Rainy, busy days...

Manure, rain, tea fields and sweat

The smell of unadulterated earth

Roadside stands with chickens, potatoes and sheets for sale

The smells are sometimes powerful

Cows graze next to the road and children wave with unabashed excitement

This is my Africa

This is my home

Thursday we spent the morning getting ready for the women and I went to greet the nurse I met the day before at her house. Anna and Shreyas came with me and we chatted for a while about her family and local customs (read: circumcision). We ate oranges and fell in love. It was baby day at the clinic. Another younger nurse said her favorite thing was the children. Her least favorite was when you tried your hardest to treat someone and they pass, despite everything you know how to do. Before we left, Josephine, the older nurse, prayed the most beautiful prayer over us and we went on our way to work.

Friday night we went to a bar near the hotel to watch the World Cup and get out of our little compound. It was fun- we ended up dancing to Kalengen (the local tribe) music and being silly. We met a random Kenyan who lives in Atlanta. He even showed me the driver’s license when I didn’t believe him. I used the “I have a boyfriend” line quite a few times and moved my ring to my left hand to fake a wedding band. It’s tough being so sought after.

Last night, Amanda, Anna, Turry (one of the research assistants) and I sat on my bed, watched a chick flick on my 10 inch computer, ate popcorn and rum raisin chocolate while the other research assistants and Shreyas went to a bar to try Napoleon brandy. We think we had the better night. It was nice just to have a girls night in. We are supposed to play a soccer match- Emory versus Egerton University (were 3 of the RAs, one consultant and the field supervisor are from). The mornings are beautiful, but the afternoons are so rainy and cold. Makes it hard to get in the mood to run around on the wet grass.

Today in Kericho Town, we went to an Anglican church- half in English, half in Swahili. It was the fanciest church I have ever been to in Africa. There were stained glass windows and yards of apricot colored satin draped across the front. My favorite was the REAL sound system that you could understand what was being said. There were bulletins and visitor cards and plastic lawn chairs. It blew my mind. A little girl crawled up into Amanda’s lap soon after the service started and stayed throughout. I could still see cows grazing from the windows, so I wasn’t too far removed from where I was.

After church, we decided to stop by the Sikh temple- the largest in Africa. Strangely, it is located in this little town in Western Kenya. It is so beautiful there. In keeping with their religion, they are required to feed us and offer us a place to stay. We ate an amazing lunch and had to promise to come back to listen to the groundskeeper play his music.

The Kenyan constitution is up for revision and will be voted on August 4th. It hasn’t been changed since Kenya gained independence from England. It has begun to divide the country, with many people making this a religious battle because of the controversy over abortion. A large rally held in Nairobi was bombed last Sunday. Someone threw a stun grenade on one side of the crowd and then when everyone rushed to the other side, they threw real grenades into the already panicking crowd. Almost 10 people died and many, many more were injured. At church this morning, the pastor read Matthew 7:1-7 and encouraged people not to judge people who are pro-abortion. You have to love them to show them the love of God. You will never win anyone with hate and judgement.

We have been so lucky to have so many blessings with our project. We have 2 drivers, 4 amazing research assistants, our hotel paid for and a per diem of almost $20. Our meals cost $5 if we splurge. We never expected any of this! Many other groups from the school have to find their own research assistants, drivers and don’t have the backing of a place like ILRI to help get contracts for everyone. We even have a field supervisor! There are 2 professors from Kenya that are consulting and running the focus group discussions. Despite all of this, I am trying not to feel like our project has been hijacked. It is all going really well, but after devoting so much time and effort to a project and then having someone else take over is frustrating at times. This has been every waking moment of my life for the past 3 weeks and a huge part of what I have worked on since April. I can’t decide if I am getting older or just more stubborn.

I have found two new favorite Kenyan foods- Mokimo and Githerei. Mokimo is mashed potatoes that have been prepared with pumpkin leaves mixed with corn and formed into a softball sized green blob. It is so good! Githeri is similar to the kande we ate in Tanzania- beans, corn, carrots and onions boiled together in a thick stew. Yummy!

Donkey in my meeting...

We had a really great first day of focus group discussions. About 30 men arrived to talk with us about the milk their cows produce, what their families consume, how they sell it and how their health is affected by keeping cows. We separated by how much milk is produced and I was with the highest producing group. I was pretty excited to be able to not have to rely on a translator. My Swahili isn’t as gone as I thought it would be. We sat outside in a circle and talked and before I knew what was happening, a donkey walked up. I am used to chickens, even children, interrupting meetings and I can usually ignore them, but a small horse that comes up to eye level and stares at you while the rest of the group doesn’t seem to notice? A little disconcerting. We just looked at one another (very closely) and then he wandered off into one of the government offices. That’s right. In the office. No one ran him off…I guess he just belongs there. There weren’t any donkeys in my village in Tanzania, so I never really realized how pretty they are! I want one now.

Elephants, Giraffes, Work and Me

I have my bags packed and I am leaving tomorrow morning for our field work! It has been a crazy two weeks! We arrived in Nairobi from Kapiti on Monday morning and got straight to work. We are staying at the ILRI compound, which is super safe and nice. The students were even given our own offices! I am staying with a super nice lady from India who just so happened to have gotten her PhD from NC State! What a small world! We have been having fun talking about Raleigh and the like.

