Desk Optional

Map update

2009-05-10T17:31:00.005+03:00

the map has been updated, check it out on the right hand side
Andrew and I walked 15 mi (24 km) to map out the boundary of the area we work in
many new markers have been added with pictures, click on the markers to see them

(Note: Sorry for the delay, I've been overloaded with work as I try to finish up some of our projects before we head out of Kenya for a month, more on that in my next post. I did get the content of what I was going to post up on time, just not my post. Check out the map on the side.)

Last week I spent most of my time roaming around the area with GPS and camera in hand to map and photograph as much of the area as possible. The original map I made didn't have much in the way of location information and no pictures to associate with any of the structures. This time, I've filled out the map with just about every interesting place there is to see along with pictures of most of them.

On Tuesday of last week, Andrew, the agriculture field manager (like Lucas for w+s) walked all over creation with me to map out the boundary of the Nyametaburo and Nyangiti sub-locations that we work in. Andrew and Jake had walked the boundary before but the data was lost to a virus.

It was a pretty amazing walk, taking about 5 hours and covering 15 mi or a little more than 24 km. We walked through swamps and marshlands, crossed rivers countless times, went up and down huge grades, and pretty much wore each other out. The views were amazing the entire time as the boundary is out in the middle of nowhere for most of the time. A good portion of the boundary follows rivers so we got to see some of the beautiful valleys in the area. Unfortunately, because we have just finished the rainy season, all of the rivers are swollen to the brim making every time we crossed the river quite an adventure.

The perimeter walk was probably the most involved and biggest day of my mapping efforts simply due to the sheer effort required to walk every foot of the perimeter. I can't thank Andrew enough for being willing to take the time to spend a day hiking with me. I definitely got him a few cold ones and dinner in return for his selflessness.

The rest of the week I spent walking and driving the motorcycle (piki piki as you learned in a previous post) with the GPS in my backpack and camera on my hip. I added quite a few features to the map including schools, churches, meeting places, and some points of interest (like Taragwiti hills and a picture of a typical path I drive on).

I've also included some important infrastructure such as the many bridges we use to get to and from Nyametaburo, our central hub for most of our work. The bridges are really important to Nuru and we are considering some projects to improve a few because they are so vital to the people we work with. One of the main bridges, on Nyametaburo road, floods when it rains hard. It makes the river impassable and can make people have to wait hours at a time. If we were able to work with the local government and possibly another non-governmental organization (NGO) like Nuru, we may be able to raise the surface of the bridge by adding a structure on top of the existing bridge and provide more drainage to prevent flooding.

Please check out the map on the right hand side and the pictures associated with it. I haven't posted any pictures to my album because all of them that I have taken this week have gone to the map. To see them, just click the place markers and the pictures will pop up.

Enjoy the map and leave any comments, suggestions, or questions you may have about the map. We're trying to improve it every day to not only use it as a tool for our work but also to give people like you the chance to follow what we do.

Funny side note, Sammy, Sally's (the salamander that's not a salamander, see pictures in previous post) younger brother, was hanging out in Aerie's pants the other day. Aerie was walking around complaining about some insect being in his pants, up on his thigh, biting him. At first he wasn't sure what it was or if there was actually anything in his pants. Eventually, he realized he wasn't crazy and shook the leg of his pants and Sammy popped out on Aerie's shoe.

Attendance

2009-05-03T23:18:00.010+03:00

Nuru works in six to seven month shifts for each foundation team, like Aerie, Meghan, and me
with such a brief period on the ground, our time is incredibly valuable
African time is a problem, making it acceptable for Africans to be incredibly late to meetings
we fight against African time everyday, and we're making progress

One of the battles we fight everyday is with one of the worst kinds of enemies, time. Nuru's strategy is to enter a community, work at an incredible pace for five years, and then leave the community on the upswing, having escaped the grasp of extreme poverty with the future looking bright. Five years is a short time for a community wide growth project, especially when fighting against extreme poverty. Even so, five years is a good limit as it avoids creating dependance, a problem many non-governmental organizations (NGO) face.

With such a short supply of time, every minute of everyday is incredibly valuable. If we're awake (and it's not Sunday), we're either working or thinking about work. We'll even discuss projects over dinner. Our time is a precious resource that we have a limited quantity of, a mere six to seven months per foundation team. Unfortunately, we use a different time convention than that of the area we work. We don't use African time.

African time has many definitions but the definition I am using is the time keeping of farmers in rural Kenya. It's a problem of punctuality. African time affects our meetings, functions, and farm supply distributions. If only a small portion of the w+s representatives are present when the meeting is supposed to start, we can't start on time, forcing us to wait around for a half an hour or more to let the masses trickle in.

It's not a problem of laziness or lack of respect but a different approach to time. We're working with farmers that don't notice a few hours lost here or there because they are waiting months for crops either way. For us, African time is a frustration, but more importantly a challenge to be overcome.

Ever since Nuru has been on the ground, before I arrived, we have been instilling a sense of punctuality in the members of the community we work with. Our CDC, including Lucas, has been doing exceptionally well with keeping time but it is still an issue with the general community. Even within the w+s program, our meetings are delayed because not all of the w+s representatives arrive on time.

The w+s representatives have an important role in the community to attend the bi-weekly w+s meetings with Lucas and me to get new information about the w+s program. If the w+s representatives don't arrive on time, or don't arrive at all, then they will be missing part of the information. This information is not only for the w+s representatives but also for the group of ten other farmers who elected them to the position. So if they are not getting this information and passing it on, they are not doing their job.

So how are we approaching this battle with African time? There are three ways, one of which is by not wasting anyone's time if they do arrive on time. There is nothing worse than a meeting that drags on about something unimportant so Lucas and I work hard to make every meeting efficient and relevant. We make the meetings worth coming to.

The second way to work towards punctuality is to make it part of the job description. The w+s representatives are not paid for their work but they do enjoy benefits. They are the first to receive projects from the w+s program such as our most recent, the rainwater catchment program. In fact, for the rainwater catchment program, the w+s representatives (all 48 including our six leaders), will be receiving the rainwater catchments for free in return for their work in spreading information and letting their homes be used as construction examples when we roll the program out to the rest of the community. But, I have explained to the w+s representatives, if they are not doing their job by not showing up on time, why should I distinguish them from the general community. If they aren't willing to come on time and pass on the information we give out every two weeks, Nuru won't be willing to give them a rainwater catchment for free.

The final way we get w+s representatives to arrive on time is to make their attendance the responsibility of the six leaders. Each leader has six to eight w+s representatives they lead and we have now incorporated their average scores into the leaders scores. The leader's scores will determine the order and amount of benefit the leaders receive in the future. It's a tough job but the leaders are already enjoying their catchments and all of them have been willing to work hard. I reviewed the scoring system with the leaders and Lucas before putting it in place and all of them agree it's fair.

