I am sitting at the local bakery in Siaya town – my favorite shop in the whole county – and thinking back on an interesting week.
We officially launched our project which was a huge success. Momentum farmers, influential politicians and friends of Momentum all showed up – a total of 65! We had arranged for the event to take place outside underneath a tent and we had hired a band to play local music. Seeing that we were outside, the whole village was there and at the end of the event, Christian couldn’t control himself any longer, he had to go dance with the village kids. There was so much joy and excitement! Our team held a captivating speech that hit on all of our achievements so far and the results to come. Afterwards, some of the local politicians took the floor.We networked and spoke to journalists that had come from the radio and newspaper. The success of the event has traveled, as I am met by people all over the county who have heard about it. Just 5 mins back while entering the bakery, I met a camera man I had met some weeks back and he was congratulating us on what he heard was an amazing start. Amazing!
This week also contained a trip to the most successful rabbit farm in the county – a man with the entrepreneurial ambition to venture into something very new. He had started as part of a group but one by one all the members had left and he is now the only one still keeping rabbits. He has 70 and is looking for a place to sell them. That is what we will help him with. We are also interested in keeping rabbits so once we identify a proper sales channel we will partner with him and sell together. We have already done some market research and found that there indeed is a commercial market for rabbit meat, especially with hotels and larger supermarkets.
It dawned on me this week, that there are no advertisements or commercials anywhere to remind me that Christmas is right around the corner. If it wasn’t for the calendar telling me, I wouldn’t know Christmas is in 1 month! I never thought about it, but it is extremely liberating not being bombarded by ads all the time. I can make my own decisions and I am not swallowed up by the consumption-hype of the holidays. It is fabulous! An unexpected benefit to living in rural Kenya!