Day 17: Today we had a brief presentation to George about our findings on the field. The team and I found the presentation very helpful in terms of organising our thoughts. George also provided some feed back and direction for the following couple of weeks. While walking back from the office we stopped and checked out the golf course and we found out that the price of a game is exactly the same as in Canada, but instead of getting a golf cart you can get a caddy for 400 Kshs (7 $US). Golf is a very elite sport in Kenya and this particular course is managed by Indian people. From the feeling I get, the Indians own and manage most of the business in Nairobi, this obviously causes a lot of racial tension. This is another legacy left by the British Empire, but I guess if Britain hadn’t imported labour from India to build the railway some other form of immigration would have taken place creating the same kind of tension.
After the presentation we went to the supermarket to stock up supplies for our new flat. We were all very intrigued with the supermarket in Kenya I guess the products sold in the supermarket identify the habits of the locals. For instance I noticed that the meat was sold frozen. I guess the most fascinating department was the fruit and vegetable since the products sold here are so different from the one you see either in Europe or North America. Consumer packaged goods are all the same as the one sold in developed countries I guess this is a consequence of globalisation. The only problem being that most Kenyan cannot afford these products. We spent a total of 14000 Kshs which for a Kenyan family is a small fortune and we didn’t even buy that much grocery, we obviously bought the brands we recognised from our countries and I guess that pushed up the cost of our shopping.
In the evening TY cooked our first and probably last house meal, since we are employing a cook to make us nice Kenyan dinners… we need to try authentic Kenyan cuisine hence why we employee a cook... or at least that is our excuse.

Day 16: Today we travelled back from Garissa, the journey was pretty good and we did not have any “unplanned” stop.
Once we got to Nairobi we moved in into our new apartment. Our flat is in a complex called Maki (see picture). We have a massive 3 bedroom the flat is split in to two levels with three bathrooms. There is a swimming pool in the complex and a good Golf course, Nairobi Royal Golf Club, is just 5 minutes walk. The office is about 8 minutes walk. Security is very tight there two security guards and electric fence as well as railing on all the windows.
Overall we were all very excited about the new accommodation. We arranged for somebody to come and clean twice a week and wash our cloths too, we are also contemplating getting a cook but we need to check out the cost. I guess we will be very spoiled for the next two and a half months. We don’t really need all this “Luxury” but it is a novelty for us and there is no way we could afford it in Canada so it will be nice to be spoiled once in a while.

Day 15: Today LIME bought animals from the PPCs. Unfortunately of the 1000 animals requested only 280 were supplied furthermore the average weight was 178 kg instead of the economical average weight of 200 kg. According to the budget LIME is to make a profit of 60,000 KShs if everything goes according to plan. This was only possible because the trekker agreed to take a little hit in order to establish a good working relationship.
So the day started very early we were at the holding ground at 7:45 there the animal were tested for diseases, vaccinated, branded, tagged and weigh. The whole process was very informative and it will certainly help us in our analysis. Buying animal is at the core of LIME business therefore seen it in person was very interesting. We were lucky because this activity only happens 4 times a year. Now the animal bought by LIME will be trekked 450 km to Mombasa were they will be sold to a butcher. The prices were agreed one month ago on a forward contract basis.
The supply of animal was very disappointing LIME will actually loose money or barely breakeven if everything goes according to plan. There some fixed costs that can only be covered by a certain number of animals, for instance trekking is only economical if a minimum of 500 animals are trekked to Mombasa. Furthermore the breakeven analysis assumes that the animals will gain weight on the way. This might be a fair assumption but in the past during the draught the animals lost an average of 20 kg.
It is clear that within CARE there some issues on the scope of LIME when I asked to Lynette if not buying animal for this consignment, since it did not make economical sense due to low supply from the PCC, she replied that this was not an option. Then again we are asked to evaluate LIME as an enterprise. I guess that as well as looking at the financial we will have to closely asses the leadership of CARE this might be a change management issue more than anything else.
While at the holding ground we had lunch with the pastoralists. There were some women who improvised a restaurant and were cooking beef-stew rice and chapatti. They were using wood fire to cook and the chapatti was prepare on the spot a pretty impressive organization and the food wasn’t too bad the main thing was not to look to closely on how they handle the food, obviously hygiene was not high on the agenda!