Our plan has been working very well. We take attendance at every meeting and function, assigning different values depending on the arrival time of the w+s representatives. When the attendance sheet began, before I arrived, only 32% the first week and 22% the second week of the w+s representatives arrived on time. Now that the w+s representatives understand our system, we're sitting at 85% two weeks ago and 72% last week and will be improving that next week as we replace leaders that don't come or always come late. Below are the up to date attendance sheets if you want to see how we score and how the system works. Click on the sheets for a larger image.

African time will soon be a thing of the past, at least in Kuria, Kenya.

3 new pictures

Children's training

2009-04-26T22:24:00.013+03:00

Lucas trained children in w+s last week
training materials were provided by Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST), a partner in the fight against extreme poverty
the children were excited and engaged, it was great!

Everyday this week I had the joy of attending Lucas's w+s training for children. The training was to teach the children basic water and sanitation practices to keep them healthy and free from disease. Our 48 w+s representatives did the bulk of the work on their own time, holding training sessions for children in the groups they represent. The purpose of Lucas's trainings were to check how much they learned, field any questions, and fill in the gaps. Kiswahili was the language of choice for the training so I relied on the pictures and hand gestures to figure out what was going on. From my simple form of observation, and debriefing with Lucas, I found out that not only had the children been trained, but they knew their stuff. Great news for the w+s program!

We decided to hold the children's training in five locations, Taragwiti, Sirori Simba, Nymetaburo, Gukipimo, and Nyangiti, to make the training more accessible for our audience, the children. We also planned the training for the month of vacation students get after their exams early on in April, so we know they don't have anything more important to do than learn about water and poo. And I mean really, who doesn't want to learn about poo, right?

The training covered a multitude of topics from the water cycle to how to filter water with a panga, or large cloth. We are lucky to have some great posters from the Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST) that are a tremendously useful visual aid. I couldn't imagine doing it without them. Click here to see a sample of some of the sheets we used. Ours were made in kiswhaili so the people could read in their native tongue.

Most of the w+s representatives attended the meetings with the children and were excellent in assisting Lucas with the teaching. The posters are only the size of a sheet of paper so they would go up and down the aisles with the posters so everyone could see. On the second day, Lucas had the great idea to let the w+s representatives teach part of the material. They are, after all, trained in how to train so it was pretty easy for them to get up and go to it. Some of them were excellent teachers too! When we expand Nuru to include many more people, they may be great as trainers, even outside of w+s.

As you'll see in the pictures, the children were excited to be there and be learning. Mind you, this was during their vacation so it was really exciting to that they had such positive attitudes. I think a large part of it is Lucas's skill not only with teaching but also with interacting with children. I don't think we could have found a better person to head up Nuru's w+s program in Kuria, Kenya.

fifteen new pictures

Boda-boda na piki-piki

2009-04-22T22:49:00.003+03:00

roads in Kenya, specifically our area, leave a lot to be desired
most personal transport for Nuru is two wheeled
boda-boda is a taxi service using piki-pikis (motorcycles) where a driver carries one or two passengers

The roads in Kenya in general aren't that great. In particular in our area, the roads are pretty atrocious. The two roads leading to Nymetaburo, where we do most of our work, are Kehancha-Nymetaburo road and Nyangiti road. Nymetaburo road is nearly impassable in four wheeled vehicles most days, especially after it rains. Nyangiti road is a little bit better although a key bridge halfway to Nymetaburo washed out and is currently being rebuilt. It makes taking a four wheeled vehicle on Nyangiti road hairy at best. Trucks, carrying maize mostly, prefer Nymetaburo road because although it's much worse than Nyangiti road, the bridge is intact and allows large vehicles to pass, unlike Nyangiti road.

There is a simple solution to the problem, don't use four wheels. It sounds a little bit silly, but you'd be surprised how many places motorcycles, known as piki-pikis in kiswhahili, can go that cars, trucks, and SUV's can't. When we need transport, we hire motorcycle taxis, known as boda-bodas, to get around. Boda-boda drivers can get you pretty much anywhere through any conditions. Sometimes, passengers may have to hop off and walk behind them in mud or through puddles because the drivers can't make it with them on board. Usually it's just a short walk with the passengers quickly hopping back on to continue the ride. It's fairly inexpensive too, $1.25 for the 20-30 minute ride from our home to Nymetaburo.

It's pretty amazing how good of drivers the boda-boda drivers are, well the vast majority of them. It's a little unnerving at first riding three deep, one driver and two passengers, on a motorcycle (125cc mind you) over dirt roads and through paths barely wider than three people abreast. Eventually, you get used to it and just trust the driver's skill. They make it look pretty easy so you might think, "Hey, I can do that!" Boy would you ever be wrong.

Open house

2009-04-19T21:52:00.012+03:00

open house this week, very successful!
I attended two of five, Pauline's and John's/Elizabeth's
great debrief at the end of the week with the leaders

Our open houses were a success! Nearly all of the w+s representatives showed up to their respective leader's homes and attended the open houses that replaced our bi-weekly meetings. I was able to attend two of the five open houses because we had two on the first day and three on the second. The first open house I attended was at Pauline's in the Sirori Simba area, close to the center of the map.

With half of the leaders having the event on Tuesday and the other half on Wednesday, I thought it would be good to pair them up. They were able to help each other with questions from the representatives and keep on top of the long agenda we discussed on Monday. Pauline and John were paired up with Elizabeth coming along too because of only having two open houses the first day. Pauline and John worked well to talk about the rain catchments, update the w+s representatives on the well progress, and emphasize the attendance requirements. I only came in when there were some questions about the leaders being required to share the water from the tank. It is an issue that has come up before and the both Pauline and John answered the question properly but I wanted the w+s representatives to hear it from me. It felt it was necessary to make it crystal clear that the leaders have and will continue to work very hard for the tanks and and sharing is at their discretion.

The second day I attended the open house at John's, in Nymetaburo, because it was for two groups instead of one. With Elizabeth's home still being unfinished, we have decided to hold off on placing her rainwater catchment system so Elizabeth's and John's w+s representatives attended the open house at John's home. Elizabeth and John are both very strong leaders so it was great seeing them in action. All of the pictures below of the open house are from John and Elizabeth's meeting. You can see them trading off and complementing each other. They were doing so well that I was able to slip off my w+s program manager shoes and grab the camera, and try to soak in Nuru at work, building leadership in the community and getting people to work hard to help themselves and each other out of extreme poverty.

At the end of the week we had a great de-brief with the six leaders going over how they felt the open house went. The general consensus was that it was an awesome event for the leaders to step into their roles and the w+s representatives really enjoyed seeing the catchment systems first hand. We have been having these meetings every week so I can get the leader's feedback on their catchments and how things are progressing in general.

