Back Home (for now)

To all my friends,

Thank you for following my experiences in Kenya.

I am back in Israel already, but, I would like to express some concluding remarks for the last two months.

Although my complaints of different hardships, my experience in Kenya was a very positive one and I can truly say that I had a great experience. I have met some extraordinary people. People of thought, vision, commitment and with a good heart who continuously try to help others. People who are very dedicated to their country. I also met people who are not, that their life experience has taught them to take what they can when they can and upon receiving a position of power they become entitled. These people are called by the Kenyans, selfish and corrupt, but due to the strong ethnic ties, and although everyone complains about it and gave me real life examples, each group protects their own, these perpetrators are seen as “our criminals” which are entitled to the protection of the group. This is known to everyone, everyone is tired of it and want to sever these chains, but do not know how. I believe, that like in China, a leader will rise at one point who will make the change and with the support of the population, will eventually be able to make it happen.

As for my research experiences, it is undoubted, that there is an ongoing struggle for clean water in Siaya county, if I started my research with the belief that rural people and urban poor are the most affected, soon enough I came to realize that the middle class are being severely affected by the situation as well and even the rich, but while, the rich can take care of their water issues with money it is far harder for the middle class, not to mention the poor that certainly cannot.

42% of the population have clean water, that means that 58% do not, most of them rely on the local water company (by the way, household water in Siaya is not necessarily water in the house taps, but a water tap in the household yard), but when its pipes malfunction people have no choice but to resort to filthy open surface ponds or rivers or in the best case scenario expensive water vendors.

I was surprised to find that many people still drink from dirty ponds, these are colonial man dug large pits which accumulate rain water, from which livestock also drink and it is far from being human worthy. When I asked people why they continue to demand government to dig these for them, one answer was, what do you want us to do, we have this pond from 1928, it is reliable and stable, even though it is dirty, but it is water. The water providers pipes are unstable, cost much and certainly not reliable (some have been dry for over a year) what do you expect us to do. A question which I certainly did not have an answer for.

some pond examples

There are so many other water issues in Siaya, but I will not relate at this time, but will certainly give me the data I need for revealing the water situation in Siaya county. I plan to be back in Siaya this coming January. To complete my research and this time focus on four case studies. I will be writing again, at that time.

All the best, glad to be back home, Shana Tova

Ornit

Day 30 – A celebration of democracy or a well-known ending – elections are coming

On the 8^th of August – tomorrow - there will be elections in Kenya. And unfortunately, many people are expecting riots on the 9^th, there is hope mingled with fear, ethnic violence and also people saying that it has been blown out of proportion and everything will be well. So, we shall wait and see what wedensday will bring.

So, the story goes like this: The incumbent is Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta – son of the First president of Kenya. He is of Kikuyu ethnicity and his party is Jubilee. If he wins this will be his second and last term. (only two terms in Kenya). His rival is Raila Amolo Odinga, he is of Luo origin coming from Bondo, where I am residing right now, in the university named after his late father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga university for science and technology. His father was first vice president. He is of the ODM party that is part of the NASA coalition. There are 6 more rivals, but they are not expected to be relevant. 

There are many rumors on both candidates and how they “squander” the public funds. won't go into that it is tiering. 

Many people have high hopes for these elections and many also say they are rigged in advance and there is no way that the incumbent will lose because he won’t let it happen. It does not help the general atmosphere, when Chis Msando the ICT manager of the independent Electoral and boundaries commission was brutally murdered last week, and who in the past said that he has put in all the safeguards for a non-penetrable system. It is even more annoying that there are rumors now that the cause of murder is an illicit affair, which seems a strange coincidence to me.

The area in which I am is Luo territory so almost everyone is in favor of Odinga. They say, not only because he is a Luo, but because they believe that he will make a difference and move away from corruption so some people I talked to really believe that he will win and have high hopes. Having said that the polls disagree.

The elections have turned into an ethnic rivalry unfortunately, the case scenarios are like this, if Kenyatta wins and Odinga Losses there will most likely be rioting in this area and Kisumu county. If Kenyatta losses the rioting will most likely be in Nairobi. Other issues people fear, is that if you work in this area for example, but come from another county with another ethnicity, and if your group voted for Kenyatta you might face violence in Siaya county. That is the fear that I hear from some people and they have even made arrangements for sanctuary in the university if things turn bad. 

In any case it was stronly suggested to me not to leave the university premises from today until next Monday. So, I stocked on food. The U was kind enough to give me the key to a refrigerator and utensils for cooking. So, I will be cooking myself for the next 2 weeks, whilst under “curfew”. I actually don’t mind the curfew, since I have so much work to do, summarizing all my interviews and findings, which I have not even shared with you yet. You might think, I am just touring here, but that is not the case.

