geoff in kenya

Facing wealth and affluence

2012-03-02T01:17:00.001+03:00

On thing I often struggle with here in my work in Kenya is coming to terms with my own affluence.

Even in Canada I am fully aware that I am among the top 1% of the world (in terms of wealth, freedom, and opportunity) having been born in Canada to a middle-class family and having the opportunity to complete a university degree. Having travelled to developing countries in the past and confronting statistics in my studies I am fully aware of my status and wealth; but it is different when you are confronting these stark inequalities personally and daily.

In my field visits I speak to beneficiaries of relief projects. Their communities are targeted as the poorest and most vulnerable to the effects of drought; and moreover the beneficiaries themselves are sleeted amongst a community as the most vulnerable: often single mothers, widows and households caring for orphans.

I ask them questions about the effects of last year's drought, and how it was common to go with one meal or no meals in a day; to travel distances of around 8km (sometimes more) to get water that isn't clean to begin with; and how they haven't harvested a single kilo of maize from their fields.

Meanwhile, I arrive to these sites in an SUV with water bottles and often snacks like fruit and crackers. I bring my camera and backpack with books and even an ipod. The fuel alone costs more than some of the recipients make in a few months.

When I return to my place, a more-than-comfortable house or hotel, I regularly speak with guards or maids. The other night I had a conversation with an askari (a security guard) watching the gate. I found out he was just a year older than I and how his real hope was to study in university and start a business. He told me, "I want to be a somebody" looking completely defeated. We shared a bit about his home in Western Kenya, he was brought to Mombasa area for his security guard work where we works night shifts mostly. I told him a bit about Canada and he was shocked I had already finished university. The conversation got more difficult after than as he asked if there are ways in which I can help him get to Canada.

This is not unusual at all. In fact, I get that question frequently, almost daily: "how can I get to Canada?" "Can you get me a plane ticket?". For many people, their hope lies far away from Kenya in a place like Canada, or where other white people live. The town I live in on the coast has quite a few tourists. As a single guy I often get approached by young beautiful African girls asking if I want to "spend time with them". I've begun to learn it is even uncommon to not see European-tourists with a Kenyan 'girlfriend' or even Kenyan 'boyfriend'. While my first reaction is to look down on these Kenyans (and scold the tourists) I've learned in my conversations with Kenyans, that most understand perfectly why they do it, and how acceptable it is to them. Getting the attention of a tourist or even marrying one opens many doors that some only dream of.

In other parts of this town, beggars are constantly asking for money or other things (one night two men approached my at a restaurant and asked to clean my plate off). Often these people are young mothers, young children, people who are crippled or severely sick, sometimes even showing exposed sores. If I was to give to all of them, I wouldn't have anything left…or that's what I tell myself. Sometimes I convince myself they don't actually need it or it will perpetuate a bad cycle; despite some truth to that, each and every one of them can certainly use my shillings more than I. I find the need and disparity of all of these people to be overwhelming that I tend to de-sensitive myself to it all. The easiest way to move along is ignoring them; it's what most tourist do.

While my heart often aches for these people, I don't even know what to do, or how to give in an effective or responsible way. Where/how can I best use my money, time, efforts and love? Should I just empty my wallet (or bank account for that matter) to a community group that isn't asking but can clearly use it?; do I give my clothes to a begger or street kid? Do I go home and fundraise for a borehole? What about when helping hurts? Should generosity even be this complex?

I also try to ask myself what 'poverty' really is. With billions of dollars floating from developed to developing countries in the form of donations, development or aid, loans, grants, and more I think it's important to think conceptually about poverty. While I certainly don't have an answer I am learning it is much more than wealth, money and possessions. Many students (and families) accumulate debt and call themselves 'poor'. While some many be running a debt, they have so much more; things I never realized at first: Beyond my own physical wealth and possessions I also have a supporting and loving family, a stable (mostly-transparent) government to provide me with safety nets and health care, strong connections and networks, a healthy natural environment, an encouraging and loving social network, excellent education, a bank account, access to loans, a passport and ID cards. I'm learning poverty in a small sense is a lack of money, but in a much larger sense also a lack of all of these other things.

At first I found it difficult to know how to respond to poverty; now I am seeing it in a different lens: how do I respond to my own wealth. How do I use all of these blessings and gifts, this freedom and these choices and opportunity in a way that doesn't simply serve myself.

-----

A regular sight during a community visit: dancing, singing

[What makes things more difficult is the total warmth and joyful hospitality, kindness, and generosity shown to me every day in so many different ways during my visits to communities. Here is just a few examples]:

Kenyans school children showing me their artwork depicting
their lives before and after the water project

Given a chair and being fed goat and ugali by a
warm-welcoming community group

A community, expecting our arrival placed thousands of sticks on the
sandy road so that we could pass and not have to walk even 100m to see them.

With a group of smiling community members at a water pan they built

And finally, a beautiful performance by school children

UN: 'Famine has Ended'

2012-02-14T22:59:00.002+03:00

About a week ago the United Nationsdeclared the famine in the Horn of Africa was ‘over’. They were implying that the short rains from November-December had returned to non-emergency levels producing new harvest for many.

My field visits so far interacting with recipients of various development and disaster response projects have told a very different story. Communities unanimously insisted that they are still struggling with water and are still need food and other types of assistance. Indeed, I believe much of is a plea to continue getting food aid which can distort the reality of the situation. Yet I believe it also attests to the factthat food insecurity is not 'over'. The reality is that, while rains have returned, they will againfail.

In the past dozen years the UN has declared famine twice and droughts have been even more frequent. I do not believe this is ‘cryingwolf’ on behalf of communities or international institutions. Many Kenyans face challenges with food security from year to year, and these are very real. It was explained to me once that "going to bed hungry isn't that big of a deal here" (certainly not something I can relate well to). Infact that has, in some cases, become the new normal.

So what happens when drought becomes the newnormal? Will a drought continue to be an 'emergency'? Or just business-as-usual? And how should different organizations and governments respond to this; what should interventions look like?

Studies have been done that show in areaswhere drough occurred every seven to eight years, are now occurring every oneto two years. There is an emerging shift in climate patterns that exasperate communities' and households' abilities to be more secure.

To me this indicates the earths already changing climate.Climate scientists have long agreed that the climate is changing, in many waysthey are predicting disasters in the furutre: rising sea levels, resource conflicts, failed harvest and increase in the spread of certain diseases, and a whole host of other consequences. But in myview, the effects of climate change are already clearly being seen and experienced by many. Those in already insecure positions of poverty and of the highest vulnerability in adapting to these changes. And these effects are already taking their toll on human health, finances, and general security especially in the area of water.

With that being said, droughts are directlyattributed the lack of rains; overall famines and the severity of them oftenhave to do with political, economics, and other factors (see this post). The nobel peace prize economist, Amartya Sen, noted this in his essay "Poverty and Famines" and it certainly resounds today: the issue here is one of justice, of accessibility and equality, not simply availability or the existence of food.

While I certainly don't have solutions for thus it has been in my thoughts and mind during my work here. It certainly has a lot to say of the role of relief, importance of development and policy work and for new types of innovation and thinking. I find it a privilege to work with an organization that is looking at innovation in their interventions, but I am often challenged by the needs for donors, governments and NGOs alike to begin re-thinking food security.

*All photos were taken by Bethany Duffield during a goat re-distribution in a Masai community (recipients of relief from previous years had bred and shared the offspring of their goats with new beneficiaries).

First glimpse of food distributions in Mbeere

2012-01-29T01:00:00.003+03:00

I spend most of this past week in Mbeere attending food distributions and speaking with beneficiaries in about five communities along with project managers, a few survey enumerators and an engineer. It was a challenging but also in many ways heart-warming experience. Every community we met greeted me and other CRWRC staff with songs, dancing and plenty of smiles. Many even gave us gifts of food from seed that had been given to them; in fact, we received so many green-grams that they were at times literally spilling out of our vehicles. It was ironic that our trips focus was food distributions when we also drove away as 'recipients'. As someone who had just joined CRWRC it was extremely humbling to receive such heartfelt thanks. One elderly man had been so moved that someone like me (white) had come all the way to see how they were doing. Not only did we in North America give money for them, but we didn't forget about them and came even to see how they are now. This experience also allowed me to wrap my head around the realities of relief projects and the current situation as Kenya emerges from the recent famine. Perhaps I can share some of my knowledge with you.

Food being prepared for distribution

The food distributions are in response to the failed rains in the summer of last year. In response to the failure of crops and death of many livestock, CRWRC has worked through their partner organization, the Anglican Church of Kenya's Christian Community Services (CCS), to identify the most vulnerable people in certain communities. I soon realized this most often meant women: single mothers, widows and grandmothers some sick, weak and others caring for orphaned children.

Just four of the many recipients

I had the opportunity to meet with many of these women, sit down with them in a focus group or in an interview or just sit with them in the shade to avoid the blazing sun. Many households shared their hardships with me. The drought had been so severe that many reported facing hunger and being extremely weak. Some of the elderly men and women said they couldn't leave the home they were so frail. Those who had enough strength would have to scrounge to find any available work to generate some income to buy food often taking them away from working in their own fields. Some had to take their children out of school to work or simply because they weren't able to pay school fees anymore. Moreover, many saw their animals die; in Mbeere most are agro-pastoralists--depending on both their crops and animals for survival. Thus, the death of their animals often means a huge loss of their financial 'savings'.

Thus CRWRC's distributions brought has significant and immediate change to their lives. Through monthly distributions certain households have been given 50kg of maize and 10kg of split peas (all Kenyan grown food). The visit I made was the last distribution for each of the communities and therefore the last time they would receive food. The recent rains over November and December were much more successful than earlier that year and as a result some were beginning to harvest. Many women said the biggest change was that the schools were more full, while others highlighted the regaining of their health and strength bringing productive work and happiness to their lives.

CRWRC's food program however is part of a larger Food-For-Asset (FFA) program, where in exchange for food, recipients participate in the creation and ownership of productive assets such as water pans, demo farms (displaying drought resistant crops), terracing and tree planting. FFA programs are designed to enhance longer-term resilience against drought by assisting communities to increase food, water and livestock security, while also meeting their immediate and more pressing needs of hunger. It was encouraging to see that some women were adopting new crops into their homes from the demo farms, trees being planted and tended to, and goats drinking from water pans still holding water.

While they were thankful for helping get them through the most difficult times, some also looked hesitantly towards to future and asked earnestly to not forget about them. In the Horn of Africa, droughts are reoccurring. While last year's drought is said to be one of the worst in decades, it is also the third time in a decade that Kenya has declared a national emergency. While food-aid is a band-aid response, I am realizing it is also very necessary at times. And with programs like FFA, the hand-outs of food can also entice communities to make strides towards more imagining and realizing sustainable solutions.

This woman was determined to teach me to weave, this
attracted the attention of dozen of laughing women.
I was also convinced to buy it afterwards.

Sitting down with 9 women and 1 lonely man in a group discussion

Back in Kenya

2012-01-17T21:03:00.000+03:00

I arrived just this past weekend in Nairobi tostart a new assignment with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee.CRWRC has been doing both relief and development work throughout the worldsince 1962, making this year the 50^th anniversary. However, according to the United Nations thisyear also marks one of the worst droughts in East Africa in the past 50 years.Climate change and the effects of human induced environmental degradation aretaking its toll on many regions of the Horn of Africa and specifically in Kenya.

Due to the severity of the drought this yearand inflow of funds, CRWRC has expanded their relief projects with the aid ofdonors from churches and consortiums like the Canadian Food Grains Bank. My work will be specifically cooperating with the International DisasterResponse (IDR) arm of CRWRC and will consist of a mix of different research projectsand support roles. Along with assisting communications and reporting, I am alsoworking on a report to document best-practices for the organization as in timesof rapid change and disaster, lessons can often and easily be forgotten.

I will also be researching some of the more alternativemodes of relief and humanitarian intervention work. Here, CRWRC is engaged in a large mix ofprojects which touch on four key themes: food security, water supply, livestockassistance, and conflict management. Each of these four areas look quitedifferent depending on each project and region. (The relief work of CRWRCincludes many regions including Kilifi and Taita Taveta near the coast, Turkanaand Isiolo in the north, Narok and Kajiado in the south, and others.) Myresearch will be specifically examining different asset and work programs,which includes food for assets programs (where, in exchange for food supplies, foodinsecure households participate to build a water pan, plant trees, or other disasterrisk reduction activities), or in other cases goats for work, cash for work, and similar voucher programs.

For more details you can watch this video (a first of four parts):

I joined in a meeting at the start of this weekwith over twenty staff members from both the relief and development branches ofCRWRC. The far majority are Kenyans who are both skilled andmotivated in the work they are doing ranging from veterinary work, engineering and more. Over the next few months I will be joining with many of these individuals on their projects and learning more about the communities who are benefiting from these programs .

So far it has been a bit overwhelming at first to wrap my headaround all of the diverse projects and keep track of the staff coming in andout of the office to go to their field sites, but this will certainly be an eyeopening experience. Disaster response differs from development in a number of ways, and is fundamentally a fast paced and quickly changing environment. I will already be visiting a food distribution a few hours from Nairobi early nextweek. I am looking forward to contributing to the widely skilled group of people here in CRWRC's response to the famine and drought which is affecting millions here in Kenya.

