Returning from Kenya in November last year, I’m back in the US working to provide insight and strategy on Monitoring & Evaluation systems in Kenya and soon to be Ethiopia.

Living in sunny Santa Barbara, I have the luxury of being able to visit the Ellwood Monarch Butterfly Preserve which is the overwintering site of thousands of monarch butterflies.  The butterflies, up to about 50,000 this year in count, come here each winter from November until March or so.  Without their migration, the butterflies wouldn’t be able to survive.  It is through coordination, teamwork, tireless efforts and a magical innate drive that allows them to be able to survive. Continue Reading…

Posted from Santa Barbara, California, United States.

However informative training is, it always leaves me (and I think all my Nuru colleagues) feeling like we sure do have a lot of work to do.

I am down in Southern California after three days up in the Bay Area where I attended a training session organized by Lindsay Cope and attended by a group of eight Nuru people. Thomas Hong, Matt Lee, myself, Jamie Frederick, Jake, Lindsay Cope, Chelsea Barabas, and Radhika Warrier were all trained for three days by Bonnie Kittle on Qualitative Research, Barrier Analysis, Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, and a few other topics. Those are big topics to cover in such a short time, but Bonnie rolled with it and covered them all. She has been doing development work all over the world since the early seventies, so for every scenario we discussed, Bonnie had a first-hand example or story to share with us. That part of our training was incredibly helpful. It not only helped us further understand the concepts she was presenting, but made us feel like we could actually accomplish the complex tasks we were learning about. Bonnie gave us confidence. Continue Reading…

Posted from Palo Alto, California, United States.