But whichever way it goes everyone I am talking to the optimist and the pessimist pray for a peaceful election and believe that the nation will get over this rivalry very soon.

Day 25 – The Craziness of Transportation

       

        Kenya is very diverse with 46 M people (last census in 2009). So, as far as transportation goes there is everything here: bicycles, motorcycles and tuk-tuks, very old cars, but also new and luxury cars, I had been told that more cars are sold in Kenya per year, than in the whole of Europe???? There are buses and mini buses and everything in between. But most of all you see people walking very long distances, on rural roads but also on highways and inner-city roads. There are several reasons for the long-distance walking with the first being lack of means and cost saving but also, tradition, lack of transportation or just ease of movement. In Nairobi for example we preferred to walk to the university from the bus station, because if we took any mode of transportation it would take at least an hour because of traffic and by walking it only took us only half an hour. Since weather is quite mild it was actually nice. In the rural areas, people walk everywhere, to the water source for example, from 10 minutes to one hour. In my visits to people’s homes, I walk with them to their nearest water point and believe me 10 minutes back and forth, in the scorching sun, with a 20-liter load of water is not an easy task. Since I have arrived to Kenya, walking has become a significant part of my day, my Samsung step counter is very pleased.

 the ten min wakk to the open stream, and the stream below, this is cleaner water than usuall.

       Having said this, to really get by, I had to rent a car, Siaya is quite big and to get from one place to the other I need a car. A friend of Jackson allowed us to rent his car, for 30$ a day plus another 15-20$ for gas, which I am grateful for, since the renting prices at formal car rentals are between 60-100$ per day. Now you might ask why so expensive? Probably because the roads are really bad and every ride might result in some kind of breakage. And as sophisticated or as poor as your mode of transportation is, in the end everybody uses the same infrastructure and roads. The main roads are quite Ok, but most roads are under construction and this means that once started it can take several years to finish. And even if a road is paved it is seldom tarmacked, and even if it is tarmacked, within a short period, due to weather conditions and lack of maintenance, gigantic pot holes appear. This is really hazardous to any car. The places I visit can be accessed by dirt roads. These are bumpy, full of potholes, and eroded by rains, feeling like an amusement park ride. I am always surprised to cut into such a road and to see, village after village, market centers, schools and such all accessed by that kind of road.

 

       Since I am spending so much on inner transportation I decided to save the 72$ per way plane trip to Nairobi which takes 45 mins and take the bus, which takes 9 hours (hmmmmm). there are many different options in buses and almost anyone can get by, but on the other hand, some of the cheaper options (the ones in which you are cramped like sardines in a box) are not for me. Then there are the high-end buses such as the Easy Coach which are considered very safe and cost around $14. Not so expensive for us, but apparently quite expensive for most locals. The ride was not too bad, three stopes and nice scenery until we reached Nairobi and then it took 1 ½ hour to get across town. The way back was with the night bus, hoping to save time, but lost sleep, so was not so much fun.

In Nairobi, I slept in the suburbs at my hosts home Dr. David Ndegwah, we decided not to take his car into the city for obvious reasons, and that meant we had to drive in a Matatu. Before I explain that, just that you know, to enter Nairobi in the morning is an ordeal, so to surpass it, we woke up at 4, left the house at 5 and reached Nairobi at around 6:30 after the different stops. If we would have left at 6 or later, it would take us up to three hours. The Matatu – small shuttle buses (Mat means 3), the name is based on the fact that their ancestors originally carried 3 persons. This costs ~ 100 KES around $1. They are the main means of long-distance transportation in the inner cities, they are cramped, usually overloaded with people and cargo, stop anywhere and have a real bad reputation on the roads.

I will send a pictuer of a matatu later

        For the short-distances you take the Boda Boda, they got their name from being the ones to take people across the border, these are motorcycles, ride costs between 30 to 100 KES, depending the distance. I have taken one already, quite a freighting experience, they rarely use a helmet, and they are very fast. Known for their notorious riding and cutting, it was quite a freighting experience, not to mention the bumpers, which are situated around every 100 meters in urban areas, which are very important of course but are quite a challenge for any vehicle. They are also the main means of water transportation, they will bring 20L jerrycans of water to people. The jerrycan with water will usually cost 5KES, but the ride an extra 15KES, making the cost of water 4 times higher than it should be. 

or donkey
tommorow I will tell you all about the comming elections and my seige in the universty

Day 20 - Stung by a bee

I am not pestered by mosquitos, as I wrote yesterday, I have all the measures to keep them away, but I was stung by a bee today and where…….in the shower, unbelievable. Thank god, I am not allergic, so I was calm, took the sting out, finished my cold shower, have to remind you guys, of my suffering…ha ha ha. And then wrote Eli a WhatsApp- he called me within 1 second, so my pains went away, with the help of Eli and fenistil gel. I came prepared. I have almost any medication, a small pharmacy in fact.

