Preventing daylight robbery

Today started well with a very efficient and upbeat management meeting with Duncan and Mary. Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse shortly after our meeting finished when Mary told me that our building contractor had experienced a problem at the bank – again.

Our building work is currently making great progress and should be completed on time. The classroom block and visitors’ centre are really taking shape now and we should see the roof timbers going up this week. So far so good.

I wish the same could be said of the arrangements that we have made to pay for this work as it goes on. We have drawn up an agreed payment schedule with the contractor responsible for the building work. Each time a particular milestone is reached a payment is triggered. Paying by cheque is the most convenient method of payment for the work, but I am beginning to wonder if this was actually a wise decision. The contractor has now been unable to claim payment on two cheques that we have given him. It is very frustrating.

Kenya is infamous for corruption and financial mismanagement. To be fair to Kenya it is not the only country in the world that suffers from significant ‘transparency’ problems. The problems we have experienced making payments to the contractor are a result of genuine efforts to reduce fraud and forgery in Kenya but they do make doing business difficult. Our most recent problem, (today), was caused by a regulation made by the banking authorities in Kenya, capping the maximum value that can be written on a cheque at one million shillings. At the current exchange rate that’s about £6,300 or $10,000. The cheque, which I wrote to the contractor, was for slightly more than a million shillings so he was unable to pay it into his account. This resulted in a hurriedly arranged meeting with him this morning at our bank in Kisii to make a direct transfer of funds to his account. The contractor was very reasonable about it all and the transfer was eventually made. Looking at the whole experience in a positive light we have learned another valuable lesson in transacting business in Kenya and won’t get caught out again. I always appreciate the small lessons in humility that I benefit from when dealing with official policy – especially in the banking sector. I also enjoyed a bonus back massage courtesy of the bumpy roads between our place and the bank so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

On the other hand I do sometimes wonder how the average Kenyan can be expected to climb the ladder to financial success and security when the support structures available to him or her are so shaky. It makes me more determined than ever to make sure the children that are growing up in our care are prepared for every eventuality – including the mind mangling, patience pummelling, sanity sapping idiosyncrasies of the banking system.

The week ahead

Following last night’s blog I was pleasantly surprised when the party noise died out early, (though the drumming from one of the local churches did carry on for a while). I still woke up tired tough. The anti malaria tablets I take are a bit old school and have the interesting side effect of making you have very vivid dreams. Nothing particularly psycho, weird or scary but very active. It’s quite exhausting some nights.

This week looks like being busy. I will be doing two days of Farming God’s Way, (FGW), training on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m looking forward to it, as it will be an opportunity to apply the training I received myself in Lesotho earlier this month. I am slightly nervous about it – there’s quite a lot to get through and it will be my first time fronting a ‘live’ audience on my own. The plan is to train up a small group of people to equip them for training others. As well as the novelty factor I’m also slightly anxious about the plot we will be planting being successful. We will be planting the seed a little bit late in the season. Even though it is a specially selected ‘short season’ seed, which matures very quickly, I will be praying hard for its rapid growth.

Our main FGW crop is doing very well. Some of the maize stalks must be at least 8 feet tall now. The treatment against pests has been successful so far and the cobs of corn are already evident in the first stage of development. It looks like a fair number of our maize plants will produce two cobs of corn. It’s very exciting watching it all happen. The intricate balance in nature which enables things to grow is fascinating. Our maize plants “tassled” a few days ago. The tassles poke out of the top of the plant ready to pollinate the silks on the corn cobs as they emerge. The silks look a bit like a wispy silk beard growing out of the leaves holding the cob. Each individual silk is connected to a kernel on the cob and once pollinated the kernel develops. The pollen is shaken off the tassles by the wind, (or the farmer, depending on circumstances). I’m really looking forward to the harvest.

