An Exciting Day in the Field

July 7, 2009

For the past three days, the evaluators and I have been out in the field finding businesses and interviewing entrepreneurs for the longevity study. The study here in the Kakamega region is essentially a pilot study – we are very interested to find out how feasible it is to have independent evaluators go out into the field and find businesses by themselves, we are looking to get a sense of the cost involved, and, most importantly, we are trying to gather data that is as reliable as possible. I would say that the first few days have been great! Out of 66 businesses in the study, we have found 38 which puts us well on track to finish by early next week. It’s not always easy – sometimes searching for a business feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack – but the evaluators have done a really good job of going to different communities and persisting in asking everyone they see where a certain business or person is until they find what they are looking for.

I have gone out with an evaluator each day, too. Yesterday (Tuesday) was a particularly great day. I accompanied Sylviah (pictured above interviewing Joseph Murunga in his group's vegetable shop), our only female evaluator, to a village called Bukura. Transport was a hassle to say the least, but we finally reached the village at about noon. We rode in on a gaudily decorated bus that was packed to the brim with passengers and even more packed with cargo on the roof. The touts on the bus would periodically climb up to the roof -- while the bus was still moving -- to make sure that the load on top didn’t tip over!

The business mentor in Bukura was named Father William, who was posted to a church just down the road in a small village called Lufumbo. He is still affiliated with VEF, but he was transferred to a church in another location a year or two ago. Nevertheless, Father William’s businesses were alive and well! We visited three in Bukura that were doing amazing things. Many of the VEF businesses I have seen so far are very small scale. Some sell items in small kiosks and some sell from their homes. The businesses in Bukura, however, were operating in big shops that were filled to the brim with all sorts of items. One business we visited had started off selling second hand clothes and was now operating a shop with clothes, glass for sale, and, most impressively, two computers and a printer whose services they rented out! Another business we met in Bukura was a fully stocked food shop with everything from cooking oil to brown bread. It was the Kenyan equivalent of an American “corner store.” I bought two “Mandazi” (Kenyan donuts that are absolutely delicious) from the store and thoroughly enjoyed eating them. As Sylviah and I were walking through the middle of town toward the third business, she turned to me and exclaimed, “these guys are serious!” The third business we visited was a vegetable shop in the market area. That business was doing well, too. It was much more modest in scale and inventory than the first two, but when you consider that it all started with just $100 having a fully stocked shop in a prime location at the market is impressive in and of itself. We met Joseph Murunga, one of the group members, at the shop. He then accompanied us to lunch, and his group’s story is worthy of its own post (which will follow this one).

After a lunch of chapati and beef stew, we headed down the road to Lufumbo. There we visited three more businesses that he helped to start. Two of them were flourishing, but one had unfortunately ceased operating. The latter group had specialized in baking and had been doing quite well for themselves for three years. Trouble started when the group member at whose house the group did the baking moved away, and the group wasn’t able to recover from that loss. When you consider, however, that for three years these women had a steady income that they could use for food, school fees, and other needs, it would be a mistake to think of the business as a “failure” just because it is no longer operating.

We returned to Lufumbo, and after buying another Mandazi from the VEF-sponsored food shop Sylviah and I took a motorbike taxi back to Eregi. What a day! Seeing so many thriving businesses made the day itself really exhilarating. Just as heartening, however, was the fact that although Father William is no longer physically in Lufumbo, his impact will continue to be felt for many years to come. I am really looking forward to meeting him at some point during my stay.