The Edge of Somewhere

These last few days I’ve had the unique opportunity to spend time in Kakuma, Kenya, home of the Kakuma refugee camp(s) since the early 90’s.  For those in the West, Kakuma is known by some as the camp that the Lost Boys from Sudan began arriving at en-masse and was recently featured in the film, A Good Lie.

             

The word “camp” connotes something orderly and with clear boundaries and this would not be an accurate description of this area. Kakuma houses more than 170,000 refugees from a couple decades worth of conflicts in this region including Ethiopians, Sudanese, Congolese and Somalis.

This part of Northern Kenya is originally Turkana land, a pastoralist tribe that still resides here as well with their multitude of cattle, camels and goats.  It is hot, 100+ degrees today, with a dry wind that kicks up dust devils across the landscape.  It is hard to imagine the tragedies that led people (and are still leading people) to this desolate place that, in contrast to where they were coming from, make this feel like a sanctuary.

So why am I here? 

While our partnership typically works with Medium sized mills and processors, we were asked in this case by the World Food Program to help train several smaller mills who have the potential to supply the refugee camp with basic flour blends used for the school feeding program they run feeding 67,000 kids a day at the camps.

    

Like all our work, training these nascent mills has a positive ripple effect in multiple directions – instead of importing milled grain from far away, WFP is spending less to buy local maize and sorghum creating a market for smallholder farmers across Kenya.  The milling cooperatives that have been set up are new businesses that cut across ethnic/country lines and are creating opportunity for sustainable livelihoods.  The 20 people we’ve trained these last couple days are from 5 different countries but all working together towards a common goal of a successful business that will feed local children.

The training we’ve done here started with the best practices that have formed over the 100+ years our 4 corporate partners have been in the food business…(In Cargill’s case they are celebrating 150 years this year and General Mills is just a bit younger…) These best practices have been distilled down to the training that our typical client receives.  

In this case, the training has been distilled down even further for an audience of new millers, many of whom have never sat in a classroom or received training of any kind.  The training materials combined both words and pictures for some that are illiterate and is heavy on hands on repetition.  The training has been delivered by our expert TechnoServe staff as well as with a young local miller, Dennis, from one of our Nairobi clients as a way to build his own experience and capacity.

What is most exciting about this training is that we have demonstrated to ourselves that we can take expertise from 4 leading global food companies and take it all the way down to the smallest, hardest to reach millers on the Continent. (Other than a war zone, there is not a more challenging environment I can imagine than the one we’ve just successfully worked in…) These kinds of mills still represent where a majority of African food is processed so to able to bring them best practices has the potential to reach millions more with safer, more nutritious, local food. 

We will be engaging with the World Food Program to explore in the weeks and months to come how we might roll this small mill training out on a much larger scale.

“I’ve learned how to do my job better – we are gratefulfor the support.”-Thomas

 

“We are producing food for the next generation of Doctors, Teachers and Policemen who will care for our community – this training helps us do a good job.”

   - Japhet 

Meanwhile, Molly and the kids are at a nice hotel in Nairobi… (We had to move out of Amani Gardens for stretch because they have a large group that took over the place) and we wrestle with the very different experiences these few days offer us, a microcosm of sorts. Clara recently wrote a poem that captures this well...

This is Africa

A lot of people would say

Africa is a poor and dirty place.

Yes, this is true.

There are overcrowded slums,

Disease, robbery and rape,

Crippled beggars on the side of the road.

This is Africa.

But over the wall and down the hill

lies a different kind of place

One with flashy cars and expensive cuisine

with swimming pools and maids.

Education is easy to find,

And you live life like kings and queens.

This is Africa.

The question we wrestle with

And toss and turn over in our sleep

Is how do we live in the tension?

The coming weeks are filled with motion…Molly leaves for Texas on Thursday to see Mackenzie in her new life at TCU, Clara and Bennett and I are heading up to explore around Mt. Kenya this weekend…On Tuesday the three of us head to Tanzania where we will reunite with Molly and spend the rest of February, then back to Kenya to welcome the first of several visitors. 