Later in the week I’m off to Kisumu, an hour and a half’s drive away, to have the windscreen in our Landrover replaced. The crack in the windscreen has just started to draw the attention of one of the local policemen in Oyugis and we are on notice to do something about it. If this is the beginning of a general crackdown on damaged windscreens I think I will invest all of next month’s income in the local autoglass industry – Kenya must have more damaged windscreens per capita than anywhere else I have been to. A function of the wonderful roads. I’m hoping that we will make it all the way to Kisumu on this trip. Last time the Landrover went to Kisumu, to fetch Judi from the airport, the front prop shaft fell off on the return journey to Kosele. Fortunately no one was hurt. Silverline, our favourite garage in Kenya, repaired the Landrover, free of charge. Hamir, the owner, is a great friend to Hope and Kindness. He has generously offered to fix our windscreen free of charge as well. Acts of kindness like this do great things for your faith in human nature. Many thanks to Hamir.

Party on

The early evening is a lovely time in Kosele. As dusk settles in the community starts stirring itself. It’s a very sociable time of day as people take advantage of the cool of the evening to get things done and catch up with each other. It’s also, often, a very beautiful time of day. The sky changes dramatically as the sun goes down and the Homa Hills seem to loom forward from the distance, bathed in red and orange. Sometimes it looks like the sky is on fire. The sky is so big this close to the equator that it dwarfs everything else. You can understand why people worshipped the sun and the elements when you see them so close up and so powerfully. This evening the sky was particularly spectacular – like looking at heaven. Often the clouds just pile up over the edge of Lake Victoria then seem to drift towards us. The sun behind this evening’s clouds looked like a huge light show – straight rods of light shooting out of the billowing grey mountains of cloud. It was awe-inspiring.

If the early evening is a sociable time in Kosele the night-time and early hours of the morning are party time. As I write, (10.30 p.m. Kosele time), the first wave of noise from the disco over the road and a little way up the hill are drifting towards us. From here it sounds like a badly distorted version of the tune from The Magic Roundabout, (a children’s TV show in the UK). The same thing happened last night, (and will, in all probability happen tomorrow). The reason for the ‘party’ is sure to be a funeral. Funerals are, sadly, the most frequently occurring ‘social’ event around Kosele, (and many other parts of Kenya). HIV/AIDS has taken a dreadful toll around here, leaving a trail of orphans and hard pressed grandparents in its wake. Once the funeral has been conducted, and the body has been buried, the sound system goes into action. A properly managed sound system can keep going until the crack of dawn – the system that has started up tonight was playing as I woke up this morning. This is an impressive achievement, given that car batteries are the main source of power at these events.

The organisers of tonight’s wake have obviously not been reading the national press much this week. Area officials in another part of Kenya have banned discos until the KCSE exams have finished in a couple of weeks time to improve student performance. I can’t imagine that going down very well in the UK. It is a serious issue though. Concern about the goings on at discos is widespread. Having a good time is seriously dangerous to your health in Kenya. In addition to the very strong risk of becoming HIV positive as a result of a casual liaison, the locally brewed ‘changa’ can also be lethal. The press regularly carries stories about people being blinded and even killed by this badly prepared hooch. The curse of poverty is all pervasive. The cavalier attitude of ‘eat, drink and be merry’ has more serious consequences in this part of Kenya than some other parts of the world. Unfortunately it doesn’t put people off. The batteries are holding out up the road and the night is still young.

Becoming more effective

It’s been a good day today. It didn’t really start brilliantly – grey, drizzle, cold. This is somewhat unusual in my experience of Kosele. I had to put an extra shirt on for a while. The downside of all this rain is that it encourages mosquitoes. They seem to go into some kind of reproductive frenzy. In the last hour I am easily into double figures killing them as I work. I will definitely be asking God about them - they have eaten me alive in the last week. Still, I guess I shouldn’t complain. At least I can protect myself against malaria, unlike most of our neighbours.

I have been meaning to read Stephen Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” for some time. I’m not really a great fan of ‘quick fix’ personal growth books and have been pleased to find that The 7 Habits doesn’t fit into this category. It is a powerful tool for change. I have been encouraged by reading it, and have started to use it in my own efforts to become more effective.

