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Rural Discoveries, Religious Experiences

Around the 4^th or 5^th weekend I was in Kenya, I ventured into an extremely rural area on the outskirts of Kakamega.  Actually the way that this trip came about was kind of funny – my host mom mentioned that her nephew was coming over and that I would go for a walk with him (people in Kenya don’t really ask questions in English – they just give polite commands).  Apparently “go for a walk” meant get into a matatu for half an hour and drive out to his house where I would be staying for the night.  You can imagine that came as somewhat of a shock but after the initial panic I just rolled with it.  As we drove, paved roads turned into dirt roads, and eventually even the dirt roads disappeared until we were driving on just grass.

My host cousin’s name was Simon and he was in his mid 20’s.  He took me to his house where I met his family and stayed with him for the night.  The house was on a compound, which is the most common familial structure in rural parts of Kenya.  The compounds generally contain 4 or 5 houses with members of both the immediate and extended family living there.  For example: one house might be for the grandfather and grandmother, and the others for each of their sons and their respective families.  In the morning Simon led me through the thick fields surrounding his house.  While almost all of the crops I had seen in Kenya previously consisted of maize (corn), this field was filled with sugar cane.  Sugar cane plants are huge, probably eight to ten feet tall, and once you are in the middle of a big field there is really no way to tell which way is out (unless you know where you are going).  Simon ripped a smaller piece of cane out of the ground, and bit off the ends revealing the woody, sugary innards of the plant that cane sugar is made out of and that people commonly chew on.  I took a piece to chew and it was delicious, although it was so sweet that I actually got a little bit light headed.  I tried to bite the wood off a piece of sugar cane myself to get to the sugar on the inside and I swear I almost broke my jaw – to make me feel better Simon claimed that Kenyans have very strong teeth.  My favorite conversation of that weekend (and possibly of the trip) went as follows:

Simon: I like to travel very much.

Me: Oh really?  Where have you been?

Simon: Throughout Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

Me: Cool!  If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?

Simon: America!

Me: Which state?  (expecting New York or California – the most common answers)

Simon: Texas.

Me: Really?  Why Texas? (surprised)

Simon: Chuck Norris.

No further explanation necessary.

The next weekend, I went to a church in Amalemba with my family.  This was also one of the most interesting experiences of the trip.  As you may know, I normally wouldn’t be the first in line to attend a church service, but it seemed like a great cultural experience and I figured I had to go at least once while I was there.  I was surprised when I first arrived in Kakamega to discover how Christian most people there are.  When you walk down the street on a Sunday morning, you see can see and hear a church service at almost every corner.  One Sunday I even tried to go running at the track, but decided not to because there was a service in the stadium!

From my experiences, however, I found that the church service in Kenya is very different from the average American church service.  While I imagine most services in America being more subdued, Kenyan church services are adorned with extremely loud music, and intense preaching and singing (and dancing of course).  No matter how dilapidated the structure of a church may have been, I don’t think I ever saw one that was lacking a sound system equipped for a movie theater.

The church service I attended with my host family was somewhat small.  While the structure probably could have fit about 200 people, I would estimate that there were about 30 people in attendance.  At the front was an altar, and to the side a keyboard player who was essentially the church DJ, playing quiet, eerie music during solemn speeches, and slowly transitioning to uplifting music (fully equipped with keyboard driven techno beats) when appropriate.  Upon entering the church I realized that there seemed to be some excitement among the congregants.  I wasn’t sure why, but I thought maybe there was some kind of special event going on that day.  It turns out that there was – me.

Before I walked in, three very old ladies approached me – they could not speak English or even Swahili, only the mother tongue of the Luhya tribe, Kiluhya.  After some difficulty in their attempts to communicate with me, someone translated that they were very excited to have me at their church and wished they could express that to me in my language.  That was a really moving moment.

After being welcomed into the church, I was asked to introduce myself to the congregation at the front of the room with a microphone.  This was definitely a little bit nerve racking (and surprising), but I was happy to give it a shot.   I used whatever Swahili I knew to say my name, where I was from, and why I was in Kakamega.  The crowd seemed very grateful and applauded for me when I was done speaking.

