kazi ni kazi tu

i figure i should write at least something about the work that i'm doing, lest you believe i don't do anything except have fun (though that belief wouldn't entirely be false). i don't really remember the last thing i wrote about work, so hopefully i am picking up where i left off. i think i mentioned that sebastian (my supervisor) and i were discussing the suspension of the SFMAP (small farmers marketing assistance program). this potential suspension was due to several factors - perhaps first, in order for you to fully understand the issues of the program, i should briefly explain its origins.

SFMAP was created about two years ago by seb and luke, the peace corps volunteer who i replaced, to meet the need of local small-holder farmers for accurate and reliable marketing information. it was intended to be a organ of information dissemination only - to relay market prices and availability to the farmers, who could make their own decision about how to sell their produce. previously, and even currently, farmers were often "taken advantage of" by brokers, who would buy their goods at cut-rate prices and transport them to the markets in nairobi for several times what they paid the farmers for them (i use quotations because even now that the farmers are aware of the markup earned by the brokers they continue to sell to them without complaint. i don't entirely believe that this connotes exploitation). SFMAP intended to equip the farmers with the knowledge and capacity to transport their own goods to market without the intervention of brokers, who they believed to be redundant.
This was the main problem that seb and luke believed to exist among the farmers (whether i agree or disagree with them i'll discuss later). however, as is often the case, the problems seen by outsiders are not always the problems that the farmers themselves believe are the most pressing. if you ask almost any farmer in kenya to express their number one problem, they will unequivocally respond with "capital." capital, of course, meaning cash. so inevitably, as SFMAP began extending their information services to the farmers, they came under pressure to provide material support for the transport of goods to nairobi. to this end, luke injected some of his own funds into the program in order to give loans to the farmers for the hire of transport. the first few attempts at delivery, which SFMAP coordinated and oversaw, failed to realize a profit for the farmers, who continued to request funding - this time, for general farm inputs (fertilizer, seeds, etc.) and other small businesses. somehow - i'm not very familiar with how this transformation of purpose came about exactly - SFMAP began running a credit facility for farmers, using luke's personal money as well as funds from the parent organization, YARD. as the marketing arm of SFMAP shriveled into virtual nonexistence, its credit counterpart became the overwhelming focus of the program. loans were given to farmers on the basis that they use them for anything related to business - fertilizer, transport, stock for their dukas (small stores) - without any real accountability for the expenditure of this money. repayment of loans was the measure of success. with microfinance gaining so much attention these days in the world of development organizations, this was very attractive to observers and friends of YARD, who lauded its progress.
the problem - a problem whose recurrence is so common that it has become a cliche - is that things aren't always as they seem. one reason that microfinance has become so popular is because its measure of success - repayment rate of loans - is easily understood and quantifiable. it is especially popular because it has the added effect of earning money for the lending organization while theoretically increasing the incomes and living standards of the borrowers. if my description of such a program sounds cynical, it is because such a program has as much potential for harm as it does for benefit. a well-run microfinance enterprise, with proper preparation on the part of the borrowers, can indeed produce fantastic results. a poorly run MFE, on the other hand, can have disastrous effects. unfortunately, SFMAP turned out to be the latter.
in my opinion, SFMAP should have stuck by its original diagnosis - namely, that farmers are in desperate need of information rather than capital, and that by providing information capital creation would be made possible. providing extensive training on business basics - financial management, project planning, marketing, etc. - would enable the farmers to manage the businesses (including farms) that they currently own more effectively, thus mobilizing their own capital for potential investment. this information dissemination does not necessarily preempt the existence of brokers, either. markets originated out of the services of brokers; middlemen facilitate the exchange of goods between parties who might otherwise be unaware of each others' existence. brokers perform a vital service, enabling the farmers to focus all of their efforts on production, maximizing the quality and quantity of the goods produced.

