Wrapping up the Training

Thursday was the final day of our official training sessions, and we made it a full day event. We started at 11am (though we were scheduled to start before 10) and finished off at 630pm. It was a long day but it was focused on setting up the Board for success throughout the year.
Several of the discussions we had revolved around how the Board meetings would run, and how Graham and I could stay in contact with the Board so to keep the relationship moving.
Generally throughout the training, Graham and I would start the conversations with an introduction to the topic, ask the members to discuss the topic, then we would come back together and tell them our thoughts on the topic, summarize and move on. One of the topics though, was creating the oath that all the members would swear by at Bank Day. For this discussion, we told them to create the oath on their own, and we would just review the translation once they had completed it. Watching the Board interact with each other gave me so much inspiration for the upcoming year. Each member was contributing (even Rose, who is quite shy towards us) and each member brought very good ideas forth, from what we could tell from the Luo conversations. I was nervous that some of the quieter members would not be engaged throughout the year, but it proved me wrong!
For lunch break, we all headed into the market and grabbed chapatti and ugali (traditional foods) and got to talk with the members about their lives outside of the position. It was very endearing, and it was an eye opener as well. For each of these members, this Bank really is a source of their livelihood. I am leaving hoping that they will work hard so the project doesn't fall apart. But they are in this position to help the community throughout the year, and they don't see this as a project.
Though we have finished with the training, we are hoping to have about three more touch points with the Board members. We are looking forward to holding individual feedback sessions, as well as having them involved with Bank day. 

Auditing is Awesome

As we told our Board, auditing is awesome. Graham even ran a workshop with the Board members to teach them how to complete this crucial governance task during the year – they need to complete one full Bank audit in November for GIVE. We have taught the Board a very simplified version of how to audit that boils down into one sentence: what Maurice has recorded that we have in the Bank, and what the Commercial Bank Account says we have. Easy, yet elegant.

Our Bank runs on economies of scale. It is too expensive for the majority of the villagers to travel to Kisumu to deposit their money into a commercial bank. Not only is the cost of travel too high for most, but also the fees incurred when setting up an account, or meeting minimum deposit amounts is beyond the scope of the villagers financial powers. Our Bank acts as a middleman, who collects all the villagers’ deposits then only makes one trip into Kisumu for 300 savers each week. [side: the average deposit is about 100 KSh. That’s $1.30. The average Bank account holds about 600 KSH].

So we set up this lovely equation. All of the files are paper based, and kept in three binders that Maurice carries to and from the Bank each operating day. Step one: total up all of the recorded client deposits from the client files. Add to that amount the amount of Project Money that GIVE holds in the same commercial bank account in order for Maurice to pay for expenses associated with the Bank. Next, subtract all of the expenses that have been incurred in the period. This is done by comparing all receipts to Maurice’s expense book. This equals A. Step two: Take the commercial bank balance. Remove all interest that has been added to the sum, and add back any tax and fees deducted. A should equal B.

Only problem with this entire procedure is that the commercial bank account does not fulfill one of the two jobs that it was set up for. Yes, all of the client money that has been deposited is safe and sound, and so is the project money. The problem lies in trying to withdraw the project money. This ‘feature’ hasn’t worked since February, and Maurice has been spending his own money in order to cover all expenses that the Bank has had. This completely messes up the entire equation. It did not make any sense to the Board members as to the way that we had to bypass this error (by only counting the expenses that were able to be paid for with those withdrawals).

THANK GOODNESS FOR FREDRICK

Fredrick has been jumping in to explain concepts to the Board whenever we have needed him. Which seems to be a lot, since a lot of the concepts become lost in translation, whether it is from our side explaining a term, or from the clients asking questions. Fredrick would just jump in, say something intelligent in English, then go right on explaining it to everyone in Luo. If there was a way we could grade the Board on their skills, he would get a mathematical A+.

Even with Fredrick’s explanations, Graham and I aren’t one hundred percent convinced by their ability to complete the entire thing on their own. We’ll be creating a step-by-step auditing procedure in their manuals. We are also hoping that Fredrick spearheads this one

Third Board Meeting

Thursday, May 31^st was our third Board training. By far, it was the most intensive training day of their course. The agenda read something along the lines of:

The Importance of Budgeting

How to Create Monthly Budgets

The Importance of Auditing

How to Audit

Engagement Case Study

The Purpose of the Kanyawegi Community Bank

Creating the Mission Statement and Vision Statement

Organizational Values at the Bank

It was a long day, especially due to the general business education of the Board. Though every single person on the Board is incredibly intelligent on top of having amazing personalities, there is very little business education [side note: one member, Fredrick, is actually on his way to being an accountant! More on his lifesaving accounting skills in another post]. In fact, just re-reading that agenda almost overwhelmed me. Each of the topics covered was done at a basic level, but the responses we received at every turn were very inspiring and energizing.