Most of the service was in Swahili so it was difficult to understand, although I am aware that I was in some way part of the sermon because I kept hearing the word “mzungu” interspersed throughout the pastor’s speech.  The best part of the service for me, however, was definitely the upbeat music and dancing.  They also had a 4-part choir that sang gospel songs that were really cool.  Also unlike in America, instead of passing around a collection plate, there is a period in the service when the collection plate is at the front of the room and each row approaches the plate, while singing a specific song, and makes a donation.  I thought this was a really interesting ritual.

At the end of the service, everyone went outside and we stood in a large circle holding hands.  Prayers were said for everyone in the community, announcements were made, and then we dispersed.  Many different groups gathered – men’s groups, youth groups, women’s group etc. and began to talk about whatever other activities they had planned for the coming week.  This made me realize that the church, more than any other institution, really was the center of the community for my host family and the other congregants.  Besides the religious aspect, it gave them an outlet to talk about their community, their experiences and their individual lives.

Immediately after church I went with one of my other host cousins (my host dad’s nephew) to his family’s compound in Amalemba.  His name was Elisha and he was great to talk to, particularly to discover things about the cultural differences between Kenya and America.  He provided me with a great deal of insight into the minds of average people in Kakamega who often think, for example, that there are no poor people in America and even no black people in America (despite their love for Obama).  In addition, he was shocked when I told him that homosexuality is legal in America, and that married men in America have only one wife.  He found this very interesting.

I also got to meet his grandfather (my host dad’s father) who was one of the most educated and well traveled people that I met while in Kenya.  He was in the Kenyan army when he was younger, and had traveled all over the world – from Western Europe all the way to China.  He mentioned that he would like to visit America, and said that our willingness to elect a black president was proof that we were a country without prejudice.  Obviously that is not completely true, but it struck me as a fascinating comment.  I remember before the election some people said that Obama could never win because people would vote differently than they were willing to express themselves in public.  In other words, they thought that racism would drive the election in McCain’s favor.  In that respect, I think that Obama’s victory really made a statement to the rest of the world (in this case it may be exaggerated because he is part Kenyan) that Americans are willing to exclude preujudice when it comes to choosing what’s best for our country.  That is obviously a broad generalization, but it’s just something that my host grandfather’s statement got me thinking about.

Work, Home and Life in Kakamega

Anyone who continued to check my blog for the second half of my trip (I know you’re out there – I can see you on my blog stats!) knows that I severely neglected blogging in the month of July.  As a matter of fact, I haven’t posted a single word since June 23^rd – just under a month before I left Kenya.  However, somehow, I think that within my blogging negligence there is a silver lining.  On one hand I disappointed my readers by failing to produce anything interesting (or anything at all) while I was in the moment.  On the other hand I was so busy being IN the moment that I really got the most out of my experience.  Nonetheless, in order to make up for all of the time that I lost in blog world, I’m going to do a recap of some interesting things that happened my last few weeks in Kakamega, and then hopefully reflect on the experience as a whole.  I’m also going to try to cut it up into a few shorter posts as opposed to the massively long posts I had become accustomed to writing at the beginning of the trip.  Enjoy!

By the end of June, I would say that I finally acclimated to my surroundings.  At work, people expected to see me when they got to the office in the morning and I became very independent in working on my projects (see my last blog).  Instead of feeling completely attached to the office like a conventional job, I felt comfortable leaving whenever I needed to in order accomplish any tasks that might be hand.  Whereas previously I had been completely dependent upon my supervisor and the KES staff to find work for me, I now knew the town well enough that I was able to accomplish objectives on my own which was a great feeling (although the staff was still there to support me.  At home, my relationship with my host family definitely blossomed, and I developed a great relationship with both of my host parents, especially my host mom who was particularly extroverted.  I spent more time with them in the house, and stayed in my room a lot less.  I became accustomed to having tea like five times a day and I definitely think that became more accustomed to my presence.  I gave them a box of assorted tazo teas that I brought from America, and while they were very polite I don’t think they liked it very much – their only response was “It is very different – Kenyan tea is very strong…” which definitely made me laugh.

I also became more accustomed to the food – although there were definitely some surprises along the way.  Overall I would say it was a good culinary experience because it got me to start eating fish (I think it was tilapia), something which I had always avoided before.  I also started eating hardboiled eggs – something I was also never a huge fan of.  I think I started eating all of this stuff just because I felt obligated to eat what they gave me, which again was probably a good thing.  In general though, we ate a lot more ugali (see past posts), rice, chapatti, beef, chicken and all that good stuff.  You’re essential protein and carbs diet.  They also found out that I like spaghetti, which is not particularly popular there although they do have it, and so I started getting that too which was definitely a plus.  One night, however, at the dinner table, this conversation occurred:

Me: (after receiving a strange looking thick substance in a bowl for dinner) ummm What is this?

