I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this or not, but I wanted to take the time to write an entry about our last week in Kenya (despite being horribly late in doing so). As I'm sure most of you know, our website was actually disabled by Google for a short period of time for a still-unknown reason, and that led to the lack of consistent updates during the last week.
 
As Matt indicated in his last post, we took some time before the final week to get on the same page with exactly what had been accomplished so far and what needed to be done the rest of the way. With that under our belts, it was time for us to each get to work in documenting the scenarios that we had validated. With these on paper, it would be easier to see where gaps still existed and therefore know who to spend our last few days with and what questions to ask.
 
While Matt was working on some of this documentation on his end, I travelled to the Outspan Hospital Clinic in the heart of Nyeri town with some members of the Mashavu team. There I had the chance to ask a lot of people in line what motivated them to come out and also try to get a good idea from administrators how they set up such an event and how they got such active participation from the community. For next year's WishVast team, that information will be helpful as we hope to pilot the system with some groups of people in the area. I noted the effectiveness of radio advertising and also the effectiveness of just doing something interesting because many people tend to be attracted to new things that are going on and will take the time to check them out. Another observation I made at this clinic was the problem of glue with street children. We saw far too many kids who were just beyond high sniffing glue, and this is a very serious not to mention very sad problem. It's hard for us to picture 5-year-olds on the streets sniffing glue, but the problem is indeed very real in Kenya. We would want to help the kids out and perhaps want to even offer them money, but if they would just be spending it on glue so the situation is very difficult. Hopefully the government and NGO's and smart people like the staff at CYEC will continue to brainstorm ways to combat the problem.
 
As far as project work, Matt and I then compared notes on where we were, and decided that the top scenarios we had were the ones regarding employment, access to capital, and macadamia nuts. So, we split up and each took to the town indpendently to talk to more people. Matt went with Andrew to talk to Microfinance Institutions, and I went to talk to more employment bureaus. The people I talked to were very friendly and more than willing to share with me how exactly they do business. One of the managers of one of the bureaus also offered to set up a focus group with some prospective employees. This focus group was very successful, as we got our whole team together and sat down with four people who were in various stages of looking for jobs. Based on this session, I was able to fill in basically every gap in the employment scenario and am now confident we have a very glaring value proposition for WishVast in this scenario, not to mention the other scenarios. I also wrote-up a new narrative to help on-board next year's students quicker. I hope that at some point in the revision process I will be able to post a sizable portion of this write-up here. Ideally, it will serve as a sizeable piece of the Carter paper we have to write thanks to the grant and also for an eventual NCIIA proposal.
 
The day after this meeting, it was time for a return to Nairobi with the Mashavu team to talk to the venture capital firm Acumen Fund and MFI Jamii Bora (their motto is, "any family, however poor or hopeless, is capable of getting themselves out of poverty"). From a WishVast perspective, these meetings were both extremely beneficial and very interesting. We got a lot of positive feedback about our ideas and also about how we would go about getting the necessary start-up funds for implementation. The night was topped off by a visit to the tourist trap restaurant Carnivore. Despite being a tourist trap, the place was still awesome! They serve delicious meat roasted on a sword, including not only meats such as beef, chicken, and lamb, but also ostrich and crocodile. The traffic in Nairobi was a bit crazy that evening, and while certainly not as bad, the fumes and the congestion reminded me of the crazy traffic I experienced last summer in India.
 
Upon our return to Nyeri, it was back on the road again to Endarasha for another Mashavu clinic. The ride there was absolutely gorgeous as we travelled up the mountainside and saw the beautiful homes and landscape on the valleys and hillsides on either side of the "road." Road is in quotes because this may have been the most treacherous of the trip with all the potholes and uneven earth beneath us. When we returned to the U.S. last week, one of the first things I noticed was the smoothness in the ride on the road because it was such a stark contrast!
 