Belated Update, from Canada

2011-12-18T03:44:00.004+03:00

Hello again,

I realize it has been a whole month since my last update. It has been a mix of business, laziness, rest and work.

View over Nyukambani area and Kisayani

In the past month I have concluded my final interviews with community members and government employees, held several workshops to share some of my initial findings, revisited the Umani Springs, travelled to Uganda, and returned home to Edmonton. It was challenging to know what and how exactly to communicate my finding back to the individuals and groups that I had promised. Some of my findings I think they could benefit and learn from, while others they sure didn't want to hear. Ultimately, I am learning the future of the community and the project lies with them, not me. It is their project and they must learn to be stewards to the things they have been given and work hard at extending its benefits to others in the area in this time of a changing and increasingly unpredictable climate.

Significant progress on the new project at the Spring

It has been a whirlwind of a month, mixed with lots of travelling and meetings and writing. I am currently sitting at my parent residence in Edmonton working on my final report to be handed in before the new year. It's becoming quite the task to synthesize all of the knowledge I have taken in and learned over the past four months and summarize in a single paper to be written during the holidays. But it is not only important but stimulating. I strongly believe my findings are important and relevant. In time my professor Dr. Spaling and I hope to have a published paper (maybe even 2) out of it. Something I can only hope with be of use to development practitioners

In other news, I will be returning to Kenya in early January. I was given a short-term job contract with CRWRC (Christian Reformed World Relief Committee) and their Disaster Response Services in East Africa, where they are quickly expanding their relief programs throughout the region with the assistance of the Canadian Government & the Canadian Food Grains Bank. I am extremely excited as this is an organization I know well, and one I know does good work throughout the world. My work will be conducting further research on their more innovative approaches to relief work as well as writing and reporting on behalf of some of their relief projects.

I hope to have at least one more post summarizing some of my findings and conclusions. Until then, enjoy some of the photos I have taken over the last month, including my travels to Western Kenya and Uganda with my friend Amelia.

Biking...

Visiting Sipi Falls in Uganda

... and hiking through wildlife parks

Drenched at the bottom of the falls

Visit Hell's Gate near Lake Naivasha

Soaking in the beautiful wildlife and scenery of Kenya

Stories

2011-11-17T00:06:00.001+03:00

I realized my last few post have been a bit ‘heavy’so I thought I’d also update on the lighter side of things and share a few stories with you.

Since I moved to my new place at the UniversityFarm, I have been living a bit outside of the actual town of Kisayani. Furthermore,since I make a lot of field visits I also thought that I could have use for abicycle instead of paying for bodaboda motorbikes to take me everywhere.

I tried finding one to rent for a month, butbikes here are used heavily (most often to transport water) and I couldn’t findone to use on a constant basis. So instead I ended up buying a bike, with afriend of mine who split the cost. When I move I’ll leave it with him.

To shop for bikes, we had to go to Kibwezi. We looked around for a bit but Ididn’t find any I really liked for a good price. The next day I gave my friendthe money and entrusted him to bring me back a good one. He came back with abike, but not any ordinary bike—a sturdy one made bike that everyone else has. Instead he brought back a mountain-bike (I use the word ‘mountain’ lightly). Itcame with all the bells and whistles (literally) including: bells, flags, frontand rear lights, gears, horn, mirror and fenders. As if I didn’t already stickout enough here …

"Long long ago...MEN of making bike have a DREAN..."

Anyway, this has been my casual means of transportover the past few weeks. So far I have had 5 flat tires, the horn has fallenapart, the flag blew away, and the lights don't work. One time I was ridingand the handlebars nearly fell off. Needless to say, this was cheapChinese-made bike. The label itself reads “StarPlan: Long ago…. Men of making bike have Drean”; whatever that is supposedto mean.

The bike has served me well though, and I getaround on short distances. On the longer distances I have actually taken motorbike lessons and learned how to ride which has been a good side-result of my Star Plan shortcomings.

So cool

Another fun story from the past week I thoughtI’d share comes from a visit to a school I made. Another good friend of mine isa teacher (he also knows of my blog-hello!) at a school well off of the main road. Just this past week was theKenyan National Examinations, a pretty big deal around here. All studentsfinishing primary school and moving to secondary have to write standardizedtests in English, Swahili, Science, Social Studies, etc.. The best of the best go to the top national schools while the bottom percentilesare held back or put it not so great schools. I went to visit his school theday before the examinations, a school that is 40 minutes out of Kisayani even more underdeveloped. The school was underfunded, understaffed, and has no water or electricity.

Once I arrived at the school I was introducedto the head-teacher showed around the school and I was able to greet the classes. At somepoints I was left to talk to the kids about Canada: what we eat and how cold itis there. The kids are unbelievably shy and would just inaudibly whisper theirnames if I asked them. After giving a few lectures on the wonders of Canada tothe children I was called outside.

The head-teacher had arranged the entire schoolunder a giant baobab tree, maybe 200 students from pre-school to standard 8. Iwas told I was supposed to give a speech to encourage the kids before theirnational examinations the next day.

Children eagerly awaiting my words of wisdom.

Not too surprised—having often been called outon the spot to give a sermon or in a church—but a little hesitant, I stood upand addressed the kids about the importance of education, and how I had spendthe last 19 years of my life in school and how I too had written my fair share ofexams. Since it was a very rural community, most relied on their 'mother-tongue' (Kamba) for theirday-to-day language so I needed a local teacher to translate, which allowed mesome pauses to figure out what to say next. Nonetheless I ended up at one point saying somestupid phrase like “knowledge is power”, to which the teacher gotthe kids to shout it and pump their fists in the air.

By the end of my speech I asked if anyone had aquestion for me. Since the kids were very shy I didn’t expect any. But one ofthe older children asked me “how old are you?” I told them I was 23. The kidsall laughed at some of the older students. One of the teachers later told methat some of the 8^th graders were 22.

I also asked why these kids were so shy. Theteachers explained to me that it was because many had not seen a white manbefore. Then the teacher in front of the whole crowd asks for show of hands‘who has seen a mzungu?’ Less than a quarter put their hands up. Then one ofthe teachers thought it was a good idea to get each of the kids to greet me.So, they formed a queue and one-by-one I shook the hands of each of the 200 or so students.

Some speech that was.

Smile!

Other stories:

slaughtered a goat

Don't know what it is, but it was under my bed.

Killed 7 scorpions and a stinging centipede

Honey... with real bees, so you know it's fresh.

Bought some fresh honey.

Corruption and Frustration

2011-11-12T01:43:00.001+03:00

Nearly every time I drive south down thekibwezi-kitui road from my village of Kisayani to the town of Kibwezi, I getstopped by the traffic police. It is usually the same two men, dressed in theirblue uniforms and black leather shoes, with a ticket-book in hand and usuallywith a stern look on their faces. They are putting on an act, looking for abribe.

Since there are no cars in Kisayani I takebodabodas (motor-bike taxis) sometimes tripling even quadrupling up with others(sometimes goats too) to share the cost. Usually these drivers don’t havelicenses, their bikes may be missing a light or two or aren’t registered andcarry too many people. As a result the bodaboda is pulled over. But rather thanticketing the drivers slyly shakes hands with the driver who feeds them a bribe—usually50bob (~$0.60). They look the other way and let us move on and I get droppedoff.

This always boils my blood, and I usually haveto restrain myself from saying something stupid and getting myself in trouble.It makes me furious that these policemen tasked with keeping and upholding thelaw are the very ones making a spectacle of it, sometimes even laughing when Iask them from the back of the motorbike “unafanya nini?” (What do you thinkyou’re doing?). To me, they are stealing from the local people most of themwhat we could consider ‘poor’ and who don’t make a lot (especially now with thefuel costs so high) and eroding the foundation of law in the country. It isunjust.

"confusion" -- probably not a registered vehicle

While I don’t want to draw a negative pictureof Kenya, I still feel the need to tell the truth and share my impressions. Isee these injustices everywhere, in almost every level of government andsociety.

I have seen it on the most basic communitylevel. The community project I am looking at—with ‘Christian’ in it’s name—isshowing signs of inequality, corruption and mismanagement. Even the neighboringwater project is facing a court case over broken relationships between thecommunity and the project managers. Furthermore, the local District Water Officeris on a sort of ‘leave’ due to quieted accusations of stealing.

The corruption in the Kenyan government travelsup the chain to even the highest positions of government. One of the mostsignificant changes to the water project that has come in the past ten yearshas been the creation of the new Water Act. Amongst a whole heap of changesthat went along with an overhaul of the entire water sector was the formulationof Water Service Boards, which are tasked with the responsibility to provide orallocate the provision of water to the people of Kenya.

In fact I just got back from a trip to Kituiwhere I met with some high level officials in the regional office for the WaterService Board in charge of the area I am in. While they were helpful and opento me, the leading officials in those offices are making headlines for embezzlementof funds exceeding 100 million KSH (more than $1 million) intended to supportand construct water projects to serve the poor.

Also gripping the front pages of papers of thelocal papers are accusations against the Minister of Water herself forcorruption.

But it is not only corruption. I see ‘injustices’in many other places too. The area of Kibwezi has been undergone massiveresettlement displacing many people. The very place I am living, the universityfarm and research station is 16,000 acre plot of land acquired from local people. Just downthe road there is another 25,000 acre farm of prime agricultural land usual togrow the cash crop sisal for export. This is all in an area that has beenlabeled ‘in crisis’ by the UN due to drought and famine and is a recipient offood relief since it is not food-secure.

Two good friends.

As a researcher this is often frustrating anddisheartening. I feel powerless, and in fact in almost every sense I am. I amnot in a place of authority to correct these wrongs or in a place of power tobe a donor to fund some other venture. Yet at the same time I feel anoverwhelming sense of responsibility to the people here. Through my interviews,friendships, and daily interactions with people I empathize with theirchallenges, frustrations and hopes. And in so many ways I want to solve and fixthem.

I often also feel a need to blame someonefor this. Nearly every story I hear, it is someone (or something) else atfault: the corrupt civil servants, the local project management, the NGOs whoseem to have abandoned this project, the massive restructuring of the waterministry that leaves to many grey areas, the local users abusing and misusingthe water, the effects of climate change and those of us who unfairlycontribute to it, or just the corruption in general which permeates all levelsof society. In some sense, none alone are to blame and in another they [we] all are. I am learning a lot about the complexities of poverty, the importance of good leadership and relationships and standing up for what is just.

In the end I have to weed through all of these stories and find a sort of narrative, the story of this project and this community which can answer the research question of what has changed and how is the community adapting. I could have done my research with a survey, passed out 100 copies and returned in a month to pick them up. But instead I am gathering stories and getting involved. So in these last weeks in Kisayani I will soon head to Nairobi to meet with more influential decision makers and policy planners. I am attempting to put together the rest of the loose ends and eventually write a report. I have also made a promise to the community to share my preliminary thoughts on the research which will bring me back to Kisayani for a few days to share. I'm hoping for the right words to say and the ability to say 'I can't solve ___ problem' if needed.

A sentimental shot to close this depressing post

Rain and Famine

2011-11-06T02:17:00.000+03:00

The rains inKisayani have finally come. After a few night-time drizzles which most Kenyansinsist were not real rains, hard rain has arrived. Farmers and their wholefamilies are now busily plowing their fields and planting seeds. Atransformation from a dreary brown and grey landscape to a rich red and greenhas already emerged as if it too was greatly anticipating the coming rains.

Along with the budding trees and plants havealso come the bugs, a lot of them. To preface, I just recently moved residencesfrom my old place (appropriately titled ‘white house’) to the University ofNairobi Research Station where they have a large farm and rangeland for avariety of research purposes, including hosting people like myself and myfellow Kenyan researcher, Njoki. Despite the $2/night bargain at my last place,it couldn’t beat the student rate of $0.30/day or $9 a month for a 2 room andfull-bathroom place where I am now just outside of the main town of Kisayani.

Within a few hours...

One of the only downsides, along with no longer having as many neighbourchildren around to play with, is my place is situated on the edge of somegrasslands, where insects and birds are thriving. When the rains came, thedormant eggs that had been waiting patiently for water hatched and on my firstnight in my new place I was swarmed by a variety of flying insects. Almostunable to sleep the first night, I asked my neighbour if this was going to lastthe entire rainy season, which he answered “yes”. Thankfully he was wrong. Eachof the first nights brought forth a different wave of insects, but a week laterthey have died down significantly.

Mangoes

But more importantly, the farmers are busy.During all my interviews with local people, nearly all of which are farmers, Iask the question of whether or not the climate (rainfall, wind, seasons) ischanging. With the odd exception, they tell me there is not only less raintoday, but a different rains. In this area of Kenya there are two rainyseasons, a long (March-May) and a short rain (November-December). Decades agothere were also two rains, although both were reliable enough to get twoharvests if possible. Today, farmers have begun planting during the shortseason (now) since even the long rains have become unreliable with days orweeks without rain. I have also attained rainfall data from a local sisalplantation and from the university station which seems to confirm the shiftingclimate patterns.

An irrigation scheme

The effect of this changing rainfall hasdelivered consistent drought in the area stunting the growth and productivityof many crops. Thus, the area in which I am situated is now a recipient of foodaid coming from the Red Cross and other organizations. The same is true formuch of Kenya and in some areas--namely the northern areas--famine isreoccurring in what was recently in the news.