I really enjoy these meetings because the leaders put an incredible effort into the feedback. In my first few weeks one of Lucas's fellow Community Development Committee (CDC) members, James, was telling me that the w+s leaders really appreciate the meetings. The leaders were impressed that I cared so much about what they had to say, writing down every suggestion and pestering them with questions about their ideas. All of us at Nuru realize that the Kurian people are the most valuable asset to our work. We give respect to the community and don't rely on the westerner card to force our own ideas upon them. After all, Chris, Aerie, Meghan, Janine, Nicole, Doug, Gaby, Don, Karina, Kim, Bjorn, Billy, and even Jake are not Nuru. The Kurian community, especially the leaders, are Nuru. When we leave, they'll be the torchbearers.

twenty-three new pictures

Map

2009-04-15T21:09:00.008+03:00

our work requires lots of off road treks
there is no good map of the area due to neglect
Nuru is working to develop a map using GPS starting with the below working rough draft

One of the things we've had to develop in our work is a sense of direction. We have meetings in churches far back in the brush on top of hills, team leaders to interact with dispersed throughout the area, and even the trek into town to get food and supplies is an adventure if you take the "short" cut. Thankfully, we had a map to learn all of this quickly. Oh wait, no we didn't.

Unfortunately the area we work in is rather neglected in many ways, one of them being cartography. The only maps we have been able to find of the area have been very simple, just having one portion of one of the three major roads. This brings me to one of my side projects, a detailed map of the area.

click here to see a larger map

A secondary goal of this map is to give my family, friends, and blog readers (all two of you) an idea about where I'm actually doing my work. I've put markers on some of the important places I've mentioned in posts before such as the towns in the area and our leaders' homes (in purple).

Some interesting things to note, our six leaders were strategically selected to be far apart from each other so we could spread the wealth so to speak. As you can see from the map above, the purple dots are pretty well spread out throughout our working area. Our home is outside of our working region which is all the land between the two intersecting yellow roads and just outside of the roads. The Nuru office for the Community Development Committee (CDC) is near the intersection of the two roads in Nymetaburo at the dispensary marked by the medical cross. The motorcycle ride, our preferred way of transportation, is about 20 minutes from our home to the Nuru CDC office.

The map is a work in progress and I will be adding a lot more information to it as I gather more data. Our long term goal is to provide a map for Nuru to better plan activities and roll outs as well as giving a quality map to local officials who are currently lacking such a tool. We're quite a ways from that but we'll get there. In the mean time, please explore the map and drop me a comment or e-mail if you have any suggestions for the map!

two new pictures

Well permits, BH2O+

2009-04-12T11:57:00.027+03:00

we received the well permits on Thursday and all four wells were approved
BH₂O+ is an experimental event Nuru is putting on with universities across country
Christine's and Maurice's catchments were completed bringing the total to five
Aerie and I met the MP, or member of parliament, for the Kuria district

In the past I have referenced my three main projects here in Kuria, Kenya. The first one I have described pretty thoroughly, the rainwater catchment, but the other two may still be a bit of a mystery. This week, I'll be going into a little bit of the detail on the second project, our deep wells or as we call it, Water for Schools.

Water for Schools is a program we are organizing to bring wells to four of the local schools as they are centrally located and publicly available. Each school also has a security guard at night that will be able to protect the well, securing Nuru's investment in the community.

On Monday we finally got the call we have been expecting from the water ministry for just over a week. They told Lucas all of our information for our well drilling permits was sufficient and we could come sign one last piece of paper and collect our permits. Lucas made the five hour trip to Kisumu on Tuesday, returning late Wednesday night and I had the permits in hand at our meeting on Thursday morning. The well permits are written approval by the Kenyan government for us to physically drill the four deep wells we are hoping to drill. Now we can begin the discussion with a drilling partner and work to raise the funds necessary for the drilling. Here is an example of one of the four well permits, this one for Taragwiti Primary School.

One way we are working to raise money for drilling is through an experimental event we are organizing with universities across the country called BH₂O+ or Bring Hope to Her. From the website,

What Happens on April 23, 2009
BH₂O+ is designed to be a day of solidarity as students become advocates for those living without access to clean water in the developing world. During the event, ladies on campus will step into the daily experience of women in Africa by walking to a water source and carrying a bucket of water on their heads back to the rally point; simultaneously, guys will sweep the campus, inviting every student to embrace awareness and attend the rally following the solidarity walk.

BH₂O+ will be an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of the plight of women and girls in Africa who spend hours a day collecting water for their families. It will also serve as means to work towards a solution by providing up to four reliable, accessible, and clean sources of water for families in Kuria, Kenya. Students from each of the currently eleven schools participating are organizing and orchestrating the event, all of them joining the fight against extreme poverty. Please take a moment to check out the three and a half minute video explaining more about BH₂O+.

The rainwater catchment program is chugging along. We have finished off Christine's this past Monday and started and finished Maurice's this week as well. Maurice's catchment has been my favorite so far because it was wholly and completely done by the leaders.

Nuru's goal is to enter into an area of extreme poverty, work very hard with the community for a brief amount of time, and then withdraw before the community can become dependent on us. Part of the process to move towards the withdrawal is fostering independence and leadership within the community. Maurice's catchment was a huge step in that direction for the w+s program.

Going into Maurice's catchment I had told the leaders that I would not be helping them in any way, even if they messed up. I would observe them but not make any comments until the end of the day when we de-briefed. I had faith that they would be able to manage any problems themselves, a faith that was vindicated. The leaders did an excellent job placing the gutters despite Maurice's roof line being the most complex of the five we have dealt with. On the second day, the leaders completed the foundation completely independent of my guidance, I only provided manual labor.

The absolute best part of the foundation was that the leaders did not need a fundi (local worker) to finish it off. The leaders have been doing the foundation construction themselves since Pauline's, the third catchment, but they have always had problems with plastering. Plastering involves throwing cement on the sides of the foundation above ground to protect the less than weather proof bricks from the elements. It's very hard and requires patience and persistence to fight gravity with wet cement on a vertical surface. Maurice volunteered to do the job and the plastering ended up looking like it was done by a skilled fundi. In fact, after he had finished, Maurice came up to me and said, "Chris see, we don't need a fundi, I AM A FUNDI!!!!" and we exchanged a huge and loud hand slap, something you do between close friends. You would have needed a yard stick to measure the smile across my face after that.

Aerie and I had the unique experience of being introduced to the MP, or member of parliament, for the Kuria district. Nuru has not been involved with the government beyond the local level. We focus our projects locally so we like to keep our involvement within the community. On Saturday the MP was making a visit to see how his community was doing and to get updates from the local chiefs and elders. He had heard of the work Nuru was doing within his community and was hoping to get the chance to meet us. Interestingly enough, we ran into his convoy as we were driving down the road to grab some groceries before heading home. He had stopped to inspect the progress on a much needed bridge being built on one of the main arteries to Nymetaburo, where we do a significant amount of work. We work closely with the MP's local representative, called a counselor, who made the introduction for us as we got off our piki piki (motorcycle) our helmets still in hand.

