Day 10:

Today we rested in the morning in order to recover from yesterday. In the afternoon we did some analysis on the numbers we collected from Yussuf and also put together the findings from yesterday. In the evening we went to the local bar were. I am actually amazed they have a bar in this region since everybody is Muslim. There were about 15 people at the bars and we met two teachers who were absolutely wanted. I guess if you come from a big city like Nairobi there is not much you can do on Saturday night apart from getting totally drunk. It is quite sad though these people accept assignments in these remote areas because the money is good but it is very hard up here because there is nothing to do.
One of the teachers was Kenyan but he told me he was an orphan raised by Italian missionaries.

Day 9: Today we went to visit two of the PPCs, Garufa and Shanta-Abakh. We drove nearly 200 Km to reach the first village Shanta-Abakh. The road was very bad with no tarmac. The villages are built around boreholes which are managed by the women and they receive revenues from the pastors who bring their cattle to drink (2 Ksh per cow, 1 Ksh per sheep, donkeys and human drink free). We were welcomed by the Pastoralist members and we had a meeting with them where we were able to collect much information that will be used in our analysis. In the afternoon we met with the women who have formed a group to market sheep and goats (cows is male dominated market). It was interesting to find out that the women are very eager to participate in the initiative. Unfortunately so far LIME has not been able to find a buyer for goats and sheep therefore even though the women are organised they have not been able to make any deal. I was targeted by one of the women because she said that every time somebody comes from CARE all they do is taking notes but nothing happens! They have been ready for a year but the draught has claimed many of their animals and they actually need cash to restock the herd. During lunch one of the drivers offered me some camel milk I was a bit hesitant but I tried some and it tasted nice considering that I don’t even like cow milk.
In the afternoon we went to Garufa which is nearly 40 km away from Shanta-Abakh. This village is very remote and unlike Shanta-Abakh is off the “main road” and therefore less developed. Shanta-Abakh had a police station a mosque and a “hotel” (see top picture). At Garufa they had an area for relief food storage! No matter how many times you see it on TV it is always striking to actually see it with your eyes… As a westerner food is never a concern for us. Sseeing bags of relief food brings me to a reality that I never consider when living in the western world.
I also witness first hand the effect of the draught, dead animals were scattered around the grazing plane! Also seeing the grass made me realize why this people are nomads, even though the area is arid and semi arid there are “oasis” with grass and therefore they need to keep moving around to find these areas on the other hand they need to keep a camp close to the boreholes in order to be able to get access to water.

Day 8: Today was to be market day for LIME. The LIME project was supposed to buy 1000 herds from the pastoralists. Unfortunately due to the draught and the market conditions of the 1000 herds requested, a month ago, only 130 turned up at the holding ground. Furthermore the weighing bridge was vandalised. I wonder if there is a connection between the draught the high market price yesterday the herds not turning up and the weighing bridge being vandalised. Maybe I am being too suspicious. So after discussing with the representatives from the Pastoralists Production Community (PPC) Yussuf called for another buying day next Thursday by then there should be more cattles and the other 3 PPCs that did not respond today might turn up which will provide an economical herd that can be trekked to Mombasa.
Today I’ve seen two things that I’ve never seen before: termite’s mounds and dead cows by the side of the road. I am so used that dead animal are removed from the side of the road that, seeing a totally decomposed cow is quite “impressive”. You do see decomposed animal in Europe but these are normally small rodents or small birds not fully grown cows.
So the activity we had planned for today did not go quite according to plan so we did a bit of desk study. Lynette provided us with the Market study of the Livestock industry in Kenya and more specifically in Garissa. I was quite surprised how detail the study was; it provided hard data and full cost and profit analysis for various supply chains ... quite impressive. I guess Care Enterprise Partners is really serious about “making markets working for the poor”. We also started discussing some of the issues among ourselves and realised there is a lot of work to do but we seem to agree on the direction we need to take. We’ll see how the team dynamics will pan out but I have full confidence on our abilities and hopefully we will be able to come up with useful recommendations in the end!

Day 7: Second in Garissa, after going to the office and being introduced to the CARE staff we went to the cattle market. The market goes on every week and approximately 3000 cattle are traded. The Somali (Nomad population of the Garissa district) walk down to the market to sell their herds to brokers. The broker offer very little profit to the farmers since they don’t buy by weight but by eye balling the herds! That is where CARE steps in with the LIME project trying to offer a better deal to the nomads. Basically the farmers are less susceptible to market fluctuation but, this particular time they would have been better off selling to the market rather than to LIME but unfortunately on average, they “get ripped off” by the brokers. I guess it is a buyers market because there are so many herd and very little market in Garissa so any buyer can more and less dictate the price. CARE through Lime provides access to market, but in the few occasions when demand is bigger than offer the farmer feel that they are getting a rough deal with LIME.
Going to the market was an experience. As soon as we got off the truck we attracted the attention of the locals. People started gathering around us, as everything else, you see this kind of thing on TV but when it happens to you it feels strange. It boggles my mind how this people endure through life. I guess I could get philosophical but I’ll probably leave my thoughts for another day. The price for one cow varies from 6000 to 12000 Kshs (85 US$ to 171 US$) on the open market and it depends on climate conditions. CARE offers 42 Kshs a Kg and the average weight is 200 (very low, cows are very skinny) kg equivalent to 8400 Ksh. At the moment with the draught there are very few herds available for sale so the price offered by the broker is at the top of the range and therefore farmers are tempted to side sell and default the contract they have with LIME. This is a very short sighted approach since when there will be high offer of cattle, prices on the market will plummet while LIME prices will stay same, but given the harsh conditions people are in survival mode. The reason why there are very few cows is because there has been some rain after a very harsh draught and farmer want to conditions their cows before they sell them in order to get a better price.
We managed to speak to one of the Pastoralist Production Community (PPC) member at the market and it was very interesting. THE PPC seem to appreciate LIME's works but they are entrepreneur and want to get the best price available. I’ll speak more of the pastoralist next week after we visit the communities. It was interesting to observe the interaction between Yussuf (The Project Manager for LIME) and some of the pastoralists’ leaders. It is noticeable that Yussuf has a lot of clout and command respect even from the elders. The interaction really fascinates me; it reminds me of the interaction between Sicilians in Italy! The learning shall continues tomorrow when will attend exchange of cattle between pastoralists and CARE LIME.
The day ended at a local restaurant where Yussuf bought us dinner! Very basic food, but if we consider what people eat around here that was a feast! Chicken, goat, rice and other vegetables cooked in spices!
Nearly forgot today we met Tecla a Kenyan marathon runner who hold 4 world records (so I have been told). I think she is here with UNICEF I shall find out more tomorrow!

