One Month Down, Two To Go

Safari
This last weekend I finally went into the wild on a safari with a group of about 12 other people. Places visited include the Serengeti, which is basically just The Lion King in 3D, the N’gorongoro Crater (formed over 2 million years ago by the volcanic eruption (of a mountain larger then Kilimanjaro) so explosive the whole volcano went with it), one of the most densely populated mammal habitats in the world, and the Olduva gorge, the location of some of the earliest hominid (pre-human) fossils ever found.

Some of the animals sighted include lions, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, hippopotami, rhinoceros, crocodiles, hyenas, monkeys, baboons, buffalo, warthogs, a fox, flamingos and lots of other birds, to go with the countless numbers of zebras, wildebeests, gazelle and other deer like animals, to name a few. I was surprised at the number of animals that would hang out right near the roads, with our driver even having to swerve and stop quickly a few times just not to not hit one running in front of us. More then once we even saw lions cross the road right between two cars.

Sadly did not get to see any leopards, as we had really hoped to see one up in a tree. Also never saw any hunts/kills, but I hear that those are quite rare to come across.

Only saw one male adult lion, but he was doing what male lions do best. Sleeping, with a quick 10-second burst of something else, which supposedly they do about 700 times a week in “this” season.

We had only seen cheetahs from afar until the last day, when our driver went a little off the path (which can get you in lot of trouble) to a tree hiding four young ones just lying about. This was especially nice as generally any of the more rare animals had about 5-10 cars parked in front of it before we even got there.

As we were camping, when the second day began we spotted a small herd of buffalo grazing maybe 20 meters from our tents, which we all though was pretty neat. This was by far trumped at the next campsite, however. When attempting to build a fire in the dark, someone pointed out an elephant in the bush next to us, where I had just been a little earlier collecting thing to burn. Then a little later, we came across a pair of Zebras just wondering between the tents. The next morning, another elephant was found very close to the campsite, and I almost got to see my first kill. A couple of English people, against the warnings of everyone nearby, decided to go into the bush to find a cell phone lost the night before (not sure why he was in the bush the night before in the first place). After walking maybe 5 meters away from the elephant, we see it start flaring its ears, and even take a couple steps towards the pair (at this point I though they were done, as it looked ready to charge). With everyone yelling at them to “Get Out Of The BUSH!”, they final emerge with the cell phone raised in triumph, to receive a stern warning from the camp ranger. The people most displease with all this were the English guys in our group, who started to see where their country was getting its reputation from (the genius’s almost killed by the elephant are future doctors).

This night at this campsite was also the coldest I have been in a long time, easily worse then any recent memory in Canada. I had heard it was going to be bad, and brought the warmest clothes I had with me. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring anything very warm with me to Africa. Then in addition to being under dressed, due to a situation outside my control my shoes were inaccessible, and for the first extended period in my life I was reduced to wearing socks and flip-flops.


The project
I have been getting many questions/comments regarding yoghurt and the project am working on. I want to start by saying I do not personally make any yoghurt, and do not even spend too much time around the yoghurt-making kitchen.

The main purpose I am here for is to 1) assess the sustainability of the kitchen in Mwanza, as well as the WHE project in its entirety, 2) work on expansion in the Mwanza area, as well as 3) try and put together a general framework for expansion for future groups all over east Africa to use.

So far, most of my effort has gone towards the first objective, as it was a much bigger issue then we first thought when we got here. I’ll begin by saying that most people here don’t think of business in the same way we do in Canada, and generally go about their lives in a very day-to-day fashion. This leads them to have difficulty correctly comparing cash inflows (revenue) with cash outflows (expenses) when thinking in terms of profit, especially when expenses are not paid for immediately.

The long term focus for the yoghurt kitchen in Mwanza has been to get production high enough to help a sufficient amount of people in the community, allow each Mama to take home a good salary, while generating enough left over funds for future investment in other projects or woman’s groups. While production was still not at this desirable level, it was only when examining the kitchens cash records that I found yoghurt sales to be at a consistently lower lever then milk purchases. This meant yogurt was going bad each day, and would either have to be thrown out or distributed to the Mamas families, significantly affecting the kitchens profitability.

This was all quickly evident to the fellow interns I am working with and myself, but the problem was conveying the situation to woman with no formal business training and little education in general, without hurting their confidence in their ability to run the kitchen independently (the goal is more or less to get each kitchen to a sustainable point and move on).

We have since tried to shift the focus away from production to sales, working with the kitchen on ways to increase revenue, while trying to figure out schedules to keep the workload fair. We have seen positive results over the last week, but need to see it over a much longer term before we can be too self-assured.

In regards to my second overriding objective while in Africa, my group has found some contacts for potential groups that could operate a kitchen in the future, and plan to put some meetings together in the near future. Additionally, we are looking into different sources of financing to get these groups going, some of which may come from organizations WHE has worked with in the past. This objective should be the main focus for the rest of my internship, especially during the next month, as there is only so much work we can do with the present kitchen.

The last objectives will mostly wait until the final 2-4 weeks of my time here, and will require me to compile information from many other interns from different kitchens, past and present. The more of an understanding each intern has of the people and business climate in East Africa, the more valuable this framework will be, but this is something that only comes with time. Also, the longer I wait, the more current the information will be, and the more time others have to put together what they think is most valuable.


Sports
Sadly, Argentina is out after a humiliating loss to the Germans (or so I hear, I missed the quarterfinal games while on safari). Now Holland, my #2 team, takes the reigns after their massive upset of Brazil. I know many Germans and Dutch staying in Mwanza at the moment, so that would be a fun final to watch.

As for the Canucks, I think they are looking good for next year after some shrewd moves by Gillis to address the teams weakness’s on the bottom six and insufficient defensive depth. With San Jose and Chicago both losing important players due to cap problems, and Lidstrom and Rafalski both getting a year older in Detroit, I like the Canucks chances of taking the West next year, and hopefully more.

And I guess I’ll throw a way to go Lions in there. Way to Go, Lions!