The crime scene

So today all about my day to day

Today is Sunday, when Gertrude and I clean the house, it amazing the amount of bugs I find everytime……. I really like Sunday, because I get to wake up late and after cleaning, I get to sit in clean room and summarize the meeting and interviews I have done in the week. I try to do it, that same day, but sometimes, I am just too tiered.

In the weekdays, I wake up early and between 7-8 we leave the house to different places around the county and come back by 6-7, not much to do when it is dark, hardly any lights so driving is also quite difficult. There are six sub counties, so we are trying to see the different establishments, households, villages in each sub-county. The whole county is not so big only 2,530.4 sq. km, but when it rains in Siaya town, it does not necessarily rain in Bondo town around ¾ of an hour drive away. I have between 4-5 meeting a day, some are spontaneous, some arranged. With a record of 11 one day, it was house to house. Jackson my assistant researcher, lovely caring and diligent person, usually makes the appointments the day before and the appointment is not made for a specific hour but for a time frame. The morning, afternoon or just the day. It is very different to my usual time schedule arrangements, but I find that it is very convenient here, because it allows for spontaneity. Some people we just ask, do you have time now and they usually say sure, Karibu – welcome, how are you?  And we might spend an hour or two and it would be fine and acceptable. Very convenient for me. I must say that people are being very cooperative and trying to assist. Water is a dire problem here and anything to do with it is taken seriously as well as my research.  So, they share quite a lot of information with me. and looking forward to getting a copy of the paper at the end and I am happy to share. I am hearing some fascinating stuff, from theories about world war four happening in Africa over water. To the Riparian law, that does not allow Kenya – a food insecure country - to use Lake Victoria for mass irrigation, because of a colonial law that protected the water of the Nile (mid you the Nile needs to be protected, but not like this, people are on the lake and cannot water their crops, so they wait for the rains. From self-criticism, about the Kenya culture to anger and disappointment with government and leader that quote “only look after their stomachs”,

I have No AC in the room, so I open the window, this of course lets the bugs in, since it is quite mild weather I am still ok, but come august I have to prepare and get a fan. This is my next task, I eventually found a water scooper in Nairobi. Real upgrade. Next time about transportation – quite fascinating. By the way – bee sting – still hurting.

 On the shores of Lake Victoria

Jackson Achuti - Lake Victoria

Day 19 - Food and other stuff

So how is the food you ask. Two answers for that: first it is not bad at all and second, I have an arrangement with the university caterer that they feed me. So, since someone is cooking for me on a regular basis that keeps me calm. I don’t eat meat, so not much choice, but I eat on a regular basis Ogally – a maize dish prepared like sticky rice, this is eaten with some kind of sauce, other starches are rice, or chapatti and from time to time I am surprised with spaghetti. For protein it is either eggs, fish, lentils or beans. And veggies are a salad, not bad at all, I supplement it with the avocado I bought in the market. Or saquma wiki – a kind of Kale that is grown here that is very nutritious, and many farmers grow it because it has a high return. Last night I bought a pineapple, 5 shekels, was very good. I usually eat my dinner with my roommate Gertrude Yogback.

 Now to less Fun things: Malaria – Siaya county and the whole western area is considered a Malaria zone. Every night, at 22:00, you have to take it at the same time, I take my Melarone pill, then I fix my net, which I am very grateful for it. Jackson my research assistant just got Malaria, last Thursday he seemed not his usual, perky, and energetic self, he started feeling not so good, he thought he might have a fever and had achy joints. On Friday he came to work, but I could see that something is wrong, he even left in the middle of a meeting and went to the car to rest and then when we came back he went to the doctor and was informed that he got malaria, this is his second time in seven years. He is one of the lucky ones because he has health insurance from his job and supplement insurance from the university since he is a student. So, he got an injection and then the pills. The side effects of the medication are weakness, dizziness and sweating. Two days have passed since the medication and he is still weak. But being very brave and does not want in any way to disturb the research. On Monday, he was in perfect condition, treatment works very well, if you take it immediately, if he had waited even a day, it could have been much worse. We will see how he is tomorrow. So hence the pills and the net and I supplement it with a terrible mosquito replant spray, that I think is affecting my lungs, but at least I feel safe. I am even luckier than Jackson, because I have all these supplements to ensure I don’t get it. Melorone is very expensive, but even if the cost is bearable, you have to take it every day and that is not so logical for the average Kenyan. This is of course not the first time I have seen malaria, but when it is so close it makes you think.