The MP was very thankful for our work and we had a brief discussion where he told us of the projects he has in the works for the community, a key one being a power line to Nymetaburo, currently without power. We were happy our meeting was brief because we don't want to get too wrapped up in the realm of politics as an NGO. Showing bias or favoritism from either side can lead to a difficult relationship with the community, hindering our ability to do our work. We plan to keep our heads down, make sure everyone is informed, and keep up our fight against extreme poverty.

five new pictures

It's tradition

2009-04-08T19:24:00.023+03:00

we were invited to a traditional party at Philip's home (the Kenyan chairman of Nuru)
Gilbert, his son, made a special soup to honor his paternal grandma
Aerie and I tried it

Philip's wife and son made it to Isibania last weekend to visit due to his son, Gilbert, being on break from university. Philip invited us to his home on Saturday to visit with them and experience some Kurian culture.

(Note: I've added pictures to the bottom of the posts, including older ones, so you can see what pictures I've added to my Kenya album with each post. Click on the pictures to see a bigger version or click on the right as usual to get to the album. The pictures don't always relate to the post. In fact, these pictures are of the house we moved into, the one next door that is more finished, as requested by Sarah. Thanks again for the tip!)

One of the important customs for the Kurian people is the acknowledgement of the elders, especially within the family. The elders need to know that they will be cared for by their younger relatives as they age and can't support themselves. It's like returning the favor for helping to raise them.

Gilbert, Philip's son, had a secondary goal to his visit to Isibania. Gilbert is beginning the process of showing respect to his elders. In Kurian culture, it involves the serving of a special soup that Gilbert spent a full day preparing. Gilbert will serve the soup to a special honored guest as an act of devotion. This time he was serving it to his paternal grandmother.

The soup is basically a broth that is boiled all day long over an open fire in what looked like a cauldron. Goat is used for the broth itself and it's mostly bones, including the skull, with a little touch of blood. Yeah, blood. The soup is considered a delicacy and only served on special occasions. Even though the soup was made for the honored guest, everyone that is present is allowed to take some, albeit less than Gilbert's grandma.

Aerie and I were offered the chance to try the soup. We weren't really sure what to expect so we asked for ki dogo (a little) and promised we would come back for more, although neither of us did. It was actually quite good. It tasted pretty much like you would expect a broth made from bones to taste. You couldn't tell there was blood or skull remnants in it.

We found out later that Gilbert would have to do this again three more times, next for his maternal grandmother, then his father, and finally his mother. If his grandfathers were alive, they would have their own soups as well. It was an awesome experience to see Gilbert serving his grandmother the symbolic soup. I felt honored to be invited to the ceremony and even get to try some out.

ten new pictures

You're invited

2009-04-05T11:03:00.024+03:00

more construction, finished 3.9 catchments, one more than last week
rain gauge placed at Lucas's home, 2.29 in on April 1st
rainwater catchment open house and children w+s training invitations sent out

So from an outsider's perspective, my construction seems to be taking up a lot of my time in these past three weeks. From my perspective, it definitely has.

(Note: Thanks to Jeff for recommending a bullet list on the top of my posts to give a quick summary (see CNN). Also, Jeff asked for a wider angle shot of the catchment which I've added on the right hand column and in my picture album. Keep the recommendations coming!)

Construction slowed down a bit this week but we still were able to finish off Pauline's catchment and get the gutters and foundation done at Christine's. We were planning to work on Maurice's gutters and foundation on Thursday and Friday. Sadly, Maurice's niece passed away so we moved the work at his home back to Monday. I don't know much about what happened but both Maurice and James, an agriculture leader like Lucas for w+s, were pretty torn up about it. Please keep their family in your thoughts or prayers.

We now have three fully completed catchments with a fourth, Christine's, being virtually finished. Marabe's and John's have both been done for quite a while and we have been getting good reports from both of them. Since finishing installation, neither of their families have had to collect water from the streams or springs. That's great news! Marabe's tank was completely full on Friday after rain on Thursday night.

The next big step is testing to see if the water from the catchments is potable. If they can drink straight from the tap, they will save the time and firewood required to boil the water for three minutes. Time is always nice to have more of and reducing firewood consumption will help deforestation which is a problem in Kuria, Kenya.

Lucas and I were able to set-up the rain gauge at his home in Nyametaburo, the village on the far eastern side of where we work. We tested measuring with water from my water bottle and then put the rain gauge up on a piece of wood out in the center of his compound. He has been taking data every day with our first rainfall recorded as 2.29 in on April 1st. Now we need just 364 more days and we'll have the data we need to do some better computer modeling for rainwater catchments!

The most exciting part for me this week was working with the leaders to invite w+s representatives to our upcoming rainwater catchment open house and children to the children w+s training. Lucas and I prepared invitations to both events in english and then translated them over to kiswahili. At our weekly leader meeting on Friday we passed out the 48 invitations to our leader to distribute to their w+s representatives. Below is the invitation to the rainwater catchment open house, click on it so see the english translation.

The rainwater catchment open house will allow the larger community to see some of the work we have been doing. The only people attending are the 48 w+s representatives but they will surely be telling their neighbors how the program is going. The open houses will be replacing our bi-weekly w+s representative meetings so the six leaders will be doing a bit more than just showing off their rainwater catchment. It will be a great exercise for the leaders to begin taking more responsibility in the w+s program. I'm very excited for the open house!

Training the people of Kuria, Kenya in proper w+s techniques is one of the most valuable things we can do in our program. Lucas has done a great job with training the adults in w+s techniques but we still need to reach the children. We have asked our leaders to train the children and many of them have but a few asked for some help. School has just finished and the children will be out until early May so we have decided to hold training sessions for the children in five different locations. The training will serve to train the children that haven't been and to see how well the w+s representatives have done with the children they did train. Here is the invitation we distributed on the back of the open house invitation. Again, click on the picture to go to an english version.

The open house is in two weeks and the children training in three so both are still quite a ways away. We will be working hard this week to finish most of the construction, prepare for the open house, and make sure that the permit application process is going smoothly for the wells we hope to drill soon.

five new pictures

Obosara, strong, and chai

2009-04-01T20:20:00.002+03:00

Kenya, the Kuria area particularly, has quite a tradition in drinks. When people have guests in their home, they always provide the guest with some sort of welcome drink. It's a great tradition and I think we should export it.

These days, the drink you will most likely be served is chai, kiswahili for tea. Chai is very much the same chai we drink in the states if you have ever been to a semi-fancy coffee house. It consists of tea, milk, and a spice called masala. The spice is my favorite part because it makes chai have a little kick. Masala almost has a pepperish taste to it. The drink is served hot and people always say that the hot chai cools you down by making you sweat. I'm not sure that I believe that but I'll still drink it none the less.

