EPIC: Saw a lion eat a water buffalo, went to lake Victoria, and shook hands with Bill Clinton

6/12/2011
Note: Blogosphere creeps-Don't steal my pictures. 

This week, we went to Suba, to visit a site run by Green Forest Social Investment, a microfinance development project.

Our trip started with a stop in the Nakuru area. There, we spent a half day with a panel of experts from the Kenya Wildlife Service, KEFRI, and several other organizations. They were working with Dr. Ongugo on a project involving some vegetation plot data with response to community management. The most important part of this meeting, for me, was learning more data mining techniques: Pivot table are a very useful thing.

In the afternoon, we were able to go with Peter, one of the drivers, to Nakuru national park. We initially tried to get in for the student price, but were informed we needed a letter from the Kenyan Wildlife Service in order to be classified as students. Right.  Thus, international patron prices of  60.00 $ U.S. were charged.

I thought this was going to be a bad deal. Nothing could be further than the truth.

Right away, the first thing we are driven to is a lion... EATING A WATER BUFFALO ten feet off the road from the car we were in. Epic.

Further, as we're driving, there are tons of monkeys and baboons, a rhino, and we even saw a couple of jackals.

Monkey Jam! They took over the road.

The coolest thing, by far, however,  were these giant flocks of pelicans, and flamingos. The flock we saw was giant.

Leah and Bryson Looking epic.

The following day, Dr. Ongugo took us to a restaurant where they serve whole, fried tilapia, from lake Victoria. You eat it with your hands. It is delicious.

We got to the GFSI site around sunset on the lake Victoria. This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. We then had dinner overlooking the lake. The GFSI restaurant even had PIZZA!!!. After the sun set, you could see the lights of the fishing boats on lake Victoria, which was pretty interesting. Our rooms were also amazing.

Our "tents" overlooking lake Victoria. Rough accommodations....

 The restaurant.

A little background on GFSI: The project was created by dutch investors to create economic opportunity in the area. Guasi is a very remote part of Kenya, with poor roads. They aim use ecotourism and sustainable enterprises to drive development in the area. The idea revolves around shifting residents from subsistence farming and fishing, to these other industries. 

To alleviate these economic and environmental pressures from subsistence farming and fishing, the GFSI company invests in the local community, through loans of infrastructure capital, and individual equipment. GFSI is repaid by taking a portion of the revenue from the products, generated by the capital that was lent to the residents. Once the loan of capital is repaid, the investors relinquish total control to the community. GFSI also tries to pursue climate change mitigation through the community development.

As far as I can tell, GFSI seems to be on pretty solid footing. It avoids the pitfalls of simply giving impoverished socioeconomic groups money, without actually providing tools to create livelihoods. Instead of interdependence, it seems to be granting independence, from what I saw. 

We talked to people about 3 main projects there. One, a project to grow Jatropha, a plant used for biofuels, while the second is to create sustainable charcoal briquettes from wood waste and other forms of sustainable fuels, and the final is the production of honey, which is sold by local farmers to the global market. 

Gottfried, manager in charge of honey production showing Leah a honey centrifuge. Knows his stuff.

Julius, the manager of the Jatropha project. Really sharp, nice guy. Gave us porcupine quills!!!

 This is Robbins, showing us the charcoal creating machine

The machine used for charcoal processing

After staying at GFSI,for several days, we made a final stop at Dr. Ongugo's home. The drive to his village was pretty rough. This was compounded by the fact that I took my malaria pill on an empty stomach. Bad idea if you are going to travel on a very bumpy rural dirt road through mountains all day. Bad Idea. 

After the gut-wrenching travels, we were given a tour around the Ongugo's house. They have a multi bedroom home with electricity supplied by generators, livestock including sheep and cattle, and space for agriculture. They even grow pineapple! Mrs. Ongugo, who is a very kind, funny lady, made tilapia  like we had earlier. Dr. Ongugo is a very lucky man. 

We also met the ongugo's relatives, who were all really nice. In particular, two of Dr. Ongugo's nephews are a lot of fun. Winston Churchill, and Bill Clinton (yes really) are their names. 

Shaking hands with Bill Clinton and Winston Churchill

The Ongugos

We also went for a walk around lake Victoria, and hung out before we went back to Nairobi. Otherwise, the week has been pretty routine, attempting to get stuff done in preparation for a return to Suba next month. We're going to mount Kenya next week!