Aiding Violence or Peace?

Evan got peed on by a dog

calandevp4p — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:56:00 GMT

We know it has been a while, but we have been hard at work on our latest videos and have covered a lot of territory since! There have been two new videos uploaded since our last blog post:
1- ATV's Meet Ugandan Village (More on this below): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7ZX1SrbFWE&feature=plcp
2- Dam Relief: A movement dedicated to promoting the positive aspects about Uganda instead of images of starving children, war, etc. Jinja Uganda has packed comedy venues and some of the best whitewater rafting in the world- Why don't we ever see those images in the US? Check out this video to hear what the founders have to say and to hear one of Uganda's professional comedians crack a few jokes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP9Quq0B1NQ&feature=plcp

Wednesday July 11:
As mentioned in our last blog, the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda, has recently installed a new dam- Bujagali Dam. Developers claim it will bring more electricity to Uganda, currently one of the world's most expensive countries to buy electricity. But we had heard some people living near the dam were upset that it was being built, so we thought we'd check it out. Phew! It was a hike. We walked about 2 hours through small villages to get to the massive dam, and we managed to get just close enough to get some quality pictures and video footage. Along the way we heard distant rumbling, and before we knew it, three ATVs (all terrain vehicles) were screaming past us, doing tricks and kicking up a massive amount of dust. We were surprised to hear them coming, since we were about two hours away from the nearest road, and the only other means of transportation around were bicycles and the occasional motorbike. We were shocked by seeing this, considering we felt intrusive even walking through the area. It's a new kind of tourism activity offered in Jinja- It's called "Off the Beaten Path," where alternative Westerners who want to interact with "villagers" can do so, while having the adrenaline rush of trying something new (ATV-riding).

After approaching the dam from several different angles and arguing over whether or not the guard (holding an AK-47) could see us as we not-so-sneakily crept around the bushes on the bank of the Nile, we decided to go back to Jinja town. As we were walking back, we heard the familiar rumble of ATV engines. The village was so quiet that we could hear them from quite a distance. And this time, we were ready with our cameras to capture the action. We were able to film the tourists speeding through people's lawns. The person on the third ATV ran over a bush, looked back, and decided to continue, probably thinking that no one had seen or would really care.

This event raised several serious questions for both of us. We know that tourism is a significant source of revenue for Uganda, especially Jinja Town. However, we have both seen a darker side to tourism. Is riding an ATV through a Ugandan village really the best way to view the scenery? Interact with people? Experience a culture? We have since been questioning the benefits and side effects of tourism. We decided that our footage of the ATV running over the bushes from our walk around Bujagali Dam would make for an interesting 30 second video about the importance of thinking before, during, and after you travel. We recognize both the positive and negative effects of tourism, and wanted to share the experience we had with everyone else via a short commercial-like video.

On our walk back we spoke with several fishermen who had strong opinions about the dam. By this point we were still planning on making a video which focused on the dam and how it had brought both peace and conflict to the region. These fishermen shared with us their frustrations at how the dam's construction negatively affected their fishing business, cracked the foundations of their homes (with the TNT explosions), and the minimal compensation that they received from the government. Their perspectives were interesting, but the next day we met up with Max, one of the founders of "A Dam Relief," who told us he was being sponsored to make that exact video during this summer (On the social impact of the dam). We decided to leave it to Max, the professional film maker, scrap our video and look for new material.

Today was perhaps the most traumatic day of the trip for Evan. Flashback: When we woke up this morning, Cal looked out the video and was ecstatic because she thought it was cloudy outside. When Evan looked out the window, he thought it was sunny. Rather than argue, Cal wore her sleeveless shirt so that she could "get her bronze on," and Evan left for the hike to the dam wearing his long sleeve shirt over a sleeveless shirt (since he refuses to wear sun block). After about an hour, Evan gave Cal his long sleeve shirt so that she would not get burned. By the end of the day, Evan's sunburn looked as if he had red skin and a white sleeveless shirt on. Cal was not burned at all. What a guy, eh!

Thursday July 12:
Today we met Max, Ruby, and Tom in a restaurant in Jinja Town. Max is the guy who started the Dam Relief movement. Originally "Dam Relief" was supposed to be the title of a video, a sequel actually, to Max's previous video, "A Dam Shame," which focused on the rapids which were destroyed by the construction of Bujagali Dam (It has a lot of really great white water shots- It you're interested check it out on his YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_GVIMsYdQI ) Dam Relief has since grown larger as a movement encouraging positivity and entertainment, instead of negativity and pity donations, as a means for development in Uganda. Check out the video we made to learn more about Dam Relief!

Friday July 13:
After meeting Max, Tom, and Ruby in a place called Flavors yesterday and talking past the 11am deadline to order breakfast, we decided to return before 11am so that we could order off their fantastic menu. We bolted down the street and arrived just in time to order french toast and pancakes- yummy! We did not know what to do with the rest of the day since we had decided not to make a video about the dam and instead to focus on A Dam Relief, and our interview with Max and Tom wasn't until tomorrow. We walked around town looking for a wooden pick for Evan's increasingly large Afro of curly locks. You would think those would be easy to find in Uganda, but they weren't. We decided to hit up a restaurant called The Keep that evening for "Live Acoustic Music." We walked there to check it out and make sure the music was still happening and were saddened to find out that the music night had been changed to a "Traditional Dancing night." Neither of us were too intrigued by the "cultural" experience of learning a "traditional" dance (what does that even mean?) with a room full of mzungus (white foreigners). We went to the market where Cal bought a nice skirt for a dollar and watched a movie instead.

Saturday July 14:
Cal first came to Jinja, Uganda a year ago to raft on the Nile's white water. And for the last year she has been dreaming about a hooded red shirt which she saw in the Nile River Explorer's campsite gift shop. We tried to get her one at the shop, but they were sold out. So Cal was upset for several days. She tried asking every worker at the gift shop, in case they had one hiding, but they were not able to find any remaining shirts anywhere on the premises. But, as anyone who knows Cal will tell you, she never gave up. Cal ended up asking everyone who worked for Nile River Explorers where she could find that shirt. They told her that they could mail her one when they get them in stock, but that could take a long time and triple the cost of the twenty dollar shirt with mailing expenses. As her hope slowly began to fade, a woman behind the counter removed her glasses and peered over her computer screen. "You mean the red shirts with a map of the river on the back?" Cal said, "Yes." The woman then explained that she might still have some at home, since she wears them occasionally to conferences and official events. Cal's hope and zest for life quickly returned. Cal even offered to pay the woman any amount she wanted for the shirt. Cal could hardly sleep all night and checked back at the front desk every hour starting at 8 in the morning. By 10 in the morning, the shirt was waiting at the front desk. Cal was able to pick it up for only 20 bucks. Hurrah! [Note: As of today, Tuesday July 31, Cal is still wearing the hooded red shirt. It hasn't been washed since]
We spent the rest of the day interviewing Max and Tom at Max's house, and trying to get the free trial of Final Cut Pro to download so that we could work with Max's high resolution footage.

Sunday July 15:
Probably the most frustrating day of our trip so far. We returned to Max's house to find out that the free trial of final cut pro had failed to download sometime during the night. So, we decided to head for Kampala and figure out the video there. But then we had a last minute meeting with someone at Nalubale, another rafting company, who was able to help us with our video software. So we decided to ditch our travel plans and spend another night in Kampala. How fast our plans change on this trip! However, we soon learned about a free shuttle from Jinja to Kampala, so we decided again to head to Kampala. We can't pass up a free ride! And even though the hour and a half ride would put us in Kampala at dark, something we try to avoid, the shuttle could take us directly to the hostel. Sweet! 5 and a half hours later we arrived at the Red Chili Hideaway. What a ride-- We had several long stops while we waited for rafters to return from their trip or for the driver to do his shopping while Cal and I huddled in the back of the shuttle. But, at least we had a reservation (our first of the trip) at the hostel. We strolled up to the reception and were looking forward to having a nice meal after not eating most of the day. But, alas, following the theme of the day (frustration), the person behind the counter had to re-draw all of the vertical lines in the official "Visitors Book" before we were allowed to sign in to the hostel (Name, email, nationality, etc.). This task probably took 15 minutes, although it felt like an eternity. After finally getting into our room we had a significantly over priced burger and chicken (can you sense the frustration?).

Monday July 16:
We decided that the Red Chili Hideaway was not the place for us. Evan stayed here in 2009 but it was the off season, so the crowds weren't around. We moved to Backpackers, another hostel, after visiting Garden City. Garden City is a massive Western style mall with a fantastic bookstore and a movie theater. We decided to see the movie Hunger Games. But, the security guard at the movie theater told us that we must put all of our luggage in the "security room," where they would watch over it for us. Cal was comfortable with this arrangement, but Evan never wants to let his pack out of his sight (literally), so we had to find a new solution if we wanted to see the movie. While we brainstormed how we could smuggle our valuables (which also happen to be perfect video recording equipment, not the theater management's favorite items to allow into the theater), into the theater, we decided to eat at the "Oriental Thai" restaurant that we had read about on the massive billboard outside the mall. We checked out the food court- no luck. Cal scoped out the billboard again and thought the restaurant might be on the other side of the mall- again, no luck. All we could find was a chinese joint in the food court which tried to convince us that they are "Oriental Thai," even though we could see that their name was "The Wok." Oh, bother. At this point Chinese was close enough to Thai that we didn't really care.

