104 days - I'm not gonna even mention how time flies.

It has been extremely interesting to cook together with the community groups. I must say that either due to communication or language barrier, it hasn’t always gone exactly like I planned. Nevertheless it's still been a good gathering and sharing ideas about food and cooking.














I organise the cooking workshops in a way that everyone contributes with the available food that they have in their garden or land, to which I also contribute something in addition. Most common is oil or meat, since these are the most expensive ingredients. When we have gathered the food, I suggest a new recipe and confirm that it is something they haven’t tried before. Much like everywhere else, the traditional foods and recipes stand strong in every day menu and suggesting new ideas can be very surprising for members. However, the feedback has been polite to the new ways of cooking and mixing foods. We have had mashes, stews, mixed vegetables, salads. Few of the groups even want to try something else in the future and promise to learn the new ways of cooking, all in purpose of balanced diet. Let’s see :)

When talking about sharing information and your knowledge, outsiders are sometimes even more trusted. This goes back to history and current political and cultural situations. For example, one of my tasks is giving health talks in the local health centres. It is something that the nurses organise as well. However, I’m always welcomed and even expected to join them because I have more influence. I talk in English and someone translates to local dialect “The Luo” or "The Luhya". It can happen that I may say one sentence and then wait for it to be translated for a few minutes, because in other language it seems to be a lot longer sentence :)

Schoolboys and market day in Shianda

Building a new road in Shianda

It’s true that looking back to previous time now, some things have become more clear and easier to understand. A lot of the confusion with organising comes from the communication. Some days it may seem like “lost in translation” and other days you’re pleasantly surprised how organised a group is or how well someone remembers your agreement.
Communication can be a challenge and avoiding conflicts is very common here. Instead of explaining the situations people use excuses, which leads to cancellation of plans and no-one benefits from that. It is difficult because of a lack of education and a lack of resources, it is understandable. So, one of the challenges is to explain myself more clearly and to build trust being as transparent as possible. I don’t think anyone has ever said that capacity building is easy :) At the same time, there are people who are the most sincere and straight forward with their sayings, which I appreciate and which can also be very funny at times. From now on, one of my favourite words which apparently translates to many different meanings is "Sure".

Saw the snow in Shianda (hail)

After three months, community is used to you, even the local “matatu” (public transport) drivers know where you’re going. I tend to think it’s a good thing, at least here in Shianda. I have had no worries with security. Of course, there is still bribing (though, there are hints that it's changing slowly and government is taking action), stealing from one another (living in extreme poverty) and sadly violence. Considering all this, maybe the biggest danger for me is the road traffic, which is even worse during the nights or in the cities. However, this is the least of my worries now, my worry is that why does the time fly?


PS. I apologise for the blog design.