Visiting the field

Well, it’s probably about time that I tell you a little bit about what I’m actually doing here, at least in terms of my internship that is. As I mentioned in my last post, I’m working with the school feeding unit here at the World Food Programme. One of the main reasons why I chose to work with WFP in Kenya (as opposed to a WFP office somewhere else in the world) is because the Kenya country office is currently at the cutting edge in terms spearheading the organization’s transition away from being a food aid organization and towards one providing food assistance. What’s the difference you might ask? Well, the essence can be captured in the old Chinese proverb “give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for life”. In other words, it’s the difference between giving poor farmers a 1kg bag of imported corn from the U.S. to eat or giving them a 1kg bag of maize seeds and then empowering them to grow an abundant harvest on their own, which could produce 100kg of maize to then eat.

For the last 30 years, WFP has been running school feeding programs here in Kenya, very much fulfilling its mandate as a food aid organization. It would buy split peas from Canada or get imported corn from the U.S. and then distribute the food to schools for their feeding programs. And the program worked well – childhood hunger was prevented and primary school enrolment levels improved.

But over the last couple of years, WFP has started to develop a radically different perspective on this whole food aid thing. They’ve started to realize that perhaps it is time for the Kenyan government to take responsibility and ownership over feeding their nation’s school children. And perhaps it makes more sense to buy maize and pigeon peas from local Kenyan farmers rather than to import corn from the US and split peas from Canada. And perhaps school meals will only be effective if there is also school-wide health and sanitation services available, to ensure that preventable diseases such as dysentery don’t rob the children of the nutrients they would glean from the school meal in the first place. And of course all of these changes are in the name of ‘sustainability’. The good old s-word seems to have permeated all aspects of life these days.

So, all of this change in thinking came to the fore last summer in July when the Kenyan government launched a new initiative called Home-Grown School Feeding. This innovative program is now paving the way for eventual total government takeover of school feeding in Kenya – which is huge!! But in order to prepare for that transition to take place, a strategy is needed to figure out exactly how WFP will transfer all of its responsibilities over to the government.

And so that’s where I come in. I’ve been charged with the task of developing this strategy for WFP and the government. It’s the first time such a strategy has been developed by WFP and Kenya is the first country to do it, so the headquarters in Rome are eager to learn from our experience and then use us as a model for other countries. It’s all very exciting!

Anyway, to get some on-the-ground experience under my belt before delving too far into writing the strategy, I went on a field visit to some schools benefitting from the home-grown program. Here are a couple of photos I took along the way…

A Lion in the City

A few weeks ago I drove with some friends into Nairobi National Park. Located only 15minutes from downtown, this park is famous for being the only reserve in the world that border's a capital city. Within a few minutes of leaving behind skyscrapers and entering the savannah, we were face to face with giraffes, ostriches, gazelles, and lions! After driving around for a bit following the wildlife, we drove up onto a ridge, parked the car, and watched the sun set over the savannah... It was glorious!

Here are a few photos I captured that day (Note: if you want to see any of the photos I've posted in a bigger size, just click on them).

Celebrating another trip around the sun

So, to honor my 26th year around the sun, I decided to throw myself a party!

I bought champagne, flowers, and balloons...

Made delicious hors d'oeuvres and baked myself a vegan cake...

Decorated the garden patio, put on music, and made a fire in the outdoor fireplace...

And then invited everyone I knew to come!

Here are some photos of the celebration:

Here is my awesome little brother Toro, popping up the champagne...

Toro, Charmaine, and I

With my amazing boss Rene

With my lovely sister Jerono

With Charmaine and Kris (my co-worker and officemate)

Making the big wish...

Trying on my first Kenyan leso


Barnabas and Juma (the gatemen)


Charles and Hosaia (the cooks)

The Power of a Single Meal...

What role does Canadian split peas play in the life of a child from Nairobi's slums?

Not much, you might think? Well, think again. These basic pulses, grown on the Canadian prairies and then shipped across the world to East Africa, are currently the ticket out of a life of poverty for some of Kenya's poorest children.

