Stakeholders Meeting - Monday Feb 7, 2011

Today was a great day! We woke up and immediately made last minute preparations to the presentation and agenda. Keeping in line with the true Kenyan schedule, we planned for the meeting to start at 9am, and when people began to arrive at 10am, we finally started at 1030am. We totally took over Fr B’s church, St Massimo, as it’s the biggest room in Mikinduri, and we were expecting 40 guests consisting of chiefs, the local member of parliament, doctors and nurses from Meru, Embu, and Mikinduri clinic, people in the Mikinduri and surrounding communities, Fr B, and us wazungos (the plural for muzungo – white person). We had a great meeting once it finally started, discussing the current deficiencies with the health care system in Kenya, and introducing the idea of Community Based Health Care.

Stakeholders meeting participants

We discussed in small groups and brought our main ideas back to discuss as a large group. Some things are the same everywhere: in small groups, people are happy to talk, but once you get the whole room together, no one wants to be the first to speak. It was neat seeing everyone that we had spent in meetings with on their turf over the last few days, as I felt like I knew nearly everyone in the room! Some of the differences in cultures are significant though, as in Kenya, it is not considered rude to have your fingers in your nose. These dignified people with professional careers were sitting in the meeting itching the inside of their nose, something that we would be shocked to see in a Canadian office. It’s also interesting to note that we were the most casually dressed in the room, as everyone else dressed very nicely for the occasion, as seems to be the case in most situations. Additionally our meeting room had a concrete floor covered in dirt, and there was no air conditioning. One of the muzungos said ‘Long meetings in Canada are hard, but without A/C they’re much harder!’ The meeting was quite successful as we had hoped for networking, the introduction of Community Based Health Care, and awareness of services for local groups. It was fantastic to have a meeting come together so last minute, with a structure, charts, statistics, and yes...even graphs. We had farmers from our feeding project sitting at a table with their leaders and doctors, discussing concerns they had with health care, and more significantly, both were issuing the same concerns. One of the women who has three children and lives in Kaguwru told Ted that the meeting was great, and when pressed why, she said ‘So she is more aware and has something to take back to her community’, which is the whole point of Community Based Health Care!

Playing spoons with Kenyan Partners APDK

After a successful meeting that ended with traditional Kenyan tea, water that is boiled with tea bags and added to a cup of whole milk, so it is more milk than tea, we headed back to our hotel. The people from APDK (Association for Physically Disabled Kenyans) were staying in our compound and we had a fantastic evening playing spoons and dominos as a big group. Ted won, but Bongoman (and everyone else) insists that is because he cheated. We are tired tonight. Tired as a whole, but not just because we’re busy, but because every moment is networking. Even when we’re in the hotel compound, there are honored guests that come by and you have to be on your social ‘game’. It’s exhausting but so rewarding after a day like today!

Summary: A successful meeting with 40 varied participants! Today Kenyans and Canadians came together to have a great discussion!