Kenya Part 3: Train to Mombasa

Awesome, the train was awesome. We traveled second class so that we could have a sleeper cabin to ourselves. We paid for an invisible adult so that we didn’t get stuck with a crazy random 4^th person in our cabin, but that kind of happened anyway. When we got back from diner there was a random lady in our cabin who was confused as to which cabin was hers . . . it was a bit sketch because she had been kind of snooping around earlier, but she didn’t steal anything. The food was only ok, but we enjoyed it because we were on a train and we were on our way to Mombasa! Here are some pictures from the train (either the way there or back, not sure which are which).

On the train looking out the windo, kate being creepy . . . because Elizabeth told her to . . . Av couldn't make but he was there in spirit and kate used mascara to make a stash and soul patch on herself so he was kind of there for real.

Elizabeth and I getting ready to go!

Huge mound of butter at the dinner table . . . ok not butter but a sad excuse for margarine.

I'm not sure where we are at this point, maybe on the train, or maybe on the boat in Mombasa. Anyway, this is Elizabeth and me.

Sleeping on the train. It really was comfortable!

Kenya Part 2: Nairobi, Day 1

We arrived in Nairobi early Friday morning. Luckily we had a friend who knew a taxi driver that we could hire for the day, but unfortunately that taxi driver was busy, but he sent his brother to pick us up, so that worked out well. We went to the national museum which was really great! Then we decided that we would try to hit some art galleries and possibly the giraffe sanctuary. The giraffes and an art gallery are about 20 minutes outside of town, so we decided that we would head out that way. On the way out there, we ran out of gas (or at least that is what we thought happened) and had to push the car in the 90 degree heat (which meant that touching the car was like touching a stove burner). Then, we finally gave up and walked down to the nearest restaurant/pub for lunch which had no food really (the menu was verbal and consisted of goat, chicken, or beef . . . the picture below pretty much perfectly captures how I felt that this moment sitting in this pub).

After sitting there for about 5 minutes, our driver pulls up in the car which has been miraculously healed (that is the car behind me with Kate talking to the driver). I have no idea to this day what was exactly wrong with the car or how he fixed it (bad Nairobi taxi experience number 1). Then we decided that we would just go back to town so we didn’t miss the train to Mombasa.

Before going to the train station we needed to find dinner, so we looked at our trust Lonely Planet guidebook which only had like 2 recommendations for the entire city (good job lonely planet; lame). It took us forever to find the place to eat, our driver drove around in the same block about 50 times until we actually found the place (bad Nairobi taxi experience number 2). We were starving but when we got there the restaurant was closed even though the sign said it should have been open. So, we walked to the next closest place which was called Berber’s . . . we walked in, sat down, and ordered some food which was good enough but not great. The service was good compared to Ugandan customer service (but then again begin shot in the face is sometimes better than customer service in Uganda, ok maybe that is a bit harsh; sorry Uganda, but your customer service leaves one wanting). Then toward the end of our meal, the waitress came and said thanks to us for coming into the restaurant and that they appreciate people like us (white) coming in. We were possibly the first white people to ever come in to that restaurant. She then “congratulated” us which was awesome. We officially loved Berber’s!

We then got to the train station without incident in time for our over night train ride!

Kenya Part 1: Planning, what?

Last weekend, I and some friends went to Kenya for a long weekend (it was International Women’s Day; Happy late Women’s Day everyone one!). We decided on Thursday that we would leave on Friday, the next day. It was probably the most spontaneous thing I have ever done in my life. Thursday morning, at about 10 am, Elizabeth sent out an email to Kate, Avner, and me suggesting we go to Kenya, and by 2 pm we had purchased plane tickets. Thus began the coolest vacation ever.

Wow, its been a long time with no posts

It's been months and much has happened. I will give a quite update on a few things and then hopefully post something more detailed later.

Life moves on here in Uganda. Things at my office are tough because the organization still doesn't have funds so the project is on hold at the moment. However, my bosses in the states have gotten me involved in a few other related projects that are, I think, pretty exciting. One is testing how the scorecard impacts voters' opinions of their MPs (members of parliament). We have data from a survey experiment that we are using to analyze this relationship. In some (randomly selected) surveys, people were asked their opinion of their MP and then shown the scorecard for their MP and then asked again, while others were asked without seeing the scorecard. We want to see if the scorecard (given performance of your MP: high, low, or moderate) changes one's opinion of the MP in question.