Just before I arrived, the famine in Kenya,Somalia and Ethiopia were grabbing headlines as the Horn of Africa wasexperiencing the lowest levels of rainfall is almost 60 years. Failureof the long rains denied farmers their expected crops (food and income) andnomadic herders the grasses for their animals deteriorating their abilityto access food. The Dadaab refugee camp (designed for 90,000), just across theborder into Kenya, grew in size to nearly half a million people. And millionswere and still are announced at being at risk of starvation. However, today even I find itdifficult to see any news on the famine despite it still prevailing severelytoday.

A recent sand dam put up in along the Kisayani river

While I am no expert on the causes or solutionsto famine, natural disasters cannot solely be held accountable for the famine. Skyrocketingfood prices, population growth, environmental degradation, political instability,lack of infrastructure, a less spoken about land-grab,and other human-causedfactors all come into play. For example, the famine is worstin Somalia where the Islamic militant group al-Shabaab (which Kenya hasrecently declared war with) has long tried to prevent Western aid organizationfrom delivering relief and development services.

With the arrival of the short (but morereliable) rains throughout East Africa, we hope that the current situation willbe relieved. It is difficult to write about such a daunting issue ridden withstatistics and so reoccurring, but it is reality. What brings me hope (and in another sense dismay) is that this famine and food insecurity is largely human-caused. Therefore, in a large part these things can be dealt with and improved. Projects in communities such as the one I am looking at is just one example. Above are pictures of water and irrigation projects that are aimed at improving living standards and increasing food security additional to the piped water in Kisayani. There are many projects like these being done, not just in the community where I reside but throughout Kenya and the world. They are examples of solutions and innovations some implemented by Westerners, some by locals, and some by the Kenyan government.

To me it is also a reminder of the value of the Kisayani Water Project and the need for the water in the pipes. Despite being just a researcher, unable to assist in any physical sense, I feel a responsibility to the people here. It can be frustrating to be doing academic research under a hefty research grant, when in many ways I want to be helping in a more tangible way. It gives me motivation however, to do a thorough job, speak to the right people, give recommendations and ensure that my research is shared with the community with the purpose of a sustainable future for water resources and this project.

A view looking over Kisayani

"Maji ni Uhai"

2011-10-29T00:59:00.001+03:00

"Water is life"

This is a phrase I hear almost daily here. And it is true. The provision of water to Kisayani has had dramatic effects. The occurrence of water borne diseases had been cut by around 50%; the value of land in Kisayani had grown by over 1000%; people walked less than 1 hour to fetch water compared to 6 hours previously; and people were irrigating crops and fruit trees generating income and increasing food security for their families.

Umani Springs

Yet the reality is that in Kenya it is estimated 60% of people have access to safe water. In the rural areas such as where I am now, the number is closer to 40%. Kisayani is therefore fortunate to have the water supply project as are the tens of thousands of others getting their water from Umani Springs.

straight from the source

While this post was originally supposed to be about the general picture of water in Kenya, some recent unsettling findings this past week cause me to combine the two, the former offering context.

- - -

In 1974, Kenya pledged to give each of its citizen’s access to clean water. Despite making some positive strides, the government had taken on more than they could handle and were unable to fulfil the promise. In 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (agreed upon also by Canada and all UN states) pledged that by 2015 they would half the number of people in the world without basic access to water. Again in ~2002, Kenya created a vision that by 2030 all would have access to clean water.

This was done by a complete restructuring of the water sector via the Water Act (2002) in Kenya. This is one of the central areas of focus of my project. Without boring you with the details of the 200 page legal document, the bill supposedly invests all power over the regulation, conservation and licensing of water to the Minister of Water, while also decentralizing water service provision by handing over water systems to communities and private companies—water provision and services is too much for just the government to reside over.

Yet some projects such as the Kisayani Water Project were already in the hands of community management during the restructuring phase. Once financed by a NGO, the ownership of this project and it’s management was invested in a community self-help group: the Kisayani Community Christian Development Programme (KCCDP). The project was completed in 2003 and the Water Act passed in 2002, although it is still being implemented and enforced to this day. Thus, the Kisayani Water Project was developed in a time of transition of management (and still is).

Njoki and I at the Athi River

One of the new water management bodies in the Water Act is the Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA), which is in charge of management of water resources in each of the 8 catchment/watershed regions. It is the role of WRMA to give approval to projects, giving them permits, and co-ordinating management. The Kisayni project has a permit to draw water from Umani Springs, which is shared by a variety of other projects, including the newest project the Mtito Andei Umani Water Project, still under construction. This project is to serve the current 90,000 people of the Mtito Andei area. The put this in perspective the Kisayani project was designed for 12,000 people; the size of this new project is massive. Meanwhile, the source spring is already suffering shortages.

My research is examining the sustainability of the water project in Kisayani and the management of the spring.

At the moment, there are several evident problems indicating threats to it’s sustainability: some people who once got water no longer do; some are using water to irrigate while other have none to drink; and both the demand and population are clearly growing. One of the pressing issues that keeps coming up i is how there is less water in the pipe or/and less water from the Spring itself. In fact, the river that leads downstream of the springs has shrunk drastically. The river once had a 2-3m deep riverbed, but now is a small trickling stream. Even 4 years ago I was told one could swim in the river. This is just one of the many indicators that show the Spring is undergoing some major challenges.

While I do not have the skill or capacity to measure the flow of the Spring, I had the idea that this new water project (Mtito Andei) would by law require an Environmental Assessment which I hoped would include data on the flow of the Spring and whether or not this new project was feasible. I also have the advantage of working under my professor who had once done the Environmental Assessment for the Kisayani Project and had flow data from the 80s to the late 90s.

After weeks of hunting this document down, I finally met with representatives of the WRMA who are in charge of examining the flow of the spring and permitting allowable withdraws. They not only had the EIA report from 2009, but also a Hydrological Report of the Umani Springs done just this July. They also had the power of granting or not granting the permit to the new water project, so these reports would surely show that where was enough water since it had already been approved.

The report revealed that there was enough water; in fact the report stated there was plenty of water! It claims the current abstractions along with the new proposed project would withdraw just 6% of the total flow. This wasn’t very reassuring, however. The report done in 2001 by my professor Dr. Spaling found that the Kisayani Project along with the other projects was withdrawing closer to 60% of the total flow of the river (not 6%). Since the anecdotal evidence from the local people indicated that the spring and the river downstream was significantly less today than 10 years ago, and the fact that there was a new project much larger than any existing project, something didn’t add up.

looks like 7

Trying to figure out where they got their flow data from, I contacted WRMA again, who is supposed to be measuring regularly the flow of the spring. Yet, what I got from them was about 10 individual sporadic data points from 1987-2011. The data points from the 80s to 2001 confirmed the data used by my professor that the flow of the spring averaged 18.5 million L/day. Yet the data points from 2009 and 2011 somehow showed 82 million L/day (4x as much). The latest data seems to have been used by the hydrological report which showed how the total projects added to 6% total abstraction from the natural flow. No one really knows who made the measurements either, the meters at the spring were stolen long ago.

without piped water

Furthermore, these reports are unclear on how many projects are even at the source. One report says there are two legal ones, one says 4, while WRMA people themselves say 6. My observation at the spring itself (see post from mid-sept) shows 7 individual pipelines.

with piped water

I hope that I am wrong, and that there is plenty of water. But my assumption is that there is not enough water for all of the existing (struggling) projects let alone this new mammoth project. Perhaps the local politician for the area, happening to reside in Mtito Andei has pushed this project through to please his constituency, thereby putting at risk the spring and all communities downstream as well as all those reliant on abstractions and pipelines. I have heard it as if it were a catchphrase, that “Water is Life”. This is indeed true. The communities I have seen with water and without have been stark differences. It would be heart breaking to see this community become one without water and suffering from even more severe shortages.

I hope I am wrong about the spring.

Kuku Chakula

2011-10-19T23:07:00.000+03:00

I've been away on the Kenyan coast for a few days, and decided to add some photos my chicken dinner (kuku chakula). It all started over a conversation with the local police officer (a friend of mine) of what we eat in Canada. I have repeatedly been asked the questions, 'what do you grow?' 'what are your staple foods?' and 'what do you mean you don't have ugali?' After some lengthy discussion over how in Canada just 5% of Canadians are farmers compared to about 75% in Kenya (and my estimate of about 90+% in Kisayani) it led to further discussion on our radically different food systems (localized vs. globalized; small family farms vs. industrialized factories; meat-centred diet vs. non-meat diets). I also explained how I have never killed a cow, or goat, or chicken; rather, I buy them by the skinless/boneless pieces in a super market. So I told them I had no idea what to do.

Not only were my friends stunned, they decided to host a feast (also in lieu of Thanksgiving). The first step was to find a chicken. Very few people raise them here. The ones I see running around town are being shipped to Nairobi where they fetch a good price. After making a call to a friend, who made another call we found a chicken about 5km away. The owner used his bicycle to bring it to town. The next day we bargained and ended up paying 400KSH (~$4) for the bird. However, since the feast was growing in size, as more and more people wanted to come, I ended up buying 2 more the next evening. Splurging $12 on chicken is a bit extravagant, thus many wanted to come. It is also a reflexion of why so few people eat chicken here--expensive. While nyama (beef) and mbuzi (goat) are readily available at the butcher, chicken is not easily found.

Patiently waiting.

Finally the day arrived. But when I went to pick up the two new chickens, the first had got away. After about 20 minutes we found him hiding under a nearby shop, cowering from his inevitable fate. Once the chickens were assembled, I was called to the police officer's home, where he has prepared a cooker for bbqing (called 'choma' here) and had some boiling water ready do de-feather the birds. He insisted I watch him butcher the first bird and then carry on with the last two. ...

The victims.

while pinning the two legs with one foot and the
wings with the other, it's prevented from running

there are now blood stains on my pants

After about 1 minute of struggling, when the chicken is limp
I put it into a bowl of boiling water to loosen the feathers

at peace

Mmm...

Not so handsome anymore

Cutting each of the joints

kuku choma

The three day journey comes to an end!

By the end of the meal, I was quite satisfied and had a new appreciation for Safeway's $8.99 chicken specials ready to eat. The chicken was dry, tough, feathery, thin, but delicious. Happy belated thanksgiving! I hope you all enjoyed your 20lb turkeys.

Karibu Kisayani

2011-10-13T22:59:00.000+03:00

These past 3 weeks I have spent getting to knowthe area of Kisayani, learning to cook local food, exploring the pipeline area,and conducting interviews. I have already finished 8 interviews and have a goodintroductory picture of some of the contributions and challenges of the water project.This is something I will comment on in more depth later. But for this post,I’ll update on my day-to-day activities and what I have been learning.

Baobab trees not far from my house

A few of the children

I have been here long enough to get to knowsome of the people around my area. My home is shared with about a dozenchildren and a few mamas who are their mothers, or hired to care for them. Iwake every day to their crying and/or laughing have slowly begun to befriendme, though they were at first skeptical of me. The other children in town havemade a habit to chasing me through town repeatedly shouting Mzungu(‘white-man’). While I am used to this from Tanzania, these kids arerelentless. Plus the cuteness of it wears off quickly. I decided to teach themmy name, so instead they chase me shouting my name repeatedly—a bit of animprovement, I guess. I tried learning their names, but there are too many ofthem, so I just shout back ‘Mtoto!’ (meaning: ‘little kid!’). I have alsogotten to know where to buy the best veggies, who to go to for Papaya, and madefriends in the market area, which has been beneficial.

Second on the left is all mine

Thus, I have not stared to death. In fact, Ihave learned to cook ugali (maize meal) and several other dishes (pilau—spicedrice, sikumawiki—boiled kale, and maharagwe—beans). When I tell Kenyan mostCanadians have never heard or seen of such a dish, they are astounded as it isa daily meal for them. I ate it everyday if not twice when I was in Tanzaniaand didn’t have much of a taste for it, but for some reason the ugali here isactually delicious. I have also learned to cook beans (who knew how difficultit could be to cook them once they had been dried—I will never take for grantedcanned beans.) Tomorrow, the local police chief has organized a feast; he couldnot believe that I had not killed a chicken. So tomorrow I get to kill 3. The chicken I bought from the market actually ran away since I didn't know how to tie it up. After about half an hour frantically searching in the dark I found it... first time I ever lost a meal.

Cooking up a storm with Njoki - my UNairobi partner

I often get asked what our staple foods are,and what we grow. They are amazed just 5% of Canadians are farmers, and that wesimply buy butchered chicken and have no idea how to harvest or process grains.I often avoid explaining how big area farms are and how much our land cost,since many farmers have just 1 acre or less and pay just $50-1000 for it.

As for work, each day is unpredictable. Theinterviews I schedule often don’t happen, and then they do it is often in themiddle of another one I am doing. Moreover, the interviews are sometimes donein Swahili
with a translator. My decent ...

Line-up for water at a kiosk

...comprehension of Swahili is good enoughto know how much I am missing, but without knowing what exactly is lost intranslation. At times people don’t understand Swahili well enough and I have touse a tertiary translator to go from Swahili to Kikamba (the localmother-tongue). One of the most frustrating things I deal with, is having to attain one's signature before the interview begins. Due to our Westernbureaucracy and formality, research ethics requires me to hand out 3 pagedocuments in English explaining the interview, research, and protocol before the interviewbegins. When they have been walked through it, I need to get their signature.Despite their verbal consent, many are very reluctant to sign as in Kenyanculture they are never or rarely asked to sign anything that doesn’t commit orbind them to something significant. Research ethic protocol is supposed torespect individual’s rights, but in this context and culture it seems tointrude on it more than respect it.