Joyce (host mom): Macaroni soup.

Me: Interesting….what is macaroni soup?

Joyce: You take macaroni (spaghetti), cook it, and then put it in a blender.

Me: Oooooh I see…

That was definitely an interesting dinner.  Something that took me a while to learn also, however, was that I needed to assert myself when there was something I really didn’t like or I would get it all the time.  It worked out with the fish and eggs, but for example, it took me about a month to say I wasn’t really into the tomato and onion sandwiches I got for lunch about half the time the first few weeks I was there – just peanut butter was fine.  And it wasn’t even a big deal at all – so I guess them trying to figure out my eating habits was just as difficult as me trying to get used to theirs.  I also started weaning myself off of utensils in an attempt to eat like they do – with their hands.  It’s kind of liberating and I definitely recommend it.  You know what they say – when in Kenya…

My Work Plan : A Summary

First of all, let me just say that I cannot believe that I have already been in Kakamega for over a month. Talk about how time flies! Even scarier, however, is the thought that I only have one month left to accomplish any of my goals at work. As I mentioned in my last post, I spent a lot of time during weeks 2 and 3 formulating my work plan. How could I have a sustainable impact on KES and the Kakamega community? This was a really difficult question to answer, and after hours of deliberation I decided not to focus on just one idea, but instead to work on a series of small projects that cold improve the cooperative’s effectiveness in Kakamega.

My first objective is to facilitate the involvement of current members and the recruitment of new members. KES has over 400 members, but suffers from a very high monthly default rate due to their “goodwill” debt collection procedures in which members are expected to pay monthly without any staff or loan officers to guide them. This high rate of default is detrimental to the cooperative’s growth and I believe it needs to be addressed as soon as possible if the SACCO is to reach its goal of being fully operational by 2012. My first idea is to create a quarterly newsletter, targeted specifically at members who have been dormant for more than two months. This newsletter (only 4 pages long) is almost complete and will be ready for KES’ Annual General Meeting scheduled to occur on June 27th. In addition, I am hoping to implement new incentive programs to encourage continuous payment of loans and member recruitment. Specifically, a member who makes loan payments every month for a year (a rarity in the current records) will receive the last month’s interest free, a member who pays his shares every month for a year will get the opportunity to take out a loan at a lower interest rate (.8% monthly instead of 1%), and members who recruit new members will receive a certain amount of money for every member they bring in. Finally, I have agreed to help the SACCO design a sign to help advertise their location on the main road of the town. These are all very simple ideas, but I hope that in combination they will give KES a boost in member recruitment and involvement.

My second objective is to update their accounting systems. Currently, the bookkeeper uses Microsoft Excel for all accounts, but none of her spreadsheets are dynamic. In other words, she adds everything up with a calculator (and occasionally makes mistakes along the way) instead of using formulas (as simple as auto sum) that could calculate everything automatically. I have already worked out a good system, but my goal is not to just teach the bookkeeper to use the system that I have created. Instead, I am trying to teacher her how to create general dynamic spreadsheets – that way after I am gone she will be able to design efficient systems of data management using excel as the need arises.

Thirdly, I am working with KES’ microfinance sector to jumpstart a new group of boda boda drivers. This is probably the part of my project that I am most excited about. A boda boda is essentially a bicycle taxi, who shuttles people around all day for about 15 cents per trip on average. Most of the drivers (there are hundreds of them) have no other way of making a living – many have even finished high school or university but just don’t have any other career options. Our goal is to get a group of 15 boda bodas to start saving monthly for four months, after which they will have the opportunity to take out a small business loan. After this loan is paid back, they will eventually take out a bigger loan and will thus be given the opportunity to work their way up out of poverty.

