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The Work Ahead
By Harmony | February 7, 2009 | 10:14 pm
Working In My Office
Wow. I’ve now been at site for a month. Where did the time go? Time moves fast, but the work moves slowly here, that’s for sure. My project hasn’t yet received its first funding distribution, which was supposed to come last month. Without money, there is not a whole lot we can do. I’m told it will come later this month, so we may be busy very soon.
So what have I been doing with my time? I’ve been wading through the bookkeeping records of the organization for which I’m working. The good: they seem to be in the black. The bad: the treasurer isn’t very good at adding or subtracting. The hopeful: I can teach her, if I learn how to speak Kiswahili fast enough (now what’s the word for double-entry bookkeeping?)
This village is damned cool. It has *HUGE* tourist potential, and my job is to work on the business and marketing side of it all. When I got here, I was told that there is boardwalk among the mangrove trees, which tourists come to see sometimes. Most visitors come from a nearby island resort or one of several universities who send students to study the ecology of mangrove forests. During my introduction to the village, they left out the interesting part about the historical site where villagers were tortured in pre-colonial times by the tyrant Sheikh Mbaruk Bin Rashid. And they forgot to mention the two sacred places where Digo elders once came to worship their indigenous beliefs. Or the absolutely gorgeous white beach that is completely devoid of pesky beach boys. Or the plethora of wildlife that sprinkles the village. Or the freshest, tastiest fish on the planet. Or the groves of coconut palms surrounding the village that augment the feeling that you’re in paradise. Or the huge baobabs trees that are an icon of Africa. I don’t think this community knows what a gem they have here.
Marketing. I’ve been thinking about my angle on that. There are a few obvious things we need to do, like clean up the trash and make the boardwalk safer for accident-prone tourists. I think it would be important to provide a little more information about the efforts of mangrove reforestation in the area. I can get that from the researchers here. As a tourist, I would want to know more about the history of the village, including the story of the tyrant sheikh and the sacred places where the village elders worshiped. That part could prove to be challenging. I found some mention of the sheikh in a library research database, but I can’t seem to get more than an abstract. And in the village, much of the oral history has been lost since European colonization. I wonder if there is an old mzee (respected elder) in town who has a story to tell…
At this point, we could probably just embellish the stories that are remembered. But wouldn’t it be so much cooler to get the real history? Where is a historian when you need one? If anyone can help me with this, let me know and I’ll get you the details. Calling in all favors!
Once the project gets off the ground, my supervisor and I will be making some business trips up the coast to visit some similar eco-tourism projects. I’m really looking forward to that, as it will give me an opportunity to see how others are doing it. And I’ll get to experience some of the best tourist spots Kenya has to offer. I can’t wait!
Meanwhile, I will teach basic accounting skills to the women who handle the books. They have a journal now where they are keeping track of money in and money out. There are a lot of mistakes, but nothing that can’t be fixed with a little instruction. I’d really like to take them to the next level. I took several accounting classes in college, but too many years have passed, and now I can’t remember all the elements. Hopefully, I’ll get my basic accounting textbook sent from home so I can do a little review. I’m glad I held onto it after all these years and several moves!
Finally, I need to get the ICT Centre up and running again. I would love to turn it into a training center for youth who want to learn how to use a computer. We’ll see how that works out.
These are just elements of my primary project. There are other problems in the community, like access to water and electricity, high incidences of malaria, etc. I hope that once I get my feet wet, I can do much good work here. We shall see.
Topics: The Work |