Kiosk without working water

Regardless work is coming along and I amlearning lots. I have made several bodaboda trips (motor bike taxis) to the farends of the pipelines to visit each of the kiosks and interview some households in thoseareas. These always prove eventful as I realize how Kisayani is much moredeveloped than these areas, many of them lack electricity, selection of goods,access to basic medicines, and simple shops. Sadly, I have found that some ofthe communities at the very ends of the pipeline are not receiving water.

I am learning to conserve water myself (10L bucket showers) and also boiling the water I need to drink. It is still extremely dry here. Every interview has reaffirmed the bad drought for the past 4 years, and how it is affecting their crops and the water supply of the project (as well as demand). Along with the local farmers, I too am awaiting the rains which are to come in a week or so, and the transformation they will bring to the environment.

It has been a great experience thus far. The Kenyan reputation of being warm and welcoming is well surpassed, and my work is moving along.

Stay tuned for:

rain and greenery
mangos
pictures of me killing the chicken that ran away

The home of Elijah

2011-10-03T22:39:00.002+03:00

Elijah is a remarkable man in Kisayani. He is middle-aged, short, rather thin, quiet although talks a lot. But he is also a man of many skills: farmer, tree-planter, a builder, brick-maker, well-digger, host, labourer, and the treasurer for the irrigation co-operative. He also has an incredibly compassionate heart for his visitors and his children.

He was one of the first men I met in the village and has accompanied me this week, making sure my first week was not spend alone. He showed me to the local schools, churches, market, and government offices and has lots to share about his home. Elijah also seems to be related to everyone, either his nephew, cousin, great aunt, or one of his sisters, he has many roots here in Kisayani.

Elijah’s priority is for his children. He has three boys and enrolls them in the private school, which is not free (unlike the public school). He is not a rich man but knows the quality of education at the private school will likely graduate his children from primary school and into secondary school giving them a better future. The other day his child was taken out of school and sent home to bring back the school fees. Since he cannot cover these payments he helps out around the school—and by help out I mean build the school. He helped construct it from bricks he made, and he continues to do repairs and additions when needed.

Elijah has a wife and family of his own, but still lives on his parents (very common) land. He has taken me to his home several times and introduced me to his grandmother who is about 100 years old, mother and father, and the rest of his family who lives with him. He showed me his farm which is approaching planting season for the rains. He also insists I help out on the farm since there is no gym in Kisayani. On his property is a mango tree, the oldest one (and first planted) in all of Kisayani. When he was in secondary school all students were given a piece of fruit on Wednesdays. Instead of throwing away the pits of mangoes, Elijah would save them. During one rainy season he planted about 30 mango seeds, of which one survived over the years and through the dry season. About 25 years later he is able to offer his family the (literal) fruits of his labour—around a thousand mangoes.

Among other things, Elijah earns income by digging boreholes and wells. The amazing thing is he does this by hand. While I have yet to see him at work, from what he tells me it is extremely difficult work. He has one well that is 22 metres deep. He asked if I wanted to venture down there with him. I said no.

Elijah and his son Steve

Perhaps the best time I shared with Elijah so far, was his son’s 11^th birthday party, a pretty moving experience. His son, Steve, has a physical disorder (something like cerebral palsy) that has him slightly paralyzed on half of his body. Elijah tells me he carries his son 2km to school since he cannot walk well, but gets him to walk a small portion each time so that now his son is able to move around freely. He has taught his son to write and to feed himself with a fork. Steve is enrolled in school and is on the same level as the other children. Despite a speech impediment he speaks both Kiswahili and Kikamba, as well as understands my English.

Elijah told me days in advance of his son’s birthday, so I was able to buy a soccerball to give to him to give his son. When I arrived at the home (a piece of land with several grass huts) it was already very dark and he took me into his house where he had a solar powered lamp that he installed himself. He also tells me he is trying to adapt a vehicle carburetor to harness the wind’s energy.

Anyway, eventually his children, parents, and grandparents came into the eating area of his house where food was laid out. He said they usually have meat on birthday’s but since the drought has been difficult they cannot afford to have it this time. So instead we shared plates of potatoes and cabbage. After dinner the great-grandmother and grand-father shared a few speeches and allowed me to give a small one. When that was over he presented his son with the gift they had gotten him: a pack of crayons and a pencil, as well as one for his youngest son (so he wouldn’t be jealous). He also gave his son the soccerball. His son was smiling the whole night.

Elijah allowed me to take pictures of the party so that I can print them for him. He saves many pictures and puts them into different scrapbooks for his kids, so that when they get older they will have a ‘memory book’ incase he does not live on to share stories of their childhood to them.

First humbling impressions of my stay in Kisayani

2011-09-29T22:43:00.001+03:00

The past few days have been quite eventful.

Last Friday, while still in Nairobi at 3am inthe morning I awoke to screams and commotion. It turns out a woman 2 rooms down from me got robbed at gunpoint. She was OK,but had a few things stolen from her. The next night I was heading out with a fewfriends to go to an Ethiopian food restaurant and the guard dog of their houserandomly bit me. It wasn’t a bad bite but it broke the skin. Thinking it wasOK, I went on with my night. The next day I spoke to someone who mentioned howif left untreated, rabies is 100% fatal. The chances of me getting rabies isvery slim, although there is no way to be fully aware that the dog is clean, soI went to see a doctor the next day. The doctor also mentioned that I shouldnot risk it and get the vaccines, 5 different shots over a month. The only problemthere was that I was to head to Kisayani that day to start my fieldwork, andKisayani won’t have a fridge to keep the vaccine—the nearest clinic is about 10km down the road. Iended up finding cooler as well as a small guesthouse in the nearby town whichhad a fridge and could keep the vaccines cold for the next few days. I got my second shot today in town. For the 4^thand 5^th shot I will need to head to Nairobi.

Despite these few setbacks and scares, I havemade it to Kisayani, where I will be spending the next few months conducting myinterviews, focus groups and holding various meetings asking questionssurrounding the water project, climate variances, and other sustainabilityquestions.

I have moved into a single room ‘apartment’with 1 bed and 2 lawn-chairs and a shared bathroom with others in the complex. Whenmoving in I realized no cooking arrangements had been made. Because the foodthat is cooked in Kisayani will at times likely get me sick due to itspreparation; those deciding my accommodations decided I should cook for myself. Also,the shared water tap outside the rooms doesn’t seem to work (an interestedobservation for my research), and the nearest water kiosk is about 500m away (sometimes works).To drink this water I need to also boil it for 8 minutes. The tin room overmy head heats the room temperature to about 35 degrees midday.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed and frustrated atfirst on how I’m supposed to survive out here and do my research, I realizedthat the other rooms surrounding mine are shared by families, some of whichhave 3 or 4 children. They do not have a gas stove like me, but a charcoalstove that requires firewood (which fills their rooms with smoke and moreheat). They don’t have the privilege of having money for transport to thelarger town nearby to buy supplies or get vaccines. Moreover, my room, despitebeing simple, is one of the nicest in the area and located right in town, manyothers live in mud huts 6km from town and 2km from any water kiosk and withoutelectricity. And here I am writing this message on a laptop with a wirelessinternet connection via G3 network.

This has indeed become quite a humblingexperience these first few days. I have felt almost unable to take care ofmyself at times, when those around me are living like this each and everydaywhile supporting families. My neighbours have been kind enough to also fetchwater for me, give me some supplies and have offered to teach me to cook. The children have also promisedto help me with my Swahili homework, if I practice English with them.

So these first few days I have spent getting toknow the area, the people, their living conditions, and also taken timeto figure out how to sustain myself. The people have been more than kind,showing me to their homes, introducing me to their families, offering memeals, and inviting me to their kid's birthday parties (I'll share about this later).

I may need your help with recipes. Here arethe readily available ingredients in the nearby market:

· eggs,
· tomato,
· onion,
· potatoes,
· maizemeal,
· kale,
· rice,
· oil,
· bread,
· banana,
· papaya
· andlimes.

I also have the ability to buy chickens—a wholechicken. So any experience slaughtering and cleaning a chicken, please share.Any recipe suggestions with the above ingredients are also welcomed andappreciated!

Visit to Kisayani & the Spring

2011-09-22T17:30:00.002+03:00

Well for the past two weeks I have been travelling through Kenya, as well as putting together some research and meetings in Nairobi which will help me once I finally settle in Kisayani (which will be on Monday). I was travelling with my professor and one of his Masters students from the University of Manitoba (Heidi Walker) as well as a University of Nairobi student who will be with my in Kisayani. Heidi is writing her masters on Strategic Environmental Assessments in Kenya and looking at community participation, a research project with a lot of overlap with my own. She has yet, however, to find a case study site something I have had a privilege to have laid out for me.

Dr. Spaing, Heidi, and I

So on our journey through Kenya, we went to the Indian Ocean coast to Mombasa and travelled North to a potential site for Heidi in Watamu, where a great little organization by the name of Rocha Kenya is based (http://www.arocha.org/ke-en/index.html). But on the way to Mombasa we stopped in Kibwezi and Kisayani for a few nights. I had the privilege of meeting the Water Project Committee and the Kisayani Christian Community Development Programme and make introductions. I was able to briefly meet a few key people introduce my research and myself and explain how I hope they can learn and benefit from the results. Since they have been the site of a number of research studies, they had expressed concern about having more research done in the community and never hearing back from the researchers or the findings. This is a very real concern of theirs and something I will be attentive too; it is something that Dr. Spaling has also specifically tried to resolve by offering workshops and presenting the results afterwards – something I hope to do when I am finished. After some constructive conversations they were open and accommodating to the research and would help us coordinate many of the details (including my lodging). Building relationships and trust is an important part of Kenyan culture, and is something I have experienced throughout both east and west Africa.

I was also able to hear some of their concerns and brief observations of the pipeline. They all expressed concern over the pressure of water from the kiosks, which has severely lessened. They were concerned about the lack of rains, expressing how they have not had rain in three years (something I understand to mean they have not had a ‘good’ rain in three years), and food prices are rising dramatically. The area itself is very arid and thirsty for rain, which should arrive in late October, but the rainy seasons have since been increasingly unreliable. This region of Kenya has been long susceptible to drought, although they are much more food secure than northern Kenya where the famine is worst. Famine has not reached the south.

The once-wet swamp - I am told water was up to the roots of the trees a few years ago

The committee also offered two kind women to accompany us to the Umani Springs, the source of the pipeline. So we made the 20km journey through the increasingly dense Kibwezi forest. We passed baboons and elephant tracks (and droppings) which are not an uncommon sight in the area. Before we arrived at the spring we passed by a large swamp which is replenished by the steam from the outpouring of the spring. According to government regulations 25% of the spring flow must be untapped. However, the women in our vehicle were shocked to see that the swamp was nearly dry—an indication that either the spring is drying up or the intakes are taking too much. According to hydrological studies it is during the dry season when the spring has the largest output.

The new pipeline project - showing 6 intakes

The original 5 intakes at the base of the spring

The spring itself is a beautiful oasis of green vegetation and diverse bird life. Signs of wildlife were apparent all around, elephant tracks, suspicious python dens, insect clouds and monkey calls. The spring is literally bubbling up from the ground and flowing into a intake which supplies 5 different pipelines.

However, we noticed immediately the presence of construction in the area. There was a new installation of a series of pipes and a large plaque reading “Mtitu-Andei Umani Water Project” commissioned by the Minister for Water and Irrigation. This pipeline I came to learn is a 300

million KSH (~$3 million) project supplying nearly 70,000 people (about 5 times the size of the Kisayani project). It will be interesting to see how another additional pipeline (or as it seems an expansion for one of the smaller existing ones) makes the management of the spring water resource even more complex.

---

Now back in Nairobi, I have been trying to come across the EIA for the new project, which could prove to have some valuable information and updated data on the spring and rainfall patterns. I have been given a number of contacts for the project but no luck. I have also been reading up on studies which evaluate local communities’ ability to manage water projects. Since the passage of the new Kenya Water Act, the government has attempted to decentralize many of its functions to lower state bodies. Some project therefore are expected to be handed over to communities or to private water service providers (WSP), but projects already owned by the local community (such as the KCCDP) are sort of in a grey area to who owns the assets, and who has the authority (let alone capacity) to manage such resources. Many community project are currently outsourcing (privatizing) certain aspects of management, whether it be the financial responsibilities or the technical expertise to maintain a multi-million dollar project.

Again there are a lot of complexities to work through, and on paper this proves quite difficult. I am looking forward to soon moving to Kisayani, and hearing from the recipients of the water themselves as well as the management committee and gaining a better idea of how they are adapting to these multitude of changes.

We also visited some giraffes

Destination & Introduction to Reserch

2011-09-04T02:09:00.002+03:00

Friends and family,

I’ve decided to re-open my blog for my time in Kenya over the next 3/4 months on my research project. Too often research is shared within a small community of academics, or between professors and students severely limiting the benefit of the discoveries, and observations in general. My hope is to at share some of my findings with you, and if these are too boring to at least share some stories.