Pictuers from the house

The living room library
The kitchen
The guest house
The cleaning space

Day 16 one determined village

So very tired. But could not help it and wanted to share with you my day's experience. It was quite fascinating on two levels personal and academic. On the personal level. I walked today from 09:30 till 18:30. Probably more than 10 km. Within a village. Just walking from house to house. I did not eat and was not hungry. On the academic side. I was talking to people. The rich the poor the widows and youth. They talked about their water issues and how the local water company was formed from a community based organization. And practically the whole village has access to water from communal taps and even 30 percent have water to the home. That is the dream of all the rest. This is very unusual for Siaya and for Kenya as a whole. Quite remarkable. The story is about struggle and persistence and how the community eventually got their water because of a group that was determined. Fascinating.

Day 13 - A home away from home

How are you?

I am doing very well, better than anticipated.

It has been 13 days in Kenya and I have had so many different, strange to me, and exciting experiences. My supervisor told me in the beginning of my stay here: One adopts to anything within three days. She is so right. That is what has happened. So, as you know I was fortunate enough to get a room at the university Guest house. The university is called Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology – JOOUST. It is named after the first vice president of Kenya who comes from Bondo, the town where I am residing, in Siaya county the county that I am researching. And his son Ralla Odinga, is the current opposition leader running for presidential elections on August 8^th, against the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta the son of the first president of Kenya. People are warning me that there might be rioting, but I have no worries the university is very safe, security guards everywhere – that might be a reason to be concerned on the one hand, why do they need so many guards, but it is general practice in Kenya and coming from Israel it is natural for me. More about the elections another time.

In my daily routine, I try to do everything as local as possible, but my limits are eating foods from market stalls, cooking or drinking water out of a tap. Although I must say the water in JOOUST is very clean, they have their own treatment plant that supplies water to around 9000 people in any given day and it is clean. Tried it myself.

So, I was thinking that every day I will write about a different life subject. 

Today the house the room and everyday issues.

I live here with my roommate Gertrude she is a young Ph D. student from Cameroon, who is researching the biophysical aspects of the water here and comparing it to Cameroon, so we have similar interests and she joins me from time to time on my tours. We have made a home for ourselves here with a routine. 

The guest house is a nice compact structure, with a living room – which is currently a storage storage room for books from the library – so we cannot use it, kitchen – has a kerosene cooker, sink and storage, no refrigerator, Gertrude cooks here, I preferred to get my meals from the university caterer, there is only so much that I can do………these are on the ground floor with a guest toilet and an exit to a garden, where we dry our laundry. The upstairs has two bedrooms and a bathroom - no hot water, so I shower everyday with cold - told that it is good for the circulation, not convincing..... The inside seemed very humble to me in the first day, but touring around the area, I came to realize that I am truly lucky and other homes are much humbler. So, after a thorough cleaning, life was good again. 

Every Saturday we do the laundry, Gertrude taught me some hand washing tips and on Sunday we clean the house. We in Israel, are used to having our homes sparkling clean, here it is different, you have to start understanding that it is really living with nature. There are bugs, bees, (hardly seen any flies), but many insects that I don’t recognize and ants of course they are everywhere and actually you cannot control it so you try to do the best. I am starting to understand. Monday through Friday, I leave for interviews and go to visit people in rural areas. Next time about the food. could not download pictuers, so none today.

good night!

Day three – Finally got the Lock

It is my third day in Bondo Kenya, and I have already somewhat assimilated, although still in logistical organizations. Today is the day that I finally got my lock to the room. There are two bed rooms in the guest house, and mine could not lock,  so, for two night I slept with an unlocked door, mind you I felt safe but the feeling was strange, finally today the carpenter came and fixed my lock, tonight will be better.

Day 1 – arrived safe and sound, after exactly 13 and a half hours, all the connections worked fine even easier than I imagined, of course I had a problem with overweight (I was very concerned with this) but I was only charged once 20 dollars so that was great. I received my humble accommodations, it is not what I am used to, and at first shock, I considered going to a hotel, but I told myself to stay the night and see what happens. Went shopping for some basic necessities, such as cleaning materials, my next mission is to find a squeegee (water swiper) we went to four supermarkets and could not find.

Day 2 – Slept well decided to stay and mange. Today I received a table and chairs. My very generous host here, introduced me to many people, local staff, security, cooks, faculty members and students, so quite a good network now and I can even ask for things on my own – like the lock. Other than that, I devoted this day to intensive cleaning. I don’t think I have worked so hard cleaning since 1993, I scrubbed, the floors, the walls, the closet and then in the evening my roommate and I cleaned the bathroom together. She is very nice a young PhD student from Cameroon working on biological and chemical pollutants in the water so we actually have complimentary work. I went to bed last night at 12:30 exhausted after a full day of cleaning and unpacking and now I am fine. Did I tell you that we have excellent Wi-Fi. One of the plus reasons to stay.

