Training Day

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, my main task this summer is to test different methodologies for a longevity study that VEF is going to conduct focused on its Kenyan businesses. One of the methodologies that I am most excited about is using local people with a high level of education and a good command of English to go out into the field, find businesses, and meet with the entrepreneur(s) personally to gather data on-site. As opposed to other proposed methodologies, these independent evaluators will enable us to gather firsthand data from every single business included in the study. Furthermore, because the evaluators have no vested interest in skewing the results one way or another, we can be sure that they will record and report the data as accurately as possible.

I have identified three promising candidates for this job (pictured above, l-r Sylvia, Philip, and Dennis). All of them live in the Eregi area (where I am living, too), and all three have just graduated high school and are planning to enter college next fall. Basically this is a Kenyan version of a summer job. Today was our first training day. We spent the day traipsing around the Eregi area with a list of businesses that we were looking for. We ended up visiting three businesses (including one that we found after a never-ending 45 minute walk that began on the main road, continued over some hills, went through fields of maize, and finally came to an end right near the banks of the River Yala – the biggest river in the area, and, apparently, a preferred home for hippopotami).

For a day of training, we saw a good mix of businesses that had varying degrees of success. One of them seemed to have gone sour from the start. From what we gathered, group dynamics were not good, motivation was low, and it ended with the group members scattering every which way. Another of the businesses was a great example of the determination that it takes to pull yourself up onto your feet. Originally, the group (one of the members, Margaret Mudanya, is pictured above) had planned to build a fish pond and sell the fish, but that didn’t work out (sounded like a case of something sounding easier in theory than it is in reality). They rebounded from that disappointment, however, and decided to devote the remaining grant money to planting plots of maize and vegetables to sell, buying a turkey and some chickens, and paying school fees for some of their children. They are currently selling the vegetables, the maize is growing and should be ready for the harvest, and the turkey and chickens are happily walking around the yard (clearly unaware that being the centerpiece of a delicious dinner is their ultimate destiny). The group’s remarkable “stick-to-it-iveness” was inspiring, and they clearly took great pride in their new business. This group provided proof that even though initial plans don’t always work out, the VEF grant is usually big enough to allow for second chances and can also be used productively to satisfy other pressing needs like school fees. Finally, we visited a brick maker named Wycliffe Mukhobero. His business was the most successful of the three we visited, and I think it deserves a separate post to describe it more in-depth (coming soon).

Tomorrow we are going back out into the field for more training. This time, however, I am going to be watching the trainees do the talking. And in other news, I killed my first chicken last weekend! When I ate it for dinner, the meat tasted as fresh as you would expect considering that the chicken was alive two hours before it was on the table. Killing, de-feathering, and breaking down a chicken is an experience that I think every meat-eater should have at least once. It’s good to know where your meal is really coming from. And no, the experience did not make me want to become a vegetarian. If anything I want to do it again because dinner was so good!