It’s been about 2 weeks in Kisumu, and I still really like it here. It’s a much more manageable city then Nairobi – you can walk around the whole downtown in less than an hour and after only about 2 days, I knew my way around (and I’m awful with directions – I still get lost in DC sometimes…). My 3 roommates and I usually cook dinner about 4 nights a week, usually some sort of carb (pasta, rice, bread, etc) and fresh veggies cooked in various ways. And I was talking before about how cheap it is – all the veggies for a meal for 4 usually don’t cost us more than $3. And fruit is also just as cheap, and so good and fresh. Even going out to dinner doesn’t cost us too much – if we pay $6 for a full meal, we are seriously splurging. What am I going to do when I get back to the states and I can’t get a whole meal for under a $1?! I’m not looking forward to it… And just to give you a taste, here is the view of the sunset over Lake Victoria from our balcony:
And my ISP is also going great. I am working with the Kisumu Innovation Center of Kenya (KICK), and they have been great so far. They have about 30 artisans working for them making handi-crafts that they export to the US, Canada, Australia and a few European countries. They have basically taken me on as an intern, and part of my time is spent doing various odd jobs for them, like sorting through products to make sure they are of good quality, taking pictures of products, etc. But my major project is doing Artisan Profiles of most the artisans. The manager and I made up sort of a questionnaire and I get to go around to the artisans and interview them. I’ve done almost 20 so far, and it’s been so interesting. They are all really open to talking to me, something that I was worried about, being that I am a white American female. These profiles serve a dual purpose – I am using them as raw data for my ISP and KICK is working on making a website (don’t worry, I’ll post the link when it’s done) and a section of that is going to be the profiles of all the artisans so that buyers can see them. Pretty cool, huh? It’s really comforting to know that the work I’m doing is not only benefiting me, but that KICK will also get something out of it.
As far as what I am getting from the artisans, that has been the most interesting part so far. Thankfully, they all speak English, and most speak very well, so I don’t need a translator. They are all really smart and all have a lot of talent. Many of them come up with the products themselves and then bring to KICK who help them to perfect the product. KICK then markets them to these companies like Ten Thousand Villages, Oxfam, and other smaller ones that (hopefully) buy them. For example, one of the guys I was talking to today harvests and dries hyacinth, a plant that is taking over Lake Victoria, and uses it to make paper, frames and books that are absolutely beautiful. And he does the whole process himself – getting the plant from the river, drying it, making the paper and then making the final product. A lot of them also train women they know to make various things to market and sell. One of the questions that I ask them is what KICK can do to help improve their lives, and everyone so far has said the same thing – more orders. The way it works is that KICK gets an order from a company, finds an artisan that can fill it and pays him/her 50% upfront. Then, upon completion of the order, the artisan gets the remaining 50% (this is pretty standard practice in the Fair Trade world). So if there are no orders, than an artisan does not work and does not get paid. Many of them also work doing other things, so there is some income when they don’t have orders from KICK, but many of them have said that they prefer working for KICK because the wage is better. The second most common answer to the question of what KICK can do to help them is more training. Some of them want training in painting, wire work, and even computer design or management training. The bottom line is that they all just want work. They want to do everything they can so that they will get more orders from KICK and continue working for them.
One of the most interesting questions that I ask them is whether or not they know a lot about Fair Trade. About half know at least a basic idea, which is good. But there are some that do not know anything about it at all and some also give me a very elementary definition, mostly using the words fair and trade in the definition. Something like, “Yes, yes I know. It is when the people who are trading the products do so in a very fair manner.” And then when I follow up asking them if they would like to know more about it, every single person has given me an emphatic yes. Even though they don’t really know what Fair Trade means, they can see that with KICK they are treated better, paid better, are given more artistic license, and perhaps most importantly, can support their various family members through school, with food, medicine or other necessities. Many have told me that with KICK they were able to save money to go back to secondary school (which is not, and has never been, free in Kenya), send their children or siblings to school, pay their rent, and one even told me that he makes enough money to “spoil” his nephew – which most likely means that he can buy him clothing and shoes that aren’t tattered and food that is more than just the bare essentials. So even though they don’t understand what Fair Trade means, they know that it is helping them, and understandably, they all want to know more about why it is helping them. I talked with Isaac, the manager of the company, about doing a mini workshop on Fair Trade for the artisans, and so we are planning to do it next week. It’ll be a little daunting giving a lecture on Fair Trade to the artisans (I’ve never even given one to other students), but I think it will be a really interesting learning experience and I am especially looking forward to the Q&A session afterwards – it’ll be interesting to see what kind of questions they ask and what they want to know more about.
All in all, it has been very encouraging to hear their answers. From their hunger for work, to the benefits they have seen through Fair Trade to their creativity it has been a great experience. I was really worried that I would find the opposite – that Fair Trade is just a name that doesn’t actually make much of a difference. But luckily, that has not been the case. Working here has been a great inspiration for me, and I’m so excited to take the inspiration and momentum back to GW and GWSFT next year!
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