Wrapping up for the fourth week. {Julia & Annemieke}

Mariakani week 4: Wrapping up

Regular readers may remember from last week’s post that Julia got sick last weekend, and that we couldn’t go out during the weekend. Since we had postponed the trip to Gedi, we were super excited to go this weekend. Unfortunately, I got sick this time. I just had generic flu-like symptoms, so of course, I assumed the worst. I guess every traveler has to have a malaria scare at some point. After being tested, and being ensured it was not malaria, I just slept for most of the weekend. Not very exciting, but I enjoyed it. Poor Julia was stuck in Mariakani with nothing to do, however, so she was the one who was really inconvenienced. Everything is better now, although I still sound a bit like I smoke 3 packs a day. At least everyone in the office thinks it’s funny.

In the office, this week has been quiet. Julia and I have been working on our report, so we have been buried in our laptops for most of the week. It’s due on Friday, so it’s high time we get our skates on. The main problem has been finding a working download of SPSS. We just need it for a day, so that Julia, who actually knows statistics, can run all the necessary tests. While writing this, I am trying to download the two week trial version of SPSS for the third time. But as they say, third time’s the charm, so maybe we’ll get lucky. Then, afterwards, we get to write up what our results actually mean. Just looking at the raw data, it looks like the poster had a noticeable effect on the number of condoms taken from the dispensers, but I will let Julia confirm that with her statistics magic.

In our free time, we’ve been doing a lot of arts and crafts. We’ve been making bracelets out of fishing line and Julia is about to finish the paper craft deer. We discovered that the roof of the office is a beautiful place to sit and relax (and the Wi-Fi reaches up there. Bonus!), so we’ve been up there most evenings. We also went shopping, and now I have an assortment of lessos as gifts for my family and a super colorful dress. I’m not sure if our haggling was up to snuff, but we managed to reduce the price on everything by a little, so we felt pretty accomplished.

Tomorrow we are going to a community outreach, and then we are done with the internship. On Friday we need to finalize the report, and then we travel back to Nairobi. Then on Sunday, I fly back to the Netherlands, while Julia stays a few more days with a friend. It is strange to think we are almost done and that it is time to leave. When I arrived in Kenya two months ago, I did not expect time to pass so quickly. After a few days of getting into the rhythm, time started passing incredible quickly. Now, it feels as though we have been here for ages, yet it also still feels like we just got here. I will definitely miss the chapatti, colorful clothing, fruits (I think we singlehandedly supported the Mariakani mango industry over the past month), and of course all the people at MCDF with whom we have worked over the past month. However, I will not miss the mosquitoes. So I guess there are positives to leaving as well. That being said, I think Julia and I will never forget the magnificent experience we have had, or all the wonderful people we have come in contact with. Hopefully we will come back, but first, I have another year of university to look forward to.  

Third Week at Mariakani. (Julia & Annemieke)

            

Week three in Mariakani was off to a slow start. Both Julia and I had gotten sick over the weekend, probably due to something we ate. This was bound to happen at some point, as we’ve been eating everything that people suggest to us, which includes a lot of street food. While the physical aspects of being sick are no party, I was mainly upset that our weekend plans to go to the Gedi ruins had to be canceled. However unpleasant the consequences had been, I had recovered by Monday, but Julia was not yet at the top of her game. So the first few days were slow, mainly us sitting in the office and writing. One exciting moment was when we made the second poster for the nudging experiment; the one with well-known Mariakanians holding up condoms. We had been worried that it would be very difficult to find people who would be willing to do this, but Yieri made a few calls, and that evening, we were able to take the pictures. It was much easier than such an arrangement would have been at home. Shout out to Saumu and Said for helping us out!

           

Besides the experiment, we’ve also been continuing with the condom distribution. A few days ago, some commercial sex workers asked for condoms and training. We went to find them the next day, but unfortunately, we couldn’t find the same ones. So while we still distributed the condoms, there was no training.Maybe we will run into the sex workers again, so that we’ll actually be able to give them the information they desire.