Before showing the Board how budgeting applied to the Bank and to their positions, we ran through how budgeting could help them in their everyday lives. We taught it to them in a way that they could relay the knowledge to the broader community. Most of the Board are already active savers at the Bank, but showing them how to make a PLAN for their future changed their perspective on the importance of Bank. Halfway through this budgeting introduction, our translator Sally stopped Graham and I and asked if even someone like her, who could only save very small amounts, could make a budget. It was touching when we told her that she most definitely could, and the next day we saw her at the Bank, signing up for a new account!

The introduction to auditing was not quite as smooth as the intro to budgeting. Everyone really understood the importance of auditing; mainly the fact that it fights corruption and makes sure that all the money is accounted for. Beyond that however, auditing is just a buzz word in their vocabulary. We taught them a very simplified auditing procedure (again, described in detail in another post), but the mathematical reasoning skills they have don’t quite jump to the conclusions as easily as we had been hoping. However, we powered through, and encouraged them to ask many questions. I think that when Maurice realised that people outside of GIVE would be critiquing his work, he got a little bit more cautious with how he approaches expensing receipts. He also got a bit defensive, which was expected. But he realises how this Board is here for the long-term success of the Bank, and not because we suspect him of anything, which is a relief.

The engagement case study went incredibly well – once again they nailed all the answers and went beyond what we had planned for. We had set up the case to result in answers such as “the committee members should work together to bring encouragement to the community”. They came up with answers such as “Each person needs a specific role in order to stay engaged over the year, and the supporting body should be providing an incentive program to keep members working hard at their jobs”.

But it was the creation of the directional statements that blew my mind that day. Mission statements, Vision statements, mottos (hakuna matata), Organizational Values, Value statements, you name it and every single organization, business, school, hospital and CBO has them here. However, actually writing these up become very convoluted, and it is very easy to mix them up or have them be ineffective. I was fully expecting to have the group make a bunch of suggestions that were service based, such as ‘offering microcredit’ or ‘opening many branches’, things that really don’t belong in a mission statement. [side: for those unfamiliar with a mission statement, it is the purpose of the Bank, coupled with the demographics of their clients and the needs it fulfills of the clients. Vision statement encompasses the long term goals of the Bank, that align with the mission statement]. The mission statement they developed after FIVE minutes of group brainstorming?

To be an institution that nurtures the culture of saving to help the low income earners achieve their financial goals

Yeah, I almost teared up at that one.

This is the last time I will do an apology blog post I promise. The past five days have been beyond hectic as Graham and I have been working to complete the Board of Director training. This evening marked the last ‘training’ session, so now it’s almost like I have some free time. I guess we do, other than we need to have a fully prepared manual written from scratch ready to go by June 19^th, as well as an up and running Access database.

Reviews of the past five days (has it really only been five days? I don’t believe it, time here moves on a completely different scale, where the days seem to be flying by yet it feels like each day is really three days piled into one) are coming right up, as usual!

Side note: Three more of our girls are arriving tomorrow! Hannah (nutrition), Robynn (Health) and Elisa (Health) are in at 9 am. It’s incredibly fun meeting the travelers at the airport, as the energy they carry is so intense when they catch their first glimpses at the country they will soon be calling home. Safe flights!

Second Board Training

We only had a day to prepare for our second and our third Board trainings, as the schedule had to be changed from what we had originally planned. We used the feedback that we had received to really shape the structure of the second session, which gave us a ton of room to work with.

My Dad helped Graham and I out a few weeks back when we were initially struggling with the concepts of the training. We had previously been looking at it as a mandatory requirement, some sort of obstacle between the elections and the first Board meeting. It was an afterthought, and we were trying to figure out how to make it sound like it wouldn’t be such a burden to the members. Dad suggested that we switched our focus from having it as a requirement to having it as an educational opportunity. Since this is a culture where education is highly valued but few people are highly educated, turning this into a certifiable course would give members an incentive to be involved. I was unsure of if the members would even realise this was what we were trying to do. But listening to the members tell their stories proved me wrong. Rose, who is very shy, told us how she had never been given either education or the opportunity to interact with foreigners. She wasn’t the only one who placed a high value on the education we were providing. I found it very amazing to watch the work I had put into the project transform into an invaluable experience for seven individuals.

