The second half of last week turned out to be fairly productive and confidence-boosting. After slightly freaking out about the volunteer report form I had to fill out where I felt like I had nothing to fill out, I decided to hit the pavement- hard. Since coming back from training in Nairobi,I had a series of different visitors and officials to plan for and semi-entertain so I hadn't really had much time to find work. On Thursday,I called Sachiko and Moses to see if they knew of any groups I could work with. Sachiko said she was a little bored so I invited her over for dinner. My family loves having guests and they welcomed her, which I really appreciated because I don't really have the space in my shack to play hostess. She ended up staying the night and then we were greeted in the morning by Nia's son, Giles, making crepes! They were delicious :-) and a great way to start out a Friday.
After a great breakfast, I said good bye to Giles and Nia, who were heading back Friday evening and set out to meet some of the women in Rotian. There was a plough contest sponsored by the Ministries of Livestock and Agriculture. I had been told that they would also be exhibiting some goats so I invited the women so they could see some dairy goats but, alas, no animals were there. Except the donkeys pulling ploughs. I felt bad that I dragged the women to town and away from their jobs and didn't even have what was promised so I tried to make the best of it and snagged one of the livestock officers to answer their questions. They also got some pointers from the agriculture officer about how to make farming a business. I pounced on this opportunity and told him that I was a business advisor working in town for the next two years and I would looooove to advise some farmers on agri-business. We set up a meeting for next week, so hopefully I will get some more people to work with out of it.
On the way back into town with the women, I ran into Moses and he wanted to hang out for awhile. Usually I wouldn't have minded but I was filthy. The farm where the exhibition was was dusty and Narok itself is pretty dusty on a normal day. That day was windy and I literally had a layer of dirt/dust on my skin. Luckily I was wearing brown (and I am brown) so I didn't look too terrible but I just wanted to go home and take a bath. I'm glad I stuck around though because he took me to a friends house so I got to meet more people and also took me to see a legit business woman. She has a tailoring shop tucked away in town that I would have never found on my own and she works with many women's groups and women entrepreneurs. I also set up a meeting with her for next week. Moses also asked me to teach a computer class beginning next Monday, to which I happily agreed. It will be working with youth so I'll be able to meet some new faces and maybe start working on some youth enterprises. All in all a good day! Hopefully some of these can turn into actual working projects and I can get some sort of schedule established. Just in time for the holiday season when everyone will be doing their own thing anyway :-)
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