Never Happier for an Exit Visa!

If you read nothing further, at least hear this message. Do not mess with visas, anywhere. Get your ducks in a row correctly, or don't go. (Or the converse, don't stay!) People always think "oh it's no big deal..." But we saw too many times in Sri Lanka and Thailand, that I can be a big deal. I fell pray to that myself this week, and the Ethiopian immigration at the airport almost didn't let me leave last night! 

The conference I was at was sponsored by a sort of subdivision of the World Bank (IFPRI), plus it was a very large conference (over 800 people). So they requested participants get business visas before hand, and they issued us a letter. Turns out most people didn't bother with that and just got a tourist visa on arrival. In my case, the Ethiopian Embassy in DC screwed up and issued me a 1-month visa starting the day they processed it, not the day I was supposed to arrive in country. We noticed the error and called them, and they said not to worry about it, it was fine. By the time I arrived in Addis, my visa was set to expire the next day. To make a long story short the conference people also told me not to worry about it, but indeed at the airport last night there was a huge problem. They refused to issue me an extension or anything, and told me to cancel my flight and go downtown to immigration on Monday! It was partially related to the official nature of the business visa. At first I figured, "oh we can work something out", but a couple supervisors later and still no change in the "you can't leave this country tonight message,"  I started to panic and the water works started in full force, except it wasn't a tactic. This mama bear had been away from her boys long enough! There was also a really nice Anerican woman who passed by as this was happening, and spends a lot of time dealing with visa issues for kids she works with in an orphanage. She dropped someone's name and started dialing her phone. Something in what she said or I did finally turned the corner for Mr. Stubborn Immigration Boss, and he agreed to issue me a new, backdated tourist visa for two days, enough to allow me to exit properly. The funny part was that the cost was only $20 for the visa and $20 penalty. It was above board too bc they gave me a receipt! I was so thankful, you have no idea! Worst case scenario would have been that I'd be stuck in Addis for two more days, so it's not that dire, but still. 

Ok so, in Frankfurt airport now, waiting to transit to a flight to Dulles. Here's a few thoughts on the last couple days in Addis.

1) by the third day, the conference did indeed turn into a snooze fest, and I was amazed that the egos of the academic types allowed their own heads to get through the door. Nonetheless, I think I still got a lot out of it.

2) Addis Ababa has NO traffic. I've never seen such a thing in an African city! 

3) my dream (a sad pathetic I work for a non profit dream) is to one day have one of those laptops or tablets that you can write on just like a note pad and it translates your chicken scratch into types notes. In the meantime, tomorrow morning's going to be super boring as I type up about a dozen pages of notes. 

4) I have no more insights for this trip. Addis was underwhelming, the conference was worth the trip, and kenya was awesome. And now I just need a shower, some good food, and hugs from my boys!! 

On on...till the next time!

The Anti Snooze Fest

Ok first, a small correction. Nairobi airport didn't get a facelift bc it had a huge fire last year and the fully renovated airport isn't open yet. Sorry, not your fault you can't compare to the new Dulles. We'll check back in, oh....6-20 years when the renovations are done. :) 

Now for today. (Yesterday was a travel day from Nairobi to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, riddled with visa, email and hotel room challenges I won't bore you with.) My coworker and I are attending the "Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security" conference hosted by IFPRI, the International Food Policy Research Institute. It's a huge conference with a lot of the worlds prominent thinkers. We were excited LWR got an invite. I was expecting it to be a snooze fest- a lot of talking in circles maybe, in business suits. First time I've ever brought stockings and heels on a business trip to Africa, by the way. (I ended up not wearing the stockings). We were excited for the networking and visibility opportunity- set me loose in a room and I can talk anyone's head off. But from the first session this morning, I was energized, and furiously jotting ideas and notes, and never once nodded off despite barely sleeping last night. I won't get into all my reflections, that will be pages and pages shared back w my colleagues, but suffice to say that in this difficult world, there are a lot of great things in motion to improve it- already showing a lot of improvement. I didn't even mind the end of the day- a THREE hour plenary from 5pm to 8pm including 20- yes 20- speakers. (Ok the last hour sorta lost all of us). But for example, the head of the World Food Program (WFP), a woman named Etharin Cousin, knocked my socks off with her speech. Who knew?!? The President of Ethiopia was also a distinguished speaker so that was also very cool. I also had the chance earlier to sit with people from other organizations also working on gender integration like we are, and we're planning to come together for a few days to swap notes and maybe build a larger consortium for learning. Super jazzed about that! 