 Our theme for the second session was Goal Setting and Community Involvement, which gave the Board plenty of topics to talk about. We tried out role playing between a ‘board member’ and a ‘client’, which did not go as smoothly as we had planned, but gave the members plenty of opportunities to critique ways to talk with clients. We taught the concepts of SMART goals and how to talk with clients about moving forward with the Bank.

We also held a very important conversation on Wednesday with the Board that we had been quite nervous about.We had to bring up the differences between confidentiality and transparency. Both were hotly contested topics at the focus groups, and we felt we had to make it very clear what information we wanted to be spread throughout the community, and what needed to stay within the Bank. Thankfully everyone agreed to what we thought about regarding member privacy and leaking information. What a relief.

First Board Training

As promised, here are my posts about the first three Board training sessions! Only a week late -  in a Kenyans opinion, these are right on time.

The first training was held on Monday. It was exciting to say the least to meet each new Board member. Sadly, everyone ran on Kenyan time and we had to start half an hour late. It was fun for Graham and I to watch the members form opinions of us. We knew Pamela quite well (she is our Momma after all) and our translator Joseph (from the eleven focus groups…) but the other members were people that we had only met three or four times briefly in the past three weeks.

It was apparent that none of the members knew what to make of the training when we started. We started off the meeting with icebreakers, which on reflection I don’t think they regularly use over here. One of the introduction questions we asked was “if you could be any animal, what would you be and why?” Some of the answers we got were a little weak (Graham said he would be a beaver, since they are smart and hardworking. Last I checked beavers just block rivers and look soggy) but others were inspiring. Joyce said she would be a giraffe, since she would use her height to continually look forwards over the horizon. Fredrick said he would be a simba so he can protect the bank from corruption. We found these quite interesting, but the members could not figure out the ‘point’ behind them.

Shortly after coaxing them through the introductions and icebreakers, we got to the good stuff. We had presented a case study about working for the benefit of the community, and they all rocked it. In fact, they actually provided better answers to all the questions than we had anticipated them to have. Brainstorming also gave them an opportunity to get very engaged with their learning. They gave us some great responses to our brainstorm on Ways to Engage the Community Members. However, we shortly had to introduce time limits on their presentations. Brevity is not a widely used skill here.

After the session finished, we asked for some feedback on the pace and teaching style. We got many compliments on the fact that we did not stand and lecture them, but rather had every section act as a different style of discussion. That was a great feeling, hearing that all our hard work paid off to provide them with a valuable experience!

As for the Tea Situation. We presented our idea, but before we even had the opportunity to finish our sentence, all seven members were laughing at the idea. They did not see the point in pooling their tea supplies. That was their choice, we offered but apparently it’s engrained in their culture too greatly to change. We have opted to not provide tea for the remaining sessions as well, as we didn’t see the value in providing tea when they weren’t willing to share either. More updates to come.  

Three Down

You know that feeling, after you’ve just run a marathon and realise you can take a minute to breath? Yeah me neither, but I can imagine it feels somewhat like this.

Though I really don’t have a good excuse for not writing in so long, an excuse I do have. Originally, we had planned to spread our five training sessions over three weeks. We had our first meeting on Monday, and announced the schedule to our new Board members. Well, apparently the dates we had planned for, particularly during the third week, simply did not work with their schedules. After re-juggling and considering everyone’s weeks, the agreed training sessions ended up looking like so: Monday, Wednesday Thursday, Tuesday, Thursday. A little worrying, since Graham and I felt like we still had mountains to climb in order to finish the plan for the second training, let alone the third.

However, in hindsight, getting forced to figure it out with considerable time pressure was the best learning experience I could have asked for. Instead of procrastinating and waiting for other people to help me figure it out, I was thrown in with Graham, given about forty eight hours to plan seven hours’ worth of training material. Other than the rough work we had prepped while determining which topics to cover on each day, we had little to work with. It’s amazing what you can accomplish once you get pushed out of your comfort zone.

Rest assured, all the sessions turned out to be very successful – simultaneously the most relieving and rewarding feeling I have ever experienced. Two sessions packed with auditing, budgeting, goal setting and case work, all from scratch.  There were countless touching and eye-opening experiences. If and when the internet starts working again, I will post about all of them. 