At first I was unsure that we would be able to get a group of bodas interested in this kind of project – as a matter of fact KES tried to implement this kind of project with an FSD intern last year and the project was ultimately unsuccessful – but last week I was happy to find that my fears were unfounded. I met with the bodas for the first time on Friday, and it was probably the most powerful experience I have had since coming to Kenya. We met for about an hour in a small hot room, with someone translating what I was saying sentence by sentence into Kiswahili and then translating their questions back into English. After their skepticism had been assuaged (many Kenyan workers have been victims of fraudulent pyramid schemes), I could sense the excitement and nervousness in their tone of voice. Nobody had ever before put their faith in the hands of these boda drivers, and I believe they saw in this newfound trust an opportunity to change their lives. Contrary to my expectations, they were very proactive about organizing their next meeting time and even asked if they could bring new members. At the next meeting (July 3rd) we will go over/amend the group constitution, and elect officers (chairman, treasurer, secretary).

My final project involves evaluating the KES Strategic Management Plan that was created in 2007. In the SMP, KES has set specific goals for each year from 2008 to 2012 (ie. number of members, amount of capital etc.) and I plan to go through their records and make a report detailing their progress.

In the end, I hope that some if not all of my projects will be sustainable, and will help KES to reach the goals outlined in their SMP. I’ll be sure to post updates on my progress!

Weeks 2, 3

It’s been a while since my first blog post, and A LOT has happened in the last two weeks, but I’ll try to keep it short and sweet (but no promises). Last Monday was everybody’s first day at their host organizations – the first week was dedicated solely to observation of our host organizations, under the principle that we need to understand the basic operations of our respective organizations before we can begin to plan/implement any kind of project. As I mentioned in the last post, my organization is the Kakamega Entrepreneurs Savings and Credit Cooperative (KES SACCO), an institution started and run by its members that provides small loans and savings services to the Kakamega small business community.

Anyway, the first week was really different to what I had expected. My organization consists of a bookkeeper (Naomi), a secretary (Elizabeth) and a series of committees that ultimately run the organization. However, the bookkeeper and the secretary are the only real KES staff members, as all the committee members are unpaid elected officials who have other jobs outside of the organization. As such, I had very little guidance the first week and got by mostly by finding materials like annual reports, balance sheets, and program initiatives to read in an attempt to learn about the organization and its operations. I also spent a lot of time doing research on general microfinance ideas at the internet café. Additionally, the people here run on what they like to call “Kenyan time” which sounds nice but generally means that they are productive for about 30 minutes a day, play a lot of solitaire on the computer, and are rarely (if ever) on time for an appointment. This can be really frustrating, especially when you are trying to get something done in a reasonable amount of time. Luckily, however, I was somewhat comforted by the fact that just about all of my friends were experiencing the same issues at their offices and when we met for lunch that first week everybody had their own stories and we had a lot to talk about.

This week, on the other hand, I met with the treasurer and he made me a bunch of appointments to meet with the chairman of the credit committee, the chairman of the microfinance committee and many others so I have been relatively busy. He also gave me a copy of the organization’s strategic management plan created in 2007, which helped me to understand where the organization stands right now and its goals for the future. By the end of this week I have to create a detailed work plan detailing what I intend to do for the rest of my trip and as I write this I am well on my way towards completing it and will post it when it is finished.

Work aside, everything has been going really well and we have had plenty of time to immerse ourselves in the local culture. Walking through town every day is probably the best experience of all, as it seems that for the local population encountering “mzungus” (aka us) never gets old. Girls on the trip routinely encounter marriage proposals, so many of them have started to wear bands on their left ring fingers to minimize these kinds of encounters. There is a guy named Jack (who I’m pretty sure is drunk most of the time) who I made the mistake of telling my name to and he stops me in the street every day in an attempt to hold my hand and follow me where I am going (which naturally freaks me out a little bit) although hand holding is customary among male friends in Kenya (which is funny because you will often see two strong, middle aged men walking down the street holding hands). The food is still pretty standard wherever you go – generally beef or chicken and rice or ugali, although we have encountered a few exceptions. In the market, for example, they sell termites, which are apparently a delicacy in this part of Kenya. Also, one of my friends ordered “motumbo” at a restaurant not knowing what it was but wanting to try something new and it seemed like mushrooms so just about everyone tried it. I learned later that motumbo is cow intestines.

My homestay is also going really well, and I get to know my family more and more each day. I also learned last week that the high-pitched howling outside my window at night (which at first was kind of disturbing) is being made by a litter of 11 puppies that one of their dogs gave birth to 3 weeks ago. They are probably the cutest puppies I have ever seen, and every day after work I generally go outside and play with them for a while – other people in my group have also come to my house to play with the puppies so they are quite an attraction. On Saturday evening, Austin (one of the work boys at my house) brought me to the local stadium, which consists of a dirt quarter mile track and a soccer (football) field. There was a track meet there that night, and I saw the winning team run a men’s 4X400m relay in 3 minutes and 20 seconds (barefoot) which if nothing else corroborates the stereotype that Kenyans are really really fast.