We ended up taking Evan's computer in Cal's "purse," previously her laundry bag, and saw the Hunger Games in an otherwise empty theater. Hurrah! Great film- Definitely recommended. We both now understand why everyone has gone so gaga over the books. After the movie we headed with all of our luggage to Backpackers, the other hostel on the other side of Kampala. It's only an hour and a half walk, but felt like 15 miles- Cal's pack has somehow accumulated various items since the beginning of the trip, so her "lightweight" backpack is no longer exactly lightweight. To say the least it was a painful evening for the both of us, but we arrived safely at our hostel.

Tuesday July 17:
Worked on Dam Relief movie for the whole day.

Wednesday July 18:
Worked more on the Dam Relief movie. We also made some friends who are here as electrical engineering students. It made us think about a different type of international effort- In this case, our new friends have a unique skill (engineering) that allows them to tangibly benefit the communities they work with/in. They have been studying a unique way to install electricity units in rural communities. Sure, there are the typical critiques of this type of international efforts such as 1- Why take this employment away from the locals? Although they're coming in and providing free assistance, it takes employment opportunities away from local engineers who could have been paid to do that type of work. 2- What happens when the engineers are gone? In fact, the engineers themselves told us that one of the communities (without an electrical unit) near a town that had an electrical unit, destroyed the town's electrical unit because they were upset that they didn't have one. And because no one in the town knows the specifics of how to fix the electrical unit (we sure as heck wouldn't know how), it's currently waiting for them to come back and fix it- Which is why they're here. So, something to think about.

Another different type of international effort we encountered this day was a large group of high school students from the UK. They are in Uganda for one month on their "World Challenge" tour. Our first impression was based on their black tee shirts which read, "It's a Jungle Out There!" on the back, with a picture of a lizard. Hmmm. Cal approached the leader of the group and simply mentioned that if she were Ugandan, she might feel upset about how they were representing Uganda. "It's a Jungle Out There?" The leader did not seem to understand her point. Cal was able to hear about their itinerary, which included hiking Mount Elgon and building a school for a week. Of course we had mixed feelings about both of those tasks, as it is highly unlikely that these teenage boys can build a school better than the local (and likely unemployed) construction workers can. Is spending thousands of dollars to fly unexperienced high schoolers from the UK to Uganda the most responsible way to use resources? What does it say about Uganda and Ugandans, and what kind of message does this initiative send them? Additionally, their itinerary confirmed that they are actually not going to any jungle in Uganda. So their tagline, "It's a Jungle Out There" is directly referring to Uganda, the country itself, as a jungle.

Thursday July 19: Worked more on our Dam Relief movie. We got Chinese food at a place called The Great Wall… amazing Lo Mein (highly recommended).

Friday July 20:
We spent today walking around the city. We visited Nakumat to pick up some things for Griffin, Evan's friend in the Peace Corps who we were going to meet in Masaka. Cal bought cool pants (for $1!) in a Green Store, basically a Ugandan thrift shop which had everything on sale for 50 percent off (read: really cheap). We stocked up on movies, our new obsession. Evan got super hungry after all of our walking, but nothing we could order would satisfy his hunger. We ended up spending more than we should have on food today in a sad attempt to satisfy our stomachs on expensive hostel food.

Saturday July 21:
Ah, Saturday. A peaceful morning with the birds chirping…and about 30 American kids singing "We Are the Champions" at 6 in the morning. Really? We definitely needed to get out of Kampala. We traveled to Masaka, where we met Griffin, Evan's friend who is in the Peace Corps, and her friend Erin. We ate dinner at a venue in Masaka where at the same time about 100 Ugandans were participating in a talent show which featured a food eating contest, a Michael Jackson impersonation dance off (with plenty of crotch grabbing), and a lip singing contest. Eventually we hitched a ride back to Kalisizo, where Griffin lives, to spend the night.

Sunday July 22:
Today we got a full tour around Kalisizo by Griffin, Erin, and John's (all three of them are in the Peace Corps around Kalisizo). For dinner we made "Industrial Guac," basically a massive pot of guacamole. Yummy!

Monday July 23:
Spent the day looking for something that we could make a video on in or around Kalisizo. Although we both thought that the Peace Corps would be a fascinating video for everyone to see, Griffin explained to us that, because the Peace Corps is an American governmental organization, they could not speak to us on film. There are several angles to the Peace Corps program which most American citizens may not think about. But due to the circumstances, a video was not possible. Alas, we were stuck looking for something else.

Tuesday July 24 and Wedensday July 25:
Tuesday and Wednesday were jam packed with checking out Kalisizo and the surrounding area to see if we could find a unique angle for our next video. We visited organizations such as the Rakai Health Initiative and Building Bricks, but in the end we could not find a unique angle for our project. In the evenings we made sure to watch plenty of True Blood with Griffin, and Cal is now thoroughly addicted to the show.

Thursday July 26:
Left Kalisizo for Kalangala, a small town on Buggala Island. Buggala Island is the largest island in the Sesse Islands, located in the North Western part of Lake Victoria. We had originally planned on visiting Banda Island, where Evan spent some time working in 2009. However, one of the Peace Corps volunteers informed us that a Kenyan billionaire who owned the island died last year. After visiting an internet cafe in town we were able to confirm that this Kenyan billionaire was Dom, the man who Evan worked for in 2009. How unfortunate, considering he was our contact in this area.

Every trip has its set backs, and we were not going to let Dom's death deter us from visiting the Sesse Islands, which may still be a unique angle for our project. The islands, especially the smaller ones, are difficult to get to, and thus probably do not see as much international intervention or aid as the mainland- thus, they are important for our project. It took several hours via motorycle, matatu, and Toyota Corolla to reach Kalangala Town (literally, like 15 hours for a 40 km trip), where we had made a reservation at the Sesse Island Beach Hotel. The name might sound fancy, and that's because it is. As Cal likes to say, the Beach Hotel has the highest quality to price ratio of any place we have stayed this trip. Normally we would stay in their dorm rooms, which we had reserved, and which are a few minutes walk from the beach (And $6 each). But, for whatever reason, (perhaps because we arrived at night), the management decided to give us a beach cottage with three beds for the same price as the dorm! Sweet!

Friday July 27-Sunday July 29:
The weekend was an extremely relaxing beach side experience- and we spent time working on project logistics and planning. Our logic? It's not every day that you get a beach side cottage (with a warm shower) for 12 bucks a night, so we might as well milk it until they kick us out! For comparison sake, these rooms usually go for about 50 dollars a night, but we have heard that people can negotiate down to 30 dollars a night. Even camping at the popular backpackers camp just down the beach was more expensive than what we are paying here!

OK, and now what you've all been waiting for: When and how did Evan get peed on by a dog? The beach we were staying at had a family of beach dogs who for whatever reason (We may have fed them sweet and sour chicken one night) loved us. One day we walked all the way into town (a good 1/2 hour walk) and the mom dog followed us the whole way, walked door to door with us in town, waiting patiently outside each door for us, and would stick up for us when other dogs or people would come by. We found this very endearing and kind of felt like we had pets. One day, however, we were walking along the beach to get breakfast, of course being followed by our dog family, when the dogs stopped dead in their tracks. We looked up, and saw a Great Dane- the size of a horse- glaring at us and the dogs. Apparently we had walked into his territory. The puppy of our dog family ran straight up to the Great Dane (maybe 1/10 his size) and started barking like crazy trying to defend us. The dad and mom dog joined in, all showing their teeth now and growling. "Uh Oh," we thought. However the Great Dane could not be bothered, and instead of engaging in a dog fight, walked nonchalantly over to us, lifted his leg, and peed all over Evan's leg. He was showing our dog family who we really belonged to.

Anyways, because we were on an island, the only internet in town was on someone's personal computer that they charged out for 15 minutes at a time. We decided to head back to Kampala, the capital, to work on our budget and other logistics, considering we are leaving to go home in only 12 days!

We are hoping to produce one final video in our remaining weeks here- So stay tuned!
Thanks for keeping up with us!

Cal and Evan

A "dam" good time in Jinja, Uganda

calandevp4p — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 02:02:00 GMT

Hellloo friends and family and loyal supporters!!

Over the past week we completed two videos-- One on the conflict between western and eastern foreign donors vying for influence in Kenya (Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXRcJKdqrRw&feature=context-cha). The second video we posted is about Dominion Farms Limited (Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrITMEcOY30&feature=plcp). We collected over 15 hours of footage from the week in Bondo and Siaya, therefore it took several days to sift through it all. We then headed Northwest to investigate the Millennium Villages Project, crossed the border into Uganda, and are now checking out a new dam being built on the Nile River! Stay tuned this week for a video on the dam conflict. Busy busy days.