that's all theory, though, and probably boring. the reality is that the SFMAP program failed. money was borrowed to pay school fees and medical expenses - activities that wouldn't lead to future income. repayment was high merely because at the date of repayment, the farmer would borrow the loan amount from his neighbor. after repaying, he would take another loan to satisfy his new debts. farmers were making themselves poorer. even those that did make conscious investments didn't make adequate preparations or calculations for the project's success. john njau, for example, borrowed 20,000/= to buy a calf, which he planned to sell after a year (my own calculations lead me to believe that he would have lost money anyway on this venture). the bull died a few months later, cause unknown. he lapsed on his payments, but within about six months he had saved enough to buy a new calf for the same project!
had SFMAP trained john in simple record-keeping methods, cost-benefit analysis, and project planning, not only would he have been able to save enough to buy the bull on his own, but his likelihood of success in the venture would have greatly increased. unfortunately, the incipient training given to the farmers was a two hour 'farming as a business course'. two hours! how they ever expected the farmers to succeed is beyond me.
by the time we got around to giving the farmers the business training they needed, the project was past the point of salvation. SFMAP had two project officers - one for credit (tony) and one for marketing (jackson), neither of whom knew how much money SFMAP had in its control. to compound the problems, jackson had only made about three avocado sales in a year - entirely ignoring all other crops - while he complained incessantly about his salary. tony, it was revealed, had a very poor relationship with many of the farmers' groups, and in fact owed them a lot of money (not counting the money that i suspect he had pilfered from SFMAP itself). after a lot of discussion and field assessments involving outside advisors, we decided to let jackson and tony go and to disband SFMAP indefinitely. we are currently discussing with farmers how to proceed. ultimately, extensive training will be a necessary component of any business program with the farmers. we have developed a concept paper as well, for the development of an agricultural demonstration plot, to benefit local PLWHA (people living with hiv/aids) groups. ideally this would entirely replace any former SFMAP program, by providing farmers with access to research gains in the areas of production as well as marketing.


the library is doing really well - we received a 100,000/= (about 1,300 USD) for the purchase of new materials, which we used to buy a TV, video player, videos, new furniture, and about 100 new books. we intend to rent the TV and video player out to primary and secondary schools beginning in january to show some of the videos that we purchased. these videos cover topics like biology, geography, and guidance & counseling (hiv/aids, smoking, etc.). hopefully the rental of these videos will generate enough to pay our librarian's salary - i hired a 20-something guy named njuguna, who miraculously has been trained in information management and who is incredibly excited to be able to manage a library on his own, as small as it is. already in the two weeks here he's accomplished more than the previous librarian did in his six months at the library. we have a lot of plans for the coming year, including painting a world map on the wall, holding cultural events for the community, and starting a children's reading program.

while i have plenty of issues with contemporary development theory, the library is a program which i believe in strongly. rather than imposing outside standards for success, it merely provides each member of the community with a choice. the information that the library contains can be accessed by anyone, to do with it what they will. if they choose to ignore the information, fine. if they choose to use it, fine. the library is a non-confrontational, equal opportunity program, the potential for which is limited only by the amount of information it contains and the creativity of the user. it contains an inherent message of self-reliance - you get out of it what you put in. no one is going to come along and solve your problems for you; you can find your own solution and implement it if you want. i'm not going to breathe down your back until you start using a condom - i'll tell you what AIDS is and what condoms do and let you make your own choice. that's all i can do with a clear conscience: give choice.

happy thanksgiving

since kenyans don't celebrate or generally know anything about thanksgiving, it was a great opportunity for me to enlighten them about the history of this great holiday. i called together my community and regaled them with the tale of christopher columbus's voyage to the new world, where the indians welcomed the pacifist settlers with open arms. they didn't speak the same language, but that didn't stop them from becoming best friends. to celebrate this friendship, and to commemorate the beginning of their long and fruitful relationship in the new world, they decided to have a party. the indians dressed up in their deerskins and feathers, while the pilgrims polished the belt buckles on their shoes. the indians thought this was funny. they all had a big laugh together over a feast of turkey and mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese and pumpkin pie. then the pilgrims killed all the indians.

