Already Halfway!

Time flies when you're having fun!

Hello again!

A few days ago I passed my halfway mark, meaning I have around three months left before I have to leave Kenya. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about it. Part of me would like to stay much longer, as things move fairly slow here, I reckon that it would be necessary to have more time to have an impact, to be able to overcome the obstacles that prevent us from having the impact that we would like to have.

During this first half of my deployment I have certainly learned a lot; not only about the technical aspects of what we are doing here, but also abut the importance of the system, and to adapt to things that are not in our control.

One of the reasons why I decided to come to Kenya was to face a very strong cultural shock, I have had the opportunity to live in different countries beforehand, but I purposely chose a project in a country whose culture was supposed to be very different from my native one. This proved to be true.

I will try to explain myself with some examples. In the past weeks I have been focusing on financial training (after identifying it as a pressing issue to the economic growth of the local communities). The already mentioned very different perception of time is certainly one of the first cultural barriers that we get to face. People tend to show up a few hours late to trainings (or at 1pm when the training was scheduled for 9 a.m.) and this takes energy. Additionally, it is very challenging to suddenly become a teacher (although I do have a bit of experience from University). What I mean is that the illiteracy of some of the group members makes the sharing of information much more difficult that one would expect.

Group picture from the Financial Training given to the
Chairladies and secretaries from all the support groups

Nonetheless, I would say that this struggles and challenges make the achievements even more satisfying! 

When I see that the women we work with are genuinely happy about completing the exercises we do together, or they understand the importance of working on their skills rather than us just distributing items, it makes the difficulties seem (if not easier) worth it. 

As they say, no pain no gain! 

Currently, after having had two days training all the groups together, I am once again visiting the groups (with the support of Valery and David - the attachee/intern that will work with me for two months -) and apart from discussing and making sure that also those who did not attend the trainings understand the concepts, I am giving them a small notebook each to make sure that each one of them keeps track of their finances. I hope they will make use of it, and in a month or so I will be able to see the results from the groups. Fingers crossed!

Financial training with a single group

On a separate note, around 10 days ago was my birthday. Three of our housemates had to renew their visas, so we combined the two events to cross the whole country: from Western Kenya we made it all the way to the coast! It was a 30 hours journey, with buses, trains and matatu but it was fun!

We spent the weekend in Diani Beach, it was very nice, peaceful and relaxing.

Mohammad, Ebba, Emma and Valery threw a small breakfast surprise party by the pool of the AirBnb we were staying in the morning of my birthday, that was very nice :) 

We also spent a whole afternoon playing beach volley, Mo went from complete beginner to semi-pro in a few hours! I tried kitesurfing again after not having done it for one and a half years, but the wind conditions were not the best so I did not have much success 😅 Such is life!

Our attempt at taking a group picture ended up
with both Emma and I falling inside the swimming pool!

On our way to the coast, I also got to show Valery, Emma and Mohammad one of my favourite "spots" of Nairobi: the Gikomba Market.

During my last visit in Nairobi I lost my dear bucket hat, so I had to find a replacement! 

The Gikomba Market is a very interesting place, it's fun but makes you think and reflect at the same time. 

In fact, it is the size of a small town where everybody is selling second hand clothes, most of which come from western countries. It really shows the impact of the behaviour of consumers in our countries, and how many clothes are purchased and "thrown away" while still in very good conditions.

During my two visits, I was happy to buy two pairs of pants and two buckets hats, everything in very good contditions and for a total price of 12 euros. Both times I went there, my group represented the whole wazungu (white people) in the market. It's very authentic, and that's also why I like it! 

A selfie of the four of us after I found two bucket hats 

A picture of the Gikomba Market, you can find anything here! 

We keep going,

Baadaye! 

Mattia