Plus side	Minus side	Mitigation
Security	Humble accommodations	Scrubbed clean
On campus – great network	No AC	This is a good time of year weather is cool
Available meals – don’t have to cook	No Hot water	Can’t really mitigate this – maybe just with the fact that there is water
Good Wi – Fi – need I say more

Day 3 – Started great with the lock and ended even better, with the familiarization tour I made around the county, visited all 5 subcounties of Siaya, many insights and pictures, I will leave it for another day. But this day made me very excited!                                      

Ethiopian Airlines -not bad not great

Last time I traveled Ethiopian I was really impressed. This time not so much. First of all it is an old plane with no personal screen. This is realy bad for me since I usually I can't sleep on flights as the case today and can't  watch a movie either So I'm blogging. The food was ok. Ordered Asian vegetarian - not bad stir fry. But the worst,  the guy sitting next to me can not keep his elbows to himself  - most annoying.  I even gently asked if he can be careful,  but to no avail. The guy has no sense of persoal space. It's going to be a long night.
It was a long night and even longer day. Arrived in Bondo around 14:00.  And had a full day of logistics and administration.  Will tell you all about it tomorrow. Have to sleep now. Good night.

On My way to Kenya

Its 1:00 in the morning, on my way to Nairobi, via Addis Abebe. It is estimated to take me about 13 hours just flight and stop overs until reaching Bondo, I plan to get there at 14:30. Lets see what really happens!!!!

Preparation checklist:

• Where am I going to sleep? – it was kindly arranged for me to be accommodated at the university guesthouse, with another roommate a lady from Cameroon doing her Ph.D. feel really Lucky – check!
• Where am I going to eat? – the accommodations, include breakfast lunch and dinner. So that’s taken care of – check!
• Health? Vaccinations - done; insurance – done; medication – got all that covered, half of my suitcase is full of antibiotics – just in case, I don’t really use the stuff, but better be careful than sorry, a first aid kit for travels in the rural areas, hygiene stuff and more – check!
• How am I going to do my research? – methodology planned, questions for interview written, in touch with local research assistant – check!

So you see not a care in the world 😃– everything meticulously planned – wonder how much god is laughing at me right now – one of my research questions is to check the discrepancy between intentions and planning and on the ground reality – let’s see how this pans out for me????????????????

The University of Luxemburg

Currently being a university student, I can appreciate other facilities. But this one was special it’s a ecological environmental friendly building., I really got excited with some of the features. The university of Luxemburg in Belval was established in 2003 and currently has ~6000 students. I know about environment friendly buildings, but I haven’t had the experience of using one. So here are some of my experiences in this one. The rooms don’t need lighting because each room has great windows which give enough light, we never opened the light once in our workshop. There are no ACS, only openings in the windows through levels which allow air to come in forming a natural AC, unfortunately, it did not take into consideration out door noise which also comes in, there are motion detection lighting where needed so every time I visited the ladies room, the lights went on and off as I entered or left, so electricity saving yes, but water saving no – they did not have dual flush toilets, every floor has an emergency station with a first aid kit, fire extinguisher and more, there are metal panel for signs on the walls and they are put on with magnets, State of the art video conference rooms, gigantic screen in each room for presentations, and my favorite all the walls of the classroom are actually a whiteboard on which you can write and brainstorm. It comes with a suitcase and  markers and some more  stuff,  I really enjoyed writing on the wall it was great.

Luxemburg deserves a post

I am in Luxemburg right now, just before my trip to Kenya, participating in a micro financing -MF, workshop the mission was twofold, Making the young entrepreneurs initiative sustainable -  apparently MF for Young people 18-35 is a fairly new product because its deemed even more risker that regular MF. And the second mission to incorporate water and sanitation segment into the list of products that they offer. Currently MF is offered for businesses such as hairdressing, catering and the like.

We were a group of 14 people, from Togo, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, representing the local MFIs; Israel, Netherlands, Germany we were the consultants in water and sanitation,  participants from Luxemburg,  from a local NGO supporting the African initiatives and from the university of Luxemburg and lastly beautiful Katerina the 9 week old baby of our moderator who worked and mothered simontanously. The dynamics were very interesting capitalizing on the backgrounds and experiences of each of the participants. Conclusions: water and sanitation is a vital sector although it is very complex one;  MFIs can be part of the solution to the vast financial gap that exists in order to reach the SDG goal for water, (the goal is water for all by 2030 and the financial gap is at least $3.3billion annually); the young entrepreneur segment is an important one for income security and creating additional cliental; in the water sector MF can be given to income generating activities such as pump technician but also to the community so that they can pay for the service. And there were additional findings, which will be developed and presented later.
Two more interesting issues: this was my first time in Luxemburg, quite a beautiful country, the city of Luxemburg is a sort of fairytale land with its beautiful castles and churches (pic) and lush gardens. the sun is out until 21:30 at least, which made nighttime tourism a new experience, the pubs were full of people,  A band was playing Copacabana (pic) and there was a great vibe. Luxemburg is considered a slow pace country, and I did feel the calm.