actually i didn't tell anyone anything about the history of thanksgiving. mainly because i suck at history (my awesome story notwithstanding). instead i told anyone that cared that thanksgiving is a time when families and friends get together and appreciate what they have. especially pumpkin pie. i always appreciate the hell out of some pumpkin pie.

this thanksgiving didn't entirely fulfill my description. although friends were abundant (yeah, i'm popular), my family was absent and the pumpkin pie was atrocious. not only was there only one pumpkin pie for about 40 people, but it was too sweet and gelatinous, like a soft flan... but in spite of the pie, and the lack of family, i managed to enjoy myself. every year embassy families are asked to host peace corps volunteers in nairobi, and since no one is going to pass up a chance to sleep on a real spring mattress and watch tv and eat doritos, pretty much every volunteer came into nairobi for the event. tony, sheila,callie and i stayed with my friend bob kerr, who is something like the head of public affairs at the embassy (on thanksgiving day he had to run out to the tv station to support the ambassador who was giving an on-air interview). bob was a peace corps volunteer back in the 80's in lesotho, so he has a good idea of what we miss when we're out in the bush for so long. his freezer is always stocked full of doritos and oreos and lucky charms and other stuff that's really really bad for you but so so good. don't ask me why he keeps it in the freezer.

on thanksgiving morning bob and tony and i drove out to the embassy compound for a football game with the marines (the girls stayed home). it had been raining most of the morning so not many peace corps volunteers showed up, apparently opting to sit in their comfy armchairs and zone out in front of the tv and whine that it's wet outside. we played for about 4 hours until we were sufficiently muddy, bloody, bruised and could call ourselves men and go home. after a hot shower and a cold soda i was back to normal, except for my swollen lip, and we piled into bob's van with his wife and kids and drove back over to the embassy compound for a potluck dinner with several other embassy families and their respective volunteers. a huge table was set up and decked out with candles and probably cornucopias, and luckily there was also a kid's table in the other room. not that i don't like bob's - or anyone's - kids, but it's not really thanksgiving without a kiddie table. i was also lucky that they didn't make me sit there, even though i was first in line behind the children to get food. the 5 different turkeys were all good, as was the sweet potato pie, mac&cheese (though not close to comparable to nana's), green bean casserole, cornbread, etc. later that evening we packed into bob's living room to watch 'annie hall' and eat doritos and cookies with milk. after the movie ended the girls went to bed while the guys stayed up to watch the football game, which was shown live on the armed forces network.

bob's family was very welcoming, and since i'd never met them before it was nice to interact with them somewhat. bob's wife is puerto rican, so his three kids are bilingual - which is good for the maid, who's venezuelan and doesn't speak any english. it was fun for me to practice my spanish a little bit, too, though simultaneously obnoxious because i kept mixing it up with swahili and probably sounding like an idiot.

happy belated thanksgiving. i hope your pumpkin pie was better than mine.

Guten tag

Much time has passed since i wrote last. pole (sorry). i've officially passed the one-year-at-site marker, which means that i now have less than a year left in kenya. the date came and went without much ado, and it was only recently, when my friend brian mentioned the fact, that it registered in my mind. the past year has been emotional for me, to say the least, at times dragging by and at others speeding past in a blur. looking back now it seems as if it were only a few weeks ago that i swore in as a peace corps volunteer. when i was younger days stretched slowly into weeks, and summers lasted for years. it was as if i was immersed in a pool of eternity, immobile and immune to time's effect; now that i'm older i feel like i've emerged from the pool and can only watch as time drips off of me and dries up into faded memories in the sun.

in early november, after a brief trip to nairobi for halloween and to support a few volunteers competing in the nairobi marathon, i returned home to mabanda, committed to staying at site until thanksgiving. that commitment lasted about two days. things changed when i received a call from another volunteer, who told me that a german film company needed white extras to play soldiers in a movie they were filming in kenya. it was a three part mini-series staring iris bergen, a famous german actress who - rumors among the extras has it - posed for playboy in the 70's. rob - the volunteer who alerted me about the opportunity - had spent ten days with the company in lamu, and told me that they were moving on to amboseli national park for a week. brian and i discussed the idea for a few minutes and decided that we'd be crazy not to go - we had actually heard of the opportunity before lamu but didn't want to spend so many days away from site. after those 10 days, though, we looked back and realized we had spent the majority of them in nairobi and not at site anyway. that helped us to legitimize our impending trip.