On Saturday morning the group had its first weekly meeting where we talked about the many aspects of living and working in Kenya and cooked a delicious American meal of mac and cheese and beans. There were a lot of funny stories – my favorite was a girl who had tried to explain to her family (who did not speak English) that she wanted to take a bucket shower but they did not understand. She went to boil water for the shower, and her mother followed her into the kitchen area and threw tealeaves into the boiling water! I almost died when I heard that story. Locals here tend to be very Christian and it seems that some people have had awkward situations when they told their families/co-workers that they were not Christian, but I have not personally had any experience with that as my family is very tolerant although they don’t understand what it means when I say that I am Jewish.

Monday was a public holiday (Madaraka day – the day Kenya gained internal rule, but different to independence day) so this weekend 12 of the 15 of us went to the Kakamega Rainforest, which was awesome. We stayed in these bungalo-like houses in the middle of the forest and did two 4 hour hikes – a river hike on Sunday afternoon, and a sunrise hike at 4 am on Monday morning. It was a lot of fun, and a really nice break from living in town. We saw lots of monkeys, birds, and just beautiful scenery in general – watching the sunrise from the highest point in Kakamega I couldn’t help but be reminded of the opening scene of the Lion King – it was amazing. Also the stars were insane – you could see almost every constellation I have heard of and even a planet or two without any telescope. After the sunrise hike we had brunch at the Rondo Retreat which is the closest thing to an American/British resort in this part of Kenya, and it was delicious.

Other than that not much else to tell – I’ve been reading a lot and recently finished Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunnus which was really informative and helpful and I’m finishing up The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz which is a great story. After dinner the family generally has tea and watches TV, but recently the TV stopped working and we have resorted to their small collection of DVD’s which includes a compilation movie called “Spells and Magic” (4 Harry Potter and 3 Lord of the Rings movies) “Nicholas Cage” (Face/Off and Ghost Rider) and many episodes “WWE Monday Night Raw”. I gave them a coffee table book about Florida which they enjoy looking at often – my host dad is particularly amazed by the 4 mile long Sunshine Skyway bridge, which he says he would love to see someday. Personally, when I think of the skyway I think of two words – traffic jam – talk about cultural differences.

Beginnings

DukeEngage/FSD Kakamega Group Photo

My House

Boda Boda

My Room

Kisumu Airport

Scenic Farm/Field

5/24/09  (date written)

As I write this, my first ever blog post, I have been in the town of Kakamega for just over a week.  I arrived in Kenya last Saturday night after enduring the most grueling (and probably amusing) itinerary any travel agent has ever created – Tampa to Ft. Lauderdale (overnight) to JFK (notice the change in direction) to Dubai to Nairobi to Kisumu and finally a very bumpy and crowded “matatu” (van) from Kisumu to Kakamega, for a grand total of about 40 hours of continuous traveling time.  Once the group (myself, 14 other Duke students, and the site team) arrived in Kakamega, we moved into the Kamadep Guest House, a small hotel located just outside the town of Kakamega where I had been staying until yesterday afternoon (5/23), when I moved into my home stay.

The past week has been very interesting, and while I know that the real learning experience has yet to begin, I have already learned a great deal.  For those of you reading this who don’t already know, I will be spending the next 8 weeks living and working in Kakamega, a small town in the heart of Kenya, through a program sponsored by DukeEngage (dukeengage.duke.edu/) and coordinated by the Foundation for Sustainable Development (www.fsdinternational.org).  Each of the 11 girls and 4 boys in my group will be working with a different non-governmental organization (NGO’s) and living with a different host family in the Kakamega area.  Some, like me, are living and working close to the center of town, while others live and work up to an hour-long matatu ride away in areas like the Kakamega rainforest.

