Field Work

I have been spending a lot of time in the field this past week traveling to Kawangware and Mathare visiting young women who have just started up some experiential businesses as part of YWE. Here are some photos from some of the visits:

Preparing a skillet to cook up some fries

Cutting up the potatoes

End result - yum!

Happy business woman

This group makes and sells liquid soap

Girls learning about cash flow in one of the community clubs

This young woman is part of a group who has started a small restaurant - the food was great!

The Girl Effect :-)

Just the beginning

Despite what might be popular belief, my life here consists of more than safaris and harassing Jalyn (although I won't deny either). Under the alias of Chuck Norris, I worked on a small project team to develop a grant proposal to the Gates Foundation and Coca-Cola for $13M to develop the mango and passion fruit supply chains in Uganda and Kenya. This grant was recently approved and the program is now officially kicking-off.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/34950681

I was asked to return to Kenya to kick-off the project as a temporary project manager until a long-term (4 year) project manager can be hired. So we have. We're back, I'm slightly less hairy (its shifted up from my face to scalp - or some might call it a mane), and we're enjoying ourselves.

Jalyn's been in the slums today, visiting her "girls" and has been wearing a smile a lot recently. She seems to be enjoying herself, is also very busy, and has been recruited onto multiple teams here, the primary one I believe is M&E.

We are planning to ease back into the safari'ing way of life with Nairobi National Park this weekend. Looking forward to it!

-CN

Meet the Dogs

Our first weekend back in Kenya amounted to no more than sleeping, eating and playing with the three adorable puppy dogs at Volker's Apts. We didn't venture off on any wild safari or feed giraffes pellets dangling from our mouths. No, all of those things will come in due time. 

As we continue to get settled into our work roles and until we get back out there in that herd of 'white buffalos' (safari vans) we'll just have to settle for the beautiful nature and amazing wildlife we have surrounding us at Volker's.

Flowers on the railing outside our apartment

One of three sweet little parakeets at Volker's

Slobbery kisses from one of the two grey Great Danes (yes she's only a puppy!)

Just like back home in the Midwest...

More slobbery kisses

Who could resist such a face?

What a cutie!

So it has been decided (by Team Feth) that the dogs are officially ours. Every time we come home from work they are there to greet us with their irresistible charm and bucket loads of drool. They jump all over us recognizing us as the new owners (of course) and the little brown one pees with excitement. Who wouldn't!? We're the best new dog owners ever!

And with being new dog owners come new dog names; the two Grey Great Danes are called Tofu and McMeaty Feth and the sweet little one is Bear Feth. 

Meet our new dogs!

Cecilia's Story

Life is tough for everyone. We each face our individual battles and have our ups and downs. But the road for some is tougher than many of us can even imagine. Poverty, hunger, death and some of life's other horrific situations impact the lives of so many people every day on this planet.

But even when the cloud cover is thick, the sky dark and gloomy, there is always a silver lining of hope. A bright blessing ready to shine through at the right place and right time.

One such blessing is the story of Cecilia Katungwa Mutio. A young woman from one of Nairobi's slums who has faced much hardship over the course of her young life but yet still maintains a permanent smile of hope and cheer.

Cecilia's story is featured in the book, Half the Sky, which promotes the encouraging stories of thousands of women making positive turns on life's tough road.

Women in the developing world have a voice and need to be heard. Here's Cecilia's:

http://halftheskymovement.org/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=25

Brian and I are so lucky to have met Cecilia and call her our friend. Here's to you Cecilia - keep up the great work!

Hello Volker

Sunday morning we arrived back in Nairobi after a hellish time at the Mumbai airport.

It all started when we arrived at 1am for our 3:10am departure. We walked inside to notice the line for Kenya Airways was 2,000 people long!!! Ok, not quite 2,000 but about 300 give or take. We soon learned that the flight had been delayed to 5:30am and people were trying to change their flights, hence the long line. We had no option but to make our way to the end and set up camp.

I monitored the luggage cart while Brian inquired about checking in through the fast lane for those folks who hold silver, gold or platinum airline member status. Brian asked, "can I check in here with Silver Elite status?" Guy at counter, "do you have Gold or Platinum?" Brian, "no I have Silver Elite, can I check in here?" Guy, "do you have Gold or Platinum?" Brian, "ok, got it."

So we waited for about an hour, dancing our luggage cart around as people wanted to break through the line with their carts or body check us in order to get to the other side. It was kind of like a game of Red Rover except nobody was calling out names.

An hour passed and we were almost to the halfway point when Brian decided to ask another attendant if we could check in with our sweet Silver Elite status. This time around successful!

We made our way through to the counter, trying to avoid all the glares from those standing in line. I could feel the heat on my neck from all the death looks as we received our boarding passes. We scurried along as quickly as we could to Immigration.