Perhaps I should open up by sharing with you the scope and purpose of my research. I have spent since the start of August reading and preparing for my time in Kenya where I will be situated in a community by the name of “Kisayani” just NE of Kibwezi which lies along the highway between Nairobi and Mombasa. In 2000, the Kisayani Community Christian Development Programme (KCCDP), a local community based organization formed back in the early 90s to improve living conditions in Kisayani, decided to make a safe and reliable water system a priority. With the help of World Vision, Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, and a few other organizations along with the Kenyan government, the KCCDP brought flowing water to their community.

However, in 10 years a lot can change.

Back in 2001, my professor (Dr. Harry Spaling), who I am working with, helped the community carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which was a new requirement set forth by the government in Kenya to all new development projects. For those who do not know, EIAs are used worldwide to identify potential impacts (+/-) of a given project on the natural environment, economy, and society in order to mitigate negative impacts and ensure sustainability (social, ecological, and economic). Dr. Spaling assisted the community by conducting an alternative method of an EIA which allowed for greater participation from the community in identifying risks and then eventually giving them more responsibility in management. Since then, he has revisited the community many times in following up on the project and the community. It is under his research that I am conducting the follow-up study and will find an introduction into the community.

So my work is as a research assistant gathering data, compiling interviews and writing a report on my findings to address my research question is essentially 'what conditions of promoting sustainability (set out by the EIA) were effective' and 'what new changes have arisen that could have an impact on the ongoing sustainability of the project'.

A study was done previously on the impacts on the water project, which indicated many positive environmental, health, social and economic impacts, thus, the community and myself included hope this project will succeed and remain beneficial and reliable in a time of drought and famine in the country. Moreover, we hope that the source of the water can be conserved and protected in order to support populations in the future and the natural biodiversity of the area.

So far I have identified 3 main areas of change that need specific attention:

Biophysical changes (a changing climate, a water source that may be at risk of depletion)
Political changes (new changes to the Kenya Water Act which manages water resources)
Social changes (capacity within the leadership of the community to successfully manage the water system and adapt to all sorts of challenges including the rapidly increasing demand for water).

I will be meeting with various NGO representatives, government officials and consultants regarding the factors above over these initial weeks. I also hope to be introduced to Kisayani and visit the Umani Springs (the unique source for the water project-something I will elaborate on later). My brief observations thus far affirm that many changes are occurring and have occurred. The complexity of these are concerning and my hope is that I will be able to untangle and begin to understand them better in order to support the community and future similar projects. I hope to unpack this further as I go along.

Thanks for reading!

------

The community of Kisayani is about ~8km NE of Kibwezi town, and will be where I am spending the majority of my time. If you look SW of Kibwezi you can find the Umani Springs within the Kibwezi Forest Reserve. (I only wish it was this green at the moment).

View Larger Map

Goodbye Sengerema

2009-08-18T22:41:00.002+03:00

I have just arrived in Dar Es Salaam. I left Sengerema and the Malekela family yesterday and not sure if I am feeling ready to go home. Both the family and I were truly sad to part ways but they tell me that I am warmly welcome (and all my friends too) again. The 2 months in Sengerema have been an incredible learning and life experience. I am so greatful for my experience and the things I have learned, only a small bit that I have mentioned on this blog. I head home in about a week and would be happy to catch up with family and freinds soon.

Here are some pictures from Sengerema since I am to tired to write anything interesting.

Water

2009-08-11T14:19:00.002+03:00

Nearly everyone I ask here in Sengerema names the biggest problem they face on a day-to-day basis is access to water. Strangely enough, Sengerema has the largest coastal boarder of all regions in TZ, Kenya, or Uganda with Lake Victoria (the 2nd largest lake in the world and largest in Africa). Yet there is still a shortage of water. I do not fully understand why, but people tell me that the mechanic pumps are old and outdated, the lake is heavily polluted, and . Furthermore in a country where most power is supplied by hydroelectricity, shortage of water means no power (for those who are lucky enough to be connected to a grid).

The family I am staying with luckily has a water tap in their housing area. They told me that 3 years ago there was a massive water shortage and drought, all they told me was that it was "very very bad". This forced them to purchase a water resiovoir to harvest rainwater and to store water in during dry season as well as a new tap. Now in August nearing the end of dry season the resevoir is close to empty.

The Malekela family shares this tap with about 6 or 7 other families. They pay per litre of water harvested and have access to water about 3 times a week. When water is availible there are always large gatherings at the house as young girls and mothers (always and only females) fill their water pails to bring back home.

Keep in mind, here in Sengerema town (the largest village) there is the best and most provision of water. While travelling to other villages such as Nyehunge, water is even more scarce and people often have to bring it from longer distances that are less safe to consume. In Nyehunge very few people have taps which means there are many more than just 7 families sharing one.

Because the water system is much different than in Canada, I am very concious of how much water I am using. My showers are from a bucket so I know just how much water I have remaining (so I cannot stand under the shower for another 5 minutes and enjoy the warm (or cold) water). All drinking water must be boiled in an iron pot over a charcoal/wood stove; and all warm water must also be heated over an open fire. There are no flush toilets and no tap to wash your hands.

Over the past few days I have tried to measure the amount of water I used each day. My averages (ommitting washing clohtes) per day is:

Drinking: 3.5L
Cooking: about 8L
Brushing Teeth: 600mL
Bathing: 9.5L
Washing Hands: 2.5L
'Flushing' Toilet: 750mL
TOTAL = about 25L per day

Comparing this to the average Canadian water consumption per day (estimated at 343L per day in 1998) I use less than 8% of the average Canadian here in TZ. I also realized that my home in Canada has about 5 or 6 taps and 2 shower heads all that provide purified water ready for drinking. The average toilet flushes 3.5L each time using purified water and an average shower can be well over 50L. In TZ, the toilets are simply a hole in the ground and have no sophistacated or sanitary sewar systems. Some homes even have no toilet.

Something to think about.

Update from Sengerema

2009-08-03T16:42:00.008+03:00

Sorry for not making a real post in some time, internet and power can be scarce here in Sengerema and I have been moving around quite a bit.

I was able to go on a safari to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater last week for a few days. I dont really know what to say but it was better than I could have imagined and never knew so many diverse animals could live in one area. Some memerable moments: watching the wildebeast migration, seeing the most beautiful starry sky and the milky way while camping in the serengeti, waking up in my tent to the noise of an elephant and several zebras walking past, winning a $50,000,000,000 (yes billlion, in Zimbabwe dollars = worthless) from a big game hunter over dinner, watching a leopard drag an antelope up an acacia tree with its mouth, and seeing the view into the crater. See pictures below (if the internet cooperates...).

I am again staying with the Malekala family. Originally I thought there had been 11 people at the home. I now realize this number fluctuates from about 11-18 with all the visitors, friends, and family moving in and out. There are always lots of children running around to keep me busy and entertained.

I was also sick last week with the flu and stomach problems. Ironically, I was sick, not from the food in the village, but from the safari. That wasn't a lot of fun and I got sent to the doctor. The doctor visit and medication cost me about $2, less than the taxi to get there.

At SISA (sengerema informal sector association) and with Joseph Shigulu, its director, I have been able to work alongside some government extension officers and see their projects in the various villages in Sengerema district, since SISA works in cooperation with the district government. This means I accompany people from various departments (fisheries, agriculture, livestock, natural resources, etc.) on their visits with small scale irrigation as well as illegal fishing patrol and others, which is always excting and a great learning experience to interect with both government officials and the farmers themselves. Im sure to write more on these details and things I've seen in the future.

I have also had the chance to visit several schools and talk with older students about the environment and issues of poverty. I ask them questions like 'what is the environment', 'what is its significance', and what specific environmental problems affect them day to day. It is an amazing experience to interact with them and learn from them, hearing their stories, perspectives, and understanding. They are also keen on hearing from me and asking me questions on my perceptions and what I am learning about Tanzanian life and their environmental issues. They intrigued to realize how their water shortages, deforestation, sanitation issues, food supply, and farming practices are all deeply related and how they too are a part of the environment. These are all issues they must deal with each day. (One secondary school of 900 students (most living on the grounds) has a single water tap!). I think it is a great experience for me to learn from them and for them to get another perspective. They always want to hear more and talk more so I am working at arranging youth-group meetings for the weekends.

Its hard to believe I have less than a month left in Tanzania, and even less in Sengerema. In some sense I feel I have just arrived while I also feel I have met so many people and been to so many places and have learned too much to write. I am looking forward to returning home and eating something other than ugali, but I know I will deeply miss interacting and living with the people here.

Karibuni Tanzania

2009-07-24T16:01:00.002+03:00

(Welcome to Tanzania)

After 2 months here I have experienced some interesting things in Tanzania. At first these seemed very strange but now, after some time, I have grown quite accustomed to them.

Karibuni Tanzania:

-a duka (shop) that sells only oranges and rebarr
-everyone knowing only 3 phrases of English:
- "my friend!"
- "give me money"
- "hawayou"
-getting proposed to by a woman or (if a man) on behalf of their sisters
-men always holding your hand
-9 people in a 5 seated taxi, none of the dials work and there is only 1 window (the windshield)
-Bikes that sell the irresitable comination of phone cards and ice cream
-5 hour long church services
-children that play with bottle caps, garbage, and chickens instead of video games
-full meals for under 80 cents
-riding public transport (dalladallas) and barely having enough room to breathe
-being yelled at MZUNGU! an average of 8 times per km
-buying armfulls of groceries, fruit, vegatables and more for under 5$
-monkeys that steal your clothes
-hand shakes that last entire conversations
-bartering for EVERYTHING including a bus fare
-having hundreads (literally) of eyes on you when in busy areas
-never feeling a drop of rain in these 2 months!
-taps that dont work and children walking 2 (often 8) Kiliometeres to get water
-people with malaria or typhoid who come to work anyway and brush it off as no big deal
-finding strange bugs in your bed in the morning
- leaving for a day and when returning to your room finding thick layers of dust on everything
-a relentless sun that is always right above you

That is all for now, but I am sure there is more to come...

Micah Network Declaration on Creation Stewardship and Climate Change

2009-07-20T11:38:00.002+03:00

After a week of discussion and working on several drafts, here is the finished statement from my conference in Kenya:

Micah Network Declaration on Creation Stewardship and Climate Change
17 July 2009

We, members of the Micah Network , gathering together from 38 countries on all 5 continents, met at Limuru, Kenya from 13–18 July 2009 for its 4th Triennial Global Consultation. On the matter of Creation Stewardship and Climate Change, we sought God’s wisdom and cried out for the Holy Spirit’s guidance as we reflected on the global environmental crisis. As a result of our discussions, reflections and prayers, we make the following declaration:

1. We believe in God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit in community – who is the creator, sustainer and Lord of all. God delights in His creation, and is committed to it.

2. In the beginning, God established just relationships amongst all of creation. Women and men – as image-bearers of God – are called to serve and love the rest of creation, accountable to God as stewards. Our care for creation is an act of worship and obedience towards the Creator.

3. We, however, have not always been faithful stewards. Through our ignorance, neglect, arrogance and greed, we have harmed the earth and broken creation’s relationships. Our failure to be faithful stewards has caused the current environmental crisis, leading to climate change, and putting the earth’s ecosystems at risk. All creation has been subjected to futility and decay because of our disobedience.

4. Yet God remains faithful. In Christ’s incarnation, life, death and resurrection, God is at work to reconcile all of creation to Himself. We hear the groaning of creation as in the pains of childbirth. This is the promise that God will act, and is already at work, to renew all things. This is the hope that sustains us.

5. We confess that we have sinned. We have not cared for the earth with the self-sacrificing and nurturing love of God. Instead, we have exploited, consumed and abused it for our own advantage. We have too often yielded to the idolatry that is greed. We have embraced false dichotomies of theology and practice, splitting apart the spiritual and material, eternal and temporal, heavenly and earthly. In all these things, we have not acted justly towards each other or towards creation, and we have not honoured God.

6. We acknowledge that industrialization, increased deforestation, intensified agriculture and grazing, along with the unrestrained burning of fossil fuels, have forced the earth’s natural systems out of balance. Rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions are causing the average global temperature to rise, with devastating impacts already being experienced, especially by the poorest and most marginalized groups. A projected temperature rise of 2°C within the next few decades will significantly alter life on earth and accelerate loss of biodiversity. It will increase the risk and severity of extreme weather events, such as drought, flood, and hurricanes, leading to displacement and hunger. Sea levels will continue to rise, contaminating fresh water supplies and submerging island and coastal communities. We are likely to see mass migration, leading to resource conflicts. Profound changes to rainfall and snowfall, as well as the rapid melting of glaciers, will lead to more water stress and shortages for many millions of people.

7. We repent of our self-serving theology of creation, and our complicity in unjust local and global economic relationships. We repent of those aspects of our individual and corporate life styles that harm creation, and of our lack of political action. We must radically change our lives in response to God’s indignation and sorrow for His creation’s agony.

8. Before God we commit ourselves, and call on the whole family of faith, to bear witness to God’s redemptive purpose for all creation. We will seek appropriate ways to restore and build just relationships among human beings and with the rest of creation. We will strive to live sustainably, rejecting consumerism and the resulting exploitation. We will teach and model care of creation and integral mission. We will intercede before God for those most affected by environmental degradation and climate change, and will act with justice and mercy among, with and on behalf of them.

