Just got back from an amazing day on a field visit with the Kenyan microfinance institution, Jamii Bora. We had an early start, had a great breakfast at the Wildebeest and then we headed off to the Kenyatta Conference Center to register for the conference. Standing in line at at the registration tables, buzz started about Yunus arriving. We didn't get the chance to say hello today but did get a glance from afar! I can't believe that this is all really happening. Spending the day with a group of students who have all made an impact on the microfinance industry and have had at least one incredible life experience in the developing world, not to mention in the setting of Nairobi Kenya, at a microcredit conference, is undescribable.

After we registered for the conference we headed for the vans to drive to the Jami Bora head office (http://www.jamiibora.org/)- the motto on their site, "It doesn't matter where you came from, it matters where you are going!" That message was extremely evident today after spending the day with the clients and employees.

We arrived at the head office and proceeded to go up four stories of the building to the top roof deck where we had great views of Nairobi and the slums below. We heard from the branch manager first and then two of the borrowers, Andrew and Michael. They both had unbelievable stories to tell. Andrew spoke for a while about his plight during the post election violence in 2007. He served as a "gangster or hooligan" in his words- and essentially was a thug who was hired to destroy businesses, homes and lives during the violence. Andrew told the group that there was a point when Bernard approached him to tell him about the work of Jamii Bora and he took out his machete with thoughts of killing Bernard. Now, 3 years later Andrew is a very changed man. He has an unbelievable story to tell and he told it with much pride. He talked about his appreciation of Jamii Bora- he started a business of a boy's soccer team called the Kibera Celtics (after the Celtics in Scotland) and a girl's team called the Kibera Celtics Queens. He talked about his beautiful wife and two children and expressed great pride in his accomplishments. Standing on the rooftop of the building, I experienced a flood of memories of reading the New York Times coverage of the post-election violence, stories which were extremely reminscent of Andrew's story. It is remarkable that a man in Andrew's position could be standing in front of all of us, a completely changed and healthy person. He contributes his success to microfinance, microsavings and the health insurance support from Jamii Bora. What an incredible story.

We went on to explore a few of the slums in the area. We went to the market in the Kibera slum, which Jamii Bora worked hard to fix up after the post-election violence. The marketplace was bustling, full of color, and smelled of a mix of terrible and wonderful fragrances. There were many merchants selling everything from second hand clothing, bananas, husked corn, sugar cane, to backpacks and old dolls. Seeing all the thousands of stands selling very similar goods it makes me wonder who actually buys all these products? I think the key to success for many of the business people is owning multiple businesses in diverse areas to maximize profit.

We went to a second slum where we met a group of women who lead the business skills training group. It was fascinating hearing their personal stories and their transition from trainees to trainers. One woman in particular talked about the three main benefits of recieving the training: 1. record keeping 2. marketing 3. identifying time of best market... I got some pretty interesting insight for the Nyanya Project business training for the grandmothers. A British woman was there who represented the Microfinance without Borders- I think she'll be great contact for when I come back to Nairobi this summer.
After meeting the extremely bright women who have gone through the training and now train other Jamii Bora borrowers. All the women approached me after the meeting and eagerly shook my hand, looked me in the eye and made it very clear that I was welcome in Kenya. The people and culture in Nairobi are beautiful. I have felt extremely safe, comfortable and happy throughout my time here so far.

After visting the training we ventured further into the slums and actually stood in the area where the Constant Gardener was filmed. I got chills thinking back to the bone chilling scenes from the incredible, yet very dark movie. The slums were unbeliveable- the Kibera slums are two square miles in area and have two million people living within the bounds of the slums. Can you imagine?

We ended the day by going to Carnivore for dinner- it's a great restaurant in Nairobi that lives up to it's name by serving every sort of meat you could imagine- including game meat, I tried ostrich, crocodile, lamb, chicken, turkey, beef, pork.... we had about 40 people at the dinner table which was awesome to have everyone together as a group. The day was absolutely amazing. I can't believe that tonight is only my second night... I feel like I've already seen so much, met so many incredible people and learned a ton. After spending a mere 24 hours with this group, the potential of this student delegation is very apparent.