Election Night

The elections wrapped up last night, and it was pretty exciting to say the least. It was surprising to feel so excited during the counting process, not at all what I was expecting. The overall stats were pretty good. 67% of the bank members came out to vote - we are happy with that! [100% was the goal, and Maurice tried suggesting we extend the elections one more day... for democracy you know. We told him that it would be undemocratic to change the dates, since it didn't give everyone the same opportunity or knowledge]
On the note of Maurice, he was not as excited as I had thought he would be. A small part of me thinks this might be because he is scared of the Board. He runs the Bank throughout the year, does an amazing job of it, and knows more about the members and the system than anyone else does. I think he's a bit scared to let these six people into his project that he has built. Completely reasonable, he cares incredibly about the Bank's success, since it has such an impact on the community's life. Another part though that I have made a note of is that many places in Kenya have "Boards" and "committees", yet these really don't do much other than have the title and a little bit of corruption on the side. I think once Maurice realized that this would be a Board Board, one that meets monthly and evaluates both the Bank and Maurice's role as the CEO, he got a little nervous. Not accusing Maurice in any way, but the Kenyan way of doing things is to get things done the easiest way, then re-image the whole scheme to make it seem that it was done another way. 
We will conquer that issue in the Board training, which is set to begin in 30 hours! Surreal - the little imaginary Board that Graham and I have built the training for, whom we just referred to as the BoD now are very much real people!
Introducing Pamela, Joice, Joyce, Rose, Fredrick and Michael - our new Board members!

Project Run Through

It’s somewhat of a running joke at Kaguya that none of my blog posts refer to the projects we are working on this summer. Not fair but kind of true, I guess when compared to Grahams blog

So I figured I would start writing waaay better project updates than he does. Challenge accepted.

The goal for the time that I leave Kenya is to have created a Board of Directors that will create both security within the bank and member engagement within the community. Please note that the six members that will be elected for this position a) probably won’t speak English b) have probably never worked within a formally structured job setting before and c) are completely volunteer. The elections run until Saturday, May 26th, after which we will have our six board members. The first day of training is Monday, May 28^th. And from that day, there is thirty days until my flight leaves Nairobi to return to Canada.

Within those thirty days is 5 days of board training, two days of audit education, one full-fledged board meeting, one bank day celebration,  dealing with the Barclays saga (to be explained soon, it’s completely comical) as well as determining how to deal with Honey Care Africa (another situation that makes me break into hysterical laughter just thinking about it).

As of tonight, the end of the third day of voting for the Board, 30% of the members of the bank had voted. We haven’t yet reached 100%, but we’ve got until Saturday evening. At a minimum, we are hoping that over 50% of the members show up, to really promote democracy. [side note: people here love the idea of democracy, though they have trouble grasping the full concept. I congratulated Maurice on the fact that we had a 44% turnout rate for the focus groups last week, and he told me he was upset. When I told him that no, 44% for a focus group is really good, he accused me of not believing in democracy, because it would only have been democracy if all 280 members had attended. I told him that democracy was providing every individual an equal opportunity, which we had done. He refused my answer and that conversation ended pretty quickly]

Actually, just realising that there is little over thirty days left almost gave me anxiety. More like a shock that my trip is a little under half-way over. 

A Quick Hello

I apologise for not posting for so long, I can’t believe that a week has flown by – it’s been crazy busy over here.

Over the weekend, Kaguya grew from two to seven! Victoria and Lisa, from Nutrition, joined us on Friday, and our three Education girls, Chaviva, Allie and Sarah, got in on Monday. The past few days have been spent showing the girls around and introducing them to the Kenyan way.

On top of all that, the Nomination and Election process is in full swing. We had a great nomination week, with over 29 nominees. We had a mandatory nominee meeting on Sunday, to congratulate them and discuss what the positions would entail. Some people didn’t show up, so we ended up with 22 very strong candidates to the position. Its very exciting, as we were a little nervous that we would not get very many at all, or that we would be left with weaker candidates.

Throughout this week, we are running elections. So far, 25% of the members have come out to vote! It’s Thursday on this side of the world, and these elections run until Saturday evening. How exciting the project is getting is unreal.

I’ll post a longer blog tonight, I am just running off and heading to Kisumu, we need to get some more groceries! (Mangos are 45 cents, needless to say, its mostly all I eat)

Holla Holo

There are very few stores in Kanyawegi. I could probably count on one hand the number of stores I have seen since being in the region that would qualify under North American standards. Here, it is all about the markets. Graham and I have spent a majority of our days in Obambo market, where the Bank is located. Obambo is small and quaint, with a couple Mandazi places, one place to get cold soda, a place to watch football game in, and a few open air stalls the merchants use. Most of the produce isn’t grown locally, but is bought in Kisumu and brought here. It’s a lazy little market that only gets exciting when it starts to torrential downpour.