Day 14: Nothing eventful happened today since we spent all day in the office polishing up the data collected. The number crunching has begun, we envisage many more days like this!

Day 13: Today we went to visit another village that supplies LIME with cattle. On the way back we stopped at Dadab the refugee camp that I mentioned earlier. The camp looks like a makeshift town the building are organised in parallel streets and even though they are made of wood and recycled tins from the aid food it looks pretty organised. There are all sorts of shops. We had lunch at one of the refugee’s camp restaurant … yes restaurant! The place is very rudimental but there is a concrete floor, pretty impressive for the location, and a satellite TV. I guess the most amazing thing though is the atmosphere. If felt like any fast food in the western world. People were coming and going a very efficient service. Yussuf explained that these people are mostly from Mogadishu and therefore are time conscious … a very big contrast with the Kenyan Somali who are moving at very slow pace.
Before heading back to Garissa we stopped by the CARE office where we met the programme manager Mohammed Qazilbash. In Dadab CARE is responsible for managing the camp on behalf of the UNHCR. Mohammed was telling us that the biggest problem the camp has is the fact that there are 20000 youth roaming the streets with nothing to do. Rapes and loitering are raising and the situation could get out of hand. Mohammed described himself as a “mayor” of a city his job everyday is to make sure that the “citizens” receive water, food, electricity, education and other basic services.
Finally when we were visiting one of the pastoralists I had a brief chat with the chairman of the pastoralist Nahat Esman Ibrahim. Ibrahim is a father of 3 kids is 34 years old and as well as helping his fellow clan members in selling their animal suns his own contracting business. Ibrahim gets up everyday at 6 and runs around in equatorial Kenya trying to make a living in these harsh conditions. He is very passionate about LIME this pastoralist is one of the few that has women directly involved in the trading of cattle, generally a male dominated business amongst the Somali. In order to encourage women participation the PPC. In order to encourage women participation the PPC waived the membership for women. Maybe Lime should subsidize the membership for women so to increase the social impact of the project. When I asked Ibrahim if the project impacted the community he was quick in responding that since LIME started the number of kids, especially girls, that dropped out school feel dramatically since now parents have now money to pay the school fees. When I asked if he had any questions for me his first reaction request was to have CARE to give some money to the community for a bursary for students. I had to quickly explain that I was in position to make that kind of decision. Nevertheless I explained to him what CEP is trying to do and he concurred with me that is probably the best thing CARE can do. People around here are so used at NGO starting a project and then leave that they all worry what is going to happen once LIME ends leaves. So to hear that CARE is working hard in order not to leave hopefully gave him some reassurance.
The more I find out about the LIME project the more I think this is the best development work that can be done I haven’t been this excited about an assignment in long time! The encouraging thing is that even though LIME is not making money at the moment there are plenty of people making lots of money in the livestock business. Therefore there must be a way for LIME to be profitable and at the same time provide relief for the poor! I might not find the solution but at least I want to help as much as I can.

Day 12: Nothing much happening today we spent the day in the office collecting information. We also started to look at the numbers collected in the last 2 years. There have been 5 consignments of animals bought by LIME so there is enough information to process and analyse … we have a busy month ahead of us, at least we will be in Nairobi where the temperature is more bearable. I am finding hard getting used to these temperatures especially in the afternoon, it does not help that I keep forgetting of drinking water and therefore I get very tired very quickly!

Day 11: Today was a pretty uneventful day. The highlight of the day was provided when we met 3 CARE employees on their way to the Dadab refugees’ camp. The Dadab camp has been operational for 14 years it started when Somalia was in turmoil. The camp holds approximately 130000 refugees and is source of a lot of tension in the regions because the refugees receive more attention than the North Eastern province inhabitants. CARE has been operating the camp all these years; the main donors to the camp are the US and the UNHCR. The camp employees 2000 people there are 17 schools and all the necessary facilities. This is a big contrast to the living conditions in the region. Some of the educated teenagers find scholarships in the US and Canada but the majority stay in the camp with no real future prospect; some of these educated young men join the paramilitary in Somalia.
So today I have learnt another hard fact about Africa, the picture is getting grimmer and grimmer!