August 4: Does efficiency matter? That's the big question that occupies those long boda boda rides these days. Speaking of boda bodas, this past Tuesday I had a bit of an adventure regarding a one of these contraptions. I awoke early to make it to the main road (a 40 minute commute via local transportation - my legs and a boda boda) by 7:30am, where I was to meet Mr. Juma, the university lecturer and instructor of our Farmer's Field School (FFS). But before I arrived, I first had to intercept three tsunami style rain storms, while perched precariously on the back of a slippery boda boda seat, clutching for dear life, fearful of sliding off and landing in a pothole, completely soaked and splattered with mud. My poor driver was having such difficulty making it uphill in the mud with the big American on the back with her even bigger American bag, that we had to stop a number of times and walk (you don't get a refund for this). Incidentally, later that same day, while still caked with mud from my morning experiences, a huge truck driving with typical disregard for anything including the actual trajectory of the road, drove by me as I walked along and splashed mud all over me, some of which went in my mouth. HA! Good times. I also accidentally drank ants that day. Anyway, where was I?

Mr. Juma and I had planned a trip to Mtwapa to visit KARI (Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute), but when I finally, filthily, arrived at the main road where we were to meet, he wasn't there, and I wasn't sure that he hadn't already come and gone. I waited for a half hour, swatting the emergent swarm of flies from my face and legs and trying to hide my underwear, now clearly visible beneath my drenched clothes. Thank goodness he finally arrived, because I was about to turn back, and all of this would've been for naught. So I boarded the the 12-seater matatu with the 25 other people and traveled to KARI - about 45 minutes away. The scenery is so beautiful here. Once at KARI, we met Sami, a KARI researcher, who was knowledgeable about indigenous crops and farming techniques that work well here. We toured the extensive and lush fields, talked about his research experience, and discussed different drip irrigation possibilities given the design constraints I'm dealing with in Takaungu village (low income, piped water supply, small plots, expensive water). He later told me about a "drip irrigation kit" the Institute had designed and that could be purchased and picked up at KARI. The details surrounding this little experiment are a bit mysterious to me, though I expect there's little more than government inefficiency behind the fact that the kit costs 34,000 ksh (roughly $450, or a good year's income for most farmers) and that none were available immediately, and that, amazingly, most of the components of the kit were not available in Kenya. (i.e. Don't try competing with the government.) At any rate, the real lesson was that studies have been done on such low pressure systems, a model exists (somewhere), and according to Sami and others, it works! That was all I really needed to know. I've since learned that this kind of low pressure, small tank, gravity flow system is being used successfully in many other drought-prone parts of the world. I received word from the director of the EAC that she loved my idea and to proceed.

On that note, let me heed the confused, if not disturbed, looks I sense you're wearing, at least judging by some of your emails. This takes us back to the presenting question: what is efficiency? Really, this is quite a vast question. Why use time wisely if you've nothing better to do with it. (Money is a different issue, of course. There isn't nearly as much of it.) Nonetheless, we've been trained to hold efficiency as paramount, so it's hard for me to abandon the principle. Especially when you see how hard the women work here to do such simple tasks. Did you see the pictures? That water is so heavy, and the walk is long and hot. And unfortunately, fetching water is not a man's task (nor are many other things around here, for that matter, but that's another topic.)

In academic circles - if nowhere else - the idea is that efficiency will spur economic development by freeing up time once dedicated to rote tasks (like carrying water), so that it can be spent on more profitable things like learning to read, to use computers, to start a fruit stand. But realistically, is that the likely outcome? That's the question I'm asking myself recently. People here have neither the experience, nor perhaps the need, for efficiency. Really, they just need to keep waking up each day - however they do it is of little concern to the majority of them. But still, in the interest of those academic circles, and because I really do believe that to move forward, people have to learn to stop moving sideways, I'm shooting for an irrigation plan that highlights efficiency. So that means, fundamentally, that any system that requires that people (so, women and girls) carry the water to fill the stationary tank is in defeat of my tireless efficiency principle - however meaningless here. So anything that involves hard work - and believe me, carrying water is hard work - won't work for my plan. Likewise, the only way around here to ease heavy loads is to put it on the back of a boda boda. There are no cars here. Seriously people, you wouldn't believe what I've seen carried on the backs of these things - injured goats, rebar, 200lb bags of coal, a single newspaper (that's weird), women about to give birth. They have engineered ways so that anything you can't carry yourself can be affixed to the back of a boda boda - as long as it's not so heavy as to bend the wheels. The only problem is, most people can't afford the bicycle that tranforms into a boda boda, which is why my irrigation idea outlines that the boda boda be part of a system that is shared by several investor farmers.

Also, there is the problem of needing sufficient pressure to force the water out of the irrigation piping, which is most easily got by elevation and opposing gravity. The back of a bicycle is high enough for this. Alternatively, anything low to the ground won't work, unless it only waters one or two plants at a time, which then wouldn't be very efficient, because it would require a lot of labor to fill and place each container. Although, this is an idea I've been thinking about, ever since introduced to me by two irrigation specialists in one day. And admittedly, other people in this world, besides me, have been known to have good ideas. I am just not always apt to use them. But that is bad bad practice, and I should know better by now.

So anyway, what do you think? Does efficiency matter? Or is my head in the clouds here? Realistically, people here have small plots and don't need lots of water, but the water they do need is too heavy to carry in one trip. Even in three or four (long) trips, the loads are excruciating and once they start the process of watering their crops, at least half of it is lost from splashing and evaporating and just really poor methods. So even if efficiency doesn't matter from a time standpoint, it must from a cost, plant productivity, and lower back and neck pain standpoint. Well, I hope I've explained my idea better. I felt like a few of you may have thought I'd lost my mind. I am in a paralell universe right now, and what seems ridiculous to you makes perfect sense over here. Now that is an interesting topic. Maybe tomorrow. Thank you so much for reading this blog. I look forward to reading your thoughtful posts, which always remind me how great - and smart - my friends and family are. What a blessing.