Holo, a twenty minute bike ride, has become my new favorite market. Tuesdays are known in the region to be Holo Market Days. No joke, we couldn’t hold a Focus Group late on Tuesday because people would be at Holo, and luckily we didn’t. Maurice took Graham and I, and it was such a fun end to the day. While it doesn’t compare in size or crazy to a Thai Night Market, it is a wonderful place. We can find all our fruits and veggies there, along with rice, beans, lentils and any dried fish we could desire (we passed on that). Plus, one little stall made crazy good African Samosas.

 
I’m pretty excited to head over there again next week and really get to explore. It’s a nice medium between the African slumber of Obambo and the relative intensity that is Kisumu.

Monkey Business

So far our exposure to wildlife in Africa has been pretty limited. We have BB Cow living in the yard, some goats that bleat at us as we bike to the Bank each morning, some irritating chickens and roosters that start cock-a-doodle-dooing at 5 am, and the pack of guard dogs that howl all night. The little birds are kind of cute, little balls of bright blue and yellow bouncing between trees. We also have somewhere between three and seven geckos roaming the house. Pretty lame on the African Exclusive animals.

BUT I DON’T CARE ANYMORE BECAUSE I SAW MY FIRST AFRICAN MONKEYS

They like to live in the Mango trees that line Kaguya. They were running across the roof of one of the buildings towards the mango tree. The children who live on the property were playing with our bikes when they pointed them out to us. I was in such a fit of excitement I quite forgot about pictures. Mama Pamella and Mama Syprose laughed when I told them how excited I was about seeing one. Apparently they are huge pests and eat all the good mangos during mango season. And apparently they frequent Kaguya, I just need to pay attention and spend more time lurking near the mango trees.

Maybe I’ll even tame one and make it my best friend. Who knows, Africa is a crazy place

Mama Africa

I’ve found that since I have been here, it becomes so easy to get dialled into creating processes that you can lose sight of why you’re even in Kenya

While here, I have connected closely with Pamella, our house keeper. We call her Mama Africa, and she calls me her Daughter (watch out Mum, I might not be coming home!). She’s extremely sweet, and taught herself English over the past few years of working in the GIVE household. She told us that people assume she has a university education when she speaks with us since she is fluent (she only has up to a grade 8 education)

She’s been a member of the Bank since the beginning, aka 2007. She claims that the past five years have changed the way she lives her life. Before she began saving, she wouldn’t even have a spare 50 shillings, and her household had no security of any kind. The Bank gave her the venue to do so, though it wasn’t until 2010 that she really got into it. She was a recipient of GIVEs second round of microcredit lending, which she used her loan to grow her little grocery shop in Kanyawegi. Her business grew, and most of all, she was given confidence and strength. Pamella now is a consistent Super Saver, coming to the Bank sometimes more than twice a day! She saves whatever she can, even if it is only 20 shillings (about 30 cents). She can afford to put her children through school, and even had the ability to send her eldest to Boarding School, which is much more expensive than public school here.

It sounds like such a clichéd story you get from a brochure or on those late night infomercials. But it was surreal to hear it coming from Mama herself, and to hear the passion in her voice as she talked about how much the Bank means to her. She’s currently nominated for a Board of Director position at the Bank, and she is the perfect candidate. I almost want to fix the elections to guarantee her a spot, because she does nothing but good for the Bank.

Kaguya, in photos

Yes, I finally overcame my laziness to get Graham to compress a couple of photos I had taken of Kaguya (our little compound we live in). Then, after that process was finished, I had to wait for Safaricom to figure itself out. And here they are!

This is the entrance to our little GIVE palace

BB Cow! Pretty sure he was born a day or two before I arrived, such a cutie, he's just learning to walk around by himself, he stands outside the house most days

Graham chilling on the cement thing, with the laundry. This is our preferred tanning location

The back side of the house (left) and the second house (right). There are too many GIVErs to fit into the one house!

There is my first round of pictures, hope you enjoy! Better late than never, right?

A Mad Tea Party

Kenyans only drink two things I have realized. Soda (either Coca-Cola or Fanta) and Tea. This isn't even an exaggeration. Last night, while walking home from grabbing a soda with Maurice and his friend Timothy, Timothy said how he thought it was funny that Muzungas (white people) drink water.