How you might ask? The answer is: school feeding. A free mid-day meal is often the major deciding factor in a parent’s decision to send their child to school. That's because this is often the only meal that a child will get to eat in a day. With the assurance of a daily meal, a near-starving child will attend school and hopefully learn enough (when they are not thinking about their hungry belly, that is) to pass primary school. If they are lucky, they might even make it to secondary school (although the retention rates are much lower at this stage). The hope is that even this basic education that they will have gained, will serve them well later on in life.

I've read dozens of studies, reports, and success stories that highlight the real effectiveness of school feeding as a safety net strategy. I know it works and that it is benefitting some of the most vulnerable, hungry children in Africa. That’s precisely why I decided to work with the World Food Programme’s school feeding program unit here in Kenya this summer. But no matter how much I’ve read about the program and the critical role it is playing, there’s nothing quite as powerful as hearing about it from people who know the true power of a single meal.

Alex, a colleague of mine here at WFP, works in the office next to mine. This morning he shared with me the main reason why he works for WFP and promotes school feeding. He told me about his childhood, growing up in a very poor village in rural Kenya, and about how he sometimes wouldn’t eat for several days because there would be no food in his house. At that time, school feeding programs didn’t yet exist. But despite his constant battle against hunger, Alex went to school anyway, being the bright and motivated learner that he was…. One day, when he was in the fifth grade, he was awarded the first prize in his school for being the top student that year. When the headmaster called his name and asked him to come up in front of everyone to collect his prize (which was a 30-page exercise book), he took one step forward and then collapsed to the ground in a faint. It turns out that Alex hadn’t eaten in several days and his feeble little body was giving up…he was literally starving to death. After he collapsed, he was quickly rushed home and fed some maize porridge. While it took some time for him to recover, Alex eventually got better. And he eventually finished primary school and then secondary school, and then went to college, and then got a job with the government, and then came to work for the UN. But despite the success that he’s had in his career, he’ll never forget the irony of that day in grade five – as a young boy who was so bright and had such promise – yet not even being able to walk in front of his classmates to collect his prize because the ever-constant battle against hunger had almost taken him under. And so, that’s why he now works with WFP and does what he does. So that young children don’t have to face that same risk of being hunger's next silent victim.

A primary school in Kangemi slum.

Preparing the school lunch.

Canadian split peas.

Student beneficiaries at Kangemi Primary School.

Home to the World’s Fastest Runners…

Kenya’s Rift Valley is home to some of the fastest long-distance runners in the world. Kenyans from this region tend to dominate world marathon races and continue to set new world records. The winner of the 2010 Boston Marathon is a 21 year-old Kenyan named Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot. He’s a very quiet and unassuming guy who quickly rose to stardom this spring after setting a new record in Boston.

I got to meet Robert last Saturday during a special event hosted by the World Food Programme called “Walk the World”. This walk was held concurrently in hundreds of locations throughout the world last weekend to raise awareness and funds for WFP’s school feeding programs. Two school groups from Nairobi’s slums, who benefit from the feeding program, came to the event, along with officials from the Ministry of Education and WFP's corporate sponsors.

Speeches were made and trees were planted before we kicked off the 5km walk/run through Nairobi’s beautiful arboretum. The forest is an incredibly lush and diverse with a seemingly endless number of paths to explore. Besides a few lone joggers and passionate preachers, we seemed to be the only ones enjoying a weekend in the arboretum. I look forward to going back there again soon for a weekend picnic with friends.

Me and Robert.

The Arboretum.

Walk the World.

When the Americans Come to Town…

The saying goes in Kenya that “when the Americans come to town, everything stops working”. Joe Biden and co. flew in to Kenya on Monday night. As a result, Nairobi traffic literally came to a complete standstill for several hours and yours truly was lucky enough to get caught right in the middle of it! I happened to be on my way to a film screening at Nairobi’s Alliance Francaise when Biden’s plane landed. The Alliance is one of the main cultural hubs in town and was showing an interesting documentary film called ‘Good Fortune’. It’s about two development projects in Kenya that ended up causing damage to the very communities that they were intending to help. The film itself was nothing special, but the discussion it generated afterwards amongst the crowd of Kenyans and ex-pats about development issues in East Africa was super interesting! It’s so important to critically reflect on this type of work; something that I think is definitely not done enough by development practitioners themselves.