I am very excited by a companion book, also by Stephen Covey, called “The Leader in Me” which explains “How schools and parents around the world are inspiring greatness, one child at a time”. Like the 7 Habits it’s not a quick fix recipe book. I‘ve spent a very productive day gathering my thoughts about how to apply some of the insights in the book to our school in Kosele and how I might use it in the Agriculture College.

One of our biggest challenges for the coming year(s) is making sure that our school and college really do the best that they can for the children. Today I’ve been planning how to step up our efforts by making our educational activities more Rigorous, Relevant and Relational. (I will confess now that these terms have been borrowed from Dr William Daggert). One of the things that helped me in deciding to leave my job in July was an increasing sense of disillusionment with the English education system. It’s a long story but not unique to England.

In “The Leader in Me” Maria del Carmen Acena, the Guatemalan Education Minister in 2003 is quoted as saying;

“Educators are feeling enormous regret from the realisation that over the last decade so much emphasis has been placed on raising test scores that it has come at the expense of students not learning some of the most basic skills needed for everyday life. They also regret that in the process of focusing on academics they have failed to pass on to students more of a love of learning and a love of life”.

As a result of my efforts with “The Leader in Me” today I have added another page filled with quotes and exhortations to my planning pad. The pupils will be returning from half term on Monday and I have a meeting with the teachers in the afternoon. I will have to make sure I don’t resort to communicating in mission statements in the meeting! I really do want to make sure that we start the school improvement ball rolling so it starts to pick up momentum as soon as possible.

The most inspiring idea I came across in “The Leader in Me” said:

“Leadership is communicating people’s worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.”

It’s a style of leadership that I hope we will all aspire to.

Yes Jesus loves me

I really don’t know how Noah managed to keep it all together while God was busy flooding the earth. Today we have had what feels like an almost biblical amount of rain. Duncan is pleased because it is very good news for all of the onion seedlings that he has just planted out. We have had an impressive result with our vegetable plot this year. We haven’t had to buy any onions or Kale since mid August and have even managed to sell some of the kale to a high school for girls in Kosele. It is all very encouraging.

On another positive note we have just received the first application for the teaching posts in our Agriculture College that we have just advertised. Advertising a teaching vacancy around here is rather different to back in England. We don’t have a local job centre. The District Education Officer has been kind enough to photocopy and paste up our full page job advert in a variety of public places on his travels around the district. As the adverts were only posted yesterday this is a good start as it’s the first time that we have formally advertised for teachers. Our last recruitment drive was aimed at graduates from the local Teacher Training College in Kosele run by our friend Stephen. I’m looking forward to the interviews in a couple of week’s time.

I had a really priceless moment today because of the rain. At some points this afternoon it looked like somebody was just emptying buckets of water out of the sky. When it rains like this the only sensible thing to do is take shelter and sit it out until the rain stops. Two of our younger children holed up in the classroom next to my office. I don’t think they knew I was in the room next door – we’ve just had ceiling board put up to make it look a bit more presentable for visitors and to cut down the noise of the rain on the corrugated iron roof. One of the downsides of sitting in some of our buildings is the machine gun volume of the rain if it falls particularly heavily. The rain lasted for most of the afternoon, so the two little ones were inside for the long run. As the volume of the rain rose and fell I could hear them reading, chatting, playing games and finally, when all else had been exhausted, singing. It was as if the rain knew that a special moment was at hand. The downpour slowed to a steady, quieter drizzle and two little voices piped up “Yes Jesus loves me, Yes Jesus loves me, Yes Jesus loves me, The Bible tells me so”. It was beautiful.

Take me to the future

I’ve been trundling about doing Terry’s taxi service in our Landrover today, ferrying Ian, Hilda and our church leaders to and from Oyugis, (our nearest town) for a planning meeting and away day. I was struck by how many motor bike taxis there were in Oyugis. Even compared to last year there seems to have been an exponential increase in the number of young men with motorbikes parked up in mobs, (not sure what the correct collective noun for motor cyclists is), by the side of the road. I’m no economist, (the maths was too hard and the logic was too inscrutable), but I would say the supply side of motorcycle taxis in Oyugis is out of whack with the number of customers.