Soda is a very social event, very much like grabbing a drink in Canada is (drinking any alcohol here is reserved for alcoholics, so we've been staying away from that representation).  Its casual, you go sit in the market place after work and talk and make noises at the farm animals that also live in the market place (goats and chickens mostly)

But Tea is a totally different ball game. The American Tea Party doesn't even represent how political Tea is in Kenya. I mean, it’s tasty and I have pretty much replaced drinking water with drinking copious amounts of green tea and masala chai. 

So what is the big deal with the politics? Most meetings and conferences I have been to serve both coffee and tea, but never have I shown up at those events expecting a free drink – it’s just a nice perk really.

But in Kenya, things are completely different. Bringing tea to a meeting sets a precedent, and gives the group the mentality that they can begin to make demands. Tea makes things real intense. Not only does it give the group that entitlement, but it also sets the expectation that you will continue to provide tea, for each and every upcoming event. Especially if it is a Muzunga providing the tea - they know we can afford it (it costs about 100 shillings to provide the tea, which is a $1.30).

All we wanted to do was provide refreshments for the training sessions for our Board of Directors. We had this idea, that as a group strengthening activity, each Director would bring a different ingredient and we could all have tea and be merry and continue on with our lives. But when we asked Maurice if this would work, he told us how inappropriate it would be, how hard it would be for the individuals and what if they couldn’t afford it? Gah.

To tea or not to tea, that is the question.

The Safaricom Situation

“Katie, you really need to learn to ditch the sitch” – Alana McMullen

“Here, you should just use my phone” – Graham Clark

“I would not wish Safaricom on my worst enemy” – Katie Dergousoff

People in Canada whine and moan over how overpriced and shady all of the cell phone providers are. But I swear I will never ever ever again complain about Rogers or Telus or Shaw Cable as long as I live under my parents roof. Nothing is as horrible as Safaricom.

How naïve I was, that first day when I flew into Nairobi airport and saw the Safaricom sign – cheap calls to Canada! Four shillings a call! Five cents! Wow, waaaaaay cheaper than Rogers could ever dream to be! And wow, Graham had gotten us a Safaricom UBS rocket stick! Internet at Kaguya, so key.

No. No. No. Katie from last week. Don’t do it.

My Safaricom SIM card cannot hold connection for more than ten minutes, IF it can even find reception in the house (which is about once a day, with two bars if I am particularly lucky). Texting is a particularly fun adventure, as it can take up to half an hour of resending a message before it goes through, then up to four hours to receive a message back (tried and true.)

The internet stick is even more comical. No website has ever been developed for third world country internet. Not joking, it has probably taken about fifteen minutes just to publish this post. The Facebook homepage can load, and if I am lucky I can see my notifications before it crashes and refuses to load for another twenty four hours. Gmail loads on the html view, but pray to the lord that you can open an email or send an attachment. Uploading a single picture takes more than an hour, but I am not too sure as my patience ran out shortly after that and I threw the stick across the room.

However, I will give the acceleration and braking on the stick credit, as the kilobytes per second tend to fluctuate like so:

0 kb/s, 400kb/s, 2.345 kb/s, 0 kb/s, 30kb/s, 999999999999kb/s, 0 kb/s, .03 kb/s, 3 kb/s

Safaricom is the bane of my existence. 

Love is all you need...

It’s quite funny. I always had this little idea in my head that most organisations worldwide have the same processes to reach success, with the differences lying in each community’s definition of ‘success’.

In Sauder we are taught a specific way of thinking which involves a very logical, mathematical (hah) way of thinking. I came over here with the expectation that our focus groups regarding the evolution of the bank would follow this thought process. Yes, I had factored in the fact that the majority of the members present at these focus groups would not have a formal education past high school (if that) but my strong belief of the one way to implement this Board of Director structure won out.

Naturally and slightly ironically, everything I had been taught about the ‘way’ to do things was wrong. To the villagers of Kanyawegi, this Board of Directors would not just be a group of seven well-liked individuals from the community who had the capacity to learn the hard skills of commerce (such as auditing and reasonable decision making). While we were envisioning the Board as a group of members liable to the community, who would act as a check against Maurice, the community feels that this Board will have the power to achieve great things. This Board will change Kanyawegi. This board will be courageous, honest, loyal, transparent and determined.

And the word that was used more times than any other word? Love.

