Pilot Project Progress Part 6: To The Market And Beyond

We're moving forward with the pilot project again! Just before we left Kenya in December we met with the pilot group to synthesize all the information that had been collected and organized during the previous meetings. We compiled the knowledge they shared about crops, about markets, and about production factors (things like suitability of certain crops, quality and quantity demanded at the market, perishability and other risk factors, etc.) to enable the group to select 5 crops they would like to study in the market. After a good discussion, the group voted on watermelons, green grams (legumes), rice, tomatoes, and corn. So last week in our first meeting of the new year, we began working with the farmers to make plans for studying the market and getting more information on the production costs of each of those crops.

First Michael reviewed the overall plan of the project by explaining the "Five Footsteps" in the process. The first step is to Discover what the farmers already know about their land, about their community, about farming, and about business (that's what we've been doing up until now). The second step (where we are now) is to Study the Market. Third is to Make a Business Plan, fourth is to Link the farmers with the needed agricultural experts, farming suppliers, and financial institutions in order for them to carry out their business plan, and fifth and last is, of course, to Do the Work: to actually plant, harvest, market, and sell a crop collectively.

We've hinted at this in previous blog posts, but we really are trying to do something different with this pilot project. The "something different" is explored and explained well in The Nazareth Manifesto by Duke University professor Sam Wells. He describes 3 "Styles of Engagement" when working with people of a different racial or socio-economic class. We as an organization are trying to transition out of the first of these tiered styles, the "doing for" style. Sometimes this style is necessary; Wells gives the example of doctors, firefighters, attorneys, and other professionals who have skills, education, and resources that other people need, and thus they are able to provide a service for those that do not have those same resources (anyone who is sick, or who is stuck in a burning building, or who needs legal counsel). Though it may be a necessary style of engagement at times, however, Wells points out that the "'working for' model perpetuates relationships of inequality." The "doing for" style is the mentality that there are "have" people in the world, and there are "have not" people, and the "haves" are responsible to identify and rectify the deficiencies of the "have nots."

We are trying in this pilot project, to move towards Wells' second style of engagement, the "doing with" model. This model says, "You know and understand certain things about the world. I know and understand certain things about the world. If we work together and both bring our experiences and knowledge, then we can do more and go further than if we just did it on our own." It's a way of doing development work that makes relationships necessary, because only when we are in relationships can we really begin to think and plan and dream together about what God has for us and our communities. "It involves. . . surrendering some of one's own autonomy and sense of power in being able to identify what needs to be done and take steps to make a difference." It's a way of doing life that reflects the belief that every person is an image bearer of God, and that each of us has skills, abilities and creativity to steward the world that God has given us to care for.

At Thursday's meeting, and at all of our meetings, it would be easier, more convenient, maybe more efficient, to make a plan and share with the farmers what we've already decided to do. But there are lots of reasons why we don't want to do it that way. For the principled reasons that we believe that each person has something to bring to the table by virtue of them being image bearers, and also for the very practical reason that when people decide to do something and they know that they are able and responsible to make it happen, they are more likely to think through all the logistics and actually carry out their intended plan. We want this group's project to be their project, going in the direction they believe their community should go, and we want to walk with them in all of it.

After Michael spoke about the overall project plan, Beth led the discussion by raising a series of topics that needed to be addressed before the farmers can begin conducting the market survey. They decided that six elected members of the group will serve as the "marketing team," and will go with Beth to visit 4 different markets that they think will give them the best information, and they will use a uniform market survey to interview various brokers and retailers. They also formed a budget that included cost of transport to the markets, lunch for marketing team members on the days they are doing the survey, and the cost of printing and copying the survey. This coming Thursday they will vote for the six marketing team members, and then we will establish the questions that should be on the survey and begin scheduling days to go the different markets, hopefully starting next week. In this past meeting, it was so obvious that the group making the plan was so much better than us making the plan for them. They thought of things we hadn't thought of, they decided on the numbers and timing in ways that are doable for them, and they got excited about carrying out the plan that they made for themselves.

Doing the marketing survey will hopefully accomplish several tasks: meeting and getting contact information for possible buyers, learning about market demand and price fluctuations of the different crops, and observing the pros and cons of each specific marketplace that the group is studying. While the marketing team is working from that end, 2 other farmers will be working with Michael and I on figuring out the production costs of each of the 5 possible crops. We will be visiting the local branch of the Ministry of Agriculture to get information on best practices for growing all 5 crops so that the group has a good idea of what each crop will cost to produce. With those two sets of information (from the market survey and from the Ministry of Agriculture), the marketing team will then come together, share and organize the data, determine the approximate profitability for each crop, and report their findings back to the entire group.

The group (and of course we as well) want to be able to do all of this - the marketing surveys, the production cost study, the synthesizing of the information, and the reporting back to the group - by the end of February. This, we believe, is a doable though difficult target. Please pray for the marketing team, for Beth, and for us that we would do diligent and good work as we are in a critical stage of the project. Pray that we would get accurate information from many resources so that the group is able to make a good decision on what, how, when, and how much they should grow. And pray that we as an organization really will continue to learn and live the "doing with" model.

The third style of engagement, as you may have guessed, is yet another challenge to us as an organization, and also to Michael and I personally. Wells calls it the "being with" model, which is not just about bringing everyone's skills and abilities and knowledge to the table, but it's actually about being with people, not just when needs are there, or when work is there. It's about living life together, "hanging out," living in intentional community with others who are different from us. Wells asks the question, "What would we do if there was no fixing that had to happen? If everything was alright?" The answer: we'd probably hang out! We'd be together. But why would we wait till everything is done? Why would we wait to live life with people fully and completely, vulnerably and openly, until the hard stuff is finished? This is a difficult challenge that Wells poses, and one that Michael and I are working through what it means in our own life. We would love you to be praying for us in this, and we'd love to interact with all of you about it. It makes me uncomfortable and nervous, but it also excites me, because I think the "being with" model might be hitting on God's call for us to show the world who, and whose, we are by loving each other.

Another prayer request: this Saturday, Michael and I will be meeting with a Krishna follower (one tradition of Hinduism) to talk about our faith. This young man was giving away Krishna literature in a grocery store one day, Michael talked to him for a while and read the book that the man gave him. Now we get to see him again, and he seems very excited about talking with us. So please be praying for this young man, and for us, that we would have proper sensitivity and boldness in talking with him about Jesus.

Love,
Rebecca