Anyway, back to the Americans. Apparently when Clinton visited Tanzania a few years back, all phone and communication lines in Kenya stopped working when he flew over Kenyan airspace! Hence, the above-mentioned saying…. It’s been really interesting to hear people’s reactions to Biden’s visit though. Locals have mixed reactions to him so strongly endorsing the proposed new Kenyan constitution. He used an interesting tactic of persuasion by promising a visit by Obama himself if the constitution is passed in August. Many Kenyans are frustrated by the fact that no American president has ever visited Kenya during their term in office. So, the potential visit by Obama is seen as very exciting and may actually have some sway on the vote.

Obama tends to come up a lot in conversation with people here; the most popular topic of discussion being how the person I’m speaking with happens to be related to the guy. Just the other day, my taxi driver claimed that Obama was his half-brother. Last week, a different taxi driver claimed he was his first cousin. Perhaps these guys really are from the Luo tribe, in which case their genetic claim-to-fame might be a little more legit, but its more likely that they have taken it upon themselves to consider any Kenyan blood good enough reason to be called family!

Back to the Blogging World!

Sorry for the lack of postings since my first entry a couple of weeks ago. I guess I’ve just gotten caught up in daily life here and time has passed me by. I have to admit that I’m really not the blogging type so this will take some practice and intention, but I will do my best to post regular updates on my experience here. Also, I’ll definitely post photos whenever I have them, but so far these have been few and far between. The most photo-worthy moments I’ve witnessed so far in Nairobi (of which there have been many!) have also been the most un-photographable (mostly due to issues of safety and security). I hope that once I travel outside of Nairobi next week, I will be able to visually capture more of the beautiful essence of this land.

First Impressions

Greetings from Nairobi. Or ‘Jambo’ as they say in Swahili.

I arrived Saturday afternoon and after a nice dinner meal with my hosts, I fell into a much-awaited deep slumber that ended up lasting almost 15 hours! I awoke late-morning on Sunday to a cacophony of tropical bird songs that were interspersed with the occasional rooster announcing his presence to the world.

The place where I am staying is amazing. I have my own little guesthouse cottage located next to the main house. Lush tropical gardens adorned with hibiscus and bird-of-paradise flowers surround the house -- this place feels like a true oasis amidst the bustling chaos of Nairobi!

Here are some photos of my little guesthouse:

The family I am staying with have been wonderful hosts. In addition to the mother who lives here, there are 4 children who are all in their early twenties. The eldest daughter is the same age as I and it turns out she did her undergrad studies in Canada. Another girl (who is also our age and who is staying here for the summer) is from Guinea and just finished her Master’s in Peace and Conflict Studies. In addition to the family, Charles the cook, Henri the driver, and Jamu the gateman, all live here too.

Here are some photos of the family home and gardens:

A flock of beautiful peacocks live here as well and have quickly become my new best friends. The main peacock dude follows me everywhere around the property much like a devoted puppy dog would. As much as I’d like to think it’s my pure charm that has attracted him, it’s more likely the more practical fact that I have been sneaking him pieces of bread whenever I can. The baby peacocks, less colorful (yet still super cute!), seem to spend most of their day bathing in the sun on the patio of my guesthouse. They are almost always there waiting to greet me when I come back to my room and on the rare occasion that they are not around, they have been sure to leave some droppings behind as a reminder of their previous visit!

Here are some shots of Mr. Peacock himself:

Anyway, night has now fallen and with it, sleep is calling. I think another dozen or so hours of sleep are in order tonight before I will feel completely back to my normal, energetic self and adjusted to the new time zone.

My first day of work with the World Food Programme is tomorrow - wish me luck! Love to you all from across the great ocean blue.

Goodbye and goodnight (kwa heri and lala salama).