the film company picked us up in nairobi on sunday morning in one of their private safari vehicles for the 5 hour trip to the park. there were about eight other "white" extras - several israelis, indians, a couple of brits and one uruguayan - in the caravan, and during the long ride we struck up a conversation with a british fellow named justin who was sharing our vehicle. we told him that we were living in kenya as volunteers, blah blah, and asked what he was doing in the country. he told us that he was in the final stages of a bike trip that has lasted four and a half YEARS! he left britain almost five years ago and has traveled on his bike onto and across every continent - save antarctica - stopping only briefly in certain countries to make some cash. from the UK he biked across europe, down through sw asia, india, china, indonesia; hopped over to australia for several months, then flew to canada; biked lengthwise across canada, down through new york and the east coast, across the midwestern states to seattle, south through california and into mexico. he continued biking through central and into south america, traversing the continent's entire length until he reached the southern tip of chile. then he flew to south africa, where he began his african journey north. this was when brian and i met him. i suppose that somewhere in the back of my mind i knew that people like justin existed, but i assumed that they stayed off of the radar of normal society, relegating themselves to the outskirts of civilization to the brink of oblivion. you weren't supposed to meet such people - such normal, though gregarious, personable people - in your everyday travels. but then again, i suppose these travels aren't entirely typical.

we arrived at our lodge that afternoon, congratulating ourselves for our good fortune as we gorged ourselves with delicacies from the buffet, staring past the lodge's boundaries to mt. kilimanjaro, which loomed only a few hundred kilometers in the distance. the largest mountain in africa, at just over 19,000 feet, kilimanjaro is an incredibly massive mound of earth. while it may be 10,000 feet shorter than everest, it has distinction among mountains of the world as the tallest peak outside of a mountain range, as well as having the greatest elevation gain from base to peak (everest's peak may reach an imperial 29,000 feet, but mountaineers start the hike from base camp at 17,000 feet - which, incredibly, already matches the height of africa's second-tallest mountain, mt. kenya). the mountain peak remained swathed in stormclouds for most of the seven days we spent in amboseli - except for the last two days of our stay, when its snow-laden plateau emerged against a piercing blue sky. even when it was submerged under a heavy cloak of cloud-cover, the mountain astounded me. its breadth was such that the gentle slopes of the mountain's base stretched almost over the line of the horizon.

