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