Second First Week of Work

Unrelated thought: I wonder how many ‘first day of work’s I’m going to have until I retire…

My roommates and I took a tuk-tuk (a three-wheeled mini motor bus thing, typically good if you’re riding with more than 1 person, if it’s raining or you’re carrying a lot of stuff) to work. Each of them have a tuk-tuk guy and a buta-buta (pronounced boddha-boddha and don't quote me on the spelling; a motorbike, cheaper than tuk-tuk and typically good if you’re riding alone or squeeze another person with you on the motorbike) guy on their phones. If they want to go anywhere, they just call for a ride, and the tuk-tuk/buta-buta will pick them up and take then where ever they want to go. It’s a nice set up since the drivers already know where to go and you build a relationship with them. Like the other day, A called her buta-buta guy to pick her up some water. Like UberEats style.

What I see on the way to work on a buta-buta (motorbike)

Example of buta-buta next to field of kids playing soccer

A ride to work on the tuk-tuk is about 150 shillings (about $1.5 USD - but if you ride with more people, the cost is split with your friends) and on the buta-buta it’s 100 (so $1).

My first day was a general first day of orientation, meeting a bunch of new people local and international. The company offers fellowships (which I heard they stopped the fellowship program after hiring me) and most of the fellows are in their 20s and international (all ranging from US (one from a nearby town in North Carolina!), Italy, Serbia, and of course Kenya). Fellowships last 6 months, and could potentially lead to a fulltime offer for associate role, so it’s kinda like a co-op.

Seeing so many people around my age from across the world also in Kenya, it kinda made me feel like I was making a big deal out of nothing (re: see previous blog post) - like oh of course it’s normal to just move thousands of miles from your normal life to a completely different country. Like instead of asking asking Why?, it’s Why not? (I think I listened to a ted-talk about this) I guess my last blog post was more just me freaking out then. But I suppose this is what they mean when you’re around people that inspire you. You start to change the way you think what’s possible.

When I hear some of the other fellows’ stories, I’m like dang they are courageous. Hanging out with them after work near a palm tree, it doesn’t feel like work, it has more of a summer camp vibe. But I’m sure that’ll change when I actually start working. Each of them are so interesting i.e one of them studied Forestry and it has brought him all over the world. He has dark wavy hair and bright blue eyes and there’s an Italian guy who also has dark hair and blue eyes, and I’m like should I also go into forestry? What’s going on here?

The second day of work, I got to go out in the field since I’m technically in the Field Operations department (I’m in their Expansions Systems group - looking at how to improve and emulate their best methodologies to expand their operations. More process focused and data driven I suppose. At least that’s what I think I’m doing - this is still a startup in their systems building phase so who the f knows).

I was suited up, helmut and all and went on the motobike (I honestly don’t know what the different types of bikes are but this is a different bike then the buta-buta, more high speed and bigger tires and kinda like motorcross maybe?) with a senior field manager, a sweet local man named Lazarus - you can really tell he cares about the farmers. I got to see the different farmers and their fields, talked to the them (who always express a level of gratitude for what we do and how we help them - which was really humbling but also made me feel undeserving, cause like I just got there man). I got to learn the different types of trees (Yes I know, I don’t know anything about farming or trees or nursery whatever- I swear I didn’t tell them I did), what their process is for enrolling farmers, and the partnership between us and the farmers that the company is built on. It hit me that while I was cruising (not too fast- don’t worry!) on the motorbike, I was like umm any other Monday, and I’d be in a office behind a computer. What did I get myself into? Is this real life? Honestly, it was an unnerving feeling cause some part of me wanted to go back to that corporate desk life, the safety and comfort of it. I was scared of messing up - like what if I just destroyed a farmer’s livelihood? Another part of me was like weeeeeee go faster on this bike!!!

An example of a tree farm devastated by drought/season conditions

They provided lunch and both days I had chapati - which is beans and spinach or cabbage with something similar to naan. It seems like a staple here, but a girl can only eat so much beans... I’ll take a picture next time..of the meal! Not what happens when a girl eats too much beans.

So that was my first week at work - Only two days! I actually came at an interesting time - as people have told me. Kenya is in the middle of a strange election situation. Look it up cause I won't even try to reiterate what the locals have tried to explain to me more than once. There is going to be a re-election on Thursday so the office shut down the rest of the week to be safe and said to either stay in Kilifi or leave the country. Where I am on the coast is more chill than Nairobi which means it’s supposed to be more safe… we shall see! Pretty interesting stuff if you get the chance to look it up. It definitely puts what’s going on back at home in perspective..but then again it’s Trump. So time to hang out with the other fellows and relax and hit the beach!