An interesting side note about chai is that corrupt police and officials will sometimes ask for a bribe but instead of being direct, they will ask for chai. The insinuation is that you'll pay for their chai but they just want some money out of you. Thankfully, the officials and police we interact with are honest and take pride in their service for the community. We've never had to serve up chai money.

Strong is probably my favorite drink so far. Strong is essentially hot chocolate but it is much stronger than hot chocolate in the states. It is also nearly all dark chocolate with little sugar so it tastes a lot richer, no where near as smooth as the hot chocolate I'm used to. Strong is dark in color and made of only water and chocolate, no milk. I still haven't figured out where the name strong came from but I'm working on it.

Obosara is by far the most interesting drink. Obosara is the traditional drink of the Kuria people that used to be the only drink served to guests before chai and strong came in. I've been privileged enough to have it twice now. The drink is much like porridge but with a wicked twist. Porridge by itself would be too boring so Kurians add yeast and let the porridge ferment for a while developing a sour taste. When I first heard this I was kind of excited figuring it was a native alcoholic drink that I would get to try out. However, when I asked Lucas if they fermented it enough to produce alcohol he did his now famous, "Ahhhhhhh no," and explained it was merely for flavor. The taste is rather interesting to put it nicely. I've always taken the first cup but never been thirsty enough for a second. My Kurian friends always snicker at me when I drink it and more that emphatically offer seconds because they know obosara is rather strange to us westerners. If nothing else, I think it's putting more hair on my chest.

The best part about all of these drinks is the custom of giving them to guests. You know you are a welcomed guest when you have something warm in a mug. It makes for a great time to chat and build relationships.

2.9

2009-03-29T13:55:00.010+03:00

This past week we finished 2.9 of the six rainwater catchments we're building for the pilot. The 0.9 is for Pauline's whose gutters and foundation are finished but we are waiting for the foundation to cure so we can place the tank and put in the finished plumbing.

(Note: I've put some more pictures up of the finished catchment at Marabe's home. I'll also be making an addition to my posting schedule. Every WEDNESDAY I will be writing a cultural post about Kuria, Kenya. Many of you have asked for a better picture of what life is like here for both me and the locals. I'll do my best to give you an idea by describing foods, customs, and even some language lessons. Thanks for your feedback, it helps me improve my blog!)

The week began at Marabe's home putting his tank on the cured foundation and finishing off the piping into the tank from the gutters. We skipped putting the cement on the pipe joints because I wanted to see how the system would perform before making it too permanent. In the afternoon we headed to John's where we were hoping to quickly put up his gutters. It wasn't as quick as we had hoped.

We had the good fortune at Marabe's home that his whole compound sloped where we put the gutters. Because of the slope, we didn't have to worry too much about the slope of the gutters relative to the roof, we just made sure the rain would fall in from the roof. The roof we placed the catchment on for John's roof was another story. His catchment roof was at the top of his compound and the roof was essentially level to the ground. It's great for construction but terrible for catchments.

The process for placing gutters is first nailing up the fascia board, then checking the slope of the roof, placing gutter clips, and sliding in the gutters. Our estimation of the slope showed us that we could achieve the desired slope but the placement of the gutter clips is a little difficult. The clips are exactly examples of precision manufacturing so there is some variation in their shape. The fascia boards also rest against tree limbs so some of them curve more towards the ground than others, changing the gutter position even if the gutter clips are in the proper place. So with these factors all combined, we ended up putting up gutters that flowed backwards in some parts causing pretty big leaks. After some thinking and reanalyzing, we decided to slope the gutters towards the middle instead of one side. This gave us more room for a steeper slope from side to side. It took quite a while to put in the gutter clips, find out we messed up, pull out the clips, and then put them back in for our new configuration. But we got it done at the end of the day and the gutters work great!

On Tuesday we put in the foundation at John's home. Originally the plan was for the leaders to put the foundation in themselves but they got cold feet and we had the fundi help us out again. The process was a little slower than Marabe's because some of the material was missing but John was able to pick it up in time for us to finish. We put up the drain box and the piping to divert the rain from the foundation so it wouldn't be damaged if it rained.

Lucas and I also took a trip up to Migori to pick up the 4" plugs we will be installing on the first flush pipes so that the leaders can unscrew the pipes after the rain is over to flush out the dirty water in the pipe. We also ordered six more drain boxes made by the local fundi but they weren't yet ready.

Wednesday we moved on to Pauline's to place the gutters. It was quite a challenge because her roof beams where we were nailing the fascia were not lined up down the entire length of the roof. But, the roof was sloped similar to Marabe's so we lucked out on having an easier time placing the gutters. The plan was to do the gutters in the morning and the foundation in the afternoon but after finishing the gutters it didn't look like we would have time to do the base as well. Also, since the leaders were going to try the foundation themselves this time I didn't want to rush them.

Thursday the leaders took a big step in constructing the foundation themselves with the fundi supervising. Pauline's foundation went pretty smoothly although it was pretty obvious it wasn't a fundi job. It's ok, the team is still learning. The fundi stepped in at the end because the leaders were having a little trouble with plastering where you trow cement on the outside verticle surfaces to finish it off in a coat of weather proof cement. There was a sense of pride in the air after finishing the foundation. The team was really pumped.

Friday we headed back to John's to finish off the John's catchment with his now cured foundation much in the same way we finished Marabe's on Monday. Afterward we had a meeting getting everyone's opinions on the progress and discussing how we can improve as we go forward. It was also the first time the leaders found out about the plan to have an open house once all of the catchments are complete. We will be having the leaders invite their w+s representatives, about ten each, to their homes to see what the catchments look like. It'll be a great chance to get the word out to the larger community about the catchments as well as giving the leaders the opportunity to lead.

All in all a good week with some "office" work getting done on Saturday at home. 2.9 catchments down, 3.1 to go.

twelve new pictures

Foreman

2009-03-22T15:07:00.013+03:00

Construction has begun! We've nearly finished the first of six rainwater catchments. I've added a bunch of pictures of our two days of construction.

Our construction materials arrived on Monday from Migori, a semi-large town about 20 minutes north of Isibania. All six of the 1000 L tanks plus the 3000 L tank for the Nuru house were crammed onto the bed of the lorry along with our 18 bags of cement, 100 2 m lengths of gutter, 7 20 ft pipes, and numerous gutter clips and pipe joints. It was quite a sight to see! The most absurd part was the drive from Isibania to Nymetaburo where we were storing the materials in the Nuru office at the dispensary (basically a health clinic). The road from Migori to Isibania is a pretty decent paved road with the occasional pot hole. Isibania to Nymetaburo is quite a different story, a single lane dirt road with tons of ruts and places where the road is washing away. But, we made it!

The six team members were responsible to pick (Kenyan english for pickup) their tanks and three bags of cement each. Some of the leader's homes are over 40 minutes away walking so it was quite a task but all of them got it done. We could have hired a truck to drop off the materials but that would have been expensive and the trucks would have only been able to travel on the main roads, not directly to their homes.

