Food-for-Work Project: Our Adventure On The Coast Begins!

It is Friday evening and we are in Kilifi.  We have survived our second week as IRMs (International Relief Managers) with World Renew!  It has been a week filled with much excitement and learning…….and many hours in our vehicle as we travelled from one location to another.  Meeting and greeting new people and establishing relationships is a significant part of our role here – it is only after time has been spent in establishing relationships that one proceeds to deal with the business at hand.

After a full day’s drive to Mombasa this past Monday, we spent several days meeting with our local partners – Pwani Christian Community Services.  We also spent valuable time with the suppliers and quality inspectors as well as participating in the training of the enumerators who will conduct the base-line survey for the project.

On Thursday and Friday we spent a day with two of the Disaster Relief Coordinators and several of their local community committees. These committees have been chosen by their communities to prepare the beneficiary lists for their respective communities.  The committees consist of men and women and different ages and affiliations.  The majority of the committee members do not understand or speak English but say it all to us with smiles and handshakes – and some interpretation. We saw an empty water pan which will be rehabilitated as part of this project, and visited a location where a new one will be built. Each of the beneficiary households (with some exceptions) is required to contribute 12 days of manual labour each month for the next 5 months to help dig these out. This equates to the value of the amount of food they receive.  A water pan is essentially a very large deep pond which will act as a catch basin for water during the long and short rains.  The construction of these water pans will substantially reduce the distance that people have to walk in order to retrieve water.  We are constantly overwhelmed by the drought and distance people have to walk in order to obtain water!

After our first 2 weeks here, these are some of our impressions…

A great deal of time is spent being sociable and in relationship building at the start of any meeting before proceeding to the items of discussion. Even a good deal of greeting time is required before making a simple request for information or sharing practical details. It has been quite an adjustment for us but we are getting better at it!

The roads! It takes four times as long to get anywhere due to the condition of the roads and the volume of traffic (both vehicular and other). However we are blessed with a good vehicle and a driver who knows the roads and the dangers…….and thankfully where the potholes are!  Annie suffers from motion sickness and has to wear anti-nausea bands and keep her eyes focused straight ahead, making her extremely aware of the vehicles passing each other – many close calls, all on two lane roads at best.

Everyone uses cell phones!  Land lines appear to be non-existent. There is no etiquette around this as all calls get answered immediately – luckily it is OK to keep these conversations short.

Ugali –a staple food used and loved by many Kenyans.  Annie tried it yesterday and found it to be quite tasteless. Many of the folks in this drought affected area, survive on only ugali with no spices or vegetables or meat to accompany it.

Tomorrow we hope to catch up on paper work and on Sunday we hope to relax. On Monday we’re off to visit more communities as we collectively prepare for the first food distributions (from  Thursday, October 4^th until  Tuesday, October 9^th).  Pray with us that the food will be delivered to the all 17 locations on time.