Every five years the World Food Programme conducts surveys in all the countries with WFP School Feeding Programmes. As we in Kenya are ending our five year strategy for our development programmes (as opposed to refugee and emergency operations) we were asked to conduct this mandatory survey so that our Head Quarters in Rome can analyse the benefits and challenges with school feeding. In my job description, I am supporting our monitoring and evaluation unit so I was given the task a few weeks ago to oversee our survey group in West Pokot, which is close to the border of Uganda and Mt. Elgon (a very turbulent part of the country).
The team, three enumerators (staff conducting the survey), one driver and 8 soldiers (as security in the Pokot region is a bit unstable) had been there for two weeks when I joined them. Our country director was travelling so I had the pleasure of getting his driver for this mission. The driver, Steven, a Masai, has been driving for WFP for more than 25 years and I think he is the oldest employee we have at the moment and the one with the most energy and most positive attitude. He does not know his exact age but I think he is well over 60. Back in the days, the Masai had an interesting way of gauging time. When the British came they would name a newborn child “British” When the big drought hit Kenya in the 1970s: “big drought” and when Kenyatta became the first Kenyan president, a child would be named Kenyatta.
So we drove to West Pokot which is an 8-hour drive. Steven eagerly showed and explained to me everything we passed on our way, including many burned down houses and unfarmed land as a result of the post election crisis earlier this year. We spent the night in a place called Kitale and met up with the team the following morning, proceeding to the school we were monitoring that day. West Pokot is a region of breathtaking green mountains where farmers have insisted on growing maize on the sometime very steep lands (Nepal style) where people have a small pot and well-built hatched, mud huts. In reward for the tough living conditions, God has given them one of the most beautiful views I have come across.
The database in Rome had unknowingly selected a school on top of a high mountain. Fortunately a road (by their standards) had been constructed some years back with the help of WFP. It took our Toyota Landcruisers several hours to climb the mountain and the abrupt end of the road side increased the value of the view and also any fear of heights one might have. Suddenly near the top of the mountain sat a large school in the most beautiful setting imaginable. The school had never been visited by WFP and even the local Education Officer had never been there.
Unfortunately the head teacher was down town (literally) for a training but the deputy head teacher (a woman) was very accommodating. A teacher walked me around the school’s open green fields. He had engaged in tree planting which I was very excited about. They had fresh water from the mountain and tried to protect a little forest further up the mountain to ensure water in the future. Note: without trees the mountain will produce very little water.
The school had bought a cow and we were served the best Kenyan tea (milk, tea, sugar, no water) I have ever tasted with fresh milk from the cow. As part of the survey we interviewed the students and it was a bit surprising to me that these children where so aware of exactly what they don’t have. When we asked them, they would like solar panels for lighting, better latrines, better classrooms, better soccer field, more teachers, WFP food delivered on time (our food as been very, very late this school term due to many reasons which I’ll elaborate on in another blog) to the school. Currently all children in 4th grade and above will take one day off each term to collect the food further down the mountain.
It was a great visit, we even spoke to some parents and the enumerators did a great job. While reviewing the school, Steven (my driver) sat on a bench on the mountain side drinking his tea, which I’m sure had been order with a specific request of sugar to milk ratio and a joke on the side. As we were leaving, the teachers begged us to stay as they had slaughtered two chickens in our honor, but unfortunately we had to leave. Did I mention that some of the children had never seen a white person (mzungu) before? As we slowly drove down the mountain, about 20-15 children were running behind the cars yelling “Mzungu”, laughing and giving us their special greetings. After about 30 minutes of running we had to tell them to stop running downhill as it would be quite the climb for them going back. “Enda nyumbani,” my colleague told the last boys who reluctantly stopped (that means “Go Home!”).
On our way back we stopped at the zonal education office where 25 head teachers were trained; the zonal officer recognized me from a big workshop we had in Nairobi and insisted that I address the head teachers. Fortunately I had a lot to tell them about our school feeding programme, delayed food, sustainability and how they can help us to improve the programme. I took a few further questions and then we continued back to the hotel, which, by the way, cost 4 US dollars a night.
