The Challenges of a Working Vacation

The past week has definitely had its ups and downs. Last week, our matutu (minivan) driver was arrested by the police for driving us around without a tourist license. We had just left the supermarket, and a gang of young cops dressed in blue came up and had us all get out of the van. Then they hauled the driver and his companion off. Zac, the local volunteer leader, engaged another matutu, but just as he was doing that, our regular driver was calling another group leader to let us know that he had paid his bribe and was coming to get us. After a couple of hours negotiating with the "new" driver, at dusk, we finally had to pay the guy off to leave us alone before we could take our regular matutu back to the camp.
I've been irritated with one of the local volunteer leaders, Mariam, because since our arrival, she has been asking me to help, to come back, and to get money for the projects. Since we had barely met when this started, I was quite put off. This morning, after I told her about an older man in the village who keeps harassing me for my e-mail address, I was really angry with her because she told me not to make a problem out of it. I told her that if she is interested in "protecting" the group members (because she insisted last night that two women from the group who will spend Saturday in Mombasa on their own have a local companion to keep them safe), then the same thing should apply to the place where we live.
Additionally, last night Mary, who I mentioned in my previous posting, asked me: "What are you going to do for me?" Literally. My response was that I don't have any money and that I don't have an easy answer for her. All of these things had me asking myself when you can tell the difference between someone who just wants to use you and when someone is sincere.
These things had me really down this morning. My spirits picked up, though, as soon as I started exploring the school buildings where we were going to give a training this morning on market analysis and business plan preparation for the local, nascent credit union group. It also helped that after the workshop, I talked with Patrick, one of the CIVS co-leaders, and he told me that he also had problems with Mariam and her attitude. Actually, that conversation really restored my hope. While earlier in the morning I had been asking myself what sense it would have for me to come back to Kenya, this conversation put everything back into perspective.
I've been helping Zac with this proposal that he started to write. I think that it is much improved from where we started, but I realize that this is definitely an area where someone with real experience in fundraising would make a tremendous difference.
Saturday afternoon, after an aborted safari, a group of us went to the beach. I can't say enough about how wonderful it was. What warm, clear, blue water, and white sand! Complete with palm trees. The two German women, Clarissa and Anna, and I swam for half an hour without noticing the time at all. Anna is interested in spending some time abroad, so I'm going to put her in touch with some of my colleagues to see if she can do an internship at the Community House.
Anyway, tomorrow I'm catching the train for Nairobi. I'm used to trains from Europe, and I took them a couple of times in India, too, so I'm looking forward to the experience, even if it will take twice as long as the bus.