12 Days of Kenya
12 days ago, at 6AM local time, I landed in Nairobi, Kenya. Around 30 hours prior, I had still been in New York, imagining what it would be like when I got here and worrying about the long flight ahead. Though the journey had not exactly been pleasant, involving a turbulent landing in Amsterdam after an emergency pitstop in Paris (who knew there were hurricanes in The Netherlands?), I had made it and had nothing but excitement for what was ahead.
When I walked out of the airport, a Kenyan woman wearing a hoodie approached me and gave me a hug. It was Betty, one of my cofounders, and I was finally meeting her in person for the first time after working with her virtually for nearly two years. She led me to her car, where her cousin, Kitavi, was waiting for us. He was kind enough to agree to let me stay at his home for my entire trip, and he has been the most welcoming host while I have been here. He drove us home, and I watched the scenery unfold before me as we made our way towards Kilimani. I was impressed by the sheer number of people who were walking to work and school along the roads and highways — most cities that I’ve been to have lots of vehicle traffic but not even close to that amount of foot traffic.
A picture I took of an intersection in Nairobi
But to me the most shocking thing I noticed along the way were the giant birds that were perched in some of the trees we passed or that were flying above us. Neither Betty nor Katavi seemed to notice or care, and when I asked them, they didn’t even know what they were called. But for me, seeing a flock of birds that big just casually sitting in the trees along the roads was somewhat jarring. Later, I searched it up and it turns out they’re called Marabou storks but are also referred to as the “nightmare bird”. Here’s a picture of one of them EATING A FLAMINGO to give you a sense of how massive they are. And they’re everywhere in Nairobi. It’s like the Nairobi version of a crow, I guess.
Your friendly neighbourhood Marabou stork enjoying a small snack
When we got to Kitavi’s house I took a long nap. Later, my other cofounder Andrew came over and I was able to meet him for the first time as well. Betty, Andrew, and I talked until very late discussing our plans for the upcoming month and a half and setting goals for what we want to achieve while I am here.
The next day, Betty and I left for Machakos which is an hour and a half drive from Nairobi. Along the way, we made a stop at Kyamwilu hill, a place where gravity seems to work in reverse. Yes, you read that right. Some locals poured water down the hill, and it started moving up the hill. They rolled a water bottle downhill and showed us how it stopped and began to move back uphill on its own. Then, they told us to park our car in neutral with the engine turned off at the bottom of the hill, and we watched as it began to roll up the hill. I was completely baffled by it. If you’re interested, I took a video of it which you can watch below. You’ll also find both the traditional explanation that they gave us for it and the scientific explanation in the video description.
When we reached Machakos, we stayed there for a night and spent two days just visiting farmers, touring their farms, and learning about the kinds of challenges they were facing to better understand how we can help them. I have interviewed five farmers so far, all of them were women and between them they were growing avocados, maize, beans, and apples. I’m working on a lot of content right now that will analyze my findings in depth (so stay tuned) but from a high level these are some insights I’ve developed so far, with emphasis on the “so far” because my sample size is very small right now:
Lack of education and training on farm management practices is a problem, that isn’t a surprise. One of the farmers I spoke to said she had been seeing white spots on a significant proportion of her mango trees for the past three years and still did not know what they were or how to fix it. However, the lack of knowledge is not due to lack of technology access like you might assume — in fact, all the farmers I spoke to had access to a smartphone. However, they didn’t know how to use the smartphone for anything other than calling, or maybe sending/receiving payments via MPESA. This seems to be the case for many other farmers that my cofounders have spoken to as well. It is not so much a question of access, but of effective utilization.
There is very little coordination between farmers and buyers. Farmers tend to sell to whoever they can find, even if they don’t get a very good price. We have tried to agree on an order with smallholder farmers multiple times and it hasn’t worked because of this. For example, we might tell them we will come in two weeks when their fruit is ready to pick, and that we will pay them twice the amount they have been receiving. However, even after confirming this with them multiple times, when we show up on the day we agreed upon we find that the farmers had already sold their fruit for a very low price just hours earlier. Trust is extremely important to the farmers, and without their full trust it is very difficult to work with them. Spoken agreements mean nothing. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters to them is whether or not they get paid.
More of a meta insight, but I’ve realized just how important it is for me to be on the ground if I want to do this work. I have learned so much more and gotten so much more done in the past 12 days that I’ve been here in-person than I have in the past 3 months working virtually from North America. If I want to make an impact, I need to figure out how to be in Kenya more often going forward.
A picture of Lynette, a mother of four and smallholder farmer that I interviewed in Machakos
Since returning from Machakos, I have been staying in Nairobi. Between attending business meetings and developing the in-depth strategy for Vunatec for the next year and beyond, I feel as though I have gotten the “true Kenyan experience” as Betty says. I’m not here to be a tourist, so I don’t plan on doing any safaris or visiting any attractions (this time around). But I’ve been living with Kenyans and learning what life is like for them and learning as much about Kenya as I can. One thing everyone loves to talk about here is politics, as Kenyans are very vocal about their political beliefs and quite active in politics. There was a day I had to stay in the house because there was a maandamano downtown (maandamano is what Kenyans call anti-government protests that are frequently organized by the opposition leader). Everyone is currently protesting against the high cost of living, as prices have increased by as much as 300% for some things. Adding fuel to fire, there is a shortage of jobs here especially for new graduates, and compensation for those who have jobs is not increasing enough to match the rapidly rising cost of living.
