Workin on the project

On Monday of this week I started working on the project with CARE Kenya. I have been really (pleasantly) surprised by the support I have been receiving from the country office here. First thing on Monday morning we had a team meeting to orient me to the project and staff and discuss the logistics of moving forward. I'm really blown away by how productive and dedicated everyone on the team has been thus far. The next morning I went into the field in Kibera (the largest slum in Africa ont he outskirts of Nairobi). Though I haven't had the opportunity to visit the project activities deep in Kibera yet, just seeing the parts that we drove through to get to the CARE satellite office was astounding (visions of India danced in my head). It's hard to image that scale of poverty until you see it with your own eyes. The people who reside here, despite the atrocious living conditions, are incredibly freidnly and warm. I also have not been asked for money except once since I landed in Kenya--which speaks to the dignity of the people. I spent the majority of the day at the field office in Kibera and we had a very successful meeting with representatives from almost all the community- based organizations that CARE Kenya partners with to implement the Local Links project (what I am here to evaluate). These people are comumunity leaders, vastly knowledgeable about the people they try to help. We spent about two hours talking about the project and brainstorming ideas that would improve the quality of the research design.

Thursday I spent all day in the satellite office again. We conducted two focus group discussions with community members residing in Kibera--8 men and 8 women. One of the field officers, Pauline, facilitated the discussion in Swahili while I taped recorded the conversations that took some pictures. (The tapes will be translated and transcribed for me tomorrow so that I can analyze the data). Though I couldn't understand much of what the participants were talking about, I knew the discussions went really well and we would get some rich information from them. Without being able to understand what they were saying allowed me to notice a lot of non-verbal cues you wouldn't normally pick up on. It was like a mini social experiment. After the discussions Pauline told me some of the stories she heard, including a woman who was currently supporting 18 children of her own and a man

In other news, I LOVE the place I'm staying. It's right around the corner from the CARE office and it's like an oasis in the city. I'm staying in a huge tent!! But its got a bathroom in it! And there are always travellers coming in and out of the place before or after they go on safari, so I'm never really alone while i'm at the guesthouse. It's a fun place.

I'm really satisfied with how everything is going. I can't wait until mid-June when I can go on my own safari!

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