9. We join with others to call on local, national, and global leaders to meet their responsibility to address climate change and environmental degradation through the agreed inter-governmental mechanisms and conventions, and to provide the necessary resources to ensure sustainable development. Their meetings through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process must produce a fair, comprehensive, and adequate climate deal. Leaders must support the efforts of local communities to adapt to climate change, and must act to protect the lives and livelihoods of those most vulnerable to the impact of environmental degradation and climate change. We recognize that among the most affected are women and girls. We call on leaders to invest in the development of new, clean technologies and energy sources and to provide adequate support to enable poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups to use them effectively.

10. There is no more time for delay or denial. We will labour with passion, persistence, prayer and creativity to protect the integrity of all creation, and hand on a safe environment and climate to our children and theirs.

For those with ears to hear, let them hear.

"A Matter of Life and Death"

2009-07-14T23:32:00.004+03:00

I have the wonderful experience of attending the 4th triennial Micah Network conference on Climate Change in Nairobi Kenya.

The conference is organized by the Micah Network, a international coalition of over 550 Christian relief, development, and justice organizations, churches and individuals from over 80 countries.

The conference I am able to attend is composed largely of the directors and CEOs of these organizations with representatives of 39 countries (me being the youngest in attendance and clearly least qualified to be here). The purpose of this gathering is to adress the issue of climate change and the church's response to it. Some of the organizations are dealing with mitigating the effects of climate change on the field in their various regions (South America, South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, etc.) while others are working towards advocacy in the church in the North and working towards pressuring world leaders. One of the objectives of this conference is to together create a statement representing the views of the Global Church on the issue of climate change. (When this statement is finished I will try to post it.) It will be drafted and be send to the UN climate gathering at Copenhagen (at a gathering of world leaders in December of this year) and also be presented to thousands of church congregations and organizations in over 80 countries. What an incredible place to meet Christian leaders and be a part of such an important movement in the world church.

It has been radically eye-opening for me to listen to (and see for my self) the reality of the issue of climate change here in East Africa. Headlines in a Ugandan newspaper announced just this past weekend that, as I write these words, over 2 million are in danger of starvation in Uganda alone ( with a population of only 30 million). This same story is true for most East African countries including Tanzania and Kenya where I have been able to travel in these past months and visit with and talk with farmers. All these East African countries (and most developing countries) are completely dependent on agriculture, not only for income and exports but for their own survival and nutrition. Much of this East African region is incredibly rich in abundance, wildlife, mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, and a dual raining season meaning there are two harvests each year. These farmers have been raising crops to sustain their livelihood for thousands of years. Yet these farmers are fully reliant on the seasonal rains and predictable climate patterns, WHICH HAVE CHANGED. The climate IS changing and HAS changed. I have heard it from the mouths of farmers as well as from NGO workers that these droughts and famines are worse than they have ever experienced in the past. Here in Limuru (just outside Nairobi), I am told that there has been about 16 inches of rain so far in the year. This after the first heavy rainfall which should be yielding over 35 inches by this time. As a result, fields are producing less and less crops that many families are not even able to support themselves.

I have realized that for us, at least in Canada, Climate Change seems distant, improbable, even laughable. Yet here in East Africa, and I am learning from those also in Bangladesh and in Argentina and other corners of the world, climate change is very real and felt in the lives of those starving and being forced to seek food relief in countries which should be exporting abundance of crops. I have been told time and time again here: Climate Change is a matter of life and death for millions of people.

What is humbling about this is that those in the African church who have seen and are experiencing starvation first hand (along with years of violence, genocide, and oppression) are not blaming the North or the developed world. As church leaders have gathered together here, they have collectively announced that the entire human race, the entire church has failed our calling to be stewards over God's earth. It is the brokenness and corruption of all human relationships and sin that has allowed this to be. Together our church leaders are seeking repentance and looking to move forward.

However, the cry of the church in the developing world and specifically here in East Africa is that we in the developed world come to terms with the fact that the implications of climate change are very real, they are being witnessed here, now. Again and again I am reminded that this is "a matter of life and death". May we acknowledge that those suffering the most from climate change are those contributing the least to it and are the most vulnerable to disease and starvation. May we repent, seek forgiveness and begin to take responsibility and find ways to move forward to restore the earth and all its interconnected relationships and complexities.

Half way reflections: "Development"

2009-07-07T11:52:00.004+03:00

I just relized my internship is about half over. Its crazy how fast time goes. I thought that this would be a good oppurtunity to write about some of the major things I have been learning about 'development' in general. Although, it is sort of a rediculous idea that I am a "Student for Development" as my internship states. Apparently I should supposed to be developing Tanzania?

As I mentioned before, the idea of development is a gigantic term that continues to be larger than I imagine. It can be defined in so many different ways from expanding the wealth of the economy to reducing poverty and from to increasing infastructure and communication to eradicating diseases; it encompasses all people and all sectors of society.

I have had many conversations with people (rrual Tanzanians, fellow SFD interns, businessmen, and CRWRC staff) here about what poverty is and what development is. Many Tanzanians tell me they are poor and need to be 'developed' and 'organized' (their words) and are happy to see wazungu (white people) doing this, but most cannot define what being poor means or what development they need. But often it comes down to increasing their income. Undestandably people want more money, especially those who make barely enough to support their own families. Although I have my concerns with the idea of development being reduced to increading income or poverty simply reduced to a lack of money, I can feel their desperation and frusteration.

Yet when I look at the overall development plan of the Tanzanian government, it doesn't seem to make much sense, even if they define development as increasing the income of the poor. Let me try to explain...

The history of Tanzania is heavily influenced by socialism under the highly respected and honored first President Nyerere, who united the country in a single language and worked towards the best for the very poor. However, this history of socialism has created an attitude of suspicion to outsiders and foreigners which has also led to very closed off trade borders and a reluctance to capitalist policies. Only recently has Tanzania begun to open up their borders and has been encouraging investment from large foreign corporations.

A recent budget released in June announced that the government would offer tax exemptions for large corporations importing oil and exemptions for new foreign businesses being started. These appealing prospects for foreign investments have attempted to attract business from abroad to boost GDP and other economic indicators. However the same budget announced new taxes on non-profit organizations (such as CRWRC) and religious organization, charities and churhes.

Thankfully the Tanzanian parliment shut down the budget in outrage and demanded adjustments (which is still being debated). Yet by looking at the budget we can observe what the development plan is for Tanzania. There is a large desire to increase the size of the economy and GDP, assuming that it will eventually help the poor ("trickle down"). However, my stay in Dar Es Salaam (financial/business capital) showed me that large amounts of wealth and property were owned by a few foreigners and rarely gets to the poor. Often I would see huge construction projects happening in the city only to realize that this building is being contracted by an American or Chinese man who does not even live in the country and in fact owns many other projects. Although these large scale developments boost indicators like GDP they do little to improve the lives of the poor who are begging in the streets in front of the construction site without work.

At the same time, non-profit organizations like CRWRC, are working with the poor and for the poor at a very basic and grassroots level. I have seen the effects of small micro-finance projects and co-ops and how a cippled man is able to own a farm that now employs several non-crippled men and can support his family (and theirs) well. The problem with this is that these small entreupenures have very little effect on the overall economy or measures such as GDP, because most cannot even participate in the 'official economy' since they trade and barter goods at small markets, which simply dont measure on national scales but is how most people engage in market activity dat-to-day (thier own economy).

But at the same time a government must be responsible to its citizens, not foreign NGOs or outside governments, and not be dependant on foriegn aid to do so. Many people say that the long-term goal of development should be that governments are able to care for their own citizens (even in Canada, which also has NGOs and charities). If this is true then how does a government reach the very poor when they are often very heirarchal/top-down structures and can often only influence large scale policies. Perhaps this is the central issue of development. Sorry about the rant....any thoughts?

Sasa, ninakaa kijiji

2009-07-06T00:12:00.003+03:00

Now I am living in the village.

I have had a busy week of travel, planes, ferries, and buses. I went to mwanza for a few days and was able to meet some other SFD interns from Western University in Ontario, who let me sleep at their place for free(fellow Canadian students make great friends). I was also to meet with a few other individuls who work in all sorts of areas from development, missionary work to businessmen. It was fascinating to learn what a diverse and complex area Lake Victoria and Mwanza is. [For anyone with an interest in Northern Tanzania, specifically Mwanza, there is a facinating and shocking documentary called Darwin's Nightmare which is banned here in Tanzania. It tries to depict the socio-economic, environmental, and political aspects of poverty and globalization in the region. Although I am told it is not completely an honest film, I believe it is still able to expose certain problems that are really are massive issues here (trade injustice, environmental degredation, HIV, streetchildren, and prostitution). I recommened it... it gained some popularity a few years ago so you can probably find it in Blockbuster.]

I am now staying in Sengerema, which is a small district of many villages but home to about 500 000. Despite the population it is a very rural and spread out district with over 90% of individuals working in agriculture as farmers or livestock herders.

Staying here, I am able to live with the Malekela family, a wonderful family of about 11 including 3 generations and a handful of children. They have taken great care of me and are trying to fatten me during my stay. I have a nice room beside the chicken coup, enjoying the bucket showers, and how there is only one family memeber who speaks english in the family. It has been such a learning experience so far living with them. I have already picked up so much swahili. I am also privileged to join them in their meals, to their church (5 hours and in swahili) and prayer/singing time before they go to sleep. There are three young girls who cook for me, draw me a hotbath, do my laundry, make my bed, and insist that they carry my bag for me where ever I go. Although having three servants sounds pretty great, it can be a little ackward and is still a little strange when they dont let me do anything. Yet hospitality is highly prized here and I have been told that they would be insulted if I refused. Nonetheless, I am able to get to know the family and build some wonderful relationships. I was connected to the family through SISA (sengerema informal sector association), as mama Malekela is the chair-woman.

Here in Sengerema I will be working with SISA a NGO that is now of the most mature partners of CRWRC. They are directly and closely related to CIDA, USAID, and the UN but are also under the Prime Ministers Office of Tanzania. SISA has shown such good potential and organization that they have gained the attention of many and is appointed to lead many sectors of informal development work in the Sengerema area, including areas of adult literacy, trades, micro-finance, agricultural education, environmental work, and several more.

Joseph shigulu, the director of SISA, is my new 'boss' who is a very intelligent and kind man who seems to know just about every person in Sengerema. When he shows me around the city (there are few cars and even less taxis, so everyone walks or bikes) everyone is greeting him. So far he has shown me the various government offices, different farms (including that of the Jatropha, Moringa and Amirinth plants, all of which are facinating and will write about some other time), tree plantations, production facilities, projects and their personal radio station which uses the airwaves to reach farmers in the surrounding area and offer news and information about recent developments in agriculture. I am facinated and inspired by the work I am seeing.

Very soon I will be travelling to Nairobi for around 2 weeks for the Micah Conference on Climate Change and to visit the work of CRWRC in Kenya. But I will be able to return to Sengerema and the Malekela family for the 2nd half of my internship (which is approching half way). My stay in Sengerema looks like I will be travelling to the different areas of Sengerema meeting with and interviewing fisherman and farmers to understand their challenges. I will also be able to meet with government employees incharge of natural resources and fisheries to hear the challenges that they face. I am also told I will be able to participate in many other areas of the work that SISA does.

Leaving Dar es Salaam

2009-06-28T19:03:00.003+03:00

Tomorrow (monday) I will be leaving for Mwanza, up North towards Lake Victoria.

I am finished here in Dar and will be spending the remainder of my time in that region. In mid-July I hope to be in Nairobi for a Micah Network Conference on Climate Change. For the rest of the time I should be in Sengerema district, west of Mwanza. It is a collection of small villages where I will be living with a family, that doesnt speak English as far as I know, and working with SISA (sengerema infromal sector association). This is one of CRWRCs partners that works with several thousand individuals in a variety of ways. My conversations with the project director, who I will be working under and assisting, tells me that they have many micro-finance groups and several agroforestry projects, literacy groups, agricultural training projects, energy efficient stove teaching, as well as some health and HIV/AIDS projects. I am excited to leave the sometimes fast paced and busy city of Dar and get a feel for what the village looks like. This will also be a great test for my swahili.

I have been here just over a month now it seems. Time is flying so fast. I have had many ups and downs but overall I am learning so much, meeting many facinating people, and having a great time. Yesterday I celebrated my brithday with a few friends and was reminded of what an amazing experience I am able to have out here. I hope I can continue to have good health, learn (about myself, about development, about life, poverty, and my future) and be surrounded with supportive people here and all your prayers from abroad. Thanks for following along so far...

[I am not sure what my access to internet will be out there, but I will do my best to keep in touch.]

Friends...

...and coworkers

World Refugee Day

2009-06-23T23:07:00.007+03:00

This past Saturday (June 20) was World Refugee Day.

I was informed of this by a few friends here in Dar and I was able to participate in the Tanzanian event/walk through the downtown core, hear testimonies from some refugees and an adress from the Tanzanian director for the UNHCR.

Tanzania, because of its relatively peaceful history, cooperative political situation and geographical location has been a haven to hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring countries over the years. Conflicts in Burundi, the DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Somalia have caused many to flee their homes, jobs, loved ones, languages, countries to find refuge in Tanzania.