A picture of a maandamano - taken in March of this year
For example, I was so surprised to learn that Kenya has an oversupply of nurses, because in Canada we have the complete opposite problem — there is a serious shortage of nurses. From conversations I’ve had it seems that most young Kenyans are looking for a way to leave the country and work abroad largely for that reason. However, making that jump is very expensive and not feasible for a lot of people. It’s a big challenge, but I also see it as a huge opportunity. If countries like Canada in desperate need of more young people with valuable skills can make it easier for people in countries like Kenya with an oversupply of labour to immigrate, it would have a net positive impact for so many people. I’m obviously no expert in this area, it’s just a thought I’ve had after hearing some of the stories about young people trying to find jobs in Kenya. There are so many young, educated people who are struggling.
Another thing about Kenya that is different from Canada is that religion is extremely important. 85.5% of the population is Christian, and every person I have met is religious and goes to church every Sunday. Christianity is also part of the educational curriculum, so it is very ingrained in Kenyan culture. When I told some people I didn’t go to church, they were extremely surprised. I accompanied Betty and Kitavi to church these past two Sundays, and it was my first time ever witnessing a full church service. Last week, I went to the Fem Family Church, which is the same church that the President of Kenya goes to. He was not there that day because he was in Ghana, but the First Lady was there, and she led one of the prayers. It was a very interesting experience for me — honestly it felt like I was at a concert. The auditorium we were in was huge and there was a large choir and band and every was singing and dancing. I was the only foreigner there (out of hundreds), and if people weren’t able to tell that by my skin colour, I feel like they definitely would have been able to tell from my awful dancing! Regardless, I felt very welcomed, and I have a huge amount of respect for how dedicated everyone was to their spirituality.
I took this photo of the Fem Family Church just to remember how grand it was
Of course, I can’t write an article about my experience in Kenya so far without mentioning the food. The food has been absolutely amazing — the very first night I was here we had ugali and collard greens which are probably the most staple meal items in Kenya. Ugali is a type of cornmeal made out of maize, and it’s extremely popular in Kenya. It’s a little tasteless, but it was a great first meal to have to get introduced to Kenyan culture. Besides that, I’ve been eating some very yummy stews, pilau (rice with spices), mandazi (sweet bread), chapati (similar to naan bread), vegetable stir fries, and fish! Tilapia is the most commonly consumed fish, and it’s served as the full fish (with the head and fins and everything) which freaked me out a bit at first, but it is SO good. The first time I ate fish here I tried to eat it with a fork and failed miserably. The second time I had it I embraced the Kenyan way and ate it with just my hands, and I was so proud of how well I ate it that I took a picture of the bare bones I left behind:
Nothing left but the bones! *with pride
When we were visiting the farms in Machakos, they also gave us some sugar cane to try. The way it is eaten is it is cut up into a bunch of tiny little pieces, and then the outer skin is shaved off. Then you just take bites of it and suck all the sugar water from the sugar cane fibres, and then spit out the fibres. It’s very sweet and juicy, and the texture of the fibres is so interesting!
Andrew chopping up some sugar cane at a farm in Machakos
Being in Kenya has also made me come to appreciate the infrastructure we have in Canada for things like power and water. My friend Nicole was telling me about how at her home in Mombasa, running water from the tap only comes around twice a week, and people take as much water as they need during those two days in order to last the full week. However, sometimes the government doesn’t supply the water so they have to ration it and it can become stressful as they don’t know when they will next get water.
In the building I am staying at, the water pump for the building has been broken for the past week so Eunice (who is the house manager) has been fetching water from the parking garage where the water tanks are located and carrying up water in buckets to use for showering, washing dishes, drinking, and everything else. We are on the third floor, so she takes around 10 big buckets down to the parking garage a couple times a day and then brings them back up. When I helped her with it, all I could think was thank goodness there’s an elevator! Carrying all those buckets and using them to manually shower every day, to refill the toilet every time I flush it, to wash my hands, and to wash dishes has made me appreciate just how much water a single household needs to operate and made me realize how much I have taken running water for granted my whole life.
Power outages are also quite frequent here, and today the power was cutting in and out for around an hour (and I mean turning off then back on again every 30 seconds). It didn’t last for very long, and there are many places in Africa that experience much longer and more frequent outages on a regular basis (or don’t even have power at all) but the few outages I have experienced while I’ve been here have again showed me how reliant I am on having power and how much I take it for granted. Moving forward, I want to challenge myself to actively notice and appreciate these things when I have them.
I could honestly write a book about everything I have learned, experienced, and thought about these past 12 days, but for now I’ll stick to this brief recap. Before I end off, I want to deeply thank the Cansbridge Fellowship Alumni Endowment Fund (AEF) for enabling me to come to Kenya this summer. In May, I pitched Vunatec to the AEF in San Francisco at the annual Cansbridge Fellowship Conference (CFC), and they took a chance on me and saw my vision for what I am trying to create. I was awarded one of the top prizes in the form of grant funding, and without that I would not have been able to come here this summer and build Vunatec from on the ground. I only hope I can prove myself worthy of the funding and show that they were right to believe in me! Ever since becoming a fellow last year, the Cansbridge Fellowship has truly changed my life and has empowered me in so many ways. I would urge any Canadian undergraduate to apply, and please feel free to reach out to me if you want to learn more about it or want help with applying!
Until next time :)