Love is not a word I have ever associated with formal business. Saying that the Board will have to have love, that they will be bonded by love, that they will work out of love for the Bank, those things would just never ever be said in a Western society looking at the same challenge. They feel that love will conquer corruption and jealousy. I’ve never thought of love this way. But to these villagers, the Bank has surpassed just being another place. The fact that each participant in this initial focus group felt so strongly that any member elected to the Board must feel this love shows the impact our little Bank has had.

Truly humbling. 

Shaggy

The little estate that we are living on, Kaguya, is conveniently located in the heart of Kanyawegi. However, it is irritatingly far from Town, aka Kisumu. Also irritating is the fact that such things as Barclays (which GIVE has an account with) and the supermarket are located in Kisumu. 

Mutatus are to Kenya what the 99 b-line is at rush hour to Vancouver. Packed, sweaty and driven by a maniac. However, unlike Vancouver, Mutatus have hilarious names stamped across the front window, such as 'Mystery Machine', 'The Lord Savior' and 'Challenger'. Today was my second time riding in a Mutatu. Its name was 'Shaggy'. It played reggae, was the size of a Dodge Minivan, and held over fourteen people. Also smelled lovely.

Today I also had my first Town experience. I learned how to find Barclays from the Mutatu stops (essential to survival) nd explored the Kenyan version of Walmart - the Nakumatt. Sadly, I left my phone and camera at home, because I was warned by Maurice that people in Town actively try to steal things from foreigners (though it seemed to me that people were more likely to openly stare at me than get close enough to steal my things) but Town is such an experience that I am sure I will have to relive, probably over the weekend. 

Tomorrow begins the first day of our project to implement the board within the bank. We are holding our first of six focus groups. It will be interesting, and I will definitely record some of the funnier quotes that will undoubtedly be spoken.

Pictures are coming, I promise! I am still trying to figure out how to upload them without causing my rocket stick to go into overdrive and crash the internet. a

Peek-a-boo

Graham and I had a lazy day this afternoon, with no commitments to be anywhere. So naturally we spent the entire day lounging around doing absolutely nothing.

That’s a joke; we actually accomplished so many things, without even realising how hard we had worked.

The day started off a bit too early for me, which resulted in sleeping through my alarm and forgetting to unlock the door so Mama Syprose (our cook) couldn’t get inside the house for quite some time. I think she forgives me now, but she got her revenge by leaving us with leftovers for dinner.

The greatest achievement (in my mind) came in the form of a beautifully colour coordinated calendar. It has every task that we need to complete in the next two months, as well as the deadlines and friendly reminders to go shopping and pick up the other incoming travellers. We chipped away at the audit (Maurice “hasn’t yet got” the bank expenses, which he should have been keeping a record and the receipts of…such the Kenyan way) and managed to finish the agenda for our six upcoming focus groups. Yay!

And of course, as the day neared to the end, our favorite three children who live in our compound came over to play. Well, really they stood at the door and made loud noises until we went outside. I taught the little girl the “Kit Kat Bar” clapping game, and she taught me an “avocado” dance (to the tune of Frere Jacques, no less). They pretend they have no idea what we are saying, but they clearly know English when we talk to them! An hour after we had said goodnight and told them it was waaay past their 7pm bedtime, Graham and I were sitting down and eating our dinner. I was facing the window, and had just finished explaining to him how I hate having the curtains drawn because anyone could see us, when I had the terrifying feeling of being watched. I pointed at the window, making the ‘I’m watching you’ motion, when a burst of laughter cried out. I have no idea how long those kids were standing there without us knowing it, because they refused to tell us. Even as I am typing this, two hours after the incident, I keep looking out the window that has no curtains to make sure they aren’t standing there, playing peek-a-boo with me

Howa You?

I can’t believe it has only bee three days since I have arrived in Kanyawegi – I feel like I am already fluent in Luo(the native language) and getting quite used to the smells. Okay, fine, I only know about four words in Luo (Good morning, good day, good night, and good bye, and very much) but those words get me through every situation so far. And the smell, well let’s just say I still prefer the smells of home, where deodorant and garbage cans are a bit more widely used by the general population…

It has been a busy three days. My first day, while battling some crazy jet lag, I spent meeting Maurice and hanging out at the little Bank, watching how he preps files and conducts transactions.

