Trudging Through Swamp and 'Siasa' (Politics)

Trekking through the swamp, back to Bubamba School to begin work. Thankfully, the water has reduced greatly.  The Yala River had swollen in January, at the time of our first trip out there, causing waters to reach up to waist-deep. This time, only up to knee-deep.

At the beginning of the month, I joined all 123 Peace Corps Kenya volunteers when we were required to consolidate in a central location, such that in the event of any widespread violence resulting from the elections held on March 4th, we would be able to quickly evacuate the country by any number of means.

Although the voting and tallying process was fraught with a number of failures and inconsistencies, and results therefore were delayed until five days after the election, there was thankfully only isolated reports of violence, all of which quickly contained by the security forces. So instead of an abrupt end of our time in Kenya, which would have marked my second evacuation in as many countries, what we were left with instead was a week and a half vacation with close friends in a rather fantastic resort in rural Kenya. Comfortable accommodations, buffet meals, Peace Corps Olympics, sports, and general shenanigans... yes please!

Peace Corps Kenya volunteers and staff during the March consolidation. (Photo: Jay Krieger, PCV)

I made it back to site on March 13th, and have since done my damnedest to set the groundwork for the projects I outlined in my previous post, therefore making my final three months a success.

I have continued teaching my Lifeskills classes at two local primary schools, held meetings at my host organization to plan future projects as well as advise the organization in operations and management, coordinated with the Osieko Dispensary to set up mobile health clinics within the swamp, worked with Mumbaya Youth Group, of which I am a member, to plan to construct a tree nursery, amongst other work.

Students perform a role-play on conflict management during my class yesterday at New Hope Primary School.  The approximately 100 students in this class range from Class 3 through Class 8. Whereas my students at the other school have been quick to participate, these students are much shier, making my job harder. These kids are used to lectures, not participatory learning. But they are starting to open up, and I am beginning to enjoy teaching them.

Unfortunately, politics still has the potential to derail many of these projects. Right now, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, a presidential candidate who lost the previous election to Uhuru Kenyatta, is contesting the results of the election in the Supreme Court. He has alleged that the electoral process was marred by massive irregularities and electoral fraud, and that the election results should be withdrawn in favor of a new poll. According to the constitution, the Supreme Court must make their ruling by Saturday.

Peace Corps has laid out a comprehensive safety and security plan to keep us safe under any circumstance. But outside of safety, the potential decision to order a new election could render my remaining time here, in many ways, useless.

The new election would have to occur within 60 days. That encompasses a full two-thirds of my remaining time here. And as I noticed during the March 4th election, the time leading up to the poll involves campaigning, preperations, and not much else. The local officials refuse to hold public barazas (community meetings) during this time. Since much of my work involves community mobilization, and linking with public officials, many of my projects would be forced to stagnate.

So we are still in a wait and see. The future of Kenya is at stake, and specifically for me, so is the shape of the remainder of my service.

Bubamba Primary School, situated within the interior of the Yala Swamp.

Most of my time over the past couple of weeks has been dedicated to facilitating Bubamba Primary School, situated in the extreme interior of the Yala Swamp, in setting up a school lunch program. This project is steadily moving forward, and I have confidence that regardless of how the political situation unfolds, this project will be a success.

There are four public primary schools, out of 35 within our sub-county, which currently benefit from school lunch programs. These programs are all funded by a program run by the Ministry of Agriculture known as Njaa Marufuku (eradicating hunger), which basically assists communities in developing their own grassroots school lunch programs. Under this program, the Ministry of Agriculture fully funds the lunch program, including food, over the first year. But during each subsequent year, the funding drops by about half, until after several years the school is expected to fully sustain the program itself through agricultural practices and donations from parents.

I love the concept of this project. As long as the community buys into the project, it is fully sustainable since it is rooted from within the community itself. The problem is that there is no funding to expand this program to other schools at the moment. Yet students at the other schools, especially at Bubamba Primary due to the troubles of access within the swamp, continue to suffer.

I have been working with PALWECO, a joint development program between the Kenyan and Finnish governments, as they are funding my host organization to educate the public on Land Rights policies under the new constitution. They are currently working with the Bunyala District Ministry of Agriculture to assist select community members in preparing demonstration kitchen gardens at their homes, then holding trainings to encourage other local residents to duplicate the method at their own homes.

The term 'kitchen garden' refers to small agricultural plots of various nutritious vegetables located at a family's home. The idea is that it produces these vegetables year-round. If, for example, you want to prepare 'sukuma wiki' (kales), a local staple, tonight, you would harvest a plant from your garden today, and immediately replace that plant with seed. With constant replacement, you ensure your family a supply of vegetables year-round, without ever having to head to the market.

After having visited Bubamba Primary School in January, I had the idea that by expanding the Kitchen Garden project to the school, we could help tackle two problems at once. First, PALWECO could meet their objective of training and facilitating the community in implementing their own kitchen gardens at their homes. The program has yet to be expanded into the swamp, so the school is a perfect site to reach a new segment of the population. Secondly, Bubamba Primary School can be assisted with a steady supply of vegetables in beginning their own grassroots school lunch program.

