May 2013
3 posts
Sleepy Sheepy
Zzz….
Have you heard? Nicole likes guys with beards.
I've officially been here too long
“Hey smell this.”
“Uh, what? Why?”
“Do you think my shirt smells a little mildewy? Smell it.” [sticks shirtsleeve under friends nose]
[smells shirt, makes confused face] “No, it smells fine. What are you talking about?”
“I dunno. I think it smells moldy. I don’t think the girl who cleans our house is doing the laundry right - a lot of...
April 2013
4 posts
Happy Easter
(When one can’t go to Uganda for a long weekend one might opt to spend Easter in Kitale. And in Kitale they have very odd tourist attractions.)
Are you always that brown, or are you just tan? ...
“Fahim! If you can get some days off at Easter we should use the long weekend to whitewater raft in Uganda, right!? We can just pop over the border. I can’t even stand it, this is going to be so much fun!”
“I can’t. They don’t give visas on arrival to Pakistanis. I’d have to come to Nairobi first and get a visa, and you know I can’t get the days...
Hold your breath and fill a market gap
About two weeks ago I got legal. No more temporary visas, no more special passes. All my immigration paperwork was processed and I was awarded a one-year work permit. Holler.
One of the side benefits of getting a work permit is that I can also apply for a resident card which will allow me to get discounts in all the National parks - this is quite exciting since my first proper visitors are...
March 2013
6 posts
“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit...”
– - Albert Einstein
WatchI was in India. On a road outside of Delhi. This happened next to us. This is real, documented by my own hand, with my own iPhone.
Watch.
And then giggle furiously.
Well, that’s what I do. I guess you don’t have to giggle furiously…you know, if you hate life or whatever.
(if the embedded vid doesn’t work - try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDtq4vMemzM)
To my horcruxes
It can be an ugly thing, you know? Missing people. Being acutely aware of the fact that the ones you love most are far away. You can think fondly of them. You can email them. You can even talk to them on the phone. But. They are just…so…far. You can’t touch them. You can’t hug them. You can’t watch as their laughter sneaks up and wrinkles the corner of their eyes. You can’t truly feel their...
We have to stop laughing, we have so much to do...
It’s late afternoon, it’s hot, we’re tired, and we’ve been locked in this conference room for hours. Everyone’s here: the IT team, our software vendor team, and occasionally when we successfully lure them into the room, our head of operations and head of finance. We’ve been here all day. Just like yesterday. And the day before. Just like we’ll be here tomorrow.
We work and debate and...
Yo.
You eat ribeye. I eat mango.
“Wait, so you ate a giant steak two nights in a row?” I ask my friend, who has been at a banking conference in the states. “Don’t you think that’s a bit much?”
“Well of course it’s a bit much. But you know how it is at these conferences. Everyone is trying to sell you so they woo you with fancy steak dinners.”
Meanwhile on that same day on other side of the world, my team is also trying to woo...
February 2013
6 posts
But if I never fail, how will I get stronger?
When 150 pounds of barbell and shiny metal plates crash onto a metal cage, it’s really loud. Even when they only have 8 inches to fall. It’s loud enough that the people on the elliptical look at you in disgust. And loud enough that the local “trainers” (whose job is ostensibly to help people get fitter but whose actual job seems to be to chit chat with one another while occasionally doing their...
Hustle and flow
His name is Josiah and he is a hustler.
I first met Josiah a few weeks ago, when he proudly showed off his farm to us. With help from Juhudi loans he runs a thriving dairy farm selling milk to the local market, using tea revenues to fund his children’s school fees, and giving us a new definition of “green” by powering his home completely with biogas made from cow dung and a...
Gifts of wisdom and bananas →
Last week I had the chance to accompany Acumen CEO Jacqueline Novogratz and three of our East Africa portfolio managers into the field to meet with customers who are using three products provided by companies that Acumen works with: clean cookstoves, d.Light solar lanterns, and of course, Juhudi’s very own asset-financing loans.
We met lively and energetic men and women all either currently...
“No, this trick won’t work…How on earth are you ever going to explain...”