If you are interested, which… hopefully you are, seeing as you did click to open our blog, here is a little more detail on our past 10 days:

Friday June 29:

Began and finished and uploaded our Edward Olima video (a 2 minute clip on foreign donor conflict)! This was our shorter video from the week, therefore we wanted to get it out of the way before getting into the Dominion footage.

Saturday June 30: Dominion video video video…

Sunday July 1:

Woke up and worked on the video, per usual. But it was also Market day in Kisumu! There are always markets in Kenya. Every day you could go to a street corner and buy a second hand tee shirt or bag of onions. But on Sundays the markets multiply in size, and become as big as fourth of july flea markets in the US. It's crazy. So we headed into the Kibuye market, the #1 place in town to NOT bring your purse or backpack. We played a game, called "You have an hour to buy each other a 50 KSH t-shirt." Cal bought Evan a tie-dye tee which was soon after turned sleeveless and has yet to be taken off his body. Evan bought Cal a winnie the pooh honey bee shirt, which Cal has stressed needs to be washed after living in the market, and is yet to do so… We may or may not have gotten Chinese food that night for dinner. Cal fell asleep at the dinner table from the exciting day.

Monday July 2: Dominion video video video….

Tuesday July 3: Dominion video video video….

Wednesday July 4:

Happy Fourth of July… Except not, because we were in Kenya. And people don't celebrate that here. We got milkshakes at lunch to celebrate ourselves, and made guacamole for dinner. Oh, and yes, video, video, video… It is astonishing how long it takes to make an 8 minute video.

Thursday July 5:

Finished the Dominion video and uploaded it! Woo Hoo! -- Evan also found colorful strings in town-- The ones he makes bracelets/anklets out of. We hadn't been able to find them anywhere in Kenya. But Kisumu has a large Indian community, and these type of strings are generally produced in India, who knew! Therefore Kisumu was the place to buy 'em! Evan bought over 50 different types of stings. Cal enjoyed watching Evan splurge his own money on something-- He was like a kid in a candy store.

Friday July 6:

Met up with Jennifer (Ken's sister) for breakfast in town. Ken (our great friend from Bondo) had sent his sister mangoes for us that he had picked from a tree himself! So thoughtful- What a guy. We then travelled from Kisumu to Yala, in hopes of learning more about the Millennium Village Project. When we got to Yala our first task was to find lodging. We found a sign for a student hostel, which sounded ideal to us. We followed the signs down many small roads, and it ended up bringing us to a grass field with cows and goats, a barbed wire fence, and some farm land. Hmmm… We didn't think we could stay there for the night. The only other lodging in the area was the Yala Resort, which sounded too fancy for our liking. But we needed a roof over our heads, so headed towards it. When we got to the gate, beneath the words "Yala Resort" was painted, "A Millennium Village Resort." Perfect!

Turns out the Yala Resort was built because so many employees of MVP needed a place to stay nearby. It's mid-range in price, but each room had a TV in it, which is connected to the Direct TV network. As we were in the middle of watching our favorite Spanish soap dubbed in English with odd accents, we noticed that the channels were changing without our consent. Huh? Well, apparently the "Resort" takes channel requests from visitors (only the one channel chosen on the Direct TV box shows up on all TVs in the resort). Someone had requested a Swahili channel, but on the way passed the MTV channel showing "Next," a dating show. Flash forward to tomorrow: We requested that the resort put "Next" back on the TV (we admit it, there isn't much better than trashy American TV). They did, and it was an episode where 5 lesbian women got the chance to date a model-esque woman. Hooray! Except, we were still in Kenya. And anything-but-straight sexual orientations are less accepted in most parts of Kenya than the US. Sooo of course about 20 minutes later the receptionist tells us that one of the other guests requested a news channel, and that they could return to our show in about a half hour. Needless to say, our show never returned. Bummer!

We asked a few people around the hotel and some people in town what they thought about MVP and people either didn't know what we were talking about, or just vaguely would say "They're good- Yeah, they're good.." We weren't getting much from our preliminary surveys.

Saturday July 7:

We woke up in the morning and decided to walk to MVP to see what we could learn for ourselves. Our reason for going to Yala was to check out the Millennium Villages to see if there is conflict between the villages receiving MVP assistance and the villages not receiving MVP assistance. We had heard that MVP was doing great things within the villages themselves, but that communities outside were upset that they were excluded from the project.

It was about a 30-40 minute walk down a beautiful dirt road, and we eventually get approached by a young Kenyan man in his late-20's (maybe early 30's?) whose name is Carlos. We asked Carlos if he knew about MVP and he told us we were standing in it, and that he lived there. Perfect. Carlos explained how MVP works- He told us a ton, and we talked for over an hour.

Carlos informed us that MVP provides assistance to about a dozen villages in the area- They are considered the "Sauri cluster." We learned that MVP uses a "control" village, about 10 km away, in order to measure the effectiveness of their efforts. A "control," in any experiment, is a trial group that receives no treatment or change from normal, and is monitored and compared to the experiment group that receives any type of treatment. Control groups are used in most experiments, whether that be a drug trial, fertilizer use trial, whatever. But when it comes to people, often questions of ethics come up regarding use of control groups. For example, if you are doing an experiment on the benefits of a new drug for cancer, can you only give that drug to half your participants, and deny your "control" group a possible treatment? Sure, it helps your experiment determine if people are improving because of your treatment… but is it ethical to include people in your research while denying them assistance? A lot of people would say no. In the case of MVP, Carlos told us that they chose a village 10 km away so that the people living there did not know about MVP and did not receive any spillover benefits from living right next door. It definitely makes sense to have a control village. How do you know it's your project that's increasing crop production, and not just the annual rainfall? Or changes in the economy? It has its merit…. But wouldn't you be pissed if you lived in the "control village," and learned about the whole set up?

We started thinking we would head out there. But Carlos reiterated that most people in the control village don't know about MVP, and that's exactly why they chose them as the control. Therefore, if we showed up, and told people that they were the control village in a development experiment, that would probably stir up conflict … which really doesn't align with our own personal goals nor with what a "Projects for Peace" is supposed to be doing. So we decided to let the control village be.

We asked Carlos about the conflict between MVP villages and non-MVP surrounding villages? Carlos said that the villages bordering the Sauri cluster receive positive spillover effects. They can purchase the increased crop produce, they can use the newly built hospitals, etc. But, per usual, we wanted to see for ourselves. So we asked Carlos where the closest non-MVP village was. He pointed us toward Dudi, and that's where we went. To get there we took the most dangerous motorbike ride of both of our lives. About 3 minutes into the ride there was a police check on the road up ahead, and our motorbike driver said to us, " I don't have a license, so we'll just go this way," and pulled off the road onto a steep dirt hill. Good. 20 minutes later we arrived safely, and slightly traumatized in Dudi.

In Dudi we surveyed about 10-12 people, asking if they knew MVP and what they thought about it. Out of the people we surveyed only 2 people knew what it was. One of them thought it was extremely positive. The other person only knew about a bank they had started. Everyone else had no idea what we were talking about-- And it wasn't due to a language barrier. The more we asked it seemed like the conflict we had expected to find was just not there. And we were in the village directly next to MVP-- You couldn't get any closer. So we decided to not make a video. We've been trying to show alternative ways of thinking about foreign donors/foreign influence by illuminating different types of conflict they can sometimes cause. But it appeared that we were forcing a conflict situation to be present in the area. We felt we should move on.

Sunday July 8:

Travel day to Uganda! Woke up in the AM and walked to town for breakfast. Ordered toast and got half a loaf of bread put in front of us- Cool, who will complain about that? But when we pointed towards his Blue Band container (basically, butter) and asked if he had any, he said he was out and had to go buy some. No problem, we said. We ate up our bread with the Blue Band and when we went to pay we were expecting a 150 Ksh total, but instead he asked for 200 Ksh. Apparently we had accidentally asked him to go buy Blue Band for us. Oops.

Got on a matatu towards Busia (the border crossing to Uganda) and asked how much. One conductor said 200KSH while the other said 250 at the same time. Caught in the act of ripping us off! So we politely accepted the 200 KSH fee. From Yala to Busia it probably took around 2 - 3 hours. The border crossing went fine for us, although a young man with a Ugandan passport had his passport confiscated by the authorities and had to bring his dad back on Wednesday to prove it was real. Yikes- We were thankful that didn't happen to us.

At the border Evan went to use the public toilet and Cal sat outside with our bags. A few guys started asking where we were from. She told them "America." And one of the guys, motioning to his friend, said "He's a cousin of Obama, you know!" And Cal, jokingly, replied "Ah I thought I saw the resemblance!" thinking they were having a playful back and forth. But then the "cousin of Obama" smiled really sincerely and asked, "You really think I look like Obama?," with so much genuine happiness. My heart sank. No, I didn't think he looked like Obama. And I felt like a jerk blatantly lying to him that I think he looks like Obama. But at that point if I had said "No, I don't think you look like Obama, I was just saying that" then I would have really come off like a jerk. So I just smiled and said, "Yes," feeling guilty.