These bikes are Chinese or Indian makes, between 150 and 250 cc, so not really very big bikes. They ply their trade along the most horrible roads once they have left the main road in Oyugis. They carry incredible loads. Best one I saw today was carrying two passengers with what looked like a 90 kg sack of maize tied on the back. It isn’t unusual to see Mum, Dad and child/children as passengers on one bike.

The other overcrowded mode of transport that I have blogged about previously is the estate car taxi. On our way back from Kosele at the end of the day Ian and I were both astonished to see two ladies get out of the boot of one of these vehicles, leaving a guy and about a dozen chickens remaining.

All of these transport observations have got me thinking – are they a metaphor for economic prospects in Kenya?

The motor bike taxis have superseded the humble boda boda bike, (a fixed gear pushbike with a cushioned passenger seat on top of the parcel rack). These bikes were the principle form of transport over short distances for many people until about two years ago. They have the advantage of being cheap and environmentally friendly. They provided regular employment for a large number of young men and do not travel at dangerously high speeds. On the down side they can only carry one passenger. In addition the passenger cannot be guaranteed a ride up steep hills.

So. The onward march of technology is a more efficient mode of transport, (it can carry more passengers and heavier loads), and provides a more comfortable and , arguably, more enjoyable service for the passenger(s). Most of the boda boda bikes came from China so the trade implications are comparable. At present it seems that all the boda boda operators just migrated to motor bikes, so there are still as many of them plying their trade. How many of them are profitable or making a living is a different question. The increased number of motor bikes has caused more accidents because the boda boda guys still seem to be getting the hang of riding motor bikes. The motor bikes also cause increased distress to pedestrians in the town, (they kind of creep up behind you).

The estate car taxis seem more robust than earlier models and provide a smoother ride, even on the rough road between our place and Oyugis. They also seem to have extra load capacity so are more efficient. However the serious overloading which goes on is a major cause for concern, (as are the associated animal rights issues). The improved design of the cars seems to make it possible to drive faster and, inevitably, more recklessly in pursuit of greater profits and more passengers. In the morning and evening ‘rush hours’ the competition between taxi drivers looks like the Wacky Races, as each driver hurtles along the road in attempt to be the first to get to the next lot of waiting passengers. Again, the toll on the nerves and reflexes of the innocent pedestrian is significant.

So, to summarise. The type of taxi services that are available in Oyugis have changed considerably in the last couple of years. Taxi operators have taken advantage of new technologies to provide ‘improved’ services for customers. So far so good. A half-decent modern economy needs to make the most of advances in technology. Unfortunately the brakes which need to be applied to too rapid a change have not been in much evidence in the taxi business, (motorbike or estate car), in Oyugis – literally. It remains to be seen how many motorbike taxis will remain viable in the long run. Unemployment amongst motorbike taxi operators seems inevitable. In the absence of alternative jobs structural unemployment seems likely. It also seems clear that the training required for the safe operation of this service has not been provided, leading to significant accident and health hazards. The reckless overcrowding as regards passengers and loads carried by both types of taxi adds to this problem. Overcrowding and speeding push the vehicles to the boundaries of safe and sustainable operation. The only winners in this situation are shock absorber manufacturers, hospitals and mortuaries.

Both the estate car and motor bike taxi services also create additional environmental hazards as well as economic problems. In an economy which cannot guarantee uninterrupted supplies of regular petrol it does not make sense to add further to the level of demand for this fuel. It seems widely accepted that  the planet is not capable of sustaining such a significant increase in the number of petrol fuelled vehicles.

It is probably unfair to push the metaphor too far. Kenya is the most prosperous East African economy, despite its current problems. Like most developing countries, looking to catch up with a more western lifestyle and standard of living, it is not unreasonable for Kenyans to want to benefit from technological change. The problem is that it’s not a sustainable aspiration. Perhaps the metaphor should be extended to include the world economy. It seems to be hurtling, at break neck speed, to a pile up, fuelled by the desire to squeeze more out of its diminishing resources. All in the name of progress.