I found out ILRI is kind of a big deal. It is a CG (Consultative Group) and there are only like 11 in the world and this is the only one for agriculture. Not a bad place to be associated with, really. We have worked our booties off trying to get the instruments ready for our Focus Group discussions and household surveys, key informant interviews and so on…apparently things have to be pretty well in order if you want to have some relevant data. I’ve learned and am learning so much about research and development…I even thought about getting my PhD for about 45 seconds. Let’s work on grad school first, tiger.

We were initially supposed to leave Thursday and then again today, but the new plan is we leave tomorrow for a completely different town than we were going to before. I’m trusting it will all work out just as it should.

Today we took our first day off (although we had a few meetings anyway) and went to the Elephant Orphanage, Giraffe Center and the Kazuri Bead Factory in Karen. I love the elephant babies and the giraffes are always fun. In a random twist of fate, one of the other students, Shreyas, ran into a friend he met while working in India a year ago. They had been pretty good buddies and hadn’t seen each other in a long time! What a small world! We had lunch with him and his buddies and then left Shreyas to have fun with his friends before they left for South Africa for the World Cup. Three of the last 4 World Cups, I have been overseas. Weird. Wonder where I’ll be next one? Since it is in Africa for the first time, people are nuts over the games. It is HUGE! I’m really excited, even though I’m not a big soccer fan. I’ll probably get into it…I wanted to buy a jersey just so I could fit in. I’m a sucker for team sporting events.

It’s getting close to bed time…I have a little bit of a sore throat and head gunk. It’s getting better, or at least I keep telling myself it is. I just need some more rest and a few more glasses of chai.

Kisses to you all!
Amanda Jean

PS- I go by Amanda Jean here because the other girl is Amanda as well, but with the accent, I get called Amanda Jane, which is the other Amanda’s middle name! She’s a “W” too, so we just have trouble all around.

A few photos to get you through your day...

A few photos from our stay at Kipiti Plains Estate, the place we stayed the first few days after arriving in Kenya...

1. Kipiti Plains at dusk
2. The view of Giraffe from the top of the Land Rover
3. Our "office"
4. View from my bedroom
5. Kipiti Plains Estate

First few days in Kenya

Things I didn't realize I missed about Africa:
• Airplane spoons
• The metric system
• The stars
• Crazy African roads
• The confidence I get when I am forced to take care of myself
• Crates of Coke
• My headlamp
• The quiet after a generator cuts off
• Chickens wandering around where I am
I don’t miss bugs.

My flights were good- I was snuggled between two Norwegians on the way to Amsterdam but had a good seat on the flight to Kenya. Watched some good movies and got a little bit of sleep. We got to the airport in Nairobi and I immediately slipped back into my African calmness. Our ride wasn’t there and we waited for 45 minutes or so. My traveling partner wanted to borrow a phone and call, but I just assumed they would come. I wasn’t worried. I just knew it would happen. I was sort of pleased that was my response instead of worrying. Not my natural response, but I liked it.

I am at Kipiti Ranch in Machakos outside of Nairobi. I am with several researchers from ILRI, spending the day on the verandah, sipping chai and hashing out our Focus Group Discussion Guides and Questionnaires for the project. I found out more about our project, too.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave $45 million for the East African Dairy Development Project. Heifer International is the lead organization, TechnoServe is in charge of the business end (working with creating a better market for dairy intensification) and ILRI is in charge of the research. The goal of the project is to double the dairy income in poor households in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda in an effort to impact one million people in 10 years. If the project is successful, The Gates Foundation will potentially increase the project to impact more people. We are currently in the first phase of 4 years. There was the suggestion to do a large scale nutritional assessment, but to determine if there is a need for such a large scale assessment without knowing if the project is even going to impact nutrition that greatly, we are doing a smaller assessment. My group is working on a qualitative review to see if the project (as is) will increase nutrition, specifically in children (because children are a good indicator of a society as a whole). There are four pathways in which we are trying to accomplish this-
• Direct consumption of milk
• Increased income
• Maternal time allocation
• Public Health

Enough about work. This place we are staying is amazing. It is an old ranch built in the early 1900s and sits on 60,000 acres. It is used to house the breeding herd for ILRI of about 2,500 cows and 1,000 sheep. We went on a game drive around the property yesterday and saw heartebeast, impala, gazelles, giraffe, zebra, warthogs, wildebeest and ostriches. It was amazing. The house has no electricity, but we have a generator we turn on at night and there is hot water. I was going to put a picture of the view from my room, but that takes way too much time. You'll see it later.

I am working with an amazing group of people. Tom is an American that was a Peace Corps volunteer and never left. He has a PhD in Agricultural Economics and Delia is a Veterinary Epidemiologist from Ireland. Isobel has a PhD in Economics and is from France and Jemimiah is a Kenyan with a PhD in Gender Studies and Agriculture. It’s an impressive group of people that are so cool and so easy to work with. It’s kind of amazing. The student team, Amanda, Anna, Shreyas and I are getting along really well and having a good time. We work really well together and complement each other. We all feel a bit overwhelmed with our first experience with “real” research, but we are learning so much.

Internet is slow out here, but we will be back in Nairobi on Monday, where internet will be much faster. I hope all is well with everyone!!

Love,
Amanda Jean

PS- I passed my nursing boards, which means I’m a real nurse now! Yay! What a relief! I was so worried taking them 24 hours before I left for Kenya, but it feels good to be done! Good luck to all my buddies taking them soon!
Amanda Jean Watkins, RN, BSN