From the border we found the matatu stage and boarded another matatu to Jinja. This ride also took between 2 - 3 hours. We got into Jinja around 6:40 PM (Whew! Cutting it close!) and made it to our hostel on a motorbike by 7:00 PM.

That night we stayed at Nile River Explorer's Backpackers- Ironically, it is this hostel that brought us together. When Cal was studying abroad in Kenya she wanted to go rafting with some friends in Uganda for a weekend, and emailed Evan, knowing he had been here in the past, and knew a great company. Evan sent a very long and helpful email back to Cal, with directions and phone numbers of Nile Rivers Explorers, and that was the first e-mail exchange of many to come …. Who would have thought that a year and a half later we'd be here together? The world works in crazy ways.

Here it should be noted why we felt Jinja was pertinent to our project: When we were here independently (in 2009 for Evan and 2011 for Cal) there was talk about a dam being built on the Nile River. Raft guides were upset because it would wipe out half of the rapids they make profits on, hurting the local tourism industry. Local guides mentioned it would displace many people due to the overflowing riverbanks-- Even a few years ago it was stirring up conflict. The dam is now operating, and it has only been possible through international funding. "Dam Shame" is a documentary that came out over the past few years that outlines several aspects of conflict the dam was expected to cause. However some people are currently saying that it really hasn't been all that bad. Stay tuned to hear about what we find this upcoming week!

Monday July 9:

Our day of logistics. Woke up and ate BANANA pancakes!!!! Yummy! Balanced our budget- Hard work figuring out 3 different exchange rates. Walked into town, bought sim cards for our new line in Uganda, and learned that Jinja is mzungu land! (Mzungu = White Person) Every where you go there are white people buying "African" tourist items. Meanwhile, Evan scours every second hand shoe store looking for a cheap pair of birkenstocks to take home- No luck today. Later that night we take a 1/2 hour ride to our hostel's river camp in the back of a pick up truck for free. We spent the rest of the night enjoying the scenary of the Nile, sharing a Guiness (yes- Evan drank half a Guiness), and playing cards. Our ride back to the hostel ended up falling through, however the woman working at the reception said she was heading out later anyways and we could jump in her car. Her name is Celia and she's married to a guy named Jaque. They're both from South Africa and have become our new couple obsession. They were so free with us, warm and welcoming, and have led overland trips together across the African continent for years. They also gave us the contact info for their friend Max, who's making a documentary responding to the previously mentioned film "Dam Shame." His is titled "Dam Relief," and Celia explained it's a film showing that the dam has not caused as much conflict as was initially expected-- We're meeting up with him and his production crew on Thursday.

Tuesday July 10:

Woke up and walked down town for some breakfast. Ended up getting cheap Indian Food (?), which was awesome. Bought minutes on our phone so we can call home / our contacts and came back to our hostel. Met a guy from the UK who works for Nile Rivers, who initially came here as a surveyor for the dam- Ha! Spoke with him for a bit about where to go/ how to get to the dam- A bunch of logistics. He handed us a map and provided a lot of helpful insights about the dam issue. As we finished up our discussion it began thundering, so we decided to save our day of exploring the dam sight for tomorrow- Tomorrow will be an early morning! And because it is now torrentially down pouring, and we are dependent on electrical equipment for our project, we've decided to spend the rest of the day around the hostel prepping for this week's interviews.

Side Story: Just tonight we were in town for dinner and decided to get a milkshake at one of the touristy places, which happened to be closing at 6:30 PM. That's very early for a restaurant to close in Kenya or Uganda. And if you walk through any of the streets in Jinja you see people beginning to set up outdoor grilling stations making kebobs or chapatis outside at this time. Additionally, you can find a restaurant serving chapati, chicken, fish, chips (fries), or beans probably at 5 or 6 places on each block. The point is that if you have been in Jinja for 60 seconds it should be very clear to you that eating establishments are not hard to come by. Now, a mzungu family walks into this touristy place around 6:20 and learns that they are closing at 6:30. She sighs, and proceeds to ask the staff member behind the bar if there are, quote, "Any other places to eat open in town?" Really the question she was meaning to to ask, is "Are there other places that mzungus eat open in town?" The poor guy who worked at the restaurant had a hard time answering their question, clearly confused.

So here is the blog. We are excited about the upcoming dam video, so stay tuned over the next week!

10 Day Mini-Trip: Bondo and Siaya

calandevp4p — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 23:32:00 GMT

Hello friends family and loyal followers!

Edit: New Video Posted on how Asian and "Western" countries are pursuing their interests in Kenya through aid allocation! Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXRcJKdqrRw&feature=plcp

It's been a while since we updated the blog/added any videos. That's because for the past 10 days or so we decided to ditch most of our stuff in Kisumu and take a short trip up north west to the Bondo and Siaya districts. We wanted to go up there because of two projects: Dominion and The Millennium Villages Project. Here's a little bit about both:

1- Dominion is a US company that has leased land from the Kenyan government for up to 50 years. They produce rice that they grow on Kenyan land through the work of Kenyan employees, and sell it locally in Kenya. They have the intention, supposedly, of being a "developer," coming in to help the area become more developed, but they're also a company. So it begs the question of which of their job titles gets the priority. We thought we'd check it out. Turns out people have a lot to say about Dominion- A lot really positive, a lot really negative, and some in the middle. Hopefully we'll have the video out in a few days.

2- The Millennium Villages Project is an initiative started by Jeffrey Sachs and the Earth Institute at Columbia University to combat specific aspects of development like the percentage of people living below a dollar a day, child mortality rates, increasing the number of girls in school, etc.. The Millennium Development Villages began basically as an experiment, for lack of a better word, for the most efficient way to achieve these development goals.

We had both heard about the Millennium VIllages from the US, but in Kisumu some people mentioned that there is conflict between Sauri (the village receiving the project's attention and funds) and the villages surrounding Sauri (who do not receive any project attention and funds). The hope of the Millennium VIllages is that once one community develops, a spillover effect will occur to the surrounding villages, but we have heard that in the meantime people in the surrounding villages are not happy. Sauri is the first Millennium Development Village, started in 2006, and is near Lake Victoria… therefore, how couldn't we check it out? HOWEVER Cal ended up getting sick and we had to get back to Kisumu because we only had a week of Malaria meds on us. So stay tuned for more on this project- Hopefully we will return next week.

But here is a short (?) synopsis of the past few days! Whew!

Tuesday June 19:

Today we went to lunch with a friend named Natalia, who is a masters student from the US working for an organization that works with sex workers. She brought along one of her co-workers named Dennis, who has written more proposals to start his own NGO than you could count. We went to a place called the Laughing Buddha, which is a really nice restaurant that serves Western food for expensive prices… It's the place where all the white people go. We generally try to avoid these places (both for the money and the principle of it), but if we were invited there for a work meeting, it is what it is, eh? …. But DID we enjoy that meal!!! We split an oreo milkshake, hummus and pita, and a pizza? Wow. And on top of the amazing food, Dennis provided us with contacts in the Bondo and Siaya that were invaluable in our week to come.

That night Natalia and a bunch of the other masters students from the US invited us to come out and watch the Ukraine vs. England game at a pub with them. Cal made a bet with Sam, one of the other US students, that Ukraine would beat England (yup). She lost 100 Ksh.

Wednesday June 20:

We woke up this day and realized that if we stay for Kisumu for a few more days, we would have been here 3 weeks (!!!). So we made preparations to leave for Bondo and Siaya. We each brought one backpack to Kenya this summer, planning to carry it the entire time so we don't have to leave it unguarded in a hotel. Although the goal was minimalistic packing, they're heavy bags. After just one day of interviewing with that backpack on, your back feels like it could crumble. Not to mention the difficulty in fitting two people on a motorbike with two bags. Additionally, sometimes it feels obnoxious to each plop down a decent sized backpack when trying to present ourselves like humble US citizens. SO for our trip we packed only what we needed for a week- A shirt and a pair of pants each, a handful of meds, bug bivys, and our video equipment, and packed it in one backpack. We left everything else with a friend named Shelby in Kisumu.

Thursday June 21:

A day of traveling. First thing in the morning we bought banana bread and headed to the internet cafe to see where we were going! Decided to go to Bondo first. The ride took about 2 hours. The moment we arrived we already felt better being there as compared to Kisumu. It's WAY smaller, less urban, has dirt roads, less people, less air pollution, more chickens… our kind of place. We met a woman who worked at a supermarket and asked if she knew cheap places to stay, she told us she owned a place behind the discount store that was 600 KSH (7 bucks) for a night- We found it and stayed there. Minimal lodging, all we needed.