20 more minutes and off to a business dinner...a long but exciting day. 

Day 4: Beautiful Farms

So this is actually Day 5 in Kenya, not counting 2 days of travel to get here. I forgot to blog on Sunday. We had a day off, so my coworker and I spent the morning visiting a giraffe and also a baby elephant sanctuary. We also toured the Karen Blixen (of the "Out of Africa" movie) museum (and house) and ate at a delightful garden restaurant connected to it. In the afternoon I visited with an old friend and former colleague from my days at Winrock- we worked in Mali at the same time. I hadn't seen her in 10 years and it was SO wonderful to catch up, like 10 years had melted away!! Her laughter was as electric and contagious as ever. The taxi ride ended up costing me a whopping $45, but it was worth every penny. 

Today was another great day of field visits, spending more time with coffee farmers and their cooperatives. It's our last field day before my coworker and I continue on to Ethiopia tomorrow for a conference. (My blog posts will undoubtedly get a lot more cynical and sarcastic starting then!) 

Reflections from today:

1) I forgot how much coke you drink on field visits, seeing that it's the welcome gesture of choice for special visitors. 

2) this place is really so beautiful, and so different from other parts of Africa I've known. It's not savannah- it's big rolling, terraced green hills, the resemblance to Sri Lanka tea country is still boggling my mind. The farmers don't worry about drought here, they worry about hail! (Note this is only the last 2 days- the first two days were in a very, very drought prone area.) 

3) Having a gender dilemma. At first there weren't many women around, till I started asking about women coop members. Then women started appearing in our meetings. May or may not be coincidental, but it's clear there's work to be done promoting women's participation here. But I got some great photos of some of the women! I just feel a little funny because they're very clearly in the minority. I'll have to chew on that thought a bit.

4) Camera battery died at the end of the last visit of the last day. Lucky! Note to self, charging the camera battery is a good idea. 

5) I really love this type of work. Our Kenyan staff are fantastic. The idea of going back to the Baltimore office, to glass offices and grey walls and annoying meetings and pressure for growth and strategic blah blah is making me so depressed. Thank goodness for our sweet little house, our super fab friends and just a few more weeks till summer! 

6) I'm now regretting not packing those sneakers. I'm also sorry to the laundry person at the hotel in Addis who will probably have to wash the mud off these pants so I can wear them on the plane home. 

Photos:

The best kind of meeting ever. Sitting under a tree, learning about the coop, this time about farmer field schools and also a health insurance system. Next is one of the farmers who is a farmer field school trainer, walking us through some of the steps he teaches the other farmers about pruning a coffee tree. Lastly, a picture of some of the coop members. 

Now I'm just spoiled...

Finished our day and our flight from Kisumu to Nairobi wasn't until 8pm. So we stopped for an early dinner at a lodge not far from the airport. Turns out it was part of a wildlife refuge run by the Kenyan Wildlife Dept, sort of like a zoo or mini park! So we took a quick peek before eating and heading over to the airport. 

A Great Day!

Today was one of those days you remember why you do this work. You are energized, inspired, and challenged all at the same time. And you end the day with your head swirling with ideas for this project, other projects, and sometimes even for the approach to our programmatic work overall.

The day started at 4:30am, so we could catch a 7am flight from Nairobi to Kisumu. We then drove another hour and a half beyond Kisumu. I struggled to keep my eyes open until at least 10am as we traveled. But then it got interesting. 

We spent the day in an area that reminded me very much of the hill country of Sri Lanka- I have never seen landscape like this in Africa. It's green and dramatic, terraced, rolling hill, cool and fresh- tea country. Poor, but beautiful.  We are working with coffee farmers more so in the valley and lower hillsides, where it's a bit too warm to grow tea. We met with members of a coffee cooperative we're working with, and they told us about the projects activities. In a small, dim room for the meeting, I struggled to keep my eyes open. 

But then we started the tour! They took us outside and showed us how they sort the coffee berries, then put them through a new sorting machine that works with water, and then showed us the tanks they soak in. It was all so organized, and yet step-by-step simple. I've worked with coffee projects before but I don't think I've ever seen the step-by-step process. We saw the dryers, and scale, and storage area. Then we walked over to the nursery and saw all the seedling coffee trees, plus a few other varieties including papaya, as the cooperative was encouraging their members to intercrop and use shade-bearing trees. We saw demonstration plots of newly planted, and a bit more mature trees, plus a water tank they built to store pumped water from the river to use to run the coffee berry sorting machine. 

