Why am I here?

International development is a strange thing. It is what attracted me to the career while simultaneously annoying the living daylights out of me. It is my fourth day in the office and I am still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do. I have figured out my assignment for the next month and will be an expert of sorts on the topic but beyond that, I am not sure what else I will do. It is the standard paradox to development work; you work on one project and you have no idea what you will be doing five years down the road. The project may take off, fail miserably or stall while the donor bumbles around for funds.

The internet went out and while reading the Daily Nation, I discovered that the gains a project I worked on a few years ago had been partially dismantled only yesterday. Parliamentary leaders kicked out the Kenyan journalists from the parliamentary space built by USAID money and create two new committee rooms. Aside from the unusual ironies, it shows how fragile progress in international development is. In this case, the clerk who had long worked with my project retired in December and his replacement literally marched in and ordered the journalists out by the end of the day. It is similar to a mini-Mali in perhaps the most general sense. Sure, not all is lost but without easy access to MPs, how will journalists write about parliamentary matters concerning ordinary Kenyans?

But at least there is some better news on the horizon. Fifty years after independence, the UK will pay reparations to Mau Mau “rebels” it imprisoned at a time when it was desperately trying to keep the British Empire together. And Kenyan women won a great victory in the courts.

On my own front, I will make the best of what I have as usual.