Friday June 22:

We wake up in Bondo and try to hit the streets for some interviews! We are sitting on the side of the road eating some breakfast when a man, named Hezekiah, approaches us to sell us phone credit. We try and ask him if he knows about Dominion or the Millennium Villages Project, and somehow he thinks we're talking about church (?) and his Australian friends (?), we tell him we don't know them. Somewhere along the line Evan ends up giving him his number, and we have heard from him every day (yes- every day) since.

The woman from the supermarket the day earlier didn't know either Dominion or Millennium Villages, but suggested we talk to the NGO across the street. We do- They are the Bondo Farmer Field School Network (BFFSN), who basically try to teach sustainable agriculture to communities in the Bondo District. They receive no international funding so we didn't think they were pertinent to our project interviews. But we chatted with them for about an hour about our two projects of interest. They said we'd have to go more north to reach Dominion. In regards to the Millennium Villages, they didn't know much, except that they give people in Sauri seeds for free, and that people living in Bondo were wondering why they weren't chosen to receive free seeds.

We then went to get lunch at a restaurant in town and were greeted at the door by a VERY exuberant woman named Jenalis who could not have been happier to have two mzungus (white people) walk into her shop. She was so friendly and welcoming and just wanted to know all about us and what we were doing and really just wanted to talk. We ordered fish after confirming the price and she let us into the back room of the restaurant where a whole table of her friends were eating there. At the table sat Emily, assistant chief of the town of Bondo. The main duties of chiefs include mediating disputes between community members and the government. They're on the grounds government officials. So if land rights issues comes up (which often did with Dominion) the chief would be the person to mediate. She was a great person to talk with. You'll have to watch our videos to find out more!!

After an hour or so, Jenalis brings out three huge cokes in glass bottles and asks us if we want any. We decline saying we're all set- We don't really have it in our budget to buy huge sodas every day. Then she asks if she can have one. Cal responds, "Sure…. " kind of confused, and continues by saying, "… you don't have to ask me, Jenalis… this is your restaurant!" And all of her friends laugh. By this point she has already opened the coke and is opening the other two while she says "No no I'm asking so that when you see it on your receipt you won't be upset with me… So it's okay?" But by this point she's already poured everyone sitting at the table glasses. The point is not that we didn't want to buy her a coke. Neither of us are bothered by buying a good friend a soda/coffee/beer… even lunch. The point is that it was assumed that we would buy it for them, and that there was not even room for us to say no. So after we questionably consented, Cal said "It's fine, Jenalis, but we are just students, and we didn't order sodas because we don't have enough money to order big sodas every day."

I understand that a lot of white people travel abroad with tons of money. But really we are just two young 20-year-olds who are in/just out of college, don't have jobs, and couldn't even afford to be there on our own pockets. I didn't want to start any conflict with the soda incident, but I said something because I felt that if every white person lets it be assumed that they have tons of money, the image of the very rich white person continues. It's not good for the world, I don't think. Westerners start to lose their depth as individuals. And do we really want interactions between Kenyans and Americans to be reduced to mere ATM transactions?

At least we got interviews with everyone at the restaurant while they drank their cokes!

Dennis (from lunch with Natalia in Kisumu) gave us the number of his friend Ken who volunteers for the Center of Disease Control (CDC) which partners with Kenya Medical Research Institution (KEMRI). So Ken shows up at the restaurant and we hang out with Ken for a while and find out that he's a really solid guy-- Because he's friends with Dennis he worked his butt off for us calling everyone he knows in his phone book who is pertinent to our project and set up several meetings a day for us. He's also a student studying political science, so the project itself is intrinsically interesting to him. Neither of us have ever met anyone like Ken- whether in the US or Kenya.

The same day Ken brought us to the CDC/KEMRI headquarters where he works and introduced us to everyone. Got us several interviews with members of his organization.

In fact, his boss Hermon was named after a mountain in Israel, coincidentally a mountain that Evan happened to climb 3 or 4 times while in the army. Hermon couldn't believe Evan had not only heard of the mountain but had spent a lot of time there, and Evan agreed to send along photos when he got back to the US. Hermon's dad was a government official for years on end, so instead of interviewing himself he said his father would be much better suited and we got his contact information.

We also got to interview a man named Edward, the coordinator for a local development organization. He was the first person we interviewed that talked about conflict between donors- As in, the US and China competing for influence, and the negative effects that has on Kenya. He also provided us with valuable contacts in Siaya at the Friends of Yala Swamp, a network of NGO's that help to advocate for the community members living near Dominion's property.

That night we stayed at a place called Rozala which had the biggest bed in the history of big beds. I think you could have fit eight normal sized human beings in that bed. No picture could accurately capture the size. There was also a fan which made Cal very happy.

Saturday June 23:

We woke up and met Ken in town. Travelled to a town outside Bondo called Usenge to meet several of Ken's contacts for interviews. Travelled to another town called Usigu, meet Hermon's dad (used to be a government official for years). Ken invited us over to his house to meet his family and eat lunch, which we did. Met Ken's wife named Maureen and their beautiful baby named Ryan. We also met his sister, Jennifer, who is a new contact in Kisumu! Ken took us back to town and helped us negotiate a fair price on a motorbike to Siaya. Amazing motorbike ride- About an hour long. "If this doesn't restore your spirits, I don't know what will" says Evan. And he was right. Breathtaking. And there's nothing like that wind in your hair. Made it into town by 6:10 (It's pitch black at 7:00), grabbed some food, then headed to a hotel.

Sunday June 24:

Woke up in Siaya in the Mwisho hotel. We learned from Abdul, Cal's old mentor who is from Siaya, that the owner of the hotel works for Dominion- Hmmm interesting! We learn he is staying at the hotel and agrees to meet with us. The owner's name is Joseph who is clearly in the very wealthy class of Kenya. He owns 5 acres of property which includes the huge hotel, a gas station, banks, and several other businesses. He is the main contractor for Dominion, and could not speak more positively of the company. He said Dominion pays what they would in the US, so he makes much much much more building a bridge for Dominion than he would building the same bridge elsewhere in Kenya. That night Evan shaves his beard!

Monday June 25:

Cal doesn't feel too good when we wake up but we take a motorbike into town for our Friends with Yala Swamp meeting. We meet Vincent, the representative who is a really gentle guy and really willing to interview. Before beginning he brings in his colleague Mike, who is a government official, to join us. Mike asks us for our permit for this research. We tell him we don't have one, and that this isn't exactly research… He interrupts us and basically reprimands us for not following the proper protocol of Kenya. He says that if we want to show up and make these videos in Kenya we need to have government permission. "I couldn't just show up in your country and start doing whatever kind of research I want, could I?" Well, yes, after the visa step is done, you really could. Mike claimed that in Kenya we could be arrested if someone wants to see our permit and we don't have one. Vincent didn't want to have his face recorded on video after that-- But he offered to take us around Dominion the next day without Mike around!

Mid-way through the interview Cal feels like she has to pass out. She has a fever.

Tuesday June 26:

Cal starts becoming well acquainted with the bathroom. Now Evan has to go the interviews to Dominion all by himself and Cal has to stay in the room. This is probably the first day in a month we spent apart the entire trip.

Cal's June 26:

Because we went lightweight I didn't bring a book or anything else that could entertain a sick person besides my iPod nano that has 40 songs on it. At least I brought the Cipro (the drugs to make you stop diarrhearing). So I learned how to make playlists on my Ipod- I now have a resting playlist, a sleeping playlist, a workout playlist, etc. I got to Level 7 in "Bounce," one of the games that comes with my Kenyan cell phone. I read the Bible in the hotel room. I learned how to put speed dials on my phone. I learned the lyrics to Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel by repeating the song over and over again. I also pooped 13 times- Go Colgate! I had a really productive day.

Evan's June 26:

Today was rough! After we decided that it was best for our project to continue with the Dominion Farms interviews and video footage, I took a long motorbike ride with Vincent (from Friends of Yala Swamp) around the massive farm. He told me all about the various conflicts between the "investor" (Dominion) and the community. Cattle herders lost pasture, water was often fenced off which caused locals to cut holes in the fence, churches were built and set up by Dominion and many never took off, the wells Dominion dug and bathrooms they built were not maintained or were built without community involvement, etc. Along the way, Vincent introduced me to several community leaders. Apparently locals around the farm are interviewed quite often- Dominion seems to be a hot topic- so some did not want to be seen on film. Additionally, community members have had their opinions later edited to represent the bias of the video maker. Gah! I started thinking that I might be creating more conflict by asking for interviews- not the goal!

Luckily I was able to interview some community leaders, and after hearing so many negative opinions about Dominion over the past few days, I was surprised by what they had to say- watch our videos to see why! At this point, Cal started texting me that she was running out of supplies- namely, water and toilet paper. So Vincent gunned his motorbike back to town (scary!) and I picked up some things in town for Cal. We spent the rest of the evening catching up and entertaining each other.

