What exactly does working mean? Let me tell you

So you might be wondering what exactly it is that I am doing here, other than seeing giraffes that is. My “job” is somewhat hard to nail down as I don’t really do the same thing everyday. The most simple way to put it is that I do the things that no one else has time for. The first two weeks I mostly sorted through the boxes of things they moved over from their old office, books and files and such. The thing is that a soon as our new, bigger office is finished we’re moving again but at least then we won’t be all crammed into a small space. I should explain what exactly the “office” is because I’m sure what I’ll explain is not what most people would expect. Because a lot of our major partners are Quaker churches the office is on the same lot as two churches and a couple projects. There’s a nursery school and a refugee tailoring project as well as a fine arts college that rents a building on the lot. Our office is off to one side of the property. It’s a bright blue shipping container that’s been converted into an office with some shelving and a couple desks. It works except that at any given time there could be four of us there, even five, and then if people come for meetings things get a little interesting. They also want to hire another person just before I leave to pick up where I will leave off. Our new office will also be a container, but much bigger with two rooms and a patio/sitting area out front. We may also keep the one we’re in now for meetings but we’re not sure yet.

But back to my “job”, Change Agents for Peace International (CAPI) works a little bit in Kenya but mostly in Rwanda, Burundi, and Eastern Congo so I don’t directly in one of their projects. At this point I’m working on collecting resources and looking into microcredit programs because we’re being offered a grant to develop some programs in Rwanda and Burundi. So this week I’m going to be going around to different projects in the city to find out how they are set up and then put together a bit of a proposal. In February I’m only going to be in Nairobi from the 1st – 5th and then from the 10th – 16th because Bridget and I are going to go and visit and work with the projects in Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo and then attend a Strategic Peacebuilding Seminar in Gitega, Burundi before coming back on March 2nd. Hopefully that gives you somewhat of a picture, not the most exciting to read about I’m sure, but now you know.