All set on the backdrop of an idyllic, beautiful countryside! I took pictures like crazy. After a big group lunch they'd prepared for us, we headed out to visit with a farmer that was a member of the cooperative. He had a pretty big farm, and was harvesting his coffee trees when we got there. The coop leadership didn't come with us, so we had a lot of time to talk with him. We talked a lot about growing coffee, and then about some other crops he was growing. One of them was mulberry, and he surprised us by explaining that his wife worked at the silk production center across the street, for which he supplied the mulberry leaves. (More on that in a bit).  We met his little grandson, probably about Griffin's age, who cried in fear when he saw me. This is normal- little rural African kids are scared to death of white people if they've never been around them before. We had a lot of time to dig beneath the surface of "the story" and I was once again reminded that although it's fun, I am not cut out to be a photographer. I'm a questioner. I ask people a lot of questions, and I continually question what the project is doing. It's kind of my job and my nature. Being behind the camera is much too static and unidimensional for me. (Though I have a new secret fantasy that our communications team will pick one of my photos for something cool like the annual report!) 

Anyway back to the mulberry trees! We walked over to the silk center and were in for a big surprise! It was a little 2-room house full of thread making and spinning equipment. The manager happened to be there, so she walked us through the whole thing, step by step! We saw the worms eating mulberry leaves, the cocoons, the boiling room, and all the machines that did various steps to get the silk into yarn. They also had a weaving loom. Pretty cool! The farmers' wife was one of the main workers in the small center, so it was neat to see the whole family's livelihood interconnected ness. 

Other reflections of the day:

1) I don't take near enough notes when taking pictures, so it's very likely I will end up with a thousand photos that I can't explain....I'll keep my day job thanks.

2) Tonight at dinner we worked more....long day!! 

3) working dinners after a long day in the field (plus a Tusker) also make for some good innovative idea generating. 

4) Semi-crappy African provincial hotels CAN actually have good food. 

5) mmmm cold Tusker (beer). Was thinking that Steve used to have a Tusker tshirt a long time ago but I think it disappeared. 

6) finally catching up on other work a bit and the internet is down here. Had to have my coworker in Baltimore call my cell via Skype. 

7) going to bed!

The photos on my IPhone don't nearly do justice to the countryside. Stay tuned in a couple weeks for the DSLR pics, probably on Facebook. Below is the coops coffee production facility with the backdrop of a beautiful countryside. Then also some drying coffee beans. 

Day 2: Makindu, Farmers and Back to Nairobi

We stayed last night in a village in a provincial town, in a little guest house "inn" type of place. It was clean and nice, simple but cute. Randomly, with a really huge, nice swimming pool! But it was too cool to use it. Reminded me of a colleague I used to travel with a lot in Asia, who was crazy dedicated to working out all the time, even on field trips. That guy would have gotten up to swim laps, just because he could. Me, I didn't even bring running shoes, mainly because they take up so much space in my suitcase but also because I'm lazy and field trips are long days plus jet lag. 

Speaking of not bringing sneakers, I have sturdy sandals but managed to, I think, break or maybe bruise badly, my pinky toe yesterday while traipsing through a farmer's field. I barely remember tripping on a rock, but last night it swelled way up and hurts nicely. Should feel delightful next week in the heels I had to pack for this conference in Ethiopia with fancy World Bank and other posh-side of development types. Hopefully it'll be fine in a couple days- I think I might live. 

Back in the Land Cruiser, another hour and a half to this morning's site visit, another farmers cooperative we work with. Was reminded this morning about this weird East African thing- they produce and export tons of coffee but serve instant Nescafé with breakfast. Note to self to warn my high brow coffee snob friend of this fact, who's moving here later this summer from Latin America. I used to travel a lot in Africa when I was younger with a woman who would go to the field with her own French press and ground coffee. 

The guest house had a little gift shop so I bought Griffin a wooden giraffe figurine for 100 Kenyan shillings, about $1.25 I think. We named it "Twiga" which is giraffe in Swahili. They had all kinds of carvings and trinkets (gotta love the giraffe salad tossing spoon sets) and for a moment I paused to appreciate our wonderful Baltimore friends who aren't in the development field and would actually appreciate these things, unlike our families or work or DC or overseas friends who have long since been bored with developing country souvenirs. In fact at the office we have regular games of tchotsky bowling but you didn't hear that from me.  I probably should have bought a bunch of those salad things but am a little short on local currency since I forgot to hit the ATM at the airport in Nairobi. Sorry guys. 