I initially pitched this idea to our local PALWECO community development agent and the Ministry of Agriculture in February. I then met with Ministry of Agriculture officials on March 14th to begin to plan out details of the kitchen garden training portion of the project. We planned on pitching our idea to the senior members of the Busia County PALWECO team on Wednesday, March 27th, during their monthly District Technical Steering Committee meeting, which involves all local PALWECO officials and partner organizations in the district.

In order to effectively plan out the school lunch component of our program, we decided it prudent to visit the nearby schools currently benefiting from the Njaa Marufuku school lunch program, discuss with them the program's success and challenges, such that we could learn from their experiences in implementing our program.

On the day before the big PALWECO meeting, Edwin, my counterpart, and I trudged back into the swamp to visit Bubamba school. We had asked Ndira, the headteacher, to convene the school committee, including both parents and teachers. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the challenges faced by their students, and how best we could work together to improve their daily lives.

Parents and Teachers of Bubamba Primary School during our meeting held on Tuesday,  March 26th.

We tried to run the meeting in such a way as to ask what they could do to contribute to the development of a school lunch program, without insinuating that there would be some foreign savior ready to swoop in and fund anything they cannot cover. And, that was the truth. We do not have the funds of Njaa Marufuku at our disposal to help transition to a community-led school lunch program.

The meeting was a great success. The parents seem willing to work to improve the lives of their children. Since the community is so isolated and rarely visited by NGOs and other aid organizations, the dependency syndrome learned over the years by many communities in Kenya is not as strong. In fact, they already work to pool their resources together to provide porridge for the kids when possible.

A mother volunteers to cook porridge for the kids when possible.

The following day, I pitched the project to the PALWECO team at our District Technical Steering Committee, and it received widespread support. I am now working with the Ministry of Agriculture to develop a project proposal and budget. This is truly going to be a community-led project, and I am very excited about its future.

The following are the nuts and bolts of what was agreed upon after meeting with the parents, teachers, Ministry of Agriculture officials, and PALWECO:

Kitchen Garden Training

• Community Organization, involving the mobilization of community members and the formation of committees, will be spearheaded by Edwin and I, alongside the Ministry of Agriculture. We will continue to consult with the school committee to ensure their school lunch program is effective and sustained.
• Kitchen Garden Training will be performed by the Ministry of Agriculture, facilitated by funding from PALWECO.
• Vegetable Seeds (including my personal favorite 'ndengu' (green grams), local favorites 'kunde' (cow peas) and 'sukuma wiki' (kale), tomatoes, watermelon, and local indigenous vegetables including the spider plant and 'manangu') will be provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and PALWECO in order to prepare the kitchen garden.
• Monitoring and Evaluation of the program, both at the school and within the surrounding community, will be conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, assisted by Edwin and I.

School Lunch Program Establishment

• Maize and Beans will be provided by the parents. 'Githeri', a staple food in Kenya involving a mixture of maize and beans, normally forms the basis of any school lunch program. The parents will decide whether they would like to organize themselves to farm land designated by the school together to provide food, donate food from their own surplus harvest, or donate cash to be used
  to pay others to farm or purchase food directly.

Parents have actually farmed, on a small scale, maize behind the school to obtain grains for porridge. They will either choose to expand their farming efforts to grow enough food to sustain the program, or make financial donations.

• Since Njaa Marufuku would normally provide funding to purchase food for the program during an initial timeframe, we tried to find another avenue to allow the parents a transition into the program by providing an initial supply of food over the first couple of years. The Ministry of Agriculture often obtains relief food from aid organizations operating in Kenya. The District Agricultural Officer has assured me that he will designate the school as first priority when this food comes in, to help provide initial support for the program.
• Food storage will be provided in a classroom at the current school building.
• The Kitchen Facility will be renovated/rebuilt by the parents.

The school actually has a kitchen facility built years ago. It has fallen into disrepair, but the parents have committed to rebuilding it.

• An Energy-Efficient Cooker will be purchased by PALWECO.

Energy-Efficient Cookers were purchased by the Ministry of Agriculture as part of the Njaa Marufuku program at Busagwa Primary School. They allow the school to easily prepare enough food to feed all of their 865 students, while only using one small log of firewood a day.

• Firewood will be regularly provided by the parents.
• Parents will either volunteer themselves on a rotational basis to cook, or contribute money to pay for cooks salaries.

Our hope is that the parents, after being trained on kitchen gardens at the school, will readily adopt this technique to prepare their own kitchen gardens at home. And since the school lunch program is primarily a community-led and funded effort, once the program begins, it will be sustained through the future, providing a marginalized community of kids, who often must wade through water up to three feet in depth just to get to school, with a much deserved boost to their physical and intellectual development.

The children of Bubamba Primary School should benefit greatly from this program. The four schools in the district that have established school lunch programs have noticed surges in academic performance, student retention, enrollment rates, physical growth, and overall health.

We are hopeful that upon submission of our proposal on Tuesday, PALWECO will approve and release funding to undertake this project within three weeks. Then we can get to work, and I will hopefully have at least one project under my belt before leaving July 1st.