Wednesday June 27:

We traveled from Siaya back to Kisumu. Evan called Vincent in the morning who helped us find a "car", ended up pulling up to our hotel in a fully loaded matatu instead. Of course. But it saved us going down to the stage, bartering, and sitting/standing in the sun for hours. So he was a huge help. When we arrived in Kisumu the hardest part lay ahead- Getting to the hotel from the matatu stage. Because Cal hadn't eaten in three days she passed out in the sun, so Evan laid her on a cement block to go call some transportation. As if a healthy mzungu doesn't already attract too much attention. The overall journey took 4 hours, and it was a miracle on elm street that Cal's bowels lasted the whole time. Cal was very tired back at the hotel and slept the rest of the day. Evan went to go get the rest of our stuff from Shelby's. That night they ordered from the fancy hotel because they thought they deserved it and were way under budget- Cal ordered Bruschetta and it stayed down (er, up, rather?), Evan got a delicious stir fry!

Thursday June 28:

We decided to take a rest day from our jam-packed 10 days!

So for now we are getting back to the videos and are home based in Kisumu for a couple more days. Hopefully the videos will be up soon from Bondo/Siaya about Dominion, and we'll be getting back to Siaya for the Millenium Villages on our way to Uganda next week!

C&E

We're...Still in Kisumu?

calandevp4p — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Hopefully by the time you are reading this we will have posted our fourth video- hip hip hooray! Check it out on the LVP4P youtube channel! Chris, a former street boy, shared with us his opinions on Kisumu's street boy programs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFhCuZiIJng&feature=youtu.be

Wed. June 13: Today was a special day because…well…we got CHINESE FOOD! (Ok, so maybe it was the second time we got chinese food, but it was still special!) The power was out for most of the day and we weren't able to get much done for the project, and we hardly spent any money, so we decided to treat ourselves to sweet and sour chicken. It was a combined lunch and dinner experience.

Today was also special because, after trying to get an interview at an orphanage/street boy home and school, we stumbled upon Christ's Hope, a Christian organization which deals with HIV and AIDS patients and their children. We also found KEFEDO, a Kenyan organization which deals with women's empowerment, leadership, LGBTQ issues (Lesbian, Gay, BiSexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning), and human rights. Finding this type of organization in Kenya was particularly interesting to us because the social environment here tends to be less accepting (an understatement?) of people who challenge gender roles and/or openly identify as anything other than straight.

After signing the visitors book that we have to sign at the gate of every organization we visit, we entered a lobby full of political posters and informational packets on everything from domestic abuse to the differences between gender and sex. Finally, a feminist organization! The staff at KEFEDO were extremely warm, and one staff member sat down with us to hear about our project and explain what initiatives they run for the community. We made an appointment with KEFEDO for the following day, hoping to interview the director.

We were both feeling good after leaving KEFEDO. We thought that we finally found a bold organization really pushing for culture change in Kenya. Evan even began scheming at how he could suggest a Skype brown bag at Colgate's Center for Women's Studies with the organization. Little did we know how difficult this organization would be!

Thursday June 14: We decided to wake up early today, to get as much out of the day as possible before our 2:30 appointment with KEFEDO, the "gender concern" organization. We found out that our building had no power -a frequent occurrence in Western Kenya during the past month (see our News Blast 1 Video!)- and promptly decided to make the most of the situation. After waking up several hours later, we found a tuk-tuk and rushed to KEFEDO with high hopes.

We stepped in to KEFEDO's lobby and again admired the posters advocating for an end to sexual violence, female genital mutilation, and political corruption. However, this time, we were only allowed to speak to the receptionist. She told us that the director refused to meet with us, and that we were rejected permission to speak with any other staff members. Evan got really mad, but Cal kept her cool and prodded further. The receptionist would not give Cal an answer as to why we could not meet with the director, so we walked out. After debriefing the situation, Cal reentered the lobby and insisted that we were entitled to know why the director had refused to meet with us even after we were granted an appointment. We had gone all the way out to their office, after all! After some further prodding, the receptionist finally "admitted" to Cal that the director refused to meet with us because organizations from the United States never agree to fund KEFEDO.

In retrospect, it is probably a good thing that the director refused to meet with us, because we would have perpetuated the director's perception that US organizations will not fund KEFEDO's work. We are not here to sponsor projects, rather we are here to talk about those people who do sponsor projects. However, after our interactions with other American organizations in the area, we believe the "US Organizations" which the director may have been referring to are likely a type of Christian based ministry which would refuse to donate to a group fighting for LGBTQ rights. We were totally speculating on this, but it would make sense. Regardless, we were upset that the director would assume this fact about us without even meeting with us or finding out about our project.

After assuring the receptionist that we are students on an independent video Project for Peace, Cal was able to sweet talk her into giving us an appointment for the following morning, presumably with the director. However, this time we were going to be prepared. Cal exchanged numbers with the receptionist so that we could call the office before our 9 AM meeting, and they could call us if anything came up. This way, we would not waste the time and money it took to get out to their office.

Frustrated from the day, Cal decided to buy a new book ("A Thousand Splendid Suns," which she is almost finished with- Edit: which she already finished!). We also made a 60 second news blast of aid related articles from the Daily Nation newspaper which you should totally watch on our YouTube channel!

Friday June 15: We woke up early for our meeting with KEFEDO, and called them to make sure we were still on for 9AM. The receptionist said she would have people there waiting for us to interview. We were really excited to finally get a chance to interview what seemed like an awesome organization. We also thought the organization would be a perfect fit for our project because, well, culture change often involves conflict between where the society has been and where they are going.

We arrived at KEFEDO for our meeting, and the receptionist asked, "how many people would you like to speak with?" SCORE! We could speak with as many people as we wanted! We told her that we would like to speak with as many people as they could gather together. The receptionist went into the back and there was some discussion between the women working in the back room. Being skeptical of the situation already, we thought they were asking around for the person who could just talk to the crazy white students and get them to go away. They ended up sending out the same person who spoke with us the first day- a confident, poised woman with excellent communication skills. She told us that she could talk to us about the organization as she had the first day, but the director refused 1. to speak with us and 2. to allow anyone to speak on film.

Are you kidding us?! We politely told her that, as interested as we are personally in their organization, our project is to record interviews so that the rest of the world can see what they are doing, and how their work brings peace and/or conflict into their community. She repeated herself by saying that they are not willing to speak on camera. Cal asked why they were unwilling to speak on camera- after all, it would take the same time to speak with us on camera as it would off camera.

Now…of course we understand that people might not want to speak on camera for a multitude of different reasons. And we completely respect many of these reasons. Perhaps they cannot speak with out the permission of their head office, and the head office happens to be closed? Or, maybe they don't want to give an interview to someone who may try to splice their words into a video which incriminates them in some illegal activity, or to argue for a personal political agenda? Maybe they want to remain anonymous? We know that dealing with LGBTQ issues can be a sensitive subject anywhere, but especially in this part of the world; therefore we can also respect any attempt to shield their organization or those they partner with from political pressure, or even violence, from being exposed as a more liberal/progressive group. We totally understand these concerns, and of course we are ready to deal with them- we can record only their voice, we can disguise their voice, we can omit names, etc.

But no. Their answer, after several attempts to force one out of them, was not even the previous answers of, "she is in a meeting," or, "the director refuses to meet with you because organizations from the US never fund us." Rather, her answer was that our project, and YouTube, "are not substantial enough. There is nothing in it for us."

Excuse us? So, apparently our project is not substantial enough because we don't have thousands of dollars to throw around. Gahh! We could not believe it. Needless to say, we left their office pretty upset.

We decided to make the best of the situation. The area around their office is NGO central- the land of white people riding white Jeeps with organizational stickers on the sides. We thought we should just stop in to some of the other organizations who might be more transparent with their work than KEFEDO.

Well, of course, we were wrong. After visiting the Family Health Initiative, an Educational Development organization, Concern Worldwide, and several others, we were refused interviews with every one. So much for organizational transparency!

After discussing the direction of our project over an ice-cold Black Current Fanta, we decided that we might have enough footage from our previous interviews to make a few short videos, and then we could move out of Kisumu. We spent the rest of the day working through hours of footage and even got a chance to eat lunch in town with our friend Shelby.

Saturday June 16: Today was spent looking through our footage and creating our "Kisumu Street Boys" video. Hopefully you have watched it by now! We also took a 5 hour break to visit Lucy and Ted, Anna Dodor's host parents (she was on Cal's study abroad program last year). What amazing people! After drinking a glass of mango juice, Lucy asked us "Where are your bags?" She had assumed that we would be staying for the week. What a sweetheart! Maybe next time we will have the honor of staying with them. Several hours later, Lucy and Ted convinced us to come back tomorrow at 11 AM to slaughter some chickens for a huge feast.

Sunday June 17: We planned to spend Sunday working on the video, but instead we ended up at Lucy and Ted's place for a feast. And a good thing we did, because our building had no power for the entire day! Even if we had stayed to work on the video, our computer would have run out of battery and we would have wasted the day. Thanks Lucy and Ted!