On a personal level these first few weeks in Kenya have been a gift for our little family -- we will always look back on this time as a window where we received exactly what we needed, at exactly the right time only in a way that exceeded expectations.  I’m thankful to be able to write that.

Goodnight.

Finding our Way

Good evening from Nairobi.  It is Super Bowl Sunday but unfortunately due to time change and channel availability, we will miss the game (and commercials).

Our second week here was a full jumping into our new lives …The kids started online school, my work schedule went into overdrive, we have found our spots to eat, shop, get gas, etc.

On the school front, Molly and the kids have figured out, more or less, how the online school thing works – some good classes, some OK classes, but all in all manageable. 

Bennett got his Jr. Kenya Golf card and is loving golf lessons in January a couple days a week.  Clara made her first visit to Heshima, a school for disabled children and livelihoods for their mothers that was started by a Minnesota family.  She is going to be able to volunteer there a couple days a week. 

We have found Nairobi a bundle of paradoxes, like much of Africa is today.  It is very different than our time in Lusaka was just 7+ years ago…(Although, due to the rapid development happening across the Continent, living in Lusaka today would also be very different.)

A few examples...We can go 5 minutes from where we live and order fresh brick oven pizza that rivals anything at home – next door you can order a Cappuccino, made from fresh Kenyan coffee (all the good stuff used to be shipped out to the US and Europe) that is better than Dogwood Coffee (not really Greg Hoyt).  Last week I was at the new Nairobi airport and I sat in the literally the nicest airline club I have ever been to anywhere in the world. 

And yet, all of this sits up close to the Africa that most of us think of – massive slums, struggling farmers in far-flung villages, crippled beggars at each intersection.  It is hard to wrap your head around the disparity that used to mostly be separated by oceans.  Now the gulf sits sometimes just seconds apart.  We have less answers for this than ever before and we do our best to keep living in the tension.  Sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

Yesterday Clara and I went on a little trip and hiked Mt. Longonot, an extinct volcano, about an hour and half from Nairobi.  As a Colorado boy, it is always wonderful to put the city in your review mirror and head for mountains.  Clara and I had a great day together mindful of the many gifts the day represented.  It was a steep hike to 9,000 feet but we were rewarded with a unique and amazing view into the former cauldron, now covered in vegetation, and views of the African plains in every direction.  Clara thought to throw a hammock into our pack and we placed it in maybe the best place ever for a hammock. (See Pics)

        

On the work front, this week was incredibly energizing and exhausting.  I have not yet found a pace that will be sustainable for 4 months.  There is so much to do and see.  My favorite times thus far are meetings with our staff and clients where I have the opportunity to hear their stories and the ways the expertise we bring can improve their businesses.  Attached are a few pics of our staff and a few of the leaders of the more than 600 companies with whom we have been privileged to work.

Bill and Melinda Gates recently came out with their annual letter from their foundation and this year they threw down several bold predictions, one of which is that Africa will be able to feed itself by 2030.  This thoughtful prediction is exactly in-line with the stated aspiration of Partners in Food Solutions:

To participate in helping Africa feed itself and the world….

PFS will improve food security and nutrition across Africa by expanding and increasing the competitiveness of the food processing sector creating markets for smallholder farmers and increasing the  availability of nutritious foods.  This positive transformation will occur by delivering customized food technology and business wisdom and solutions from volunteer experts at world-class companies, providing industry training and catalyzing financial investment.

This bold statement from the BMGF now gives us a definitive timeline to work against joined by many others, no less that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  When you meet with the people like those pictured, you can believe, like I do, that this vision is attainable.

 

I’ll close with a family reality check – The kids hit a bit of a wall today – as teenagers often do.  Said another way, Molly and I are driving our kids nuts.  The challenge in our particular situation is the normal outlets for them aren’t here.  Despite our large yard, the walls closed in a bit today for the kids.  Those inclined to pray (aka, those with teenagers), please do.