The workshop I attended was at the university which is in Belval – apparently the largest completely new urban development program in Europe. They took an old industrial area and turned it into an urban area with amazing buildings, the university and all the necessities of a new city. They left much of the old remnants such as a metal factory (pic) and train tracks and incorporated them into the new buildings very interesting.

Good night to all

 

Its Finally Happening

After months of preparation, research and studying, I am finally travelling to Kenya for my field work. This is the highlight of the doctorate, because here, finally, I will be able to ask the questions that trouble me the most and hopefully (one can only hope) find out what I am seeking.  

What am I seeking? Well my mindboggling question is how come, so many people around the world (650m) and on the African continent specifically (325m) lack access to clean water.

The asking will be done by travelling to the Western part of Kenya, to a county named Siaya, which lays on the shores of Lake Victoria (the third largest lake in the world) with up to 1400mm annual rain (in Israel we get ~600mm) and yet 47% of the population (of 842k) don’t have access to clean water. This physical abundance of water makes the question even more interesting. By the way, in Kenya, the average is 37% of the pop. without access (of 46.7m).

So, I will be residing in Siaya for the next two months. I will be graciously hosted by the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology or JOOUST for short. I will be travelling around the county (2,530.4 sq. km) interviewing people, from county officials to local villagers, observing what happens on the ground and picking my brain to make sense of it all.

I am very excited to see what happens, understanding that any plans I make can change at any moment, so I am hoping, so hoping for cooperation, for easy travels, reasonable physical conditions and to find some answers.

But first on the way a short stopover in Luxemburg where I will join the workshop on microfinance and clean water & sanitation as part of the SDG lab for Young Entrepreneurs to advance local economies and community health in Africa, and will talk about “sustainable water projects” at the university of Luxenberg.

See you next time more to come……

The first day of the conference.

Karibu – hello in Swahili.

My ordeal is over, everything was worth-while, had a great first day.

Hotel room is good, comfortable bed, hot water, good food. Kisumu is a fish area it is right on the shore of Victoria lake, so I am having fish everyday

The day started off with an explanation and apology about the misunderstand that occurred yesterday, I appreciated it and accepted it and we moved on.

I had a fantastic day today. The conference was very fruitful. A real interaction between cultures. The people are from, obviously from Bondo , but also from other universities in Kenya, from Congo DRC, Uganda, Netherlands and me (from Israel). It is very small so we have a lot of opportunity for real discussion, and real brainstorming.

The conference is about technological transfer and cultural interface. This is a very interesting subject which raises many questions. The main question which we are trying to answer is how can Africa take from the west technology which is appropriate for her and combine it with its own set of values. Or must technological adoption come with an adoption of the values of where it was designed or innovated. Big question. We will see where this takes us.

We are talking about the contributions Africa can make to the world. We discussed the openness of Africa to things that we do not accept in the west, there is no one or right answer for issues, there is more than two beings, of male and female, I am told that there are 12 in the bantu culture. And many other issues are being discussed. Religion is viewed very differently than it is viewed in many western cultures, there is more room for openness and less dogma. We are going very deep here……(loving it), I even learnt something about Jewishness, from our host. That in the Jewish faith it is a way of life, not dogma or just a faith, as well as it looks to the future. Obviously we in Israel feel very differently about this statement, we feel that there is much coercion in religion, but then I thought about ashkenazi and sphardic, thinking that we always say that if we can adopt the sphardic way, in which Jewish meant culture and a way of life it would be all different and less over bearing. And that the dichotomy of being religious or secular actually came from Europe, and put us in a spot where we must choose, it was a total non-issue in the northern African countries or the sphardic culture, where it was just a way of life, the secular/non secular issue has only been adopted recently by them as well, from the ashkenazi. Very interesting stuff.

So much more to talk about, but it might get too boring so I will stop.  

Two very nice Kenyan traditions: what we call a coffee break is called here a Health break, I thought this is a marvelous terminology, first time I heard it. And for their tea they have Milk water, which is actually milk diluted with water, great innovation. there are also diffrent kinds of ways of showing apprecition and clapping, really nice, difficult to discribe. loving this.

On our health break we got tea with milk water, a kind of sweet doughnut, and yams…..

Will continue to report tomorrow

Bondo here I come.

Back in Africa. This time in Kenya, I am going to my first academic conference and I am very excited. We will be hosted by the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, in Bondo, which is about an hour and a half from Kisumu the third largest city in Kenya.  I am looking forward to talking to people about the same issues that concern me, project sustainability , technology transfer and more.