The second project is trying to identify policy positions of each of Uganda's MPs. There is literature out there that says African politicians don't have policy positions (patronage and clientelism play a larger role than actual policy). We are trying to do this as objectively as possible. Therefore, we are using what each MP says in Parliamentary sessions to form their policy positions. We have a program that counts the words used by each MP and then we will compare this to "reference texts" in order to see how that MP's language compares to the benchmarks. Maybe and example will help: if we are trying to find how pro government of pro oppposition an MP is, we will use the government and opposition leaders contributions in parliament as the reference texts and compare the word frequencies to see where on the spectrum that MP sits. This is pretty cool because it take the human bias out of it without being meaningless; usually things like this are done by people evaluating speaches etc but if you are evaluating a speach and know which party the person belongs to, then you are already biased to put them more on that side of the scale. This program simply treats the text as data. One other scale we are going to try to do, which i think is really interesting given current Uganda politics is pro or anti homosexuality: there is a current bill up for debate called the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009. And it is a disaster and I feel is a violation of Homosexuals' human rights (for more reading on that see my friend Avner's blog: avnerabroad.blogspot.com; I would rather you read his blog than for me to write a post about it, I would just repeat him anway). It would be pretty exciting if we can develop these and other policy position scores and would give great incite into Ugandan politics!

MVP

I am currently working with the Millennium Villages Project in Ruhiira Uganda. This is part of the UNDP and partners with the Earth Institute at Columbia University. From what I understand, MVP is headed by none other than Professor Jeffery Sachs (From Columbia University if I am not mistaken). For those of you who have not read his book “The End of Poverty” and William Easterly’s book “White Man’s Burden” let me give you a quick synopsis so that this post makes sense.

Both books argue for their respective approaches to international development. If I was to summarize the argument of Sachs’ book into one phrase it would be “more money”. His main argument is that the west is not giving enough money in aid to developing countries and that if we would just give more money, then we could end poverty. A phrase summary of Easterly’s book would be “reevaluate our approach”. He argues against Sachs (his book is a rebuttal of Sachs) and says that the west has given billions upon billions of dollars and not much has been accomplished. He says we need to reevaluate our approach and try to figure out how to spend aid money better rather than just spend more of it. I side with Easterly.

Now, MVP and Sachs do a lot of good. It does spend a lot of money, and I can see the benefits of it here in this village of Ruhiira. The people told me that before MVP came, there were no roads, now there are roads connecting all the villages in the MVP area (the MVP area is actually a number of villages but Ruhiira is the main village in the area). MVP has built a health clinic, provides an ambulance, sponsors a micro credit organization, and has employed people in its offices, the health clinic, as researchers, etc to just name a few. It is also helping the people save money and the environment through distribution of stoves that use less wood and emit less smoke. MVP is doing this in villages throughout the world which is quite miraculous. So, I guess more money and a systematic plan can help development; however, what happens when MVP pulls out? This is where I have a problem with Sachs’ approach.

Yes, MVP is doing a great work here and improving people’s lives. People have especially raved about the ambulance and the stoves (and they have to purchase the stoves, we are not giving them out for free). However, if I understand right, I think MVP was originally supposed to pull out in 2011, but the head office in NY just approved for them to remain until 2015 or 2016 (I can’t remember exactly). The problem: who can take over and continue the project. The idea is that the government will take over, but that is not likely. The government is riddled with corruption and does not have the funds to continue this project. One example of the unlikelihood of the government taking over and running it well is the following: MVP has tried to help the government get its ambulance working again (in addition to the one that MVP has provided). The government ambulance has not been working because it got a flat tire, so MVP stepped in and fixed it. Is the ambulance in use now? No. Why? The government has to send someone out to inspect it to make sure its running properly before they allow it to go out and work. That’s fine, but they say it has to be someone from Kampala (not Mbarara, even though I am sure they could find someone in the local government that could do this task). It has been months and they haven’t sent anyone even though MVP keeps nagging them. So, the government did not even have to FIX the ambulance; they only had to INSPECT it, but they can’t even do this. So, the government does not seem to think that an additional ambulance is much of a priority nor can it organize to send someone out here (one would think the MP from this constituency would lobby for this but either this had not happened or it hasn’t been successful), so why would they be willing and organized enough to take over this extremely involved project? I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but I just can’t see the Ugandan government taking over on this one. This is extremely unfortunate because it does do a lot of good.