The feast was amazing. We had two chickens and lots of company. We met several Americans who are doing research with NGOs for their masters programs. After probably too many hours, we came back to our hotel, the power finally turned on, and we were able to (nearly) finish our latest video!

Monday June 18: Video editing day! Spent the entire day editing our latest video, and we have now begun our next video which will hopefully be done tomorrow.

Updates from Kisumu

calandevp4p — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 02:53:00 GMT

So we have successfully uploaded Video #2 (AKA our first full video of interviews)- Hurrah! If you haven't seen it yet, please check it out and spread it around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NffQ_pti2W0&feature=plcp . Our hearts break a bit after watching the final 10 minute piece, because it is all we have to show for the hours and hours and hours of footage and conversations we have had. To some extent, these small video clips make the discussions more superficial… And that's really a shame, because if there's one thing we have been getting out of the trip so far, it is that foreign aid is complicated. It's not all good and it's not all bad- The answer lies somewhere within the complexity of it all.

We are still in Kisumu, we have been here for about a week, and believe it or not, we have just started our interviews here. Creating and uploading Video #2 turned out to be much more complicated than we had thought. Hopefully we have learned from this experience and will save some time in the future.

Anyways- we wanted to fill in a bit on what's been happening the past few days. But first rewind back to June 7 (Thursday). In our last blog we mentioned that we met a guy named Chris on a rooftop who taught us to play a card game, AK47 [yes, Marie, that is the game you're thinking of] and then gave us a really great interview. Chris used to be a street boy in Kisumu but is now in his mid-20's working at a restaurant and seems to be doing really well for himself. We got along really easily, and both of us got really positive vibes from him. It's difficult here because it seems that 99/100 people you meet have an agenda. Usually it's money, sometimes it's just a meal or a drink. Regardless, we've both experienced the disappointment that comes with thinking you've met a great friend, who ends up having anterior motives. So we are both pretty skeptical of making friends like that on the fly in Kenya. However, if you go through every day distrusting every person you meet, you will end up being an asshole to that 1 person in a hundred who really doesn't have an agenda. So we were both trying to feel out who this Chris guy is.

He offers to get us interviews with several of the NGO's in Kisumu that have programs for street boys, and even states that he doesn't expect/want any money or compensation, that he's really just interested in our project and would love to expose a lot of the corruption within Kisumu's NGOs. We decide to see what happens. We meet up the next day for an interview (set up by Chris) with Duncun, the Director of "KESBoys," one of Kisumu's organizations for street kids. Chris has these connections because he has gone through the programs himself. Interview goes great. We head out to grab a bite to eat. Long story short, at lunch Chris finally brings up that the restaurant he's working for needs KSH 2500 by 4 PM that day or else they'll be shut down. He repeats that he's really not trying to scam us, that he'll even pay us back if we give him a week's time, etc. We explain that we're on a grant, that the money is not even ours to give, that we have to record every shilling we spend, and if the foundation finds we are using the money for things unrelated to our project we could be shut down. But god forbid the guy is telling the truth- right? What if he actually is just in a tight place and our $30 could help him save his restaurant?

Blegh. Whatever you do in that situation, it's hard to find peace with yourself. Which is ironic, because this is a Project for Peace. As a compromise, we offer to continue coming to his restaurant to eat every day-- It was relatively cheap, and good food, so we wouldn't be out any money even if it was a scam. Also, if we came for lunch and dinner every day for four days, that's $30 right there. But of course he needed that money by 4 PM that night so that offer was no good. Gah. We ended up not helping him out, because we felt weird about the whole situation. Several days later, the restaurant is still open.

We now feel weirder, though, because Chris has continued to stay in contact and has been trying to set up interviews for us with different organizations/ wants to just grab a drink together. So that makes us think he could be legit? Either way, although Kisumu is a city, it's a small city, so we don't want to piss anyone off-- Just yesterday afternoon we ran into Chris on a sidewalk downtown. So we've been trying to stay on good terms while keeping our distance.

June 11 (Monday) we met up with Betty, the director of Civil Society Organization Network, for an interview. She is an amazing woman. The Civil Society Organization receives a lot of international funding, and runs workshops across Kisumu to encourage discussions on violence, democratic values, human rights, the value of free speech, etc. She spoke about the difficulties she finds in receiving funds internationally, that a lot of donors treat her and her staff as if they are criminals, ready to use the money with bad intentions. To receive money from some international donors you have to write a proposal. Some donors award the money two to three years later, when the project proposed is no longer relevant. Yet because the donor does not trust the organization, there is no flexibility- if the organization uses the money for anything but the originally proposed project, the organization will become blacklisted. If an org. is blacklisted they will struggle to find another donor to supply any money. If the org. carries out the irrelevant project to appease the donor, 1- They are no longer doing effective work, and 2- They will quickly lose support from the community, and will be seen as doing irrelevant work. Betty was a very useful contact and gave us an idea for our next week's location!

Today, June 12 (Tuesday), we visited Agape, a Christian ministry organization that houses street boys in Kisumu. We got an interview with the director, Chris Page, who had graduated from West Point and had possibly run track at Colgate. Small world. After Agape we walked along the street for a bit until we saw a sign on a building that read "KICK." We walked inside and found that it stands for the Kenyan Innovation Center in Kisumu. Inside, there were 4 or 5 different groups of artisans- One group was making jewelry from recyclable goods. One group was making chairs and tables from woven Hyacinth plants-- [Sidenote: The Hyacinth plant is a weed that has grown a lot over the past few decades on the water close to the shore of Lake Victoria. In some areas, the Hyacinth is so thick that fishermen can no longer access the water.] We interviewed a man named George, who used to be a fisherman. He stopped fishing because of the hyacinth, but is now really successful because of the hyacinth- How ironic, no? They received initial funding from the Department for International Development for a 5-year grant. After the 5-year grant (2004) the organization fell through. In 2005, group members revived the organization as a business without any funding. They have been extremely successful since. In fact, their work is so impressive that they were recently asked to create the casket for Wangari Maathai, esteemed Kenyan philanthropist and professor. Amazing work.

Other life updates since the last blog:

-We found a little joint in Kisumu that has really great banana bread for cheap! We also learned that we both love banana bread! Win, and win.

-Cal finished reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. It's a non-fiction book. Perkins used to be CEO/chief economist of a company that made contracts with developing countries in order to make them dependent on the US. This book is his personal memoir about what went on behind the scenes. Cal is currently interested in other people's opinions on the book. For anyone who is interested in international development/globalization/IR/politics in general, the book will probably be up your alley whether or not you agree with the content. Email ccrawford@colgate.edu or get at me on Facebook if you've read it-- I'd love other opinions.

-Evan found a tick on his body last night (Monday June 11). We pulled it off. Good.

-We have a new idea- to create small videos highlighting Kenyan news articles which we find pertinent to our project. Hopefully this will go well!

E&C

Week 1 donezo

calandevp4p — Sat, 9 Jun 2012 22:16:00 GMT

Hello hello hello!

We are currently in Kisumu, Kenya. We moved here several days ago, north from Homa Bay maybe 3 hours or so. We have successfully completed our first official week of interviews, and have completed our first video for the project. Problem is now finding internet good enough that will upload a 10 minute video. Hopefully we should have it up by tomorrow.

Last we wrote, on June 2 (Saturday) we had posted our intro video. We have been THRILLED by how many views we have been getting! We just wanted to thank everyone for their support. Because really, this project would have little use beyond our own personal journey if noone watched the videos. So thank you all for helping us complete our project! After we posted the video/blog we headed back to our hotel for the night. While on the way back we realized we hadn't eaten dinner yet. This keeps happening to us. But it's important we eat because we have to take our Malaria medication with a full stomach or else we can get sick... And if we just don't take the Malaria medication we also could just get sick... Thusly, dinner is important. So we picked up some mangoes and samosas and chowed down on the go.

June 3 (Sunday) we decided to sleep in. Basically everyone goes to church on Sunday in Homa Bay, so we had intended to take the day off. However when walking into town to get a bite to eat we met a ton of people. We have been finding that we often get the best interviews when we have no intention of getting any interviews. We also walked past a building that had "Magnate Theater Youth Center" painted on the side. We walked in and learned that it's a grassroots theater group that use skits and songs to encourage behavior change in their community. They invited us to come back later that day for rehearsal. Then we got food, and Cal had to use the ladies room. To spare you the details, it was not the best trip to the ladies room for Cal, but after we headed back to the theater. Upon arrival, the group of 20 or so members introduced themselves and basically did all sorts of group faciliation games, like we would do in Outdoor Ed, to make us comfortable and get to know each other. Yet one of the games involved long extended squatting positions, which, in light of Cal's recent bathroom experience, was not the best combination. It was do or die, and by the grace of God nothing bad happened. We told the group about our project, and they had a lot to say because they are more or less volunteers who do not receive much funding from any organizations. They do alot of great work- educating the community on HIV/AIDS, circumcision, tuberculosis, and conflict resolution. Ironically, they were one of the only programs in Homa Bay that seemed to be doing anything that related to peace-enhancement within the community, however foreign donors did not seem to be interested in funding their mission. The group took us into town and they put on one of their performances to give us an idea of what kind of work they do/how many people gather to watch. In Kenya there seems to be a trend where very very large crowds gather when something bad happens, and the large crowd attracts even more viewers-- Whether it's a bombing in Nairobi, or a car accident on the side of the road, we (and articles in the local newspaper) have noticed that people run to join. The Magnate Theater Group uses this trend to their advantage, and attracts people by singing loud songs. We noticed that people come running from far away, just because they see a group of people forming. Once the actors have a crowd, they begin their educational skit. Cal participated in the opening act. We are pretty sure the song she sang was about male circumcision, but it was difficult to tell because it was in the Luo language.