Tuesday we did a lot of planning for the build and started to collect the final materials and tools as well as having our bi-weekly meeting with half of the w+s representatives in Sorrie Simba. Lucas and I spent a few hours discussing the long term plans for our time together as well as setting up the meeting. One of the key points we tried to get across in the meetings this week was having the w+s representatives train the children in their groups on proper sanitation techniques. It's great that we've gotten the word out to adults about w+s but it is also immensely important to have children follow proper hygiene such as washing hands with soap and water and going to the bathroom in appropriate places, preferably latrines.

Wednesday morning was a little hectic with Lucas rolling in with tools in the morning. There was a little miscommunication on Wednesday morning and some of the leaders went directly to Marabe's instead of the dispensary to pick the gutters, gutter clips, and other various things we needed for the project. Thankfully, we had enough leaders to carry all the material down the long path to Marabe's in only one trip. Lucas arrived shortly after with the tools and we surveyed the site and the materials. Marabe and his family had done an excellent job of collecting sand, rocks, and water for the project. Unfortunately, the rock pile Marabe had collected was right where we needed to place the tank. We worked at a team to move all the rocks over about 6 ft to make way for the fancy new 1000 L tank.

In order to ensure that the tank was placed properly, the first thing that we worked on was the gutters. By having the gutters in place we can more accurately place the tank near the end of the gutters. We first measured the length of the roof and made sure we had enough fascia board and gutters to cover the length. Then we went about hammering the fascia in place, then spacing gutter clips, finishing off with the gutters themselves. The gutters had to be mated one inside of the other to prevent leaking so we had Christine and Pauline unbend one end of each gutter while they were still on the ground to better fit around the gutters in place.

The best part of the whole day was that I did very little. Sure I showed Marabe, Lucas, John, Pauline, and Christine some tricks and how to keep things consistent. But the majority of the work was done by them, exactly as it should be. I am only going to be in Kuria, Kenya for six months, therefore it does nobody any good if I become an expert at rainwater catchment. We need these six leaders and Lucas to take charges, as they did. I was merely a foreman overseeing the operation and helping out when needed.

Thursday we completed the foundation that the tank will rest on inside of Marabe's compound. By we I really mean the fundi (name for worker) completed the foundation. Our team helped bring him the bricks and cement. Because the gutters were already up, we simply placed the tank where we wanted it and traced it's outline to find where we wanted the foundation. We dug down about 12 inches to provide a solid level surface to begin construction. The foundation consisted of two concentric circles of brick with and empty center. The bricks were stacked six high with the last four layers above ground. After finishing the last layer, we filled the center with big rocks and mud, capping it off with two layers of cement and bricks. The entire structure was then coated in a final layer of weather resistant cement. Because the bricks are made of sand, soil, and dung, they don't hold up well to weather if they are directly exposed to it. The outer coating will lengthen the life of the foundation greatly.

The final task on Thursday was to whip up a piping scheme to keep the water falling out of the gutter from ruining the foundation as it cures. It was one of my proudest moments in jerry rigging. I'll have to take a picture of it, words just can't describe it.

Friday we met as a group at the dispensary and debriefed on the whole construction process. The team came up with some excellent suggestions for how to proceed with the next five homes. We also set up the schedule for the remaining homes and planned the next two weeks of construction. I wanted to build alternating between women and men but John happens to live the closest to Marabe so our order is Marabe, John, Pauline, Christine, Maurice, and Elizabeth. Everyone was really excited at the meeting.

Our original plan was to hire the fundi for the first two homes until we learned how to do the foundation ourselves. All of the leaders knew this so they were watching the fundi intensely as he built Marabe's foundation. At the meeting I was discussing how I thought the fundi had done a good job and was considering hiring him for at least the next foundation. The meetings are run by Lucas in Kiswahili with occasional explanations to me in English after a discussion. Following my suggestion about the fundi, there was 15 minutes of discussion between the entire team that was pretty intense. At the end of the discussion, Lucas turned to me and said, "Chris, we want to build the next foundation ourselves." Something inside of me skipped. I was taken aback by the team's confidence and desire to build their own foundation. I was incredibly proud of the ownership they were taking of the project from the hard work they were putting in to now wanting to build their own foundations.

We discussed the idea a little bit and John said they only needed to know how close to put the bricks which they had watched carefully on Thursday, learning from the fundi. The team also had such a desire because they know the long term plan is to roll the catchments out the community if we decide they are worth the expense. The team wants to be prepared to help their neighbors. This attitude is exactly why we selected these six, an innate leadership and desire to help the community.

So far one of my three big projects is off to a great start! I look forward to putting the finishing touches on Marabe's rainwater catchment on Monday and starting John's, Pauline's, and Christine's next week!

nine new pictures

Rainwater catchment

2009-03-15T17:07:00.021+03:00

The transition of the water and sanitation (w+s) manager roll from Nicole to myself is almost complete. This week I'm taking control of all the programs and Nicole is just going to be hanging around incase anything pops up.

The biggest project we are handing off is the rainwater catchment pilot project. A rainwater catchment is a system of gutters and drainpipes connected to a collecting tank. Rainwater is one of the cleanest water sources available and can reduce or eliminate the need for family members to collect water from springs and rivers many miles away. If the system is properly maintained with roof and gutter cleanings, the homeowners may not have to boil the water to make it potable, saving the cost of firewood and the time required to heat the water. Rainwater catchment is a very attractive solution to the lack of clean water available in Kuria, Kenya but there are many issues we have to resolve to ensure the usability of the system. I'll run through our concerns and then describe our system.

The largest factor in the success of a rainwater catchment system is, as you probably guessed, rainwater. Kuria, Kenya suffers from one long drought period from June to August as well as a few other dry months, February, November, and December. These dry periods of very little and sporadic rain are a real challenge for designing rainwater catchment systems. Buying or building tanks with large enough storage to make it through these droughts is cost prohibitive so sizing tanks becomes a game of balancing cost with usability. If we spend too little and get a tank to small, the system may only be useful for 30% of the year, only on days that it rains making the system virtually useless. If we spend too much and get a large tank, the farmers will not be able to afford buying the materials in the first place. Unfortunately, we have very little information on rainfall patterns, we only have 24 months of total monthly rainfall data which doesn't give us the daily rainfall picture we need to make proper judgements.

The second factor is operation and maintenance. The rainwater catchment itself is pretty simple but it requires quite a bit of effort from the homeowner to work properly. If the homeowner neglects the system, the gutters and downspouts will get clogged, gutters will leak, and dirty water will make it into the tank. Contamination can also come in the form of runoff from the homeowners courtyards as the courtyards are generally filled with animal excrement from corralling the animals at night for protection. Developing a rainwater catchment system with minimal maintenance and training the homeowners on how to perform the maintenance are two important things we must do to provide a sustainable solution.