Our group had two schools on the data list which they were told were very hard to reach, even by foot. One of them was a 5-hour walk away from the nearest road so there was no chance we could reach that one. We were told that the others were only 1-3(?) hours walk from the nearest road, given that you had to climb a mountain. I wanted to establish how far it really was, but people from this region are very fast walkers and not everybody in the group was fit. So the next morning we had a serious discussion with the district educational officer and we established that the school was one hour away from the nearest road so we figured we could reach the school in less than two. We split the group into two. A young woman (Magdelyne) who grew up in a rural area where she walked a lot every day came with me while the other two enumerators went to a different easy-access school. Because of security, Magdelyne and I we were joined by 4 soldiers and a local educational officer who knew the track. I was a little nervous about my own fitness for a second or two, but I turned out to be more than fine. We had to cross a river two times (taking our shoes off!) and also climbed a big hill, but not quite a mountain (I mean…I did climb Kilimanjaro, right?). We walked fast along the mountain range on a good track as we didn’t know how far it was exactly. According to UN security code we have to be back at the hotel before 6pm when the sun sets, so that was why we had to “keep time” as they say in Kenya. Magdalyne did very well but I decided to walk in front with the educational officer so I didn’t put too much pressure on her as she was the slowest after all (if you have met me, you know that I really don’t weight a lot so I’m good at climbing mountains). The mountains were beautiful and I couldn’t believe I was actually being paid for hiking in the green mountains and crossing rivers as they are some of my favourite things to do.
After 1 hour and 40 minutes we reached the school, which was almost on the river side. It was empty! Completely! After 5 minutes one teacher came and it turned out that the whole school was hiding, as they had seen us coming from afar with soldiers and got scared. The soldiers took a rest as we carried out the questionnaire. Interviews with the teachers and the children (conducted separately) indicated that low enrolment and school drop-outs were fuelled by early marriage (even as young as at 9 years of age), female genital mutilation (sadly, practised here in many tribes), and complete lack of support by the parents. In Pokot, parents view children who go to school as the government’s property, as they are of no added value to the parents because they can’t work. But the children want to go to school.
We walked back even faster as it was down hill, crossed the rivers to be embraced by Steven, who had been a bit worried for us and also insisted that we “keep time”. He radioed back to the other group that we had made it back safely and apparently a woman, Lorna, who is actually my officemate in Nairobi, had been very relieved. As we where driving down the mountain we were met with a constant “Muuuuzunguuuuuu” (white man) to such a degree that made us all burst into laughter as the Educational Officer reminded us that most people in this area (especially children) had never seen a white man before; thank God I had remembered to shave in the morning! I wouldn’t want to misrepresent my race :) Kenyans (I believe) generally think white skin is a bit funny, the way it gets pink when it is exposed to sun light, how we have to wear the sun block, etc. which makes me feel a little bit embarrassed by my white skin. It is just not practical to have here.
Anyway, the educational officer also had time to tell us about how this valley (the one we had just walked in for at least three hours) was known around the world for its large variety of rare and very poisons snakes. Yikes (he definitely didn’t know that I am not a huge fan of snakes…but they normally don’t come out during the day)!
We left him (the officer) on the side of the road which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. In my rush to get out of the office in Nairobi I had accidentally bought 6 litres of carbonated water, instilled of still water. He had run out of water on the mountain and I had given him one litre trying to explain that it was fine to drink. He must have built up a taste for it as he now asked me if he could have 1.5 litres to share with his family. Sure!
We came back in good time and I had an extra large plate of Ugali (maize flour boiled into a firm paste) with mboga (vegetables). At night I reviewed all of the team’s surveys, gave them feedback, and then Steven and I left then very early the next morning. A perfect trip for me. On our way back we eagerly spotted all of the trucks that have implemented the new 3-rear-axle rule that had just been enforced in Kenya to spare all of the new roads that are being built from too much weight. Before, 4 axles were allowed, which then allowed for very heavy cargo. All trucks had to comply to this law, which has been given us (WFP) severe headaches this school term and is one of the reasons why 40 % of our schools have not yet received food for half of this term!
I have a hard time relaxing even as I write this blog because we have 4.5 weeks left of the school term and we have not yet reached all of our schools with food. WFP has just taken over all of the primary transportation of food (from the Port of Mombasa) from the Ministry of Education as they could not meet the additional cost demanded by the transporters as a result of the 3-axle law. What does that mean for me? Revise our allocation plans, coordinate with logistics, write memos to our Country Director, letters to the Ministry and answer the increasing daily calls from angry District Educational Officers (the highest ranking educational official on a district level) who wants to know where their chakula (food) is.
There are still a lot of improvements to be made on distribution system, which we will review in the next few weeks. My goal is that all schools will have food by January first when the first school term starts.
KW
