Development Creeps into Kakamega

Things are changing very quickly in Kakamega. It was a pretty rural town when I first came here in 2006, but I don't think that will last for long. There is a big new supermarket coming named Nakumat. It is a Kenyan chain, and even though I grapple with buy locally, having a lot more choices of kinds of food to eat will be really nice. They actually have put in a kind of shopping center, with other shops and a new modern restaurant. The restaurant has only been open a couple of weeks and they are still working out the kinks. They have a lot of interesting things listed on the menu but actually are only serving one thing, Kakamegan's favorite of chicken and fries.

There are also two new hotels with restaurants. I don't know who is investing in these places, but Kakamega's economy must be booming.

Boda Boda bicycles are slowly being replaced by motorbikes. They are a big status symbol here, are mostly bought on credit and are wildly dangerous. It's isn't uncommon to see 2 adult passengers or a family of 4 riding on one motorbike with no helmets. There have been some reports of fatal accidents, so I opt for the slightly safer boda bodas.

More young women and girls are wearing pants and I see an occasional mama wearing them too. There also more white people here than ever, so now I don't attract as much attention as I used too, or get approached to put their kids through school. I actually saw a father wearing a front baby pack today too....

There are also a lot more Masai living in Kakamega...those are the people that are the classic icon of Africa that you see pictures of. They are used to toursits and charge an arm and a leg to take their picture. Several are living near me on the govt water project in a makeshift hut. They have been hired as security.

Masai are renowned as fierce warriors so they are highly valued as security. I heard one story about a Masai who was told to not open the gate for anyone after a certain hour at night. One night, the owner came home late and the Masai totally refused to open the gate for him. Yesterday, someone told me that the Masai had caught a their and beat the thief up and almost cut his leg off.

I love Kenyan politics. Just like in the US, there always seems to be a big corruption crisis. Right now, the prime minister(who was appointed after losing a rigged election) suspended a cabinet minister for alleged corruption and the president was reportedly absolutely furious, of course because the minister was one of his cronies. Kenya is such a small country, that everyone is personally involved with the news, just like it was one big city....lots of talk about how bad the government does.

The pet chicken who has been sneezing is here begging for food and getting into everything so I need to chase her out.

The Tree Nursery

The road to the JOP Tree Nursery is beyond explanation....it's made from red clay and when it rains, it is molded liked putty by anything travelling over it. Due to the excess of rain during January, it was the worst I have ever seen. Holes and ruts at least 3 feet deep that expose volcanic boulders that litter this area. In Peter's 4 wheel drive, which is much worse for the wear, our driver bumped and careened and picked his way to the nursery. It is hard to tell how far the actual distance is, but the journey takes about 30 minutes of bone jarring travel.

Karen, Cathy and Billie were overwhelmed and delighted as the 27 members of the Ematende women's group greeted us as we drove up. There were Kenyan high fives and hugs and laughing that made us feel immediately welcome and like special guests. Then, in customary Kenyan fashion, they sang a welcome song and we all danced our way further down the road to the nursery site.

Our program coordinator has done a wonderful JOP in organizing and developing the nursery. It is located on a quarter of an acre and marked into 4 quadrants. The group has erected a barbed wire fence around the plot to try to keep the goats and chickens out and planted mulberry bushes around the perimeter to use for silk worm farming, a project they will start developing in the future.

The trees are all indigenous species that are in high demand in Kenya. The seeds are planted in raised seed beds and covered with makeshift thatch roofs to keep them out of the sun. Once the trees sprout, they are transplanted by hand into short, black tubes filled with soil and placed under an awning made from sticks and more banana and palm leaves. Currently, there are four thousand! trees under production and will be the right size to harvest and sell by March. Each quadrant will be developed the same way over the next few months so eventually there will be 16,000 trees growing in the nursery on this one small plot of land.

The Ematende women's group provides the labor paid for by JOP. There are 3 teams of 9 women and each group works one week on a rotating a basis. They plant seeds, transplant seedlings and water the trees morning and evening. We haven't bought a water catchment tank yet so the women must carry jerry cans from the river to do the watering. Its an enormous amount of work.

As a benefit, the Ematende women's group was trained by the forest department to identify trees and collect seeds that they can sell for personal income. JOP has also given them a small supply of seedlings so that they can start their own mini tree nurseries at their homes.

What is really unusual about this project is that the profit earned by the labor of these women is being used to support girls that are total strangers to them, not relatives. This is a very rare occurrence in Kenya where true philanthropy has yet to catch on....

Needless to say, other women in the village and surrounding villages have noticed and are now looking for ways to participate. Once we have the Ematende group established, we are hoping to be able to scale up with other groups using land donated or leased free of charge by a local family. Just the visibility of such a enterprising project inspires and motivates the other village women to start their own small businesses....a wonderful by product of our JOP activities. It is through these small projects that we hope to start to change cultural beliefs about the role of girls and women in Kenya...it expands our impact far beyond the boundaries of our non formal education activities for the 25 girls currently participating in the program.

