Cats, Childen, & Culture.
Today's blog post is going to be long, so tough it out...it gets interesting!We started the day revising our questionnaires after Dr. Pittchar sent his comments. His comments were extremely helpful and he's an incredibly busy guy; it was nice that he took time to assist us in perfecting it. Making sure that everything is worded correctly, easily understood, and brief is important-any error or miscommunication from farmer to farmer can cause my entire research to be flawed. I'm finally happy with my questionnaire, but I'm ready to pre-test it out on some willing farmers from other sub-counties to improve it more. English isn't the same for all people, I've come to realize.Cats, children, and culture are my three favorite things of today! CATS are my favorite things of every day, regardless of country. We had the opportunity to visit with 4 different push-pull farmers from across Eastern Kenya spanning two different counties in their homestead areas. It was so cool! Considering the majority of my research will be face-to-face with the farmers, I am excited to see how different each one lives and how they receive the information I've prepared today.The photos didn't load in chronological order for some reasons, so they don't quite match up to my accounts of the day.Our fist stop was to the woman on the bucket in the photos below. She was the oldest of our interviewees and didn't speak any English. I would ask the question and then Matilda would translate. She was very nice and quiet. The selfie with the cat? That happened here too. I saw the kitten in the doorway to the house and I probably cried... I miss my sweet little cats, especially the newest kitten Yoshi! They also eat cats here, so every time I've seen a stray, that consequently hates humans and runs, I try to save it and deliver it to cat safety (aka my room). The lady in the selfie picked him up and handed him to me and I just wanted to hug her and tell her thank you :) Anyway, this cat was super sweet and I was able to take a selfie with his cool owners. First selfie with Kenyans, check!Second stop was to a lady named Mary. She is the woman in cheetah print on the couch with Isaac and Matilda. She was kind and always smiled at me. There's a photo of a cat on a chair...that was the second highlight of the day, folks. ANOTHER cat! I'll just stay here forever (kidding, Mom).The third interview was another lady named Mary and her house was much nicer than the others, to our surprise. She is the woman in pink and was very sweet. She was better-off than all of the farmers we visited; her house reminded me of home in the States. She attributes much of that success to implementing push-pull. After the interview, she followed us out and brought us boiled maize for lunch.After her, we travelled to our last stop! We interview an older man and his family. Yay, kids! That brings in the children portion of this post. They were so scared of me at first (sad, I know), but they warmed up whenever I showed them my phone and their faces on the other side. Hint, I'm going to share a surprise on Facebook so if you're not already following "Holly Enowski", the page, on Facebook...make it happen! Anyway, the family was so sweet and I couldn't stop smiling when I was around the kiddos. Hopefully I'll get to teach soon!I've also included a photo (somewhere) of the sunset from this evening and it's breathtaking. Being here puts the Lake of the Ozarks to shame sometimes. It is gorgeous and I could get used to falling asleep to the sound of beach waves and the feel of the "ocean" breeze! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to miss it here...and it's only week two! What I am NOT going to miss is the constant ants that like to share the bed, room, and lunch table with me...go away already!Today's excursion showed me a lot of cats (thankfully!), children, and culture. Just like in America, farming looks so different from one to the next here. While all of the interviewees were considered longtime push-pull farmers, they each had a different story or a different example of exactly how push-pull helped them or their families. It was eye-opening to see all of the "benefits" I was reading in the icipe materials coming to life.Tomorrow...remember when I said Saturday is a workday now? Wasn't kidding. Bright and early departure at 6:30.. (The little girl yawning is exactly how I feel about this).Asante sana for following my blog, my unnatural love of cats, and for letting me share Kenya with you this summer.
