On expertise, and rain

Hi everyone,
I have decided to make an early new years resolution...to put up more pictures and less words on my blog. I seem to lose track of how long my posts are getting so I will try and at least split them up to make reading more manageable in the future.

Okay so I got up in good time today and had a bit of time just sitting outside reading, thinking and enjoying the fresh air. It poured down rain last night so the air was fresh and there was a slight mist as the water on the grass started to evaporate. I love these mornings as they remind me of being up at our cottage. That being said it is hard to beat a Kenyan sunset:

It is hard to capture on a camera, but that yellow colour was probably the deepest burnt orange sunset I have ever seen. Simply gorgeous.

Anyways, while I had some time to myself I was thinking back, reflecting over what I have read while on my trip and what we have been working on. As I mentioned a week or so ago, I started reading The Rule of Experts by Timothy Mitchell. I was fascinated by how he portrays the building of the Aswan Dam in Egypt by foreign directed engineering not as an introduction of knowledge where there previously was none, but rather as a reorganisation of knowledge. The purpose of the dam was to generate power and to regulate the flows of the Nile. Previously, the inhabitants of along the Nile had learned to accommodate the yearly flooding and to adapt to it. Once the dam was built however they lost that knowledge as the flows changed, and therefore lost knowledge rather than gained it.

This got me thinking about what we have been doing, and what we should be careful of while being here. The goal for us is not to impart our way of thinking as the best, but rather to help organise the clients of the bank into a position where they can better make decisions. We plan to impart some of our knowledge, but want that knowledge to match the local situation and cultural context. As Timothy Mitchell argues, any solution will be shaped by 'nature' or the context it is in, regardless of whether that is the intention of those implementing the solution. I am beginning to recognise that it can be a very fine line to walk between imparting 'expert' knowledge which can then simply concentrating and reorganising knowledge. Through the focus groups we have pushed the members to think of the board not as the ultimate solution to increased member involvement, but rather as part of the solution that depends upon them. We are hoping that the training we provide for the board members will serve everyone in the community well, not just them.

That is all for now. Today we will be going to a community health worker fundraiser in the afternoon which should be interesting, and then hopefully watching the Arsenal game in Obambo market. We will then finish planning the 9 remaining focus groups and go from there. Here is a picture of me hard at work, Katie suggested I put in "just to prove we are actually doing something!".
Ciao for now,
Graham

Maurice training me to be a bank officer (he said he might hire me in a few years)