Plans Afoot ... or Just Dreams?

What am I going to do when I next get out to Kenya? What dreams and plans are buzzing through my head?

With difficulty, I have to sort all that I want to do into an order of importance, so I suppose the top of the list (and potentially the most expensive) project is to complete and improve (or improve and complete?) the anaerobic digester so that we have a storage tank of methane that can be used for cooking. As the present anaerobic digester works well enough, it only needs a pressure regulated, safe storage tank to complete it.

When it works well, we can go commercial. I am sure that hotels and restaurants would welcome free cooking gas.

Next, I am in the process of designing a see-saw that will also act as a water pump. Why shouldn't kids have fun while they are pumping water up from the borehole?

I would like to build a barbecue at the Twiga Centre - I can smell the nyama choma already!

Other projects? Well, I want to try making a clay food cooler and a clay oven. All I need is a source for the clay.

Then, large scale organic waste recycling is on the list. The idea is to make compost from all the waste found at the markets and along the roadside where hawkers sell their wares. This can be sold to raise funds for other projects - well, that's the idea, anyway. The logistics are a little more complicated than with other projects, but it can be done, with a little help from my friends.

I think a month in Kenya is not going to be long enough ...

Interesting Point of View

KCIS has recently posted a blog, asking for donations to get a project off the ground, and it brought an interesting comment from a Kenyan, apparently in the town where we are based, Kisii.

"I could give you a donation, but I'm opposed to this kind of aid, because it encourages dependency and entreches the aid industry. Poor people don't exist in Africa so Westerners can get an opportunity to "help" them and feel good about themselves."

I could not agree more that poor people in Africa are not just "feel good" toys for Westerners, and it made me think long and hard about what I am doing, and why.

1. KCIS is run mainly by Kenyans, I am the only non-Kenyan in the organisation.
2. Second, I was asked to join the organisation. The other directors, both Gusii, asked me to join their efforts to help them to offer shelter to the children in their care. They were my friends before I started to work with KCIS.
   
3. My main role is to raise awareness of KCIS in the developed world, and to try to raise funds for the organisation.
4. As a mechanical engineer, I have designed systems that can be built for little money, that will improve the lives of the poorest families, those who have lost the bread-winner and are literally scraping a living. These people do not have the time to worry about building a safe water system. They are too busy surviving.

OK, that's what I do. So the next question is why?

Do I do it so that I get plaudits from people, either in Kenya or here at home? Definitely not.

Do I do it so that the kids at our home treat me like a demi-God? Again, no. I like the kids and they like me. Why? Because I am friendly towards them, and probably there is the curiosity factor. My skin is the colour of a plucked chicken, theirs is dark. My hair, what little i have left, it straight and soft to the touch, theirs is black, curly and course. So, especailly to the little ones, I am odd.

So, why do I do it, why do I work for a Kenyan organisation?

I like the people. I like the country. I like the climate. In other circumstances, I would be living in Kenya. But that's another story.

It also gives an outlet for my low-tech approach to engineering. If people can benefit from my possible solutions to their problems, why shouldn't they?

I am not offended by the comment in the KCIS post. It did make me wonder, but now, in my own mind, I plead "Not Guilty".