Hi all!
After the first month of adapting, the second has really flown by!
Certainly, the focus of these last few weeks has been on getting the preparations ready for the training with the local groups.
Ebba and I have already conducted two of the training sessions, and we are very much looking forward to keep working with each group on the different topics that we have introduced so far.
Each training per se has been a bit of an adventure. Ebba had hers on a Monday, and I had mine on a Friday. After some time of waiting I started getting a bit worried because we were supposed to start at 9am, but by 10.30 only a few people were there. I guess the on-time European inside of me has not fully adapted yet to the very relaxed time perception of Kenya!
However, at the end all the people arrived and we had a very nice training session.
We focused on financial training, and they seemed to be very interested, curious and happy about the content that we discussed. Some of the topics they were quite unfamiliar with, but we worked together to make sure that they understood them. For this, we will keep visiting them to make sure that they implement them in their daily lives and can keep growing as farmers and as citizens!
Jane (my mentor) was very helpful with translating in Swahili what I was telling them.
This past month we also spent a couple of days in Nairobi because the others already had to renew their visas (I will have to do so very soon) and I decided to join them to see the big city.
It was a very interesting weekend! Certainly Nairobi is very different from Shianda, meeting a lot of new wazungu (the plural Swahili word for foreign/white person) was exciting and refreshing.
I love the fact that in Kenya smoking in the city is not allowed, and during the Free Tour our guide showed us one of the only places where people can smoke.
I have to admit that I was happy to come back in Shianda after a couple of days: much more peaceful, calm environment with a lot more nature and just a different atmosphere.
Emma, Ebba and I also finally went to the Kakamega forest to celebrate Emma’s birthday. We managed not to get lost (which is a great starting point in my opinion) but we did not see any animals apart from some birds and hearing some monkeys. However, the forest was truly beautiful and I am sure we will go again in a couple of weeks as we only explored a small part of it.
I am running even more than I had planned to, and I am very happy about this. Multiple times a week I get very early, and by 6:30 I am already running. During my long runs I get to explore new areas around Shianda. Sometimes I pass by places where they maybe have not heard yet of the wazungu in town, and people are very surprised to see me appear in the little paths between the farms, running in the mud.
Yes, everything is very muddy right now! We are in the long rainy season and every afternoon we get very heavy rain. In fact, ten days ago we had a severe hailstorm and it was the biggest hail I have ever seen, I am happy it was a Sunday and we were in the house and not out doing things. I was worried about the farmers’ cultivations, but I think they did not have much damage.
I will write another update next month,
Baadaye!
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