Hello everyone!
Sorry for the delay in
getting to my next post. Especially now that we have gotten fully into
preparing the project on the ground, the time I can spend on the blog has been
more limited than I would have liked. The internet has also been a little
sketchy recently.
Okay…where to start.
So aside from a run in the morning we spent Monday basically just at the house
working on the project. It felt very good to get back to running again, and it also
gave us a chance to explore a bit in an area we otherwise would not have seen
much of. Unfortunately I have lost a lot of the fitness I previously had during
the soccer / triathlon season! Hopefully I can get some of it back while here.
Once we got back from
our run, we started working through our long to-do list. We continued working
through the audit and completed a document with everything we want to do during
the focus groups. The plan is that this will function more or less as our
script for the event. We then went through that document with Maurice, and scheduled
all the focus groups (or at least started to, but found it difficult to get
past the first couple). Our ideal size for one of these focus groups is
probably around 10-12, but it is impractical for us to go through any more than
maybe 6-8 focus groups, which limits the number of members we can reach. Some of
the villages have many more people than other villages. Kagoo for example has
117 members at our last count, while Seme for example only has 4. We have
organised two focus groups for two of the villages, one on Wednesday and one on
Thursday. They both have around 15 members in them, which we hope should be a
good number (under the assumption that some people won’t be able to make it).
Our goal with these focus groups is to build support for the idea of increased
community involvement with the bank, which we hope to direct towards some form
of representation. Based off the people we have talked to so far, this should
not be too much of a stretch. We are planning on having a translator for Katie
and I while Maurice can engage the members in a flowing conversation. The hope
is that with Maurice engaging the clients in a meaningful conversation, and
with us following along through a translator, that we will be able to get the
clearest picture of how the clients see the bank moving forward.
After sorting out the
focus groups Maurice headed back home to finish some of the planting on his
farm, while Katie and I continued working. Next on our list was to develop the
series of computer lessons we wanted to give to Maurice. One of the other travellers,
who will be coming later with the health team, has generously donated her
laptop for Maurice to use, and he has requested that we teach him some skills
on the computer. He is already fairly computer literate and he can send emails,
but his typing is slow and his knowledge generally limited. Since we had been
inside a lot already, we decided work on our tans while working and camped out
on a concrete area outside the house. We then got to work on the curriculum, to
include a range of skills for Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, the internet,
folder management and typing. We managed to outline most of the lessons in
pretty good detail, although we were rudely interrupted by a swarm of curious
ants. Apparently they didn’t like me sitting on their house! Thankfully they
didn’t bite and left us along after I moved away.
Following our ant
adventure and computer lesson planning we headed in for dinner and worked on
the audit further. Thankfully we are getting close to being finished, with just
a few small pieces of information left to be gathered. It has been somewhat of
a funny year just with the bank moving to a new location and Maurice taking on
more responsibility, so it will be nice to have everything finally sorted out.
That night I had a phone call to a meeting in Vancouver for a consulting
program I have been enlisted to help organise for next year. I have to say that
it’s pretty cool to be able to do that. Although my line cut out (more than) a
few times, I still managed to listen in and contribute although I am halfway across
the world from Vancouver.
Tuesday was spent as a
day in town to run some errands. After getting up and ready we started to plan
the final details of our trip to town (we were determined to try going
ourselves), but quickly it dawned on us that we would need some kind of guide.
Thankfully Pamela, our housekeeper, was willing to join us and we caught a
mutatu into town. On our to-do list was to visit the bank where we have been
depositing the client’s savings to sort out some issues, and to withdraw some
money for the summer’s projects. Kenyans seem to be very set in procedure, but
we managed to set up the groundwork for completing the changes next time we
visit. Once our business there was complete we headed to the Nakumat, which is
easiest to explain by describing it as the Kenyan version of Walmart. Katie and
I decided that we needed to stock up on our teas: getting some Masala Chai,
Green Tea and Camomile tea for us to indulge on. There were some other small
house items to make our stay more comfortable, such as some handtowels and me finally
getting my own shampoo! We also decided that eating the same food (rice, beans
/ lentils with cabbage, all doused in turmeric and beef spices) was getting repetitive
so we picked up some spaghetti, tomato paste, oregano and garlic powder to make
some true “Italiano” pasta.
Following our Nakumat
experience we proceeded to the vegetable market, before realising that we still
needed to pick up a flip-chart for the focus group, and a receipt book for documenting
any project expenses. After a call with Maurice we found out that we had headed
in the wrong direction and had to backtrack. This was where Pamela came in
handy since she knew where to go, and even know somewhat of a shortcut which we
could take. Needless to say we would have been lost without her, although I
think we should finally be okay on our own next time. This task done we headed
to the market and picked up the onions, green peppers, carrots, tomatoes and
cabbage we needed. Naturally we also had to get some of the juicy, fresh
mangos, for a snack later. At this point we caught a mutatu and headed back.
Katie has not entered her cheap phase yet so we paid the extra 20 bob
(shillings) each rather than walk back 15 minutes back to our original mutatu
stop. The same money collector on the mutatu we took home ended up being the
same one which had taken us home from the airport a few days back. I guess we
are pretty easy to remember!
Once home we sunk our
teeth into setting up the house budget. It is somewhat of a headache, but we
managed to set up a good system that we think will work (if everyone uses it).
I have already had some experience with doing the same thing with my roommate
in Vancouver, and Katie has some experience helping her mum with some
accounting jobs, so we were able to figure it out. While I worked on the
expenses, Katie updated the board training document which we then went over with
Maurice to get some feedback, especially around its feasibility. He seemed to
like it and had a few small suggestions around the structure of what we had
thought up. That night we shared a call with Liz, our wonderful team leader in
Vancouver, to update her on what we had been doing and to seek some advice.
While here on the ground it can be easy to lose sight of the big picture, or to
forget the larger reasons for the things we had planned, so it was very good to
have a call with her. Due to us starting the focus groups later than we had
originally hoped, all of our plans have had to be pushed back, and therefore we
will have less time with the eventual board than we would like. Our training therefore
was a little tight for time, and Maurice suggested that we compress our
training into fewer days, but holding a full-day session. This makes logistical
sense, but after talking with Liz we were reminded of the original purpose of
the board training…which is more than making sure they learn all the content we
want them to. The bigger purpose will be to build a connection between us and
the board, in addition to a connection between all the board members such that
they can effectively function together as a group. Therefore although it would made
sense logistically to compress our training sessions…it gets away from the
ultimate goals of them. Everything we are working towards while here ultimately
comes back to getting a strong, functioning and committed board that will serve
in the best interests of the community. Although each part of our project this
summer is dependent upon the other parts, this training will be one of the most
important sections for the project to succeed.
Okay so that is all
for now, I am going to do some other work and come back to do one for Wednesday
afterwards if I have some time. Today was exciting since we got to hold our
first focus group (finally!) and met Maurice’s family, so I promise to try and
make it a good one.
Hope all is well,
wherever this post may find you,
Graham
No comments:
Post a Comment