Sustainable development and true change never takes place in a void. Creating the network and support systems such as these are an integral part of the work of JOP in Kenya

Watching JOP Grow

We visited JOP girls and school staff members at Muslim Girls' School and Bishop Sulemeti Girls' School today. We arrived like a "flock of mzungus" and caused quite a stir among all the girls.

We had a great meeting with the JOP girls. They've become more comfortable visiting with strangers and were pretty chatty. Overall the girls are working hard at school. Our focus at JOP isn't for girls to get straight A's, but to improve their performance and work to their personal best. When we asked them about their favorite subject they mentioned a variety...math, chemistry, kiswahili, a course called Christian Religious Education(or Islamic Religious Education at Muslim Girls') and home science. 2 JOP girls have the honor of being number one in their class in math and science.

7 girls are seniors this year and are "candidates" for taking the Kenya Nation Exam in October of 2010. They are required to attend boarding school during their senior year and to forgo playing sports so they can focus all of their attention on studying for the exam.

How well they score on the exam will determine what choices they have after graduation. Those who score well are chosen to attend University with reduced tuition, the next tier can attend university at their own expense and lastly, those who don't qualify for university can choose to go to a variety of two year schools to get a certificate in business management, computer science, social work, etc.

The girls won't get their exam scores until 2011 so won't begin their post secondary activities until 2012. They will still be participating in JOP during this "gap year" in various activities. Some will intern at various businesses and learn how to dress for work, be on time, communicate with others and so on. A few girls will be volunteers with JOP and will work with the younger JOP girls as presenters and counselors. They will also be starting village JOP groups for younger girls from ages 10-14. This will give girls in the villages a motivation to stay in school and a headstart for when they enter high school.

Our JOP mission is to use JOP as an agent of change for improving the status of women and girls in the villages. We emphasize to the girls that one of their responsibilities is to give back to their communities, to be a good role model and to share the knowlege they are gaining through their participation in JOP. I'm really pleased to see that this is happening and that the girls take their responsibility seriously. With their help, we will be able to expand the impact of our program and to continue to build a Kenyan owned project.

On Safari

What a treat! I've returned to Kenya with some friends from Chico, Karen Goodwin, Billie Kanter and Cathy Webster. Our trip is a combination of a safari and a visit to our Just One Person project in Kakamega. Believe it or not, this is my first tourist visit to anywhere outside of Western Province in Kenya. I am seeing some new country that I wasn't even aware of and I feel very privileged and overwhelmed. Although the landscape is unfamiliar, the friendliness of the Kenya people is the same everywhere we travel.

We are visiting the area around Mt Kenya, which is the granite peak you see here. It is about 17,000 feet high and a pretty popular climbing destination. We stayed in a lodge at the base of Mt. Kenya and aside from the elephants running across the road, the trees were pine. The Mountain Lodge is located on the edge of a watering hole and every room looks out at it, so it is simply a matter of relaxing in the room and waiting for the animals come to drink, which they do in some previously agreed upon schedule. First the waterbucks, then the water buffalo and finally the elephants. It is very surreal to see these animals appear magically out of the underbrush. According to our foodie, Karen, the food is absolutely wonderful. There is a great deal of variety including baked arrowroot, green grahams, fried chicken gizzards, and ugali of course.

After Mountain Lodge, we descended to what I guess is called the savannah. We drove for about 60 miles through very dry and scrubby fields and then came to Sweetwater Nature Conservancy which is an oasis in the midst of them. Apparently, the previous two years have been a drought but January was very rainy and so everything is lush and green and there are rivers running through the Conservancy with very shy hippos in them. This is a tented lodge, like you have seen in Out of Africa, and once again the luxurious tents sit right at the edge of a big water hole where all kinds of animals come to drink, wart hogs, giraffes, gazelles, elephants, crane birds, and more wart hogs. Actually Karen has dubbed them "hogworts".

We've taken 3 game drives in a pop up van and the wildife is more abundant than I can describe. We have seen what they call the big five....lion, cheetah, water buffalo, hippo and rhino plus many many other species like the mongoose, oryx and more wort hogs. The animals are somewhat accustomed to people in vans, kind of like the bears in Yellowstone, so we are privileged to see them at close range for the most part. My favorites were the lions, who were a male and female mating as you see in the photo here and the cheetah mother and young young who were hunting this morning. They stalked several zebras and gazelles for quite a long time and the young one took a training run at a gazelle but wasn't successful. All of the animals were very alert and aware of the cheetahs presence so it was tough going.

We also visited a chimp sanctuary founded by Jane Goodall here. Chimps aren't native to Kenya so they are all chimps who have been pets that were rescued or have been born in the sanctuary despite of the use of birth control. They have been so damaged as previous pets or captives so they won't ever be released into the wild and therefore the sanctuary is trying to keep the numbers limited. If anyone is interested, you can adopt a chimp for one year for $6000USD.

The next stop is Kakamega and a visit to the JOP program. I think the Chico women will see a different side of Kenya there, as it is much more rural and densely populated. Personally, I am looking forward to seeing our Kenya partners, the JOP girls and my Kenyan friends.