It is 8:15 in the morning, 11 hours have passed, since I started my trip (20:40 in Israel), I arrived in Nairobi, A bustling airport, people from all the corners of the world, all shapes and color, in the airport, American country music is playing in the background (s t r a n g e), I have a five hour wait here until I can take the flight to Kisumu, thank God for laptops and cell phones, I have a lot of work today and they have electricity charging points. Reading tension of Empire of F. Cooper and A. Stoler, an assignment we got, in class.

Malarone pills - apparently the kisumu area is a Malaris zone

Frustration kicked in and it is now 16:30, It has been 2 hours after I landed in Kisumu, I am so tiered – 18 hours have passed, from my departure from Israel. I expected the bus to be there at 14:30 and by now to be already in the hotel. But that is not going to happen. apparently he has to pick up some people at around 17:00, now he tells me they will come at 17:40, and since I have already waited so long, why not wait some more. The airport is quiet small so everyone already knew me. Everyone is trying to help, the poor stranded tourist, offering me their cell phone, their support, suggestions and such. The security guard came up and said "why do they behave like Africans" I was actually shocked to hear it from him and gave a slight smile, not knowing what to answer and continued to keep calm. Now I am told that the Pope (everyone is very excited) has landed in Nairobi so all flight are delayed, they are supposed to arrive at 18:00, they did not, at 19:00 we decided to leave just me and the driver. FUN.

Kisumu from the plane

What was going in my mind: I can't stand it any-more, it's too hot I need a shower, a bed and I am starting to get hungry, my last meal was at 10:00 in the morning; I decided to play it "African", waiting, not getting annoyed, this is the African experience, many Africans wait for hours, see it from their  point of view, you are not in a hurry anyway, so what if you are tired;  In Israel this would never happen, such a waste of time and money, waiting is not an option and so much more; We learnt last week the location of your research is a very important component in your well-being, people that have archives in the French Riviera are very lucky, people that have 4-5 hour extensions of waiting in remote parts of Africa, probably less; Am I an adventurer or just waiting, is this the African experience or just a fluke; What does this say about me. Finally,  I decided to stretch my legs and tried to have a short sleep. In the background somewhere from the airport was a monotonous African drum tune playing. It was very soothing and very beautiful. I fell into a slumber, I think I even heard myself snore a little.

the univesity bus

Eventually I arrived at the hotel, at 20:30, this is exactly 25 hours after leaving Israel. (1 hour time difference between Israel and Kenya), Had a quick dinner and went into a deep sleep.

Was this a true Africa experience or just a whole waste of time, I am not sure but it was definitely something worth to write home about.

That’s it for now, tell you all about my travels tomorrow. 

It's been a while

It's been a while since I wrote last actually a little bit over two years. In this period I had some ups and downs in this subject (sustainability of water projects in rural sub-Saharan Africa – "SSA") I am writing about and how I deal with it. The down was that waterways was not picking up as much as I would have liked it to and although the many contacts we have made we were not able to bring it up to the recognition level we had intended, maybe we are premature, maybe we did not market it well I am not sure, but I came up with two conclusions: first, There is definitely an interest here and need, everyone we talked to felt that something needs to be done and that sustainability or rather lack of sustainability in  water projects is a big problem and second, I need to learn more on the subject and develop an expertise in it. And here comes the upside from 2014 I started to write a Ph.D. dissertation on the subject, in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Since then I learning everyday a new thing and enjoying every minute of it.

The start of my research was to understand as much as I can about the history of Africa, now many of you might say, Africa is so diverse and there are 54 countries, how can you still talk about "Africa" in this day and age. I totally agree, it is wrong to do so, but curiously enough, from my work in the last 5 years and my visits to several African countries and my talks with different professionals from different countries, it seems at least in the beginning of my research that the problems are very similar. So I will proceed to talk about the African continent, but obviously my examples and case studies will be of particular areas and project themes.

Going back to history, there is no doubt that historical developments have played a very significant role in the lead up to the present-day severe water situation in rural "SSA". And if so, I chose Colonialism as the era of interest due to two issues: the first colonialism although only a short period of time, around 80 years was probably the most transforming period of Africa and its people, the second, is that it seems that up to colonial times and in the colonial period, there was not a big issue with water. Water started to become an issue and major challenge of Africa, after colonialism and currently. It is therefore important to find out what happened in that period that had impact on this change.  

So this is where I am at back to school.....and what I have been doing. This new section of the blog will document my research, writing process, insights and voyages I take to better understand the phenomena of non-sustainable water projects in rural SSA.

Stranded in Cameroon

This one is for the books.

We arrived at 22:30 at Yaounde airport in the common belief that we are taking the Turkish Airways flight to Istanbul and back to Tel-Aviv at 12:40, Thursday.

