My First Hire

Big news in the water/sanitation program-I made my first hire! Lucas is now the water/sanitation community development committee (CDC) representative. I'm really excited about Lucas officially being part of the team!

(You can read about details on how the CDC works on our website http://www.nuruinternational.org/).

For those of you who have been following, you know that Lucas has been a key volunteer since day 1, helping Janine with health care stuff me with the water/sanitation program, and that over the past month, Lucas and I have walked many, many miles together. If you're new to Safari Magi: Lucas is a kind, hard-working, well respected (he was a top pick for sub-chief, the second layer of local leadership here), well known (everyone we pass knows his name and is always delighted to see him) family man (he has a wife and 2 very smart daughters) with a background in community health and nursing.

Lucas was born and raised in Kuria. When I asked how long he thought he'd be in Kuria, he simply responded,

"This is my home."

As in, Are you kidding me, Nicole, I'm here for good. I needed to ask the question, and his answer was exactly what I was looking for.

Sidenote: Lucas also happens to be extraordinarily poor.

Although Lucas volunteers at a school and very other places in the community, it's hard to find paying work and get food on the table every night. And this is a smart, capable, very motivated guy we're talking about. Last week, he had no idea how he was going to pay for his daughters' school fees. Just in time (the kids get yanked from school if the fees aren't paid) he was able to pay it, because of his new job with Nuru.

Anyways, although Lucas doesn't currently know all the ins and outs of water resources (I'm training him), he has managed to lead me to over 50 water collection points (this is a huge area!) with no map. And, very impressively, he never made a mistake and brought me to the same place twice. The man knows his community. And his health and sanitation training is a key element that perfectly fills out my knowledge gaps. We're a great team!

As I write this, Lucas is out in the field getting his feet wet (couldn't resist) with the GPS unit, completing the data collection task that we started together. He's also gathering critical information on local supplies for potential solutions this week. This is fantastic, because it frees me up to manage the program and do a bit of engineering. And, he'll be the instructor for our upcoming water/sanitation class, where 50 water/sanitation representatives will be trained in the basic principles and prevention. These reps will then go back and train their Nuru groups of about 10 people. The 10 people will then share their knowledge with their families...ultimately impacting around 2,000 Kurians.

Lucas taking a rare break. We waited out the rain one day with this family and they insisted on serving us sweet potatoes and chai.

This empowerment stuff is thrilling! I am grateful to be actually doing it and not just talking about it. Lucas will be here when we leave along with the rest of the CDC, and that gets me excited!