Gender

Some of my friends back in Provo, Utah say that I am a black woman because of my stance on many gender and race issue, and this post will probably only confirm this perception.

So my coworkers Gaby (Venezuelan), Jacob (that is not his real name, but he is Ugandan), and I were having lunch and Jacob brings up the subject of gender because he knows that Gaby is a feminist (and he soon learned that I am too).

He begins by telling me that I should marry an African girl because they're "better" and Gaby wanted to know why they're better. After probing him a bit, it came down to this: he thinks African women are better because, unlike muzungu (white) women, they don't want more rights, they are submissive, and they know their place. He didn't say it in so many words but that was the gist.

He then went on to explain that the reason divorce is so common in the west is because women have rights and they can divorce for no reason at all. So, we asked him what he wants for his daughter (who just had her first birthday): Is she got married and then her husband began to abuse her, does he 1) want her to get divorced because her husband beats her and she hates her life, so then she can be happy and take control of her own life OR does he 2) want her to be married to this man for the rest of her life just because divorce is bad. He said that abuse to an extent is tolerable. I then asked, where he draws the line, and he couldn't answer. I was shocked that a dad would even say that he tolerates abuse to an extent because my dad told my sisters’ future husbands that if they abused his daughters in any way he would kill them (I imagine his exact words would have been “. . . I will rip your head of and shit down the hole!”). I understand and know that people feel this way, but for someone I know and work with, that is educated to say these things so bluntly too me by surprise.

He also mentioned a recent case in the ugandan news were a woman killed a man and she admits she did it, but that it was in self defense because he was trying to rape her. Jacob complained that the "feminist" groups came out and supported her without waiting to see if her story was true, but he says that she needs to be held responsible because we don't know (and can't know) if he really did. I agree that she needs to be tried, but on the premise of innocent until proven guilty (which I believe the Ugandan judicial system works on), and not the other way round! He was annoyed with the feminists coming so quickly to her aid but he was going so quickly to the man's aid: was he not doing the exact same thing as them? Also, given the ridiculously high rate of rape here, her story is very likely to be true.

In short, I think women’s education and empowerment are important for the well being for women, children and men. If half of a society is not allotted the same rights and opportunities, then you can be sure that country will not be able to progress and develop. Not to mention that because women are second class citizens in many countries their quality of life is as such.

Living in Ruhiira

As mentioned before, I am currently working in Mbarara which is a small town which is just a bit bigger than Idaho Falls; Mbarara has about 70,000 people in it but it is really spread out. The main office is in Mbarara, but I am conducting a survey in the nearby (about 45 minute drive away) village of Ruhiira. The field office in Ruhiira has about a dozezn rooms behind it for people to stay in, so I have spent a few nights there (no electricity and it gets dark at 7 pm, so not a whole lot to do at night) and I love it there!

The country side is beautiful! It is beautiful rolling green hills with banana plantations in every valley! Here are some pictures:

This is the road to the "restaurant" called FangFang (I know, Chinese name, but it is not Chinese at all!). On the right, you can see the health clinic built by the Millennium Village Project (MVP). Look at the beautiful rolling hils!!!


This is Ruhiira central. You can see the bodas (motorcycle taxis) under the tree. That is the boad stage as they call it. Then on the left, there is a house that is actually another "restuarant" and then next to that house, the taller building is the MVP office.


House amongst the banana trees. This place is covered in banana plantations!

Besides the beauty, it is really relaxing. The people are chill and you just go with the flow. If you are late, no worries, people understand. There is room to breath and think out there! It is such a relief from the crazy go go go of life! Everyone is really kind and the people that work in the office and the enumerators I have been training this past week are really cool! Genuinely kind and considerate people. Not that the people in the cities are not, but there is just something about being in the country!

Also: awesome food! All the fruits and veggies are as fresh as can be: I have had the best bananas, tomatoes, and avocadoes in my life in the past week! And it is dirt cheap! I can eat a whole meal for 800 Ugandan Shillings at the local restaurant which is like $0.42! Of course it is beans and matooke (which is a certain variety of not-sweet- banana that is boiled and mashed into a really heavy mound of yellow on your plate) but I love it! I really do. The matooke here is so fresh!