Obama

Yes, they are Obama crazy here. I guess, since his real father was Kenyan, he is their pride and joy, even though he likely won't be great for them as a country (though he'll be better than Bush...how could he not be?!).

Saturday night we went out for live Kenyan music at a very local Kenyan bar. We stood out so much that the band dedicated a song to us and to Obama. The song? "Congratulations Barak Obama." It was a good band though and an interesting experience.

Yesterday (Monday), I went out to do another training seminar and afterwards this lady came up to me and explained that she was a widow with 3 sons. She then offered me her son. She asked the translator and then she asked me directly in English to tell her my contact info so she could give me her son. Thankfully I didn't need to respond because the translator got me out of it but it was funny, sad, and disturbing all at once.

The past 2 days I spent with Dave going around the banks in Bungoma and understanding their loan programs for Microenterprise groups. It has been interesting work and it will be so helpful to provide the groups with this information to assist them in obtaining loans. ICODEI has a small loan program that they couple with the training, but it is problematic. As a charity, it is sometimes hard to ask for the money back or to pursue actions if groups are late. They simply do not have the capabilities to manage their loan program and don't have proper incentives or motivations for groups to pay back their loans. Continuing with the business training while leaving lending to the lenders would be a much better use of their resources all around. It's also great to be able to provide such strategic advice to ICODEI itself while we are here and to have a lasting impact on the program as well as the groups.