            We are finally hitting our social stride in Mariakani. A local youth is teaching us to make biryani, we have been invited to church, and on Friday we are going out in Mombasa with the office staff. It’s nice to feel more included, and less like outsiders, especially to those we see every day. Besides that, we’ve been taking a lot of walks, both through the town and by the railway. It’s always nice to get outside and move a bit after sitting in the office.Also, on a positive note, we have our water back! Another small anecdote about becoming more accepted in the community relates to samosas. We happen to live next to a man who makes and sells samosas. So obviously, we’re probably eating more samosas than the Department of Health recommends. This week, I was buying some samosas, and did not have exact change. Unfortunately, the man also didn’t have change, so we were at an impasse. I was expecting to just go without the samosas.  However, he allowed me to take them because I could just pay him back the next day! Yay for gaining a bit of trust!

            Anyway, we still have one week of internship to look forward to, which includes some corporate social responsibility, and, of course, analyzing our data and discovering if our experiment had any results. Then it’s just some frantic report writing, and back to Europe. But let’s not think about that until the time comes.

  Training On Entrepreneurship week two at Mariakani, 

                  Kilifi District. Annemieke & Julia.

Week two in Mariakani started out quite slowly. After spending the weekend in Mombasa, swimming, chilling on the beach, searching for matatus and realizing that food costs the same as in Utrecht, we returned on Sunday evening ready to continue with the internship. 

Monday was predominantly occupied with planning for the following days. We spent ages on our laptops, while occasionally talking to people who wondered into the office. On Tuesday and Wednesday we were supposed to give a workshop on social entrepreneurship, which was a new topic for us. So Julia and I did a lot of research and prepared an interactive presentation for the youth of Mariakani. Just coincidentally, Obama had spoken about entrepreneurship a few days before during his visit to Kenya, so we were able to incorporate some of his speech into the workshop, which had the dual benefit of enriching the program while making us feel as though we were involved with a super hip and current topic. The presentation went well, at least according to the feedback we received, but it once again showed some cultural differences between the people of Mariakani and us. Only one person showed up on time! While this is not that unusual, I was super surprised when the rest arrived over an hour late. We are used to people being no more than 15 minutes late, and if you are, it definitely requires an apology. However, here, it didn’t seem to be a big deal. Luckily, by cutting out a few games, we still managed to fit the presentation in the required time. On Wednesday, it was raining, so no one showed up for the training. That was quite disappointing, but there’s nothing we could’ve done about it. Instead we went to visit a school to observe the meeting of a youth club. Which was really nice about the workshop days was that Esther came over from Nairobi, so we got to see her again. We also put up posters for the first nudge week in our experiment, and are excited to see if it has an effect.

With regards to life in Mariakani, everything is going smoothly. We are bonding with all the shop owners by the office, and are continuously meeting new people who chat with us and ask for our phone numbers. I am sure that in the past two weeks more people have asked for my number than in the rest of my life combined. Julia has it especially bad. She has a Smartphone, so countless people WhatsApp her or add her on Facebook. Since my phone was cutting-edge technology in the early 90s, I can call and, with great effort, text, which effectively cuts down on the amount of suitors who contact me. Another factor may be that Julia is just much more social, so she talks while I stand next to her and smile.

Two things happened which really set us apart as foreign. First, our water ran out, and we were very confused. Charles came to our rescue, and now we have water again! Secondly, Julia and I really wanted to eat some coconut. We bought one from next door, but had no idea how to open it. So the butcher used an ax to open it for us, and then three people helped to take the flesh out. I guess it takes a village to feed two wazungu. That being said, it was delicious.

It is strange to think that we are already halfway done with the internship, and that there are only two weeks left before we return home. So maybe Julia and I should start working on our report. At least, that would be the responsible thing to do….