Tuesday, 12 April

I learn fast

Yay, it’s another day, and yet another unpredictable one.  I tell myself I’m fast adapting.  I have my workplan for the week – half my brain tells me to throw it out, the other half is patiently ticking off completed activities and rescheduling incomplete ones.  I think it’s better to have a plan, than not to have one, so I’ll stick with it ... hopefully.  

I make it in for 8 this morning.  I do some reading as I’m still familiarising myself with the organisation's work.  I also delegate work on a promotional leaflet for one of its services to the other two volunteers, Eli and Eyrun.  It has no promotional leaflets or brochures.  Julie says there is a very old brochure available but it is totally out of date and not worth using.  All marketing and publicity of the organisation is done by word of mouth, or at least has been done this way for a long time now.  I think some basic in-house leaflets and promo materials should do, and by in-house I mean a black and white print out on normal paper at a cheap local printer as the office printer has run out of ink and there is no money to replace it.  

(A day later Julie asks Eyrun and Eli to manually write out the content of the promo leaflet on to one side of a flipchart to be put up on the wall outside the office so passersby can see it.  It is written on a plain flipchart.  I’m concerned that it is flimsy and will be a ‘waste of writing time and paper’ should it rain.  I ask if we could possibly laminate it?  I am told that in Kibera laminated posters for display in the community are most likely to be nicked by the locals either to be used as decoration inside their mud houses, or to stop leakage from the ceiling or the walls!  I find this piece of information insightful and utterly hilarious – now this is what I call a lesson in development work!)

After two hours in the office organising my plan for the day, and delegating work, I spend the rest of the day working on my laptop at the food court close by where there is  free wi fi access.  Ah it’s so good to have uninterrupted internet access for a few hours.  I get some work out of the day, including prepping myself to facilitate a workshop on Friday morning.  The staff have asked to work together on a monthly workplan to give them short term objectives to focus on.  This is also part of my plan to introduce some organisational development.  Eli, Eyrun and Fiona, an intern, join me for lunch and show me how far they have got with the promo material.  It’s looking good.  I’m not sure the content is quite there yet, but the idea is good and we have decided to turn it into a flyer as it suits the purpose more.  The flyer is to promote the organisation as a reporting centre for vulnerable children, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), and women to report cases.  We are using basic publisher.  Eli and Eyrun will work on it further and we should have something to show Julie tomorrow.  Fiona will be working on filing and other administrative tasks.

I’m not sure where the afternoon has gone.  It was good to spend some time with the girls.  They are not happy with a couple of things at work. We discuss this, and I make a mental note to find a way of addressing this.  

Eyrun and I leave together, while Fiona and Eli leave to get the bus and the matatu respectively. Eyrun walks me round Ngong Road to Posta, where the local post office is and then back round to the route we normally walk to work.   She’s such a lovely and lively girl.  She’s a mature 19 year old from Iceland.  She tells me how to get into town and back, which buses to use, where to buy things at cheap prices, and to avoid Muzungu prices, ie prices that are hiked up to get more money from Muzungus as they are all supposedly rich.  Well, I remind her that I am told I look like a Luo.  Luos are an ethnic group in Kenya, with a history of having travelled from Nigeria, Ghana and the Sudan. Maybe if I do not speak, I can pass as a Luo, unnoticed and therefore evade Muzungu prices.