– - Albert Einstein
“We're going to have to take the cow.”
Remember that time when I wrote that blog about how sometimes working at Juhudi isn’t really much different than working in the US but sometimes it’s really quite different? Silly Nicole. I should have waited a day before posting.
The day after I posted that blog we were headed to our branch in Nyamira to conduct refresher training for Salesforce.com, which the loan officers are using to track...
Hey boo.
January 2013
12 posts
“Wasn’t she saying that she only took photos of livestock?”
“Seriously? Do I look like I’d be caught dead on a farm? Someone should tell her we share over 98% of our genes.”
Everything has chains, absolutely nothing's...
I swear, sometimes when I’m working here I feel like I’ve never left banking and consulting in the US:
Sitting in our board room in Nairobi we review Key Performance Indicators for each department’s annual strategic objectives. They must all align and cascade in order for us to double the business this year. Most of these meetings begin with review of a power point deck.
Four hours West of...
Twin Sheep
They seemed bothered that I had interrupted them; they seemed worried I would separate them.
Posting for no other reason other than Josiah’s daughters are completely adorable…
Josiah Gichobi, one of our borrowers from Sagana, explains his farming business to 16 Acumen partners last Thursday. Leveraging loans from Juhudi he’s grown his farm to be one of the largest in the area - 8 acres of tea (employing 20 pickers during harvest), a fish pond, dairy farm, chicken coops, and smaller crop holdings for household consumption. Oh, and he used one of his loans to...
Reblog from my Kenya-based Fellow-in-Crime →
I meant to share this when I first read it a month ago…initial impressions and reflections from my buddy Fahim, who is in Kenya but still very far away. A very bumpy 6-hour crammed in the back of a matatu inhaling diesel fumes drive kind of far away. He’s based in Kitale, where Juhudi actually has a branch, so I hope to make it out to visit both the branch and my boy Fahim in the next...
Friction
Some of my fellow fellows are having a rough go of it.
One came down with malaria and was sidelined for a week.
One is dealing with a lunatic landlord who is trying to take advantage of the fact that she is a foreigner and is essentially forcing her out of the apartment.
And one got kicked out of the country because the immigration office refused to approve her visa. She was packed and ready...
My brain is weaker than my body
A thirty minute Kiswahili lesson is far and away more exhausting than thirty minutes of Murph.
A Lighter Shade of Pale
Of all the random questions I get about America or being a mzungu, my favorite questions are about the logistics of being white. These are questions I feel very confident answering, as I feel that over the past thirtysome years I’ve earned the right to speak on behalf of pale Americans of European descent.
Before the holidays I held a workshop on skin and hair.
“So is this what you call a...
Not so different from Capital One
While working at Capital One I visited branches. While working at Juhudi Kilimo I visit branches. OK, OK. Maybe they are slightly different in terms of setting, methodology, and target customer… but they all struggle with acquiring and keeping new clients, managing huge amounts of sensitive data, and general operating efficiency. So. Basically the same. :)
Before the holidays I spent some...
on purpose
Love this post from my girl Shahd…
“I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too. ” - Hugo
I was gone for a minute, now I'm back
Dear internet,
The holidays have come and gone in Nairobi and points West and it was a busy but crazy fun time. I will spare the details because they are sure to provoke insane jealousy but instead will send you just a few highlights:
We kicked off celebrations with the Juhudi holiday party which included a feast of roasty goat and chicken and a secret santa exchange. Hilarious.
Nairobi clears...
December 2012
14 posts
Because we all share. Always.
I’ve been in the field with a few of our loan officers for the past few days, visiting groups of farmers who have taken, or intend to take, loans from Juhudi. The days are long and we almost never have time to fit in lunch. And yet I don’t go hungry.
At nearly every farm we visit the farmer gives us something from his bounty before we leave. I’ve eaten plums, avocados, stalks of...
Reluctant Ambassador
Since it’s been a little while since I traveled or worked in Africa, I had forgotten that when you are one foreigner among many locals, you become the go-to expert on all things in your home country. So as one of only two full-time mzungus working at Juhudi, I often find myself speaking on behalf of America. You know, as a single representative of the entire country.
