabawek at 6 am and traveled through Kisii and Kisumu to arrive in Malaba around 3:30 pm. We settled into the Taifa Country Guest House, simple accommodations with twin beds and shared bathrooms, but with mosquito nets and clean enough facilities. After exploring the main drag a bit in search of internet, it was clear that in this community we would be the only Westerners and as such are quite an amusement/novelty for everyone, especially the children. Malaba is a very small community, perhaps around 7,000 inhabitants, and the main border crossing for freight trucks. As a result, it apparently has a pretty high rate of illicit activities, from smuggling operations to truck-driver evening amusements. Our hotel has a “safe zone” sign above the door, and doesn’t serve alcohol, so we have avoided the Malaba night crowd thus far. Last night was bloody hot and I woke up at 5 or so sweating and I might have heard the call to prayer around then from the mosque down the road, unless it was just my delirium thinking I was back in Sudan.
Unfortunately our group had to split in half today, leaving Ryan, Max, and I in Malaba while Tihtina, Colin, and Steve traveled to Kisumu. We were having a fantastic time together and really benefited from collective creative juices flowing, but the split was necessary in order to be the most productive for our micro-finance partners. PEMCI can only take two of us out into the field at the time due to personnel and motor bike limitations. Its pretty wild and exciting, as we will be visiting people in the most remote and rural of locations who have received loans from PEMCI. PEMCI has given out approximately $30,000 in loans in the two years they have been in existence. The clients we will be covering in particular are those who have received loans through Kiva. Our job is to travel to the loaners and find out about their lives, their work, and how they have been using the loan. We will take photos, video, and conduct personal interviews with those who have and want to receive loans, and then update the business profiles on Kiva’s website.
Today I took my first ride on the back of a boda-boda, adapted from “border-border,” as this form of transportation was primarily used to cross the Uganda-Kenya border, though can now be found throughout Uganda and Kenya at least. For 10 Kenyan Shillings (approximately 15 cents) you can hop on the pack of someone’s bicycle for a ride down the main drag of the city. I went with a PEMCI employee to visit the home/shop of a man who melts aluminum and produces cooking pots. We interviewed him to begin a Kiva profile and I snapped a few photos of him standing in front of the pots. I swear it was more exciting than it sounds. The boys went into the field today, as I volunteered to hang back and organize setting up internet connection, re-arranging our room situation, and negotiating a good price. Basically I didn’t trust either of them to rival my haggling skills, which proved to get us quite the discount. So now I am finally getting a proper internet connection and make a double post update. I got a few evites today for parties at home which made me a tad homesick, but things are going well and we already have an exciting weekend adventure planned to Eldoret, where we will meet up with the rest of our group. That is all.
Monday, May 28, 2007
May 26, 2007 Arrival and the Mara
After a long but smooth flight, with a layover in Dubai that made me miss the Middle East, we arrived in Nairobi a little delirious but more excited. We took a van to a home in Westlands, a posh district of Nairobi where much of the ex-pat, aid, and embassy workers live. A young man in one of my classes was from Nairobi, and his parents offered to house us for our first night in Kenya. We could not have asked for a more ideal circumstance, as Tom and Linda were extremely welcoming and knowledgeable about Kenya and development issues, as they both have experience in USAID, the Peace Corps, and other international projects. They treated us to the best Indian food I’ve had since I was in India and introduced us to a seventh member of our team, Tusker (Kenyan brew).
The next morning we left for Wilson Airport, where we had the coolest flight experience of our lives. In a small aircraft, we traveled with the pilot and two workers from Free the Children through the Rift Valley to the edge of the Masai Mara. Our team was invited by the Sanam Vaziri Quaraishi Foundation to film the beginnings of a project the foundation is conducting along with Free the Children. They are working with the Kipsigi tribal community of Salabwek of Narok South District in Kenya for a long-term community development project. The project includes four components: primary education, water and sanitations, alternative income program, and health care. The Sanam Foundation project is in the first phase of primary education, building a new school campus to accommodate the approximately 1,000 primary school and nursery children currently enrolled in an overcrowded, understaffed school.