Ok now it's about 6:30pm and we're back in the Land Cruiser headed to Nairobi. We've been driving already a few hours, hopefully we'll hit the outskirts of the city soon because driving on these highways after dark is a no-no, pretty much in any developing country. The highlight of this drive is that we saw a few real giraffes grazing by the side of the road!! A huge treat. I always say I'm glad I started my career in West Africa where there's no real wild game, because you fall in love with the people. Once you get to East Africa you risk being so awed by the chance to see big game that you have to force yourself to remember there's a lot more to this place. 

We had a great day visiting farmers and learning about LWR's programs out here. I took a lot of pictures but tried to listen more and be a bit less intrusive. It's tough though, now that I have the picture taking bug. Today was a good example of why NGOs need good program people and/or monitoring and evaluation people to help dig deeper. We saw some examples of some amazing stuff- farmers growing plentiful, diversified, irrigated crops, being sold at good market prices. I think I got some really gorgeous shots- we'll see. But we also clearly saw all the best farmers- we asked and they told us that- and although we met some women, we didn't see any women's farms either. We saw a super cool mobile-based payment system for water users- they demonstrated how it worked and it was really cutting edge. Except it took me some digging to hear that only 5 farmers had switched over to using it, since December. Behavior change takes time, the projects not over, but it would be easy to get over excited about a good photograph and story about the innovative technology, without noticing the results. 

Day 1 Round up - Makindu

Today: 

1) I saw wild ostriches and Mt. Kilimanjaro and the wide African plains with a rainstorm way off in the distance.

2) We had a great briefing with the LWR team working out here- we are several hours SouthEast of Nairobi. 

3) We visited with a lot of farmers and their local cooperative, saw some irrigation structures and some fields

4) I took a ton of photos with my borrowed DSLR camera, for which I had a quick briefing on with "tips" from one of our PR guys before leaving Baltimore.

5) I barely heard any of the discussion because I was busy taking a zillion photographs. No wonder I never bothered taking pictures before while working. (And have no pictures for this post bc they're all still on the big camera. Note to self: snap a few on the trusty IPhone tomorrow.

6) I had ever so slight flash of a mid life crisis, wondering if I'll still be riding around in white Land Cruisers in Africa 15 or 20 years from now. Probably. 

7) I missed the small window to call Griffin during his morning before school. I will try making a little video to send for Steve to show him. There's no internet at this little guest house out here so that should be a pretty little roaming cell data transfer charge. I'm also missing the Mother's Day Tea Party at his school, but luckily Steve is going, donned in his best dress hat and feather boa. 

Ok here's a photo after all, a picture of the lion mural painted on the wall of my room. My room key doesn't have a number, it just says "lion." My colleague is next door in leopard. 

Reflections from IAD-BRU-KGI-NBO

1) Dulles got a helluva face lift. Nairobi airport did not.

2) Saying the last time I was here was 10 years ago really makes me feel old. Mainly because it seems like yesterday.

3) Thank god for good seat assignments, mostly empty rows, and good airplane movies.

4) Like taking homework on college breaks, after all these years I still delude myself that I'll do mega hours worth of work on these long flights. 

5) I didn't cry the entire flight. Is it getting easier to be a working/traveling mom and leave behind my little guy? (Note: this means I didn't cry all the way from Dulles to Nairobi, not that I didn't cry at all. That Keanu Reeves can be so romantic!)

6) Every layover I ever have in a European city is overcast. Europe seems possibly overrated. 

7) Once again I'm reminded that CNN International is far superior than US news stations. (Except Anderson Cooper. I loathe him abroad and at home)

8) We had a short layover in Kigali, Rwanda. Wow what a beautiful place to fly into. 

9) Huh. Thailand kicked out another prime minister. Makes African governments look stable. 

10) Last one, after a good nights sleep and two hot showers. I love sleep. I also love fresh mango juice and fresh mangoes. And it's good to be back in Africa. 

 Photos:

Awesome water bottle spigot now next to the drinking fountain at Dulles airport. If you know me, you know I'm a little obsessive about reusable water bottles.

My view from the airport hotel in Nairobi, pretty nice place! In the distance is Nairobi National Game Park. And the hotel patio, edge of pool (it seems too cool to swim though).