Orientation (the first week) consisted of FSD training and frequent trips to the town center.  We spent about half of each day immersed in Kiswahili language training, and I am proud to say that I have a very basic understanding of Kiswahili greetings, verb conjugation, and conversation.  While most people speak some English, it is helpful to know some Kiswahili as it removes some of the barrier between cultures when talking to people from Kakamega.  We spent the other half learning about a variety of subjects including Kenyan culture, Kenyan politics, living with a host family, and performing needs assessments of our respective organizations.  Despite the helpfulness of these sessions, most of what I have learned has come from my experiences in the town itself.  Foreigners are very rare in this part of the country, and the members of my group (especially the white and asian ones) stick out like sore thumbs. When we walk down the street many people yell “mzungu” (meaning outsider) and point, sometimes even going so far as to poke us or grab our hands.  Most of them mean no harm, but are just very friendly and overly excited to meet us.  As expected, Americans are associated with having a lot of money in Kenya, and thus we draw the immediate attention of beggars and street merchants, of which there are an abundance.

The most common mode of transportation in the town is a “boda boda”, or a bicycle with a small extra seat attached to the back.  There are many boda boda drivers at every street corner, and their services only cost 10 or 20 shillings (at 77 shillings to the dollar), although they generally try to overcharge us muzngus at first.  This is a very convenient (and fun) way of getting around.  For longer trips, you must take a matatu, the concept of which is much like a public bus, but instead a small van filled far beyond capacity on turbulent roads.  The matatus all blast loud music and have flat screen TV’s at the front showing music videos.  (Funny story – one of the matatus was blasting Celine Dion and our group was singing along passionately in the van – other drivers heard that the Mzungus like this music, and now many matatus in Kakamega are sporting Celine Dion CD’s)  The food here is not bad, although it gets boring very quickly.  Most meals consist of chicken, beef, or fish and a side – usually rice, chips (fries), chapatti (Indian bread), or ugali (a cake-like food made of cornmeal – imagine grits in solid form).

As mentioned earlier, I moved into my home stay yesterday, and begin work at my host organization tomorrow.  My original host family consisted of a mother, a father, and two ten year old boys, but had to be changed as the father of the family lost his job unexpectedly.  If nothing else this gives some insight into the unpredictability of life in Kakamega.  The house at which I am currently residing consists of an older mother (Joyce) and father (Sylvester) who have a son that has moved out.  Also living here are two work boys, one of them 18 (Austin) and the other 23 (Peter) and an older work woman (also Joyce).  The family is well off for rural Kenyan standards, and has a barn with cows, chickens, and other animals, and a night security guard.  They also have a cat but insist that I should not pet it as it is only for killing mice. Similarly the dogs are only for protection.  I am lucky to have electricity and running water, although there is no running hot water and thus I have to take bucket showers and must have all of my drinking water boiled.  I have my own room, equipped with a bed, mosquito net, a desk and a chair.  Additionally, the household culture here is very different.  I was surprised to learn that most Kenyan men have more than one wife, and thus multiple places of residence with many children.  I told them I have only one brother, and this was shocking to them.  They also drink tea about 5 times a day (which I am getting used to), and expect me to eat about three people’s worth of food at every meal.  In Kenya, fatness implies wealth, and I tried to explain to them that this is certainly not the case in the US.

I will be working at the Kakamega Entrepreneurs Savings and Credit Cooperative (KES), a grassroots microfinance organization that gives small loans to small businesses in need.  At the organization, I will spend the first week observing day-to-day operations after which I will be expected to design a project that will have a sustainable impact on the community.  I have very little experience with microfinance, but have been reading up on it and I am very excited to learn more about how it works first hand.  I have no idea what kind of project I could implement, but the program director (Peter) and the program coordinators (Angie and Damaris) have assured us all that if we go in with an open mind we will find something to be passionate about.  We will also have the opportunity to apply for a $1000 grant from FSD if our project requires it.

That brings me to the focus of my trip, and of this blog.  I chose the word “endeleo” which means development, or progress in Kiswahili as the title of my blog.  Please note that the goal of this title is not a self-righteous or naive proclamation that I or anyone in my group is here to help “improve” Kenya, but rather the idea that involving the community in its own economic development can bring about sustainable change that empower those living in poverty.  I hope that my next 8 weeks in Kakamega will have a positive impact, no matter how large, on my host family, KES, the Kakamega community, and myself.

I am going to try to write a post at least once a week (hopefully they will all be shorter than this one…), and post pictures with it.  Just a note, people in town are very weary of pictures and it is not always socially acceptable to document a situation.  Also, I tried to load a picture through the internet cafe here, and it refused to load, even after an hour –   nonetheless I will do my best to find a way to get some pics up.  Keep reading and please comment!