The questions I get run the...
"Do all people in America own guns?"
It was last Thursday, the day before the tragedy at Sandy Hook. And on that day, one of my Kenyan colleagues asked me, “Do all people in America own guns?”
At the time I explained it away: No, most Americans don’t own guns. Most of the people who do own guns use them to hunt. Some people do have small guns that they keep in their homes to protect themselves. And the police have...
The contagion of bravery
“Two of my brothers died of AIDS,” he starts, “so I’ve always been very careful. Since then I’ve never taken a girl to bed without protection.”
I’m sitting in a conference room in a beautiful safari lodge at Lake Baringa. I’m surrounded by my colleagues, all 60 of them, and we’re just starting our annual staff retreat with a session on health. We’ve just had visiting doctors and nurses from Penda...
I know I promised MooCows, but how about Mbuzi?
Dear internets,
I love pictures of livestock. I always have. And now I work for a company that finances assets for farmers. That’s all we do. Just farmers. You know what that means?
Mad livestock pictures.
I realize I might be the only person in the world who can’t get enough pictures of goats, cows and chickens. It’s possible that I am slightly quirky…and it’s...
Weekend Roundup
This weekend was filled to the brim with awesomeness. Quick list, pictures coming soon (I swear, for someone who has an advanced degree in IT you’d think I could figure out how to manage between my phone, my iPad and my laptop. Instead I often stare dumbly at whatever device is in front of me, muttering terrible but creative combinations of curse words, hoping said device will yield to my...
The wisdom to know the difference
If you let it, Nairobi traffic will destroy your soul.
Traffic here is notoriously bad at baseline: the roads are crap, there are 3 million people crammed into 400 square miles, all of them need to get to work in the morning, and traffic laws are more like suggestions. While it’s true that New York has more people/mile, New York also has the subway.
We’ve got matatus.
And for the last week...
An American Tradition
Once upon a time I was coming home from a movie and I was chatting with John, one of my taxi drivers. He is the night driver so often has to pick people up from the airport. That’s where he was headed after my drop-off, to pick up an American who was arriving at 1am.
As I am filling out my receipt, I notice some bottle (“of alcohol?” I think, a bit confused) rattling around in the glovebox. He...
Better in Nairobi
Dear internets,
While I am still squarely in honeymoon phase, let me try to periodically list some of the things that are most assuredly better in Nairobi than in Richmond. And it’s probably safe to extrapolate and say these things are just generally better in Kenya than in the US. Here’s my first roundup.
1. Eggs. Oh my heavens are the eggs here soooo much better than in the US....
November 2012
7 posts
When a Ranger Falls in Love
I’ve been thinking a lot about commitment in the past few weeks. How easy it is to stay committed to a cause, a job, a set of responsibilities, or a love when things go your way and the boat’s not really rocking. And how hard it is to stay committed to something when the alternative - walking away and giving up - would be so much easier.
Let’s go back to my first weekend in...
Everyday barriers →
Acumen asked us to blog about some of our experiences during the 2 months of training we got in NYC. One of the days they took away all our belongings (cash, phone, you name it), gave us $5 bucks and told us to go out and experience life through the eyes of the poor for a day. This is the post I wrote about that day, which appeared on the AF blog.
Click the title to get sent over to the AF blog.
"Corruption Is Evil"
Maybe I’m just unlucky.
Nat, my CEO and new boss, tells me that in his four years living in Nairobi he’s never had a run of shakedowns like I’ve experienced in the past week. Here’s the count.
1. Friday night. Nat and his girlfriend and I are on our way back home in a taxi. We get stopped by police in my neighborhood and get harassed for almost a half hour. Why aren’t we wearing seatbelts? (We...
Thick skin and a joyful heart
This weekend I had the opportunity to join Acumen Fund’s East Africa Fellows selection conference as an evaluator. It was an incredibly long day and as someone who recently went through this interview process, my heart went out to the 48 individuals who were vying for one of only 20 spots in the program. Acumen interviews are no joke - between the case studies, the crazy hypothetical group...