we began filming the day after our arrival, and had to report to costume and makeup at 7am. brian and i were both outfitted as british soldiers, complete with bucket hats and 'paddies,' obnoxious wool cloth strips that were wound tightly around our boots and socks up to mid-calf. there were about 20 white extras in total, many who had in a later convoy from lamu, and we were split between german and british troops. after filing through makeup - consisting of a rigorous application of sunscreen - we piled into safari vehicles again for the drive to the film site. the 30 minute journey took us through the heart of the park, past dense swamps packed with water buffalo and giant hippos, past families of wrinkly elephants, past stiff-jointed giraffes, past an ostrich couple engaged in an elaborate mating dance, until we arrived near the outskirts of amboseli, where a broad, dusty plain of cracked mud lay, festering in the scorching sun. dozens of equipment trailers were clustered around the director's bright blue tent, and off to one side milled a group of horses, already saddled up for the shoot. as soon as we got out of the vans, a member of the film crew approached us and asked who knew how to ride a horse. i've ridden a horse maybe three times in my life, but hell if i was gonna miss this adventure for something as trivial as a lack of experience! i said sure, mounted a gentle mare named sunset, and she and i trotted together across the barren landscape that expanded under the omnipresent gaze of kilimanjaro and his crown of ivory. we strode together like this for 30 minutes or more, warming up for the coming scene. just before we were ready to film, however, sunset was stolen from me by a german stuntman who was afraid of horses. i sulked for a few minutes as i joined the attachment of armed foot soldiers, but overcame my disappointment quickly as i realized what the scene entailed.
in this scene, the british soldiers marched and rode into an ambush of german soldiers, who killed most of them. for this effect, the film crew had dug a series of eight or so 'graves' in the earth, in which the german soldiers were buried up to their necks. as we trudged forward, the german extras sprang up and fired blanks towards us - knocking two of the officers off of their horses (hence the stuntmen), and in at least one of the takes scaring the horses into a full gallop and out of sight. the rest of us - foot soldiers - were instructed to act confused, and to die, or to run away in fright. i chose a combination of the two, bailing like a coward until a bullet caught me in the back and i collapsed in a cloud of dust. after three or four takes we had nailed it, apparently, because we broke for lunch. after lunch we were done - a full days work (extra pay for those of us who had ridden horses) - and were released back to the lodge, where we lounged by the pool and played billiards until dinner. it is a rough life, this acting gig. we only worked for three of the seven days we spent in the park - the rest of the time we spent swimming (and getting paid for it), or reading, or playing scrabble, or going on safaris with an incorrigible wild game-lover and hopeless womanizer from israel named 'ohad' who badgered us daily into the trips. he would sneak up on us in the midst of a scrabble bout and pester us in his gravelly smoker's voice and slurring accent with statements like "so, we go on game drive, no?" or "what else you gonna do, sit here and play your scramble?" and, once, famously, "don't count your breaths, bwana...count the moments that take your breath away." somehow, he always convinced us.

brian and i had originally intended to go back to site after amboseli. instead, we were told that they needed two extras to travel up to nyeri (about 2 hours north of thika in the central highlands) with them for a day of filming, after which they would finish up with two days of shooting in thika. brian and i, the only two extras who actually had other things to do, volunteered for the job. for the nyeri shoot we played british officers on horseback again, coming across a prostrate iris (the main actress, you'll remember) in a misty banana plantation. in the scene, i stand guard a few feet away while brian gets off his horse and brings a canteen of water to her, cradling her head in his arms as he sates her thirst. if you ask me, we performed above and beyond the duty of an extra. but i'm not complaining.

the thika shoot was really interesting for me, seeing as it is kind of my 'hometown' in kenya. we filmed one day at the train station, for which they had brought an old steam engine up from nairobi. they had hired about 100 extras for the day, most dressed as civilians in three-piece suits and top hats or as wives in corsets and frilly, billowing dresses. brian and i continued to play soldiers, german in the morning and british officers in the afternoon. the following day - the final day of filming in kenya - we were in downtown thika, where they had roped off two blocks and dumped a ton of sand in the road. i finally got a picture of the film's budget - they were obviously paying a tidy sum to the shop owners for closing down for the day, and they had replaced all of the storefronts with german signs and memorabilia, painting some of the buildings and removing metal gratings on others. i even found out that the camera they were using to film was one of three in the world designed by george lucas for the digital filming of the star wars prequels. needless to say, the ordeal drew a huge crowd of local kenyans, who stared and gasped at the to-do in throngs on the street and on roofs above us.

the movie, called 'afrika mon amour,' received some bad press during their stay here for pay discrepancies among extras along racial lines. white extras received twice as much pay as their indian counterparts, and five times as much as black extras performing the same work. the film company justified the pay scale with an economic explanation, saying that white males are a small minority in kenya, and are often harder to lure away from their higher-paying positions (though they neglected to mention that most of the white extras were travelers, just passing through). i'm sure you're thinking "well, damn right, it's about time white males got a break in this world." or something like that...

brian and i made it back to site after about 10 days with the film company. one of the great things about being a volunteer in a rural village in kenya is that things move so slowly that even after a week-long absence from work nothing has really changed. perhaps that is one of the sad things about the job as well. but i try not to focus on that.