But as you are starting to get it, it is 12:40 Thursday and we are still in Yaounde.

At the gate we see a strange sign at the side of our eye, flight cancelled, apparently Yaoundé airport has suffered a blackout in the runway and flights could not land or fly.

So we were told you have two options, take the flight on Friday or take the bus to Douala and join the flight there which is waiting for you. Optimistic as we are and really homesick we immediately chose to take the bus to Douala, calculating that if all goes well we will not miss our flight to Tel-Aviv and all will be well, just a bit of inconvenience of a 3-4 hour drive in the middle of the night in the roads of Cameroon, but we can take it and the bus is really good. One hour later, all the passengers are on, all seats are full, the luggage somehow was pushed in, quite surprisingly, all excited we are waiting on the bus and waiting and we suddenly got at midnight the excellent news that the plane has landed in Yaounde and we would fly as scheduled.

Again very optimistic we take our bags off the bus, got in the line to check in, fought with the check in about overweight, seats and more, immigration and arrived at 12:45 to the gate with most of the passengers. 12:55 was supposed to be the flight time, we assumed an hour delay, we were told no worries, flight to Israel will wait for you and the time is already 2:00.

The rumors are starting, the pilot did an emergency landing he has no authorization to take off, the airport is closed, then we thought OK we will fly at 06:00 in the morning, by 3:00 we are told, we do not know when you will fly, for now we will take you to a hotel, but no available hotels, at 4:30 we arrive at the clementine hotel, good area, nice park view , but 2 star hotel, we and the two other Israelis we met on the flight, already comrades to distress, look at each other in disbelief, at least the sheets were clean.

Slept a wink, 09:00 Avi myself, and the two other Israelis had a decent breakfast and were wondering what next steps we will take? Not having heard from the airline, we agreed that we would "march" to the local station of Turkish to see what is going on. And then as if everything was under control, we were told by another stranded partner a mother with 3 children and 12 luggage pieces, (how she kept here calm, I do not know, we helped a little, great kids) said I just got a call to tell us to take a cab to the airport.

11:30 we were the first to arrive, no one from Turkish, the check-in is closed.

Hopefully this is the end of the saga, the Turkish guy came told us check in will be at 13:00 and we will fly at 16:00. Wish us good look, I am sleep deprived, but energies are good Avi and I are making the best of it. And we were notified our project moved an additional step in the prime minister's office, but this is another story. 

the bus which was supposed to drive to douala

no room in the bus, just before we are told that we will fly from Yaounde, were laughing like crazy

the sign that we have a flight after 15 hours delay

My New Name AMA Avidar

Shabbat shalom everyone,

Leaving Ghana tomorrow, but before I leave I must write you.

Avi, Freimpong (Patrick's friend, Patrick is our wonderful business partner in Ghana) and myself are celebrating Shabbat with a beer ( club beer – similar to light Belgien beer which I really like) at the poolside of the Erata Hotel in Accra (marvelous wifi- my obsession in Africa), listening to a live band singing Bob Marley – "I want to love you"

So where were we in the last 2 days, or where were we not….. we traveled from Accra to Tarkwa, to Kumasi (the largest city in Ghana) to Bogoso and then Briem North (rural area) and back to Accra. Except for one flight we drove most of the way, or rather Patrick our partner was kind enough to drive, around 4-5 hours from each destination to the next, it was quite a hard trip, with terrible roads.

Patrick a Ghanaian business man from the Ashanti area, that made it on his own, by identifying a need and finding the solutions for it. Good on you Patrick!!!!

We met and visited several mining companies and the funny thing is that right before each mine compound the road is awful, due to political issues of who is in charge of the road and who should construct it and in the end, no one does and we get to feel the experience in our aching bones. But for all purposes the way was worth it, we had some good meetings, got to understand the challenges of the mining areas and the villages surrounding them. We also met honoranble Paul the head of the district, who shared with us some of the challenges he faces and once again we trully hope we can bring some greta solutions to the area and change a challenge into a solution.

Our intention is to bring some good rural development platforms (our VIC model- the village income center, which we have developed in Nkuv, if you remember from April) .

So what about the name, Ama means born on Saturday, in Ghana people get the name of the day they were born in, there are 7 names for men and 7 for women, I was born on Saturday, therefore AMA Avidar. By the way, Kofi (Anan) is a Friday born.

Write you soon, tomorrow flying to Cameroon - for the last leg of the race.....

 the poolside band

 eating cocanut

 eating again at mining compay, looks like a kibbutz dinning room

 the hotel room at Tarkwa, - longji hotel, the new chinese hotel, beautiful rooms, good service decent price and everything imported from China

 some beaitiful scienery on the road

 Patrick, and Kofi a leading reporter in Ghana

the artisine miners, mining without a license and no regulatroy control, they threw mud at us for taking their picture