Wrapping Up
Trip Start
May 27, 2005
1
14
Trip End
Aug 19, 2005
Nairobi,
Kenya
Thursday, August 11, 2005
The little idiosyncrasies and quirks that were charming and alluring have become exhaustingly exasperating. Top of that list? Standing out and being noticeable EVERYWHERE and ALL THE TIME. I can't even wish super-fame on my worst enemies. Kids, and even some adults, staring and muttering or even yelling “mzungu.” Then the constant follow up: the juvenile I-just-saw-a-white-person mantra “How are you” being yelled, not even as a real question, incessantly, repeatedly even if you answer in English, in Kiswahili, in Spanish, in French—just doesn’t matter. I am convinced a significant proportion of the kids chanting “how are you?”, “how are you?”, “how are you?”, “how are you?”, “how are you?”, “how are you?”, “how are you?” don’t even know what it means. The cuteness factor wore off a couple weeks ago and I can’t wait to walk around and NOT be noticed. Anonymity is such an underappreciated luxury.
The project has already slid into its next phase and we are now putting systems in place to continue the work without us. Our work was successful in training a strong group in both the rural and urban communities we worked in (Nyota and Kibera, respectively) to identify resources and opportunities and in how to identify and partner with organizations and companies who can be linked to their business ideas and help get them off the ground.
In Kibera, we have a few entrepreneurial youth groups who will be pursuing an extension of their current business only with the added leverage of SCJ’s involvement and products. These groups are already performing trash-pickups, carpet cleaning and a few other home-cleanliness (or “environmental” as they like to say) services. The idea we co-created was that SCJ supply them with training and some marketing support and the groups would start to provide services into the homes of their clients based on SCJ products: insect control, air freshening, toilet/latrine cleaning. The youth groups increase their income, add employment, and get help “professionalizing.” SCJ gets an entry point and a new model to crack into a market it has never had any success with: the over 1 million inhabitants of informal settlements in/around Nairobi. More importantly, a relationship is being forged and developed that could lead into areas not yet dreamed of in terms of distribution models, promotion, product development...who knows? As the youth groups learn more about SCJ and vice versa, and both figure out how to communicate well with the other, the possibilities for innovation and "win-win" solutions to real business, environmental and social problems are limitless. [This info about the specific SCJ model being created here is confidential, by the way, so please don’t go telling Unilever or P&G!...or anyone else.]
That our work has successfully planted a seed is the exciting part! It is crucial that we are careful however. Too much money or attention too fast without the proper training, systems and, quite frankly, time to process the changes could split the groups apart. The pilot will run over the next 9 months and will include a crucial training component and will bring the company and the groups together regularly to work out how to best move forward. It has been tough for us, now suddenly somewhat on the outside of the action, to let go but let go we must...at least to some degree. It will be exciting to watch this project grow and metamorphosize over the coming year. There is an outside chance that I might be able to be part of a team that comes back, a tantalizing option, but one I’m not even ready to think about yet.
For me, the steam is out of this experience and I am just being pulled along by logistical momentum. I need time to recharge a little. There is still some work to be done, tying off loose ends, but my mind is already elsewhere—mainly the Barcelona airport where T and I will be meeting in roughly twenty three hours. My thoughts are also of little-armed hugs from nephews, tranquil conversations with my sister on the beach, embracing my dad and smelling the faint residue of early-morning cigarettes, saying “good night” to my mom knowing we’ll be having a leisurely breakfast in a handful of hours-- en bref: HOME.
Kenya has been fantastic, has opened new windows, has expanded my reality, has clarified things for me, but now is the time to go. Time to go and explore those new things, realities, windows, fantasies.
