First Days of Work

It's 4:30 pm and I just finished my second day with my host organization, ACCES, African Canadian Continuing Education Society. Canadian is part of the name as the whole place is funded by the Canadian International Developmet Authority, the Canadian counterpart to USAID. They/we have the following programs:

1. Nine primary schools (grades 1-8), 4 of them which have adult education contingents.

2. Scholarships for children whose families would otherwise be unable to afford secondary school (high school), vocational training or university. They are going to give 263 full scholarships this year. Currently the common area is full of bags for the students, each containing a blanket, sheet, laundry soap and a few other necessities.

3. Health, (esp. HIV/AIDS) & Gender Education for those schools, as well as Health Care.

4. Small business management education, at the four adult education centers, and small business loans for those who have completed the class series.

I'll be helping with the last two—women's empowerment and micro-credit.

I currently have a little desk in an partitioned-office with Maggie and Elizabeth. Maggie is the ACCES nurse and is soft-spoken, sweet, smart and unassuming. She is petite and has short hair (shorter than Doris') and is a new mom. Elizabeth (Liz) is the Health Education Coordinator, is friendly, imposing and says she's as tall as I am (she's got about 8 inches to go.) Liz jokes that Maggie's new son is huge, and is going to be bigger than her in no time flat.

When I showed up for work yesterday, Liz had on pinstripe slacks and a button down. D'oh!! If I had known the office dress code, I would have brought my work pants! Oh well. I've been getting lots of compliments on the two peasant skirts Katrina made for me, and Liz said that they're perfect for going into the field, where the women won't listen to what you're saying if you're not wearing a long skirt. Too funny.

Steve is the Micro-finance guy, is very nice and laughs easily (though most here do). He usually has a Christian radio station on in his office. This place feels like a principal's office combined with a community center -- kids and parents coming and going, folks from the community coming in to talk about their loans, etc.

Lucy is the Scholarship Coordinator, and is currently acting as Program Director as well (she's as busy as I'm sure David is doing two jobs). She is tall and lean. Her personality is direct, caring, friendly. She doesn't mess around in getting stuff done. So far I've seen no evidence of the Kenyan Time here. Everyone is in by 8... maybe this will be the dawn of a new, earlier schedule for me?

There's a nice breeze that blows through the open windows and the sounds that waft in from outside include kids playing, goats bleating, cows mooing, birds cawing, and maintenance men sawing tree branches for makeshift fences by hand. It's a very pleasant environment overall. I don't have my own computer (again, should have brought a laptop) but folks here are in the field enough that I think I'll be able to use one (like now) at least once a day, depending on workload. There's a short gray and white cat that runs around too, and though I'm not supposed to touch any animals I may surreptitiously befriend it.

I've spend the past two days divided between reading ACCES literature and tagging along with Liz and Steve making visits to the program sites.

Yesterday I went with Liz via boda bodas (a bike with a seat on the back for a passenger that usually cost less than 50 cents to go anywhere in town) to one of the schools that hadn't turned in their paperwork for January. She met with the site coordinator (principal) and two Peer Mentors briefly, and after took me into the five classrooms that comprised the school. They were just like the schools you see in CARE, Save the Children, etc. brochures -- dirt floors, mud/cow dung walls (don't worry, it didn't smell) and 25 or so ADORABLE barefoot, wide-eyed kids in each, wearing regular clothes instead of uniforms (which is standard here) sitting at little wooden bench/desk combos that fit four or five across. There was a blackboard in the front of each class and an enthusiastic teacher. We visited the 2nd/3rd grade combined class and the second Liz and I walked in, the kids jumped to attention and replied to the teachers request to welcome us: "Karibu!" in almost perfect unison.

Even though these classrooms were pretty bare bones, the kids seemed happy, full of energy, and to be learning a lot.

Today, I visited a school (via matatu, boda boda and finally by foot) with Steve, where he lectured a group of 10 adult learners on small business management. They were all women, mostly older, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was because Steve is a charming guy. I didn't understand much because it was all in Kiswahili, but I got the jist that they were discussing Risk, Reward, Opportunities, Challenges, and such.

Most of them will do some sort of farming: sugar cane, tea, cabbage, kale, carrots, corn (or maize as they call it here), wheat, etc.