June 4 (Monday) we woke up very early (7 AM?) because we had people to see! We wanted to get down to the fish market early in the morning for when the fish selling began. The fishermen fish throughout the night, so as the sun comes up, the action picks up fast by the shores of Lake Victoria. This we did not want to miss. Upon arriving at the shore we immediately noticed large fish heads hanging from wooden fences in rows... This went on for maybe a mile. It was unlike anything we had every seen. A fishermen named Davis noticed that we were kind of confused, and gave us a run-down of everything. He informed us that there was an Israeli fishing company called "Capital Fish" that bought the big fish he (and other fishermen) caught (above 1 kg). The massive drying fish heads were then sold back to the local people, to grind up for chicken feed. Shocked, we decided to walk through the pathway of rotting fish carcases. I have never seen so many maggots in my life. After walking for at least 10 minutes through row after row of fish carcases, we arrived at an entire pathway covered by fish skins. Mind you, these fish carcases and skins are in the yards of Homa Bay residents. After walking for at least 10 minutes through the fish skins, we arrive at a massive, barbed wire-covered, concrete wall, with a factory pumping smoke behind it. Capital Fish. It did not seem to fit into Homa Bay. But Davis, and other fishermen spoke of it so positively- That the company gives them more money than they would have otherwise, that the company provides employment, etc. We just couldn't help think that it would be 1000% better if this were a Kenyan factory instead. Isn't it just a little messed up that the people living in Homa Bay can't eat the big fish they catch in their own Lake? That they have to buy it (and the carcases) back from the company? To say the least, what's going on at the shores of Homa Bay is not simple. Unfortunately the guard at the Israeli company would not let us in, so we couldn't get the other side's opinion.

After talking to several women who sell the fish, we headed up to the theater to get some one-on-one interviews with the group members. Long story short, most of the men only addressed Evan, most of the men only called Evan to be an "agent of change," and Cal was specifically told by the men to go talk amongst the women, that the discussions they were having on foreign aid was "men's talk." It was the first time that I (Cal) had experienced direct, outright, blatant, sexism, and I didn't know what to do. Despite my attempts throughout the two hours to stick up for myself, or be more opinionated, or to include the women in the group in the discussion, nothing was working. So I just left. I knew that the emotional explosion that was about to occur would not be constructive, so I walked away. I know there is sexism everywhere. I know that in the US women do not coincidentally earn less than men for every dollar. But at least by now in the US you can't say things like that without getting in trouble. Here, in Kenya, it's okay. Gender roles are more accepted and celebrated. One of the women in the group walked outside with me and I asked her if it frustrates her that she is never asked to speak. She said she that women like to let the men speak first and that it's okay. And these are young women! I was angry, and I still am. I have always known that sexism is bad- But I have never felt this sense of urgency like I did the other day. I don't think that's something I want to go away.

We bought a collection of ripped Owen Wilson DVD's on the street and watched a lot of Owen Wilson movies that night.

June 5 (Tuesday) we traveled from Homa Bay to Kisumu. Kisumu is one of the four largest cities in Kenya. It is about three hours north of Homa Bay. Before leaving, though, we got lunch. Evan ordered chicken. It was the toughest piece of chicken he had ever had in his life. No, but really. It made a noise against his fork. We jumped on a bus for 500 KSH (about $6) together, and sat there in the sun for 1 1/2 hours. But once we got going the ride was really enjoyable! We bought a pineapple for 50 KSH (80 cents?), saw Obama Rd., and saw a lot of rice fields. However we ended up getting into Kisumu at 6:00 PM, with only 1 hour until sundown to eat dinner and find a place to stay. The bus dropped us off in the middle of the city. We have all of our belongings with us. We ask for directions from three different people, who point us in three different directions. We eat dinner at a little restaurant, and are in such a rush that we leave our pineapple behind. It's now 6:45 PM, with only 15 minutes to sundown. We have made it to a hotel, but realize that we forgot our pineapple at the restaurant. Yes, we do go back. And the people in the restaurant laughed at us. We made it safely back to the hotel and did not get mugged. Cal made pineapple boats that night. Cheers!

June 6 (Wednesday) we stayed in the hotel to made the video from our Homa Bay footage. We didn't want to move onto Kisumu before we finished our last week's project. We made guacamole for lunch and it was divine. No, really, you do not understand.

June 7 (Thursday) we moved to a cheaper hotel because we thought we were paying way too much for the first place. The new hotel was called the "Sooper Guest House." This hotel had an open rooftop with some tables- Really nice. So we went up there to for, but of course, some cribbage. A guy named Chris approached us and taught us how to play a card game called AK47. Cal was the best at the game. Evan put in alot of great effort. (Which really means that we each got taken by Chris!) Like before in Homa Bay, we ended up getting one of the best interviews from Chris, while we had not intended to interview anyone that day. We then went out to get food, where we received (surprising and surprisingly good) Indian food. We went to an internet cafe, where Evan read three reviews on the Sooper Guest House stating it was dangerous and that all of their stuff was stolen from their locked rooms. Needless to say, we quickly hurried back to the Sooper Guest House.

That night Evan made Cal a home gym in the hotel room so that she could work out.

June 8 (Friday) we went back to the first hotel because our stuff felt safer there, and we have been finishing the video ever since... Cribbage, movies, mangoes, etc.Now we just have to figure out how to compress the video or find faster internet so that we can finish in a humanly time frame (as opposed to geological time?)!

I am nervous this is going to be erased if I do not post it, so until next time!

E&C

Ahoy-- Water Ahead!

calandevp4p — Sat, 2 Jun 2012 15:23:00 GMT

Hello friends and family and other loyal supporters!

Cal and Evan here with our first blog posting. We are currently in Homa Bay, Kenya, and saw the waters of Lake Victoria for the first time yesterday! It was very exciting, yet also kind of painful considering we could not touch the water and it was 90 degrees F. For those who don't know (i.e., Cal last year when she was here studying abroad... oops) Lake Victoria has parasites in its water, which can enter through mere contact with skin. So no swimming for Cal or Evan this summer. Regardless, to have seen the water is our first landmark in this summer's journey!

We landed in Nairobi on Monday night (May 28), got a taxi and made our way to Milimani Backpacker's hostel for the night. We woke up Tuesday (May 29) extremely late, extremely jet lagged, and extremely hungry, and made our way downtown Nairobi to figure out some logistics. Nairobi is neither Evan nor my favorite cup of tea (pun entirely intended, considering how much tea we drink here), with all of the crime, traffic, car accidents, and violence. Our time in Nairobi was made volumes better when we arrived at Cal's old host family's house, and had a DELICIOUS dinner, and shared alot of hugs, tears and laughs. For those who know the background story, according to Abby, Cal no longer looks like a boy cat... so cheers!

Wednesday (May 30) we made our first video/experimented with the equipment.Check out our first video here-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz-WilFokgs&feature=youtu.be . We also practiced our interview skills with some people around the hostel. Thursday (May 31) we woke up early and were out of the hostel by 7 AM. We hopped on a bus and arrived in Kisii by 4 PM that evening. We saw the coolest lightning/thunderstorm that night! Amazing. Instead of bolts of lightning every few minutes, it was consistent flashes for minutes on end. For dinner this night we ate mangoes and avocado. Yum!

Friday (June 1) we jumped on our first matatu of the summer to head west to Homa Bay, right on Lake Victoria. We found a great place to stay in Homa Bay that had a balcony, its own private stairwell, lots of air flow, cheap. But we soon discovered a hornets nest accompanied by... what do you know, hornets! So we kindly requested to change rooms. It was partially successful, considering we got another room. Although despite Evan's exquisite charades, we're pretty sure that the caretaker of the hostel thought we wanted to move because of mosquitoes. Oh well. Our second room also had hornets nest, but Cal made sure they were dead by slamming Evan's didgeridoo on them.

Today Saturday (June 2) we are writing this blog! And have played cribbage for maybe three hours. As soon as we get video one uploaded we hope to dive into our first series of interviews at the fish market. So until next time!

C&E