Lamenting the demise of the humble boda boda bike may seem like the worst type of reactionary response to change. Whinging on about the environment may qualify me among the tree hugging fringes of the blogosphere. Be that as it may I bet the Chines will be making push bikes for many years to come.

First pray

Being an agricultural, educational missionary is incredibly rewarding. It’s funny how life works out. I’m sure God enjoys turning the tables on people and sending them off in unlikely directions. Jonah had a whale of a time running away from God. There’s plenty of evidence of God’s ‘interference’ in people’s lives in the Bible so it shouldn’t have come as any surprise that I should end up here doing this. I think God was setting me up for Kenya years before I became a Christian.

I am absolutely useless at drawing. After accidentally becoming an IT teacher in the 1980s I began to really appreciate all the great things that computers could do – like clipart. Art was one of the lessons at secondary school I never really looked forward to. I never seemed to make any progress. Despite my inability to draw or paint I was able to draw a map of Africa in great detail when I was about nine. I was at a school in Suffolk at the time and remember drawing lots of maps of Africa. My Mum, brother and sister and I had recently returned from living in Singapore for two years. During that time my Dad, (who was in the air force), took us round the most off the beaten track parts of Singapore, (which was going some as it’s not really a very big island), and through some interesting bits of Malaya. It gave me a sense of adventure, a desire to see new places and an awareness that a lot of people lived in very poor conditions.

A number of years later, as a sociology student in Northampton, I really enjoyed studying development issues. The Report of the Brandt Commission (North South), was a very influential book while I was a student and had a big influence on my thinking, politics and conscience. The report is another book, that was written over thirty years ago yet still has a very contemporary message. Willy Brandt, (the German Chancellor at the time), prefaces the book by saying:

“This Report deals with great risks, but it does not accept any kind of fatalism.  It sets out to demonstrate that the mortal dangers threatening our children and grandchildren can be averted; and that we have a chance — whether we are living in the North or South, East or West — if we are determined to do so, to shape the world’s future in peace and welfare, in solidarity and dignity.” It was, (still is), stirring stuff.

I think, (with the benefit of hindsight, age and a rewired spirit), that it leaves out an essential ingredient for world transformation. All the economic change, technological change and social readjustment that the world can make will come to nothing it they are not informed by a spiritual transformation. I think I must be a very slow learner. I took a long time to pick up all of the clues that God put in front of me to get me here – 42 years in fact.

The struggles that are so much a part of life in this part of Kenya are played out against a backdrop of influences – Christian, Muslim, secular, ancestral and animistic. As a Christian it has the feel of a very Old Testament society – where religion is a kind of insurance policy. In these circumstances it makes sense to have a variety of policies. There is a widely accepted view that in Africa Christianity is a “mile wide and an inch deep”. As a Christian development worker Kosele is a very challenging place.

Because Christianity is so widely accepted and adopted here it is easier to live out my faith in Kosele than it is in England. None of the staff think it is strange to fast and pray before making important decisions. Prayer is a normal, rather than unusual, activity in and around Kosele. The concept of a spiritual battle, with real winners and losers, is a part of everyday life here. It has some very scary consequences. People, (usually elderly) are burnt for practising witchcraft with predictable regularity around Kisii, (a town about forty minute’s drive from our place).

In the Bible it says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12 - NIV Bible). It is easy to pour scorn on such mumbo jumbo from a comfortable seat in the developed world. It is less easy when you live amongst the evidence.

The battle against inflation, poverty, climate change, the forces of globalisation and the Chinese will no doubt, continue for many years. Debate will rage about the most prudent, practical (and, ultimately, populist) measures that can be taken to ensure the future health and prosperity of planet earth’s people. There are many economic and political measures that can, and should be brought into the fight. Out here in Kosele we will watch with interest as events unfold. We would be stupid to ignore current development theory and practise. It has moved a considerable distance since the Brandt Commission Report.

But before we consider all of that we will fast, pray and win the spiritual battle.