This time the line was quick and we made our way to the gate. Finally, sleep time. It wasn't long until we were soaring across the ocean towards the African continent.

Sunday morning we set foot in Nairobi and arrived back at Volker's Garden Apartments despite our best efforts. We wanted to live somewhere new as to treat this time around as a completely different experience but the other apartment accommodation fell through at the last minute.

So there we were getting settled into our apartment at Volker's, greeted warmly by both Volker and his wife Nancy. They showed us our new home and Volker tended to the gas for the stove and the shower head to ensure we had a hot shower. 


A nice welcome back indeed.

We were quickly reminded of all the Volkerisms (those little nuggets of information one just doesn't know what to do with). Here are just a few from the last two days:

1. "Do you know what people living in the desert use to take showers? (he says as he's replacing our shower head in the bathroom) They use camel pee."

2. "You know many people from India drink their own pee to stay healthy because of all of the antibiotics." (I don't know how to respond and didn't come across any such thing while in India)

3. "Discipline is the most important thing you can have. You know I went through boarding school in East Germany."

4. "I knew Kenyatta."

Did I mention Volker kind of looks like Mr. Burns from The Simpson's?

It's good to be back....

The Last Leg

Tonight is our final night of travel (for a while) as we embark on a red eye flight to Nairobi to begin the next phase in our a la Team Feth African adventures.

The past week and a half in India has been a whirlwind of excitement. We thoroughly enjoyed our good friend's wedding in Bombay, a trip to see the Taj Mahal in Agra and several impressive historical forts in Jaipur.

From Jaipur we traveled to Chandighar. Brian and I rang in the New Year there with drinks and fireworks looking out over the city. Via winding train through the northern hills we left Chandighar for Shimla, the hometown of a friend we met in Nairobi last summer.

Shimla is a beautiful old hill station tucked well into the foothills of the Himalayas. We got to set foot in snow for the first time in a long time while peering out at the majestic mountains.

After a few nights in Shimla we ventured to the romantic city of Udaipur. The weather was warmer and the views spectacular, inclusive of palaces floating on lakes. We enjoyed some relaxation at our hotel which was desperately needed as some exhaustion and cold like symptoms crept in.

From Udaipur it was back to Mumbai where we are now to rest up, reorganize the luggage, do some final shopping and jump on our flight to Nairobi at 3am.

We've been so fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel in between our work in Ghana and Kenya over the last few weeks. Morocco was the taste of North Africa we were seeking and India has been a vegetarian delight (well for me anyway!)

There are still plenty of stories and photos to share from both places that I will enjoy catching up on over the next  few weeks as we settle in Nairobi. We hope the next few months in Kenya bring about much success for the many farmers Brian will be working with and for the many young women I hope to impact in the slums.

Where the road will take us next is yet to be determined. Until then, Jambo Kenya!

Train ride to Shimla

Shimla

This sign greeted us at our hotel room in Shimla. We did see several monkeys, fortunately none in our hotel room

Narkanda (near Shimla)

Himalayas!

Sunset in Kufri (near Shimla)

City Palace in Udaipur

Udaipur

Udaipur

Welcome to Club 30

Yesterday (per India time) I turned the big 3-0 and so far so good. I have to say I wasn't really sweating it seeing how easily Brian transitioned into the new decade just a few months ago. (And people continue to refer to me as if I were still a college student - bonus!)

The day started off grand with a lovely breakfast in bed thanks to my wonderful hubby. Then I got a traditional Indian massage which soothed away any lurking wrinkles thinking they could swoop in and set up shop on my big day.

In the afternoon we hiked up to a monkey temple not far from our hotel in Shimla. The hike was strenuous but I overcame it in stride with only a few breaks that any 29 year old would have taken.

The lookout at the top was marvelous. We strolled past the temple and made our way to the perfect spot to take pictures of the breathtaking Himalayas - truly the best present I could have received for my 30th birthday.

What a wonderful birthday in India filled with hiking, the Himalayas, veggie samsosas, masala tea, a few new bangles and my lovely hubby :-)

I'm liking this 30 thing so far!

Bye Shimla.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all! Team Feth has been on the go and we apologize for not keeping up with the blog.

We are currently in Chandighar, India getting ready to take a train through the winding foothills of the Himalayas to a small town called Shimla. We'll spend a few days with a friend we met in Nairobi and he plans to take us to the village he grew up in. I'm sure we have lots of good food and hot tea in our future!

We spent New Year's here in Chandighar watching dozens of fireworks from the rooftop of our hotel.

After Shimla we plan to spend some time in Udaipur, a small oasis town in the north. From there we'll head back to Bombay for about a day before we fly back to Nairobi on the 10th of January.

Hope everyone had a lovely and safe New Years! We miss all of you very much!

Happy 2010 - may it be a year of much happiness and joy!

Namaste from India,
Team Feth