After our day at Endarasha, it was time to think about wrapping up the projects. We had a meeting scheduled with a charcoal broker, but that turned out to be a more challenging than expected prospect. Matt and I went into town to meet him, and while sitting at a restaurant received a phone call from the broker. I answered the call, but understood exactly zero words that he said. Having a conversation on the phone between people who do not speak the same language was quite an interesting experience. Thankfully our meeting with the macadamia nut brokers went quite a bit better. These two gentlemen were very forthcoming with information about the way they do business, and it was very helpful for us in filling in the gaps. By shedding light onto how many hops there really are in the supply chain from the farmers to the customers, we can understand a lot of ways where WishVast can help. We also learned a lot about grades of nuts, what they are used for, and also logistics coordination in general. These guys blow through cellphone credits like nobody's business, and WishVast could save a lot of that.
 
One of my most interesting experiences of the trip then happened on the final Sunday we were in Kenya. I decided that I really wanted to experience going to church, and I was actually invited by Miriam (one of the women working at an employment bureau) to go to her Presbyterian church, so of course I obliged. Katie Workinger from the Mashavu team wanted to go too, so we ventured out together. This turned out to be a day-long exhibition. I got up early Sunday morning to get a mutatu into town to meet Miriam, and was promptly greeted by her friend who drove me to where Miriam lived. We arrived there, and were then invited inside to have tea with her and her son Arnold. There apparently was no rush to get to church on time (why were we surprised? Kenyan time was infamous by now...). We enjoyed the tea and a short conversation about how we'd been enjoying our time in Kenya, then started the walk to church. We arrived just in time to see the last minute of the English service. Instead of leaving then, we decided that despite the fact we wouldn't be able to understand a word, we'd stay for the Kikuyu service. In retrospect, maybe this was a bad decision. Three hours later, we were very hungry, very late to lunch, and had to excuse ourselves from a service that had no end in sight. I'm actually very glad that I went and do not regret the decision at all, but a 3+ hour service in a language I don't speak was very rough. The highlight of the service had to be when they made all the men go up front to sing a song and I was pushed up front to join them. People were taking pictures of me as I was sounding out the words in Kikuyu. I didn't understand a word of the entire service, but there was no doubt it was still a religious experience.
 
Monday was our last full day, and was full of meetings and getting things wrapped up. Tuesday morning was another morning of meetings before our departure to Nairobi and the airport. One final thing that had to be picked up Tuesday morning was my "Francis hat." One of the children at CYEC named Francis always sported a popular knit hat that covers his head, his cheeks, and his chin. While walking around the market in Nyeri, James, Mike, and Mike saw a shop where they make these hats, and had hats custom made to fit their adult-sized heads. While these hats are typically only made for children, they would look excellent in Blue and White for a Penn State Football game, and once I saw the finished product, I had to have one as well. Pictures to come!
 
So, after picking up the hat, it meant a quick packing job and then into the mutatus to the airport. I actually got a lot of work done on the LONG flights in preparing some documents for next year's team, compiling a whole slew of recommendations, and thoroughly writing out everything we had accomplished. This had been a three-week experience like few other three-week spans in my life, and I will always think highly of my time in Kenya. If I had even more time and money, I think we could truly make a big difference in a lot of lives, so I wish the very best of luck to future students who travel on any projects. We made a lot of wonderful contacts and I hope to encounter a lot of these people at some point in my future. Not only were the Kenyans wonderful hosts, but I enjoyed getting to know the other students, and it made for an amazing trip. If nothing else, it continued to reinforce my love and passion for international project work and actually getting to do something that directly impacts people's lives. I hope to be able to do more work like this in the years to come!
 
P.S. Get what song I heard on the radio in the car on the way to CYEC the other day? http://www.geico.com/public/audio/somebodyswatchingme.mp3
  
P.P.S. Check out http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/Page.aspx?pid=3502 where our $4,000 grant was announced! Thank you to everyone who has shown confidence in our ideas and our hard work! While I hope to be as involved as possible in the future of WishVast, I have graduated and will be starting my job with J&J, so I wish the very best of luck to those who continue with this venture!