Yesterday was another great day at the bank, except things got a lot more exciting when Graham and I began to pick apart the files, looking at which village every member is from, and determining that all the files were accurate. Somewhere during those three hours Graham and I realised we really needed to computerize the system, as we basically spent the afternoon doing something which Excel could have done through “highlight, sort, okay, perfect”. We also got to meet some of the children that live in Obambo market, and got to show them the magic of Disney. Though doubtful they understood the words, the kids L-O-V-E-D the Lion King, and were laughing so hard at “Hakuna Matata” (which really does mean ‘no worries’ in Swahili)!

Today (Sunday) we went to church! The villagers are extremely Christian, which Graham and I found out after we had been chided by Maurice for only going to church once in the past year. Oops. The entire service was in Luo, but the singing was lovely. They also dance, like full on a step below full-blown hiphop during their hymns. So entertaining to see them in their Sunday best, rocking out to Hallelujah.

After church, we met with Chief Phillip and presented him with gifts to show our thanks for his involvement with the Bank over the past year. While the bank was undergoing changes, Chief Phillip acted as an extremely important figure and a great ally to GIVE. He was very kind to us today, and we got to talk about his visions for the bank, and how closely they aligned with ours.

After working all afternoon on Access forms and Audits (kills me that access is so useful and I didn’t pay attention to a minute of it in MIS class), Graham and I decided to head outside to do some yoga on the lawn. I would say that we got about ten seconds of time in before the children who live in the compound with us came running over yelling “Howa You Howa You”. They tried downward dog a few times, got into warrior pose maybe once, but then started throwing grasshoppers at us and begging us to play. There was no way to turn down that cuteness.

That recap doesn’t even do justice to how amazing the past few days have been. Pictures to follow and definitely more posts!

T-12 to Takeoff

So it's my last night in Vancouver, and I am like this, just counting down the minutes

I've packed my bags (four times) and (quaduruple) checked that I have everything. It amazed me that I can pack my next two months worth of clothes and granola bars into a 45-L backpack from MEC.


 Since we aren't allowed out of the house after dark, as thats when all the hyenas come out, I've got my nights to read all those books I have always meant to. I've got my great literature reads for the trip: Gravity's Rainbow, Germs Guns and Steel, Don Quixote, War and Peace, and Tender is the Night. it gets dark at 6pm. Also downloaded some quality movies (Disney say what)  as well as Planet Earth.

Really at this point, all there is between myself and Kenya is an evening and a day and a half of flying.

T minus seven days

Tonight I had my final pre-departure training, where we went over the logistics of our travel. Matt, the GIVE 'founder' if you would like (really though, not too sure what he does other than be mister Doctor Matt) gave us an over view of a few things like the soccer tournament and our funds. Also, a horrible packing list, which included three pairs of underwear and two pairs of pants. For seven weeks. Nope, not happening (I will share my saga of packing once it happens, it will be a battle)


Joking aside, it was a bit startling, saying goodbye to everyone. Since Graham (my Economic Development team partner from day one) and I are the first to arrive in the village, we actually miss the final pre-departure training, so we got a lot of hugs and well-wishes tonight. Which was crazy. 
"Oh, next time I see you we will be in Kenya" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those were my final words to Graham. Its intense that after a year and a half this is actually happening.


I started working with GIVE in my first year at Sauder. I was introduced to the idea of working in Africa with social enterprise from Jeff Kroeker (one of my top favorite professors to date). Then, one November day in Comm 101, my TA Safeena did a little presentation on the work that she had done for this grass-roots organisation in rural Kenya. After that class Graham and I, who were actually teammates in the course, went up and talked to her about her experience and later sent in an application. That first year, we worked as a pilot 'fundraising' group, which resulted in us selling donuts, baking snickerdoodle cookies and having a silent auction night. When we came back after the summer, it was sort of an unspoken agreement that the two of us would be the next travelers. Though we technically had since September to start planning this years project, the majority of our work has been done over the past month and a half (right throughout exams, no less) as the Bank has undergone a great transformation, even opening up a new location. 


So after spending about four hours a week for the past year learning everything about our little Bank and the village and the villagers, to say I am excited is a gross understatement. In seven days I will be getting on the plane and starting my 30 hour journey there!

Find Kanyawegi on a Map

My first post, while I am still in boring ol Vancouver, is going to be a game of "Where in the World is Katie Dergousoff"

I will be on the African Continent

In the East African country of Kenya

In the Western region of Nyanza 

In the town of Kisumu

Truth - I really don't yet understand the difference between the town of Kisumu, the sub-location of Kanyawegi, and all the various villages and communities and markets. Apparently I learn on the ground pretty quickly, so I will keep you in the loop when I finally get it.