PS Here is some info about Tecla from the internet:

Thirty-year-old Tecla Lorupe is one of the undisputed queens of Kenya's long distance running stable. Apart from her record breaking exploits on the track, she is the first Kenyan to have been awarded the prestigious Georg von Opel Award fro her active involvement in humanitarian projects in Kenya and abroad. Some famous past recipients of the award include German soccer star Jurgen Klinsman and tennis player Michael Stich.

Lorupe has also been designated an "Athlete of Social Responsibility". In collaboration with World Vision, she is developing the Tecla Lorupe Academy in her home district of West Pokot which will carter for children who cannot afford school fees. She is also a world peace activist and has used her talents to run for peace in Indonesia and promote HIV/AIDS awareness around the world.

By the beginning of 2004, Tecla Lorupe held four world long distance records, in the 18,340 metres (1:00:00), 20 kilometres (1:05:26), 25 kilometres (1:27:05) and 30 kilometres (1:45:50).

Day 6: Today TY, Alex, Wangechi and I travelled to Garissa in northern Kenya where we will be staying for 10 days in order to learn about the LIME project from the people directly involved in it. The journey took approximately 5 hours and included an unplanned stop to change an exploded tire. We were quite lucky not to end up in an accident mainly thanks to the skill of the driver who managed to keep the car on the road even tough we were travelling at 100 km/h. The journey was very interesting once we left Nairobi we travelled through a region which seemed very good for agriculture infact Lazio’s president, Cragnotti, owns most of the fertile land. We passed several villages and the further away we got from Nairobi the further apart the villages were. Once we passed the town Mwingi the villages started to disappear the people leaving in this part of Kenya are mainly nomadic and the land is arid and therefore not many people live here.
What struck me the most was the configuration of the villages they basically are formed of a row of building either side of the road and people just gather around these areas. People are waiting for busses mainly to sell goods to the traveller or to board them with some sort of goods that I guess they will sell to the next big town. Along the road there are smallholder house with a poorly cultivated plot of land and the roads are scattered with people walking to the next village. What struck me the most were the kids walking from school wearing matching uniforms and carrying a plate. Alex explained that in this region, which is badly affected by a draught, kids get the main meal at school, and the food is provided by humanitarian aids.
Today was the first contact I had with “Africa”. No reportage or documentary can actually prepare you for it! I have this sense of wanting to do something to help and I feel so helpless! I keep thinking that I need to work very hard on my assignment for care in order to provide the best help I can give, but I am also aware that I won’t be able to “solve Africa’s problems in 3 month

Day 5: Today was the “first day at the office” the morning was articulated around some briefings on security and Kenyan polices. The security briefing was meant to give us some awareness on the dangers that Nairobi’s presents. I had already read a lot about Nairobi AKA Nairobbery but nothing could have prepared me to the scenarios presented by one the CARE staff. The picture painted was one of absolute terror: car jacking, gun point robbery, people waiting at the gate to rob you. We were told never to walk alone never to use public transport never to walk alone when is dark, bank on the fact that we will “loose” our cell phones and that even the CARE office is not theft free. After this grim picture we were scared even to walk outside the CARE compound! Fortunately the local student told us that the situation is not as bad as it was described. I guess they just wanted us to keep our wits about!
In the evening we went to the Carnivore a famous Nairobi restaurant that serves all kind of bbq met non stop. The carnivore used to serve all kind of game meet unfortunately because of poaching the Government made illegal serving game such as, zebra, giraffe and wildebeest. So we only manage to eat crocodile, camel and ostrich as well as beef, chicken and pork. The evening went very well we managed to bond the with Kenyan students overall it was nice to have everybody around the table enjoys few drinks and good food. During dinner we had a great drink made with vodka and honey, literarily 3 measures of vodka and a big scoop of hones served with lots of ice! A “sweet” way to relax.

Day 4: Very little to report today we sort of hang around the hotel nurturing our hang over and jet lag. In the evening we went to an Ethiopian restaurant suggested to us by one of the taxi driver we got to know in the last couple of days. The food was amazing served in a tray cover with Ethiopian bread, eating with our hands (good think my girlfriend Niki taught how to do that!).
I can’t recall exactly what we had but I know we had chicken, lamb and fish cooked in some spices. The bread used to scoop up the food was rather sour. We shall go back very soon so I’ll try to write down the names of the dishes.