SOMETHING WONDERFUL ALWAYS HAPPENS

Bye bye comfort zone

It’s been a little over a month since I arrived here in Shianda and yet, for all the feelings and situations that are going through me, it seems like a lifetime ago. The incredible thing? That, nevertheless, I continue to be amazed with each passing day: by the people, by the gestures, by the colours, by the sounds... by everything that surrounds me. I continue to be amazed by Kenya.

There’s so much I’ve learned. "Learned" is actually an exaggerated term; let’s say I understood that there are some ways of reasoning, outside of mine, that I would like to absorb and put into practice.

I thought of three simple, closely related concepts, which can help me summarize this first part of experience:

1. TIME BRINGS PATIENCE

The way life is approached has nothing to do with the reality I am used to. As well as time, which flows and is used differently.

Waiting for members

From the exact moment you get off the plane you inevitably face one thing: waiting. As I said, time here seems to flow in a completely different way. Most of the time, in Kenya, you wait. People spend a lot of time waiting. Sometimes they wait for something. Other times nothing. But they wait.

And in the meantime, time goes by.

Sometimes my attention gets completely captured by these people. And I think the frenzy is something completely unknown to them. In Kenya you live "pole pole". If you have a meeting scheduled for 10, for sure it won't start before 11.

If I try for a moment to hazard a comparison with my country of origin, a smile escapes me: in Italy, I don’t have time to enter a bar to order "One co.. ffè" that the bartender has already prepared and served it to me.; if, on the other hand, I go to the post office, I see people losing their temper after a minute of waiting.

And in the meantime, time goes by. Without being savoured.

Wooden board seat

2. YOU ALWAYS FIND A LIFT (or a way)

It’ true, the road has always been known as something dangerous. But here it's also incredibly fascinating. (Apart from the fact that it is still difficult for me to define a road as such, since any vehicle is able to circulate in any place. In any case…) Indefinable the number of matatu that cross Shianda every day. As indefinable is the number of people that these matatu can carry. To explain me better, these are small buses approved for 14 people + the driver; but in times of need, these places multiply. As if by magic! And if there are children on board: all in your arms! The next step is the mobile seats that are “created” with a small wooden board, placed between two pre-existing seats. But it doesn't end there, no. Because if the seats on other people's laps and the wooden boards run out, then you travel outside. Yes, that's right. People literally cling to the door and windows and travel outside.

The more we are, the better is

It is something I see every day, but it continues to make me smile every day, to surprise me. Of course, sometimes even questioning me about the safety of these vehicles and the rules of the road, but maybe I’ll deal with this topic over the months. Today I just want to focus on how much more extravagant you can see here. And if you prefer to travel on 2 wheels, you can always look up at one of the many boda, a motorcycle that transports an average of 2 to 5 people. That’s incredible too, isn’t it?

I mean, wherever you have to go, you’ll get there!

3. EVERY PROBLEM IS NOT A PROBLEM

As can be understood in part from the previous lines, in Kenya there is a solution to everything.

Or rather, there is nothing that can be considered a real problem. I want to specify that since my arrival I have not yet had to reckon with the lack of water, will be luck or perhaps due to the rainy season, which allows you to accumulate everything that the sky has to offer in large containers located outside the houses (tank); Instead, it happened to me that I had to cope with a blackout, but since I don't have a fridge, or even a freezer, I'm certainly not afraid that my food will thaw!

Torch to the head and face the evening. And considering that the sun sets early, it gets dark early. In reality, if I think of it in these terms, I have no fear at all. It’s the way you decide to face challenges that makes the difference. I’m choosing to hug Shianda every morning.

Uh..and if to go and visit the people of the village, you find yourself walking with flip-flops in the middle of the storm, do not break down. Maybe you come home with a delicious papaya just picked up and a piece of bed found by chance with which to build the shelf that you so desired.

In short, be patience and enjoy the journey because something wonderful always happens.

The sun in the rain

The light in the dark

2nd month in Shianda

My second month in Shianda has gone, and I can finally seem to have understood what my purpose here can be.

It has been quite hard at the beginning because I was not sure about what to do here, or how to be useful. However, I learned that ideas and their development just come naturally. 

I conducted a needs assessment, visiting twelve groups, and asking them about their activities. Once you see that farmers are struggling against the same problems, it becomes easier to find a possible solution. I decided to try to find a way to increase the number of vegetables they cultivate, tackling the two main constraints farmers usually face: lack of water and lack of land. 

What do we do when the space is horizontally limited? We go vertically! Growing crops in sacks will allow planting vegetables like kale, spinach, cabbage, tomato, and onions in a reduced space. Moreover, the bags can contain water better than the soil, which drains easily.

Avocado seedlings dying in a nursery due to lack of water (Khunyri Orphans group)

An example of vertical bag seen from the top

These days I am busy organizing training on this topic for around 40 smallholder farmers. On one hand, I like the idea that this activity may enable them to improve their diets when consuming these vegetables, or their income when selling them. On the other hand, this can also be kind of stressful and scary. 

Monthly meeting with the chair ladies of the community groups

When you find yourself in a place like Shianda, and you start paying visits to the groups, to the local people, in their houses, meeting their families, and you listen to them sharing their life with you, you see you are in the right position to do something to help. Coming from Europe, with all possible economic means but a Western mindset, gives you the impression that you really do not know what you are really doing out of your possibilities, nor what you could do to have an impact on the wellbeing of the local population. It seems hard to detect where people place the border between everyday normal challenges and life struggles. Some things are not seen as a real problem, but just like the normal way of life here.

Use of compost to fertilize the soil

A funny example is how we consider washing clothes by hand as something dated and an avoidable activity, while people here do not trust washing machines. They do not understand how we can rely on some technology incapable of detecting stains as the human eye is.

This is to say that finding solutions to many problems can be very hard due to cultural differences, as there are different ways of seeing and interpreting reality.

Visiting Wichelu group and one of their composting sites

I do not know if I really understood the community, how things work, and what people are expecting me to do for them, but at least I will give it a try with this new idea. My final aim is, of course, to have a real impact on the life of these people, at least on those of some members of each group.