We have stayed three days so far filming and photographing the progress of the project, focusing on its relationship with the community. Through interviews with teachers, administrators and students at the school, community members and parents, as well as the staff of Free the Children, we have compiled a wealth of information and images of the wonderful work that is being done. The partnership between the community and the workers and volunteers of the Free the Children project is remarkable, so rare in many aid-projects that alienate the local community. Visiting schools and playing with the children is a joy, and standing in front of classrooms, I am overwhelmed by memories of my time in Tanzania as an English teacher for deaf students in the village primary school. From the Kiswahili greetings, to the navy blue student uniforms, to the enthusiastic and respectful demeanor of the students, it is a quite a stroll down memory lane. It has invigorated my passion for sub-Saharan Africa, and I quite often am shocked by the ease of interaction with the males in the community, so different from my last rural experience in Morocco. Today a gathering of Mamas and Babas welcomed us with a song and rhythmic clapping; their expression of appreciation overwhelmingly touching as we rather awkwardly thanked them with our limited “Asante Sana”’s. We’ve gotten quite a bit of footage so far, and tomorrow promises to be a packed day of getting some stock footage of the “downtown” strip (maybe a block long of basic shops and a salon; we had to drive about 20 minutes last night to pick up Tusker), seeing the main water source of the Mara River, experiencing the local market, and wrapping up some final interviews. Sunday early morning we head off to Malaba, which is still rather mysterious for us and promises to be a long.. interesting… ride…
The next morning we left for Wilson Airport, where we had the coolest flight experience of our lives. In a small aircraft, we traveled with the pilot and two workers from Free the Children through the Rift Valley to the edge of the Masai Mara. Our team was invited by the Sanam Vaziri Quaraishi Foundation to film the beginnings of a project the foundation is conducting along with Free the Children. They are working with the Kipsigi tribal community of Salabwek of Narok South District in Kenya for a long-term community development project. The project includes four components: primary education, water and sanitations, alternative income program, and health care. The Sanam Foundation project is in the first phase of primary education, building a new school campus to accommodate the approximately 1,000 primary school and nursery children currently enrolled in an overcrowded, understaffed school.
We have stayed three days so far filming and photographing the progress of the project, focusing on its relationship with the community. Through interviews with teachers, administrators and students at the school, community members and parents, as well as the staff of Free the Children, we have compiled a wealth of information and images of the wonderful work that is being done. The partnership between the community and the workers and volunteers of the Free the Children project is remarkable, so rare in many aid-projects that alienate the local community. Visiting schools and playing with the children is a joy, and standing in front of classrooms, I am overwhelmed by memories of my time in Tanzania as an English teacher for deaf students in the village primary school. From the Kiswahili greetings, to the navy blue student uniforms, to the enthusiastic and respectful demeanor of the students, it is a quite a stroll down memory lane. It has invigorated my passion for sub-Saharan Africa, and I quite often am shocked by the ease of interaction with the males in the community, so different from my last rural experience in Morocco. Today a gathering of Mamas and Babas welcomed us with a song and rhythmic clapping; their expression of appreciation overwhelmingly touching as we rather awkwardly thanked them with our limited “Asante Sana”’s. We’ve gotten quite a bit of footage so far, and tomorrow promises to be a packed day of getting some stock footage of the “downtown” strip (maybe a block long of basic shops and a salon; we had to drive about 20 minutes last night to pick up Tusker), seeing the main water source of the Mara River, experiencing the local market, and wrapping up some final interviews. Sunday early morning we head off to Malaba, which is still rather mysterious for us and promises to be a long.. interesting… ride…
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Shout out to Hostelling International
I leave for Kenya in t-9 hours and am still remembering things I should be bringing with me. Pre-departure jitters...
Hostelling International has given me a $500 travel grant to help with my trip to Malaba, Kenya. Along with 5 other Brown University students representing Students of the World, I will be making a documentary on a micro-finance institution that works with the innovative micro-lending organization Kiva (kiva.org). This documentary will be shown at the Clinton Global Initiative Summit in September in NYC and will help educate our Rhode Island community on the great potential of the microfinance movement. In addition to the documentary, our team will be working as "Kiva Field Journalists," updating the business profiles of borrowers on Kiva's website, allowing lenders to make more informed, personal loans.
The Eastern New England Council offers two travel grants per semester for which any area college student traveling abroad may apply. They are dedicated to promoting educational and intercultural experiences abroad, and I want to thank them for suppporting this project. Any student interested in appying should check out www.usahostels.org.
Hostelling International has given me a $500 travel grant to help with my trip to Malaba, Kenya. Along with 5 other Brown University students representing Students of the World, I will be making a documentary on a micro-finance institution that works with the innovative micro-lending organization Kiva (kiva.org). This documentary will be shown at the Clinton Global Initiative Summit in September in NYC and will help educate our Rhode Island community on the great potential of the microfinance movement. In addition to the documentary, our team will be working as "Kiva Field Journalists," updating the business profiles of borrowers on Kiva's website, allowing lenders to make more informed, personal loans.
The Eastern New England Council offers two travel grants per semester for which any area college student traveling abroad may apply. They are dedicated to promoting educational and intercultural experiences abroad, and I want to thank them for suppporting this project. Any student interested in appying should check out www.usahostels.org.
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