Cost is the final factor for design. We must reach a cost point that allows farmers to pay for the entire system without subsidies from Nuru. Initially, Nuru will cover the full cost for the six w+s leaders and the 42 w+s representatives so that their systems can be models their neighbors can learn from. When the program is rolled out to the larger community, Nuru may cost share the materials but we will eventually place the full cost of the system on the farmer. By designing a system that the farmers can afford we will encourage the organic growth of the rainwater catchment adoption.

Organic growth is a top priority at Nuru. We will be leaving Kuria, Kenya within 5 years of arriving in September 2008 so if our programs are not designed to continue without our presence, they will fail. We are here to give Kuria, Kenya a jump start and not fall in to the trap of dependance that has plagued other NGO's. That is a big reason for community empowerment and why my Kenyan w+s counterpart Lucas has a much more important role in the community than I do. I'm more of a behind the scenes advisor handling the technicalities and filling in where Lucas needs help. One of those technicalities is the rainwater catchment system design.

I have been working with Nicole for the better part of two months hammering down a rainwater catchment design for Kuria, Kenya based on the typical local compound and material availability.

Our final design for the pilot consists of a 1000 L tank placed on top of a brick foundation with iron gutters flowing into a drain box which then flows into a first flush device and then the tank. Most of the design is straightforward and easily understandable, all except the first flush device. A first flush system is a device that collects the initial 1-2 mm of rainfall on the roof and diverts it from the main storage tank. Maybe you're thinking why we would waste such a precious resource but if your consider the contaminate build up on the roofs and in the gutters between rainfall you would realize the need for a first flush device. The initial rainfall collects all of the dirt, dust, and debris from the roof and gutters and is highly contaminated with everything from bugs to bird droppings. By diverting it from the main storage tank we ensure the quality of the rainfall collected. Amazingly, studies have been performed showing that this initial rainfall is the only portion of the water collected that is contaminated so once this rainfall is diverted, the remaining rainfall is almost perfectly clean.

Our first flush device is part of the drainage system from the gutters to the tank. The gutters flow into a box we call the drain box that has a metal screen on the bottom to catch large debris from the roof. This box connects to a PVC pipe that flows into the main storage tank. Before the PVC pipe flows into the tank a T elbow splits the flow into our first flush device. The PVC pipe flows roughly horizontal from the drain box and our T elbow sits just in front of the tank with the leg of the T facing down towards the ground. To this, we attach another length of PVC pipe and cap the end which provides a known volume. In order for rainfall to make it into the large storage tank, this length of PVC pipe will have to be full so that the rainfall will no longer flow down the leg of the T and will instead flow out of the other side of the cross of the T and into the main storage tank. The known volume in the PVC pipe at the leg of the T will be calculated to capture the first 1-2 mm of rainfall and hence all of the contamination. At the end of the rainfall, the homeowner will unscrew the cap of the first flush device and drain out all of the dirty water so that the system can function properly for the next rainfall. This type of first flush device has been used widely in Thailand with great success and was featured in one of our design resources, Rainwater Catchment Systems for Domestic Supply: Design, Construction and Implementation by Erik Nissen-Petersen and John Gould.

The rest of the design is fairly simple, just gutters into a box and a big tank with a brass tap. These first six rainwater catchments we will be installing are part of our pilot program to check if rainwater catchment systems are the way to go to provide safe drinking water for the community. We will be testing out all of our concerns and collecting all sorts of data including highly accurate daily rainfall data from a USGS rain gauge so that we can correlate tank volumes with rainfall data. Best case we find our system works well and it is usable for the majority of the year. Worst case we find out that rainwater catchments are too expensive for the use they provide. The middle of the road and most likely case is that we will have to improve our system but have found that in general it is very useful to the homeowners.

This week we will be getting the materials we purchased last week and will begin construction of our first rainwater catchment system on the home of one of our leaders, Marabe. The six leaders will come to assist with construction and help us adjust the system as we are installing it. We will then move on to the next five homes and hopefully finish all six within three weeks. There will then be a long period of data collection so that we can evaluate the systems. After crunching our data and redesigning we will implement our new and improved design on the original 42 w+s representatives plus about 50 new representatives from a second recruitment drive. We are shooting for early 2010.

After we have 100+ examples in the community we will move to the more organic phase of the program where farmers will take out loans to install the rainwater catchments on their homes, paying them back after harvests. We have established a Community Development Committee (CDC) in Kuria, Kenya that will continue all Nuru programs upon our departure. Lucas, my w+s counterpart is one of the members of the CDC and is moving toward the independence and responsibility that will be required of him when Nuru moves out of Kuria, Kenya in just over four years. We have been working on other revenue generating programs for the CDC such as the farm loans in order to ensure it's sustainability without western funding. Nuru will maintain a connection with the CDC in Kuria, Kenya but we will only be checking in. When we leave, Nuru is the community.

As a final thought I would just like to bring up one of the largest reasons we are so concerned with bringing clean water to the families of our community. The vast majority of people collecting water for families are school age girls. Their water collection duties are difficult and in some cases make going to school regularly impossible. This is especially true when they have to hike and queue for hours during droughts because most of the nearby springs dry up forcing the community to migrate to the deeper springs. Obviously this cripples the education of these young woman and thereby their empowerment.

Kuria, Kenya is a patriarchal community but many powerful women are becoming leaders in the community. It has been shown that the number one most important factor to making communities grow and bringing them out of poverty is the empowerment of women. It is an issue we as westerners cannot take on head first because we will be looked upon as forcing western ideas on people we don't fully understand. But, we can give girls and young women every opportunity to empower themselves with programs such as the rainwater catchment that eliminates the need for them to work hours everyday just to provide clean water for their families.

Even from my personal experience of being surrounded by strong women, my mother especially, I know how much of an impact they can have on a family and community. Women have a way of fighting tooth and nail for their children so that even if they are dealt a raw hand, they can still prosper. Empowered women fighting on behalf of their children and community are a force of nature to be reckoned with.

twenty-two new pictures

Issue

2009-03-08T19:58:00.010+03:00

This week revolved around issuing top dressing to farmers. Top dressing is fertilizer you place on your crops after they have been growing for a while to strengthen them and increase yield. We issued just shy of 600 bags of top dressing, each bag covering one acre of maize!

(Note: I've put a picture link and link to Nuru on the right hand side. Just click on the picture to get to more. I'll be adding pictures occasionally to the folder so keep an eye out for new ones if you want a visual on my work in Kenya!)

The week started off pretty strong with a lot of concentration on the turn over between the water and sanitation (w+s) manager from the previous team and myself. We spent most of Monday going over the long term plans of the two main projects Nicole is handing over to me, rain water catchment systems and the four deep wells we are hoping to drill. It was a pretty intense meeting but thankfully we still have two weeks to hash out the details so we should make it. I also haven't forgotten that I still need to write about how the rain water catchment system works, I'm hoping by next week.