In 2007, Tanzania had about 350 000 refugees hosted in 11 different camps. And over 35 years ago in 1972, 220 000 people fled from Burundi during its civil war, many of which are still living in camps in Tanzania today. Some of the Burundi refugees remaining in Tanzania were born and raised in here, speak swahili and were educated in the Tanzania school system, yet did not have citizenship or a real home. I cannot image what it would be like to spend your entire life in a refugee camp, but there are thousands of them here in Tanzania.

I am told that refugees are only alowed to move within a 4km radius of the camp which many use to find employment on farms or gather firewood. Over a timeline of 35 years, many people begin to make homes and start lives in these camps. These camps are not the tent cities that you might have seen in pictures but real villages, densly populated with homes and narrow streets. Yet, there are little oppurtunities for refugees whether with employment or education. They are not given the oppurtunities to develop ordinary lives, own land, attend university, make real savings, or develop business and agricultural skills. Many struggle to find a purpose or vocation and have little to do remaining wholly dependant upon food rations and aid. Furthermore, about 60% of refugees in these camps are children.

While I walked through the city center and into a TZ ministry building, I took a seat in one of the pews and heard a speach from the Tanzanian home affairs minister and some UN staff. I was told how today there are less than 150 000 refugees in Tanzania as many have returned home and by 2012 Tanzania aims to have none. They also announced that some refugees, many who spent their whole lives in these camps are being offered citizenship is Tanzania.

Yet afterwards there was a presentation from some Burundi and Somalian refugees, first of their traditional drumming and dancing and then their heart-felt testomonies.

I was told how the Somalian refugees, centuries ago, were removed from their homes in Tanzania by the slave trade and taken North into Somalia. Over 300 years later, civil war in Somalia caused them to retrace the footsteps of their ancestors and find refuge in the very land they had left behind, discovering that they share the same language as those in the region.

One Somalian woman shared her story in a passionate adress to the politicians and other listeners in the room. Although it was in swahili (later translated), this woman's voice echoed with strength, frusteration and a rage with the situation in her camp. She spoke of the lack of medical supplies, sanitary living conditions, adequate food, clean water, land, education and much more, reminding us of what they are going through.

Despite the Tanzanian government, the UN, and larger international community doing much to assist these displaced people, there is much that remains unresovled. The Tananian government's goal to remove all refugees is a good one, but not if it is forcing people back into their countries where things may not be completely safe.

It is easy for us to pass judgement on the Tanzanian government, criticising the way they run the camps and how they keep much of the situations private and hidden from the public and media. Yet, we in the developed world are even more strict and demanding when it comes to immigration, refugees, and other matters of this sort.

While the UNHCR deals with just over 8 million refugees, there are an estimated 62 million refugees in the world not given official status or rights. Conflicts in the Congo, Somalia, and in Darfur nearby to Tanzania continue to rage on, often with little attention to the public. Here in Tanzania it is a close reality, they have opened their doors to hundread of thousands and are struggling to manage this overwhelming number of people. In Canada we can often remained separated, intellectually and physically, from these people. Yet it does not reduce the urgency of the issue or the reality of it all.

[this post was supposed to go up last week, but internet and computer problems are limiting... Karibu Tanzani = "welcome to tanzania"

Hunger and the Body of Christ

2009-06-19T21:05:00.005+03:00

'World hunger hits one billion'

So says the recent headline of BBC news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8109698.stm

I have been in Tanzania almost a month now and I am still blown away from the abundance I see here. Markets are literally overflowing with food and scarcity seems more like a myth than a reality, thus, the headline today baffles me.

Yet it is true that hunger and malnutrition exist here in Tanzania. The first Millenium Development Goal (the United Nations' targets to defeat poverty by 2015, signed on by 192 member countries) aims to reduce by half those who are malnurished and underfed as well as to reduce by half the number of those living in extreme poverty (under 1$ a day).

Currently more than half (56 %) of Tanzania live under a dollar a day, and roughly one quarter of all children are under nourished.

In the media last year, pleanty of coverage was given to the global rise in food prices since, as the BBC article states, the number of hungry people is directly tied to the rising prices. For those who live under 1$ a day much of their income goes to buying food, so when prices expand their meals get smaller.

For a long time it was said there is little that governments (of North or South) can do. The rising prices has been linked to the inadequate production (suppy) and rising population levels (demand). Economically speaking: rising demand and falling supply is a recipe for disaster.

Here in Tanzania, despite being a food economy where agriculture is the number 1 employer and export, the government often finds themselves having to import certain staple crops (such as rice) because they cannot seem to produce enough themselves.

However, rising prices and world hunger can also be caused by climate change induced drought and famine. A few years ago, East Africa was hit by a large famine due to a shortage of anticipated rainfall causing massive failures in crops, making a dent in the National GDP, and more painfully leaving many hungry.

A few weeks ago, headlines in East Africa reported on the meeting between Tanzanian President Kikwete and US President Obama at the White House. Kikwete's main plea was that the US stop giving Africa food hand outs (which floods the country with free food defeating Tanzanian farmers at the markets) and start investing in the agricultural capacity of the country. As I have seen with my own eyes this week, by empowering the poor in rural areas (as I mentioned in my post HOPE...), where nearly 90% of rural dwellers depend on farming, you can fight hunger and poverty in a very real and tangible way.

Again, as I said, there is so much abundance in Tanzania, but this is not simply from my ignorant observations. It is widely understood here in Tanzania that there is pleanty of perfect land that remains uncultivated. Even talking with individuals here in Tanzania I have learned that attaining a plot of land to farm from the government is not very difficult.

Just now, I read on the TZ government website that "The major constraint facing the agriculture sector is the falling labour..."

But falling labour? Tanzania has a massive unemployment rate and. I have personally heard complaints from many Tanzanians about the lack of jobs. But they are telling the truth as well.

Because people are leaving behind their village life and migrating to the cities (like here in Dar Es Salaam) looking for work allured by the dreams of making it BIG, they are also leaving behind work and land that remains uncultivated. Often, it is young males who are migrating...those who need to learn the valuable skills of raising crops and who have the physcial ability to do it.

This past week I have visited many farms of individuals who are excited to show me around. They guide me along fields that are growing an abundance of rice, potatoes and corn as well as show me their fruit trees, spices, vegetables, pigs, goats, cattle, chickens, mushrooms, and much more. These provide their (often large) families with more than enough to eat and an income to send children to school even university, pay for healthcare, and sometimes buy a nice TV for their home

CRWRC works at linking farmers in similar regions together so that they can learn from eachother new techniques, how to diversify and rotate crops, as well as gain knowledge on how to start co-ops and finance groups from which they can give out loans to assist new farmers with start up costs. This work is truly making a difference in many lives and is the very beginning of disrupting the vicious but not invincible poverty cycle.

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul condemns the church in how during communion some members are getting drunk of the wine and bread while others are left hungry (and probably sober). Clearly, Paul condemns this saying that it is sinful and against the God vision for the Church. In the next chapter Paul then describes this vision for the body of Christ as united, just as the human body is one: The capacity of each body part enables the other to function to full capacity.

Perhaps Paul is also speaking to our Church and the body of believers today as well. The body of Christ is not simply constrained to our church buildings, the CRC or the North American continent. The Kingdom of God is a kingdom that transcends borders, peoples, income groups, languages, cultures, and yes, even calorie intakes.

If this is true, than the Church in North America is called to reexamine its place in the global economy, its impacts on climate and the natural environment, in the political world and in the field of missions. We cannot be living lives of 'drunkeness' or overconsumption here in the North while 1/6th of the worlds population is left hungry; Nor can we simply offer our good intentions and donations to the poor without advocating for fair policy (domestically and internationally) and better aid.

For as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 13:25-26

The body's (Church's) parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

So let us both suffer together that we may be compelled to work together so that we may also rejoice together.

Heron Wsega's Farm

2009-06-16T21:30:00.006+03:00

Today I visited Heron Wsega's farm.

Heron grew up with a Maasai background. The Maasai are a traditional nomadic group from northern Tanzania and Kenya often recognized by their tradition dress and ties to the Serengeti and other parks. For hundreds of years their way of life, culture and religion have centered around cattle raising. Because cattle need lots of land to graze they have adopted nomadic lifestyles.

However, because of globalization and the opening of markets to the international community land has become privatized and their freedom of mobility is restrained. Much land is being subdivided, sold, zoned and given out while others are made into conservation sites (over 10% of Tanzanian land is reserved as national parks). As a result of these modern changes in land policy, Maasai no longer have the same freedom to roam and be mobile threatening their way of life.

Despite these changes, their culture still holds strongly to raising livestock. I have been told that they would rather let their cattle die than kill them, since it is a sign of accumulated wealth and power. With population growth and the continued need to raise cattle on the decreasing availability of land, the bush is being over-grazed and erosion becomes inevitable. This turns previously good soil dry and uncultivatable, forcing Maasai to burn bushland to make room for pastures and further increasing the demand on pastures that have been sustainable for years.

Often what happens is many Maasai (like other Tanzanians) will migrate to the capital centers (such as Dar Es Salaam) to find work. Because of their lack of education and knowledge in swahili, the Maasai people often take small poor paying jobs. For example many Maasai become gatekeepers like the one at my guesthouse, and others become ‘guardians’ of certain lands like the beaches here in Dar. Others who hold onto in the nomadic life find it increasingly difficult to cope with modernization and the needs for cash which can be used for modern medicine and school fees.

One of the partners that CRWRC works with helps the Maasai explore other areas of livelihood. By offering training in financial management linking new famers with experts or other farmers in the area, they are able to acquire new skills and learn farming techniques.

Heron Wsega is the chairman of his financial group and has become a sort of role model for others wanting to adopt farming techniques. On his land Heron has installed sanitary latrines, is raising chickens, growing cassava, sugar cane, oranges, mangos, passionfruit, jackfruit, rice, maize, while at the same time still possessing a few cattle.

Today, he was excited to show me around his farm, introduce me to his family, and show me into his home. Because he is able to raise and sell crops, he is also able to make some money and send his children to school (cover uniform and supply fees), buy medicine and make savings along with the rest of his finance group. Savings can be used to buy more chickens, and make investments in their childrens' futures through schooling and medicine.

Showing me around his farm and how to pound maize

pictures

2009-06-12T22:22:00.003+03:00

Visiting a goat farm/project in a surrounding village

Beautiful beach in the Indian Ocean

Mwalimu (Teacher) na Mwanafunzi (Student). Vialet and me.

Watching a sunrise from the terrace of my guesthouse

Hope to have better pictures up soon, maybe with actaul people in them...

an 'avarage' day

2009-06-12T19:22:00.002+03:00

Sorry for the gap with no updates, but let me explain, First of all my computer died probably due to all the ants that are crawling into it. Also life here is finally setting into a routine, even though it feels far from ordinary, meaning that I never really know what to write. I hope this post satisfies the complaints how I never update. (Note to reader, this computer does not have spell check).

So what does my day look like?

Well I get up around sunrise and either go to the beach about a 15 minute walk to go for a jog or to catch up on my Swahili hw that I didn’t do the night before (but usually just sleep in). Afterwards I take nice cold shower, and eat a breakfast of fresh bananas, mangos, oranges, papaya and the like. I eat a lot of plain toast too, which is also pleantiful.

At around 830 or so I walk the the bus stop which is anywhere on the road side, and try to wave down a dalla dalla (small bus/van). Because Dar es Salaam is the largest city in TZ attracting people from all over the country (and world) traffic into the city is pretty bad. This also means that dalla dallas are packed solid. And by packed I don’t just mean I have never had a seat but I am usually hanging out the door getting whacked by branches on the way. [Don’t worry mom, im safe]. On the odd day when the dalla dallas wont stop or if the guy whose job it is is to manage people coming in and out looks particularly intimidating, I will take a bajaji which is a small three-wheeled motorbike, but those are about quadrouple the price of a dalla dalla which is still less than a dollar. White people usually have a vehicle or take taxis. I always get lots of strange looks when I ride public transport and sometimes people like to touch my skin and pretend they didnt.

Once I arrive at my Swahili school I greet my teachers and classmates (2 in all) and we go over vocabulary, verbs, and such. Often we are sent to converse with people in the area to practice our language which can lead to very interesting conversations, whether being proposed to by a Tanzanian woman or being invited to meet some people's families. Once class is over I usually try to find a place for a late lunch or go to the CRWRC office and have lunch with the staff there.

Here in dar es salaam every block has a restataunt which pretty much sell the same things no matter where you go. I usually end up buying ugali (maize meal) or rice with beans and a little bit of unidentified meat. The grand total of this meal will cost me between 60 cents to a dollar. Sometimes I like to spoil myself and spend 5 dollars for the world’s greatest buffet (im not kidding) at the local shopping centre but this is not nealy as fun.

After my lunch I will head to the office. Some days I have the opportunity to travel to the outskirts of Dar and visit partners, and sit in on some finance management training or on small micro credit group meetings. These are always great tests for my Swahili skills and to get out of the busyness of the city and allows me to see the actual work at the individual and comuntiy level. I will also have chances to see the very buisnesses and projects that the training allows people to expand. Sometimes this means checking up on the progress of a chicken farm, or another small buisness like growing and processing cashews. Other days at the office I will look through and help update the growth of these financial groups or simply help set up some networking and computer software. CRWRC uses an approach called results based management which has very systematic and efficient ways of tracking progress and savings of these credit groups, this allows CRWRC to know exaclt how many people are involved, what savings they have, challenges they face and what progress they are making. And even other days I will find myself being introduced to partners and people with whom CRWRC works.

