Welcome to Machakos

We have arrived in Machakos, our home for the next three weeks! We left Nairobi on Wednesday morning and all enjoyed the hour and a half drive through the Kenyan countryside; some were even lucky enough to spot a giraffe on the drive (not me, unfortunately!). Below is a picture of the countryside from our drive.

As we arrived in Machakos, a small town surrounded by beautiful green hills, it became quickly apparent that life here would be calmer and much slower-paced than life in Nairobi. After settling in to the hotel, (finally) unpacking, and taking a quick meeting with the District Commissioner of Machakos, we headed out for a tour of the town. Below is a picture of our hotel.

Alex acted as our local Machakos tour guide and led us to the city center. We walked around the shops and restaurants in downtown Machakos. We even made a quick stop in the local club, which was empty despite the DJ blasting music at 5PM. Everywhere we looked, someone was working hard to try and sell something homemade: shoes made from tires, baskets, slingshots. As we explored Machakos, I quickly noticed how friendly the locals were; young children would come up to say hi, and several people smiled and welcomed us to the city. Below is a picture from our tour of Machakos.

Thursday was spent hard at work in a conference room at the hotel. As our part of our work to create a Vision 2030 dashboard for the citizens of Kenya, my subteam and I headed into Machakos to speak to the local citizens about Vision 2030 and how they would like to receive information concerning the program. After talking with almost 20 citizens, it quickly became apparently that although they are aware of the Vision 2030 program, they are not aware of the specific flagship projects that comprise the effort. Additionally, it became clear that a lot of the citizens of Machakos do not have daily access to internet, which would make it difficult to receive status updates from a dashboard; many told us they would prefer to receive this information in a newspaper, magazine, or from TV. This is something we will have to think about as we proceed with our project.

Tomorrow, we head out for the weekend on our first safari to the Masai Mara! I am very excited and cannot wait for the adventure.