Personally this week was a little rough. Late last week, I came down with some sort of sickness that tore me up. We have some pretty intense antibiotics to handle really bad stuff we may encounter. It's call cipro (Ciprofloxacin) and as my teammate Aerie describes it, it's an atomic bomb for your body, it'll take out anything. Thankfully, I was able to pull a JFK and avoid taking the cipro because my body fought off the bugs by Wednesday.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I had a chance to meet the 48 w+s representatives. The w+s representatives are members of larger groups, from about 5 to 10, that participate in specific training for w+s. They report back to their larger groups and teach them what they have learned at their training in order to more organically spread knowledge. It's a much more effective way to pass on information than having wazungu (white man, aka anyone not from Africa) stand up an preach to a large group. The w+s representatives were a little confused at first and were talking amongst themselves trying to figure out who I was. Lucas, the Kenyan leg to our tripod, thought it was best to let them discuss and only introduce me a half an hour later. When Nicole asked about introducing me right away, he said, "Ahhhhh, no," a typical Lucas phrase, this time accompanied by a sly smile. Lucas's planned worked out well. People had pretty much every conceivable idea thought out except my real role. They weren't aware that Nicole was leaving near the end of March but they understood it completely that we were basically tag teaming the project.

Thursday and Friday were basically manual labour days. We spent the entirety of both days doling out top dressing to the farmers. Jake and I, the brutes that we are, worked to move bags around depending on how many acres farmers were planting. Each bag was 50 kg (110 lbs) so it was good to have four hands on a bag. Janine, Healthcare Progam Manager for the first team, and her Kenyan counterpart, Nelly, checked in the farmers and told us how many acres each farmer needed bags for, one bag per acre. We were a well oiled machine. Well actually, not at all. A lot of farmers forgot their receipts the first day so we had to double check their identities and re-write receipts. The farmers on the first day didn't really know what time to come either so we had a little trouble with having to wait excessively long for farmers to pick up their top seed. The second day was a little better because we were able to get the word out better through James and Andrew, the two Kenyans heading up the agriculture program with Jake.

Friday was quite a successful day for the w+s program. Nicole had been waiting for months to meet with the district office of the water ministry of Kenya. A district is about the size of a county in the US. On Friday morning, we were able to finally get a meeting with the district manager and his deputy. Nicole had been under the weather but was able to muster the strength to take the 35 minute ride to Kehancha in a matatu to meet with the ministry. A matatu is basically a taxi that gets over packed with people traveling from city to city. We sat 5 across the front, four in the middle, and two in the trunk, all slammed in a Toyota Corolla station wagon, a stick shift no less. Being packed like sardines was well worth it though because we had a great talk with the ministry and it sounds like there may be some opportunities to work corroboratively together. It is always nice to work through an existing government entity but sometimes we need to be careful to not step on toes.

So basically this week I got sick, met a bunch of Nuru members, worked out for two days straight, and then met the president of Kenya disguised as the head of the district's water ministry. Who knows what next week will bring?

seven new pictures

Isibania, Kenya

2009-03-01T16:57:00.004+03:00

I've been in Isibania, Kenya for just under a week. It has been amazing!

I arrived in Nairobi with one of my teammates Aerie to a welcoming party formed by our other teammate Meghan and Mama Chacha, one of Nuru's many friends. Mama Chacha is the wife of Philip, the head Kurian representative for our work in the Kuria district of Kenya. She greeted us at just after 10pm local time, drove us to her home, gave us ugali and chai, and sent us to bed for our 5am bus trip from Nairobi to Isibania. She was incredibly helpful in transiting through Nairobi since our team of three was pretty clueless about the city. It was also great to see a kind face when we arrived in our state of sleep deprived shock.

The bus ride was pretty uneventful besides the massive amounts of dust showering us as we drove. The bus was very much like a normal tour bus in the US but with five seats across instead of four. We arrived in Isibania six hours later greeted by Nicole, Doug, and Issac. Issac is the local taxi driver we hire when we need a car to shop for something far away or as in our case, need to bring a lot of stuff from downtown Isibania to our compound, just outside of town. We met the rest of the Nuru crew, Jake and Janine at our new home for the next six months.

Our houses are amazing! Jake had instilled in us the impression we were going to be living in pretty rough conditions but we're actually living in quite the opposite. We have two houses in our compound which are nearly identical. Everyone but Nicole and Doug (the married couple) have their own room. We having running water from a huge water tank we have in the back yard, we have fairly reliable electricity, hot showers thanks to a heated shower head, internet (duh) and a kitchen that is just about as equiped as any kitchen I've ever had. Relative to our community, we're in a mansion.

I had a chance to tag along with Nicole, the water and santation (w+s) program manager from the first team, and Lucas, the Kurian representative for w+s. Last week was my observation week where I just watched Nicole and Lucas do their thing, giving me time to adjust and get up to speed before contributing myself. The first day we went around to five of the six members of a pilot we are doing for rainwater catchment (more on this in a later post) and measured their roofs and noted things about their compounds like general ground slope and courtyard cleanliness. The second day we visited many of the schools in the Nygiti and Nymetaburo subdistricts of Kuria, the two areas we're working in right now. Nicole, Lucas, and I weren't so interested in the schools but more checking out the well locations we are considering, all four of which are within different school compounds. I've been aware of our work for rain catchment and wells since I joined Nuru in January but it was nice to finally see the reality of our work.

On Thursday Jake, our super cheif aka CEO, took Meghan and I out with him to a meeting in Nymetaburo, about an hour and a fifteen minutes away from home. We spent our hiking time discussing Nuru in broader terms and pounding Jake with questions. It was nice being able to spend so much time with the leader of our organization, racking his brain, something I couldn't imagine in any workplace.

Friday and Saturday were big team shopping days for Aerie, Meghan, and I. We called up Issac to drive us up to Kisii, a decent sized town two hours to our north. It had a Nakumatt which is basically a Kenyan Wal-Mart. We were shopping to outfit our new home with pretty much everything but beds. Friday night we ventured in to downtown Isibania to a favorite eatery of the first team called Bukuria Hotel which isn't a hotel at all. Hotels in general in Kenya are just restaurants. There are "real" hotels as well but the vast majority of hotels in Kenya are bedless. Saturday chef Aerie prepared us an amazing meal of food I can only describe as better than any restaurant you can imagine. It might not top my mom's cooking but it's pretty good. I'm glad I'll be living with him for the next six months.

I got a chance to finally do some real work on Saturday as well. Jake forbade us from working the first week but Nicole and I convinced him to let me break the rule so I could get some much needed design work done on our rainwater catchment system. Today has been a day of relaxation starting with a 9am waking time versus the 6am I have been waking up at.

So far it has been a pretty smooth start to my time here in Kenya, and I'm looking forward to getting up to full speed next week!

twelve new pictures