I am finding work here is very different from North America. We are very task oriented, focused and don’t make much time for relationships and converstations. Here I am realizing that development work in particular and partnerships are all about fostering and building relationships. So sometimes I find myself getting to know my supervisors or about their families, lives, hopes and work. It can be frusterating at times to not get things done but I am realizing that relationships and learning from these differences are just as important... Im sure I will write more about this later, bare with me.

After work I will head back to my guesthouse. My guesthouse is run by some sort of branch of the catholic church (Passionists) run by a Father and Brother and a few Sisters too. They are much to kind and are trying to fatten me while I am here in Africa. The passionists have a charity organization that opens health clinics, schools, and orphanages for communtieis. They also run this guesthouse to help pay for their work. Thing means that there are always fresh faces and lots of new people to meet. They also have good connections in these villages so that every few days there is a shipment of fresh pineapple, mangos, bananas, papayas, organges and a few crates of wine.

Before dinner and before sundown I try to get out into the surrounding community and get to know people as well as practice Swahili. Sometimes I end up playing a pick up game of soccer with a few kids, go to the beach and read, go to the market and look for some snacks/street food, or chat with an Indian man whose name I never get right and who always sits on the same corner as if he is waiting for me. I have heard it said before but its very true: Tanzanians are very friendly. Even if we don’t speak the same language sometimes they insist that I sit with them and enjoy the view of the ocean or busy road since people-watching is never boring and a popular activity. There are always so many people everywhere that its hard to feel alone. It is a massive change from the distant and secluded suburban life in Edmonton. One of the most fun parts about walking around the neighborhood and area is meeting children who either greet me with Shikamoo (the very respectful greeting reserved for elders, which actally means 'I clasp your feet' as if they were bowing) to which they wait for the reply from me marahaba (I accept your greeting) or they greet me with Mambo Vipi which pretty much means: 'sup. The greeting usually depends on if their parents are near by to overhear.

People are also biking, walking, skipping or driving in every which direction but never really seem to be in a hurry (I realized that either people walk really really slow here or I just walk ridiculously fast). It is refreshing that despite the busyness and crowded places, people seem to be laid back take things as they come.

When dinner comes I am presented with quite a feast of food, drink, and company. Dinners are intimate, shared, loud, and always start with the lords prayer. The nuns here always like to test my Swahili which always ends up with them laughing at me and me not knowing about what. There are always new people at dinner and no one ever has the same accent.

After dinner I try to finish some Swahili homework which is often about writing a story about a dog looking for a ball or a boy late for school which seems slightly juvenile but I do it anyway. Other evenings I find myself forgetting to do my homework and at the local bar/restaurant watching a football, rugby, basketball, or cricket game.

Its not long before I am exahausted and head to bed beneath my misquito net sheltered bed.

Although each day is different, I have gotten myself into a routine of never knowing what to expect.

Soon enough I will be heading to Mwanza district and to Sengerema, where I should be spending the majority of my time over these months. It will be great to get into the village and be a part of the grassroots work there. I will also be travelling to Nairobi, Kenya for a conference with the Micah Network on climate change and East Africa. I am also hoping to get to the Serengeti grasslands to see some animals. More information to come...

I hope to put pictures up very soon, but again with so many strange sights I never know what to take pictures of and usually end up taking none.

hope...

2009-06-03T21:29:00.002+03:00

While being here I have found the issue of ‘poverty’ to be quite daunting. While reading ‘The East African’ (a local newspaper) I come across headlines that recite of the problems of food shortages, bordering warfare and rebel groups, failing crops, natural disasters, food price shocks, aid cuts and the problems of aid dependency. Moreover, studying the topic in school and seeing it on TV ads can dethatch you from the reality and humanity of it all. Even here in Tanzania I am finding the magnitude of the issue and its reality very difficult to wrap my mind around.

Here in Dar es Salaam there is massive urban sprawl as many people are leaving more traditional lives in the villages to a more modern/western life in the city, only to realize it wasn’t all it was supposed to be. I have already personally run into several individuals and had conversations with them about how they came to Dar. All the youth say how “I came to find life”. This isn’t poor English but it is how they truly feel about life and opportunities back home: hopeless as if there is no life back home.

Many youth are leaving their families and farms to ambitiously follow their dreams of becoming rich and successful in the city discarding the humble village farming life. Furthermore, while speaking with some development workers from rural areas I hear that climate change and rainfall shortages are causing huge problems for farmers who are obviously highly dependant on their crop yields. I've learned many people often stick solely to corn as it gets a good price, but if the rains aren’t enough there is absolutely nothing to show at harvest time which is devastating. Furthermore agriculture employs 80% of the work force and accounts for 85% of their exports. When an industry that is so reliant on a variable like climate patterns there is a lot of uncertainty in the lives of the poor who already live on the brink of livelihood.

When moving to Dar, these youth realize how few jobs there are and how expensive living costs are. So many find themselves homeless or move into slums around the city in small makeshift shelters forced into unstable and insufficient sources of income. For example: when stopped at a traffic stop or caught in rush-hour traffic cars are swarmed with venders who are trying to sell goods anything from car seat covers and bubble gum to giant wall maps of Tanzania and cashews. What’s even more odd is how they all sell the same random assortment of things so that competition is more about luck than anything else. How can they make a livelihood off this is mindboggling. I am realizing many of them are not.

There are hundreds of thousands of people here in Dar who live like this. As I said, the actuality of poverty is incredibly complex and difficult for me to understand. The dilemma of worrying about where tomorrow’s food will come from is very real. Because of this its all to easy to be discouraged by numbers and headlines, see Africa as a lost cause and be overwhelmed. Many of us do this, not even just with Africa but with many problems the earth faces from homelessness, corporate greed, extreme poverty, broken economic systems, climate change … anything.

I’ve had to ask myself what am I, a white 20 year old from Vancouver Island doing here? What can I possibly do? What can any foreigner/aid/development worker possibly do? What place is there for good intentions in such a mess of a world? Even with the thousands of experts studying these problems they cant seem to find solutions.

However, I am also realizing that this reality of poverty although highly complex as a massive interconnected cycle has to be addressed in small steps. If you can intervene in someway in the cycle than you can make a difference. Rather than being discouraged by the massive issues that we face we can look at the community level at families and individuals. Change happens in small steps no matter what you are trying to accomplish.

That is why the work that CRWRC and their partners are doing is so important. For example: I visited a project today and sat in on a micro-finance group made up of 7 women and 7 men some about 60 years old, some less that 20, some Christians, some Muslims. Together they are makings savings and pooling money together, out of which they are able to give out loans to each other so that they can purchase capital and get ahead in their business. For example one man took out a loan that allowed him to travel to the nearby city and restock his shop while another was able to purchase a motorbike to use as a taxi. These loans are not donated by the West, it is not even donated by CRWRC, it came from themselves. All they received was some education and guidence on how to manage a group like this and co-operate with eachother. There are many of these groups in many villages across the country, they have the potential, they have the recourses, they just need to realize it.

If you can assist people from the villages in their work, you can make their life more sustainable, prosperous, and full. As a result you provide hope into a community and for their youth. They wont have to leave families behind and leave land uncultivated. I am not trying to confess that these issues are simple, but trying to show how true progress can and is being made.

There is hope, and its about uncovering the potential and capacity in every ordinary person, empowering them to realize that there is hope and there is room to grow. If we get caught up talking in about it and planning it, and have conferences and discussions and read books on it and pray about it but don’t do anything, then we haven’t accomplished much. Sometimes the solutions to these massive problems can be taken in small steps person by person and community by community. I am seeing this hope and I find it empowering for me, not exactly showing what I can do for people, but what any everyday person can do in their own life and in their own community (including you). I hope this provides hope for all of you reading too. Don’t be overwhelmed by the negative images we are presented with, but realize that beautiful things are happening and are so ordinary that they don't need news coverage.

first impressions of Dar

2009-05-28T21:32:00.005+03:00

Habari gani

Mambo

Vipi

Salama

Mzima

Hamjambo

Greetings to you all (there are many ways to greet people here and its quite a necessity)!

Ive been in Dar Es Salaam for about 6 days now and am trying to figure out what to write. Its been an interesting first few days, although that at the least should be expected.

The first few days left me with a lot of time in a city and with language I knew little of. Although, the people whether Tanzanians or foreigners are more than friendly which has lead to interesting conversations and a few adventures. Dar Es Salaam brings a peculiar group of people together in a city. The city itself is like none I have ever been to. With strong influences from the Arabic/Islamic north, India to the East, and Congo to the West it makes for a culturally, religiously, and linguistically diverse place. Just tonight I had dinner with a South African manager of a fair trade farm, a 60 year old Tanzanian man, a researcher of Impala from the UK, a refugee lawyer from Malaysia, and an Italian priest. Interesting dinner conversation.

I am staying at an Italian Guesthouse where people from all over the world come in an out frequently allowing me to meet many people. On my first day a few people from the US took me to a beautiful beach about a 15 minute walk from my place where they serve fresh fish, have live music, and white sand. While walking along the wake I met some Maasai men and we attempted to get to know eachother by both speaking swahili, a language neither they nor I spoke well. They seemed more fascinated by the colour of my lips that listening to my broken swahili.

The past four days, and for the next 2 weeks, I will be in Swahili Language school which is about a 15 minute Bajiji (3 wheeled taxi) ride each morning. Dar es Salaam, which means 'Place/House of Peace' in Arabic, is far from what its name might imply. Although Dar has been a fairly stable place for commerce and politics, day to day life is chaotic and full of life as people migrate in herds of taxis and buses through rush hour on the way into the city centre. In a country with increasing Western influence and little opportunity, many people are moving to the cities (including the traditional Maasai) in hope to find jobs and a better life.

So every morning I get up (with jetlag) to watch the sunrise over the ocean and catch a ride to school with my 2 classmates (a grumpy old man from Denmark and a wonderful French woman who has shown me around the city a bit). Classes are moving very fast and also gives me a fair amount of homework to stay busy with. It feels oddly like French class in highschool again, although I'm actually trying to get my head around it all and my fellow students are a little different. Swahili is a language very different from English and can be challenging, even though the pronunciations and rules are rather straightforward. I find it amazing how almost everyone I meet who speaks English speak it not as a first language but as a second or third. We (me) in North America are regrettably unique to only know one.

After class and after going to lunch with people from class or from the guesthouse, I have time to visit the CRWRC office, meet some staff and go through some orientation.

So far, I am amazed by the work that CRWRC is doing here in TZ. The organization here in TZ is run by my wonderful supervisor, Margaret, who seems to be an incredibly capable woman. What CRWRC does here in TZ is a lot of consulting with partner organizations which are working to become independent. The vision of CRWRC is to foster the growth, capacity, ownership, and self-sufficiency of these new organizations that work to empower the disempowered and make God's Kingdom more of a reality in people's lives. CRWRC in Tanzania alone has 9 partners, with 282 committed groups reaching over 16 000 participants. Their work is spread across many fields from small business/income-generating projects, to agricultural work and training, work with disabled people, orphans and street children and more. In the next few weeks I will be visiting a variety of these partners around the Dar Es Salaam area. Ill try to keep you posted.

Wish me luck as I finish my first week of schooling tomorrow and as I continue to adjust. Your prayers and emails have been greatly appreciated.

leaving tomorrow...

2009-05-22T00:07:00.005+03:00

Tomorrow (Friday) morning, I'm finally leaving. I wont arrive in Dar Es Salaam until Sunday, but I will still be leaving behind snow ridden Edmonton destined for coastal/tropical rains and humidity. I can't believe I'll finally be going. I have been pursuing this internship for almost a year and I still have lots to get in order and to pack. It is a mix of nervousness and excitement but it will be a relief to finally just go.

For those of you who don't know yet...

I am going to Tanzania (East Africa) for an internship from my degree at King’s with the help of the Micah Centre on campus. Today I also discovered I will be the recipient of a CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) grant from the Students for Development Program. This is great news as it allows me more freedom when I am in Tanzania and covers most of my trip. I will be working with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) for just over 3 months and doing a bit of travelling until I return to Edmonton on August 23rd. I will be working under the country director and travelling around Mwanza/Sengerema area towards the North around Lake Victoria. Although I have much to learn when I get to Tanzania, so far it sounds like I will be working with various branches of CRWRC that work with microfinance (small business operations), agriculture, street children, and other areas of society. I will be spending the first month in Dar es Salaam (the financial and old capital city) learning Swahili, visiting projects and getting accustomed to life there.

I have been interesting in development work in the past and I hope that this opportunity will not only stretch me as a person and challenge me, but also be a way to discern my future and what I want to do with my life. I will be travelling independently for the first time, and I have never been as far away (southern hemisphere & 9 hour time change) from North America. I know there will be challenges but at the same time I know I will be learning and growing so much. I was having a conversation with someone the other day and I realized how its these opportunities in life, that when they are pursued, change and transform you, it is only our responsibility to accept them and go forth with hope and faith in God.

Your prayers, emails, and comments would be greatly appreciated.

See:

Students For Development:

http://www.aucc.ca/programs/intprograms/sfd/sfd_e.html

Micah Centre:

http://www.kingsu.ca/micah/index.html

CRWRC Tanzania:

http://www.crwrc.org/pages/crwrc_esamt_tanzania.cfm