On the Road Again....

After one week in DC, I flew to Nairobi, Kenya via Zurich. It was my first time in Zurich and I didn't get to leave the airport...well, maybe on the way home. I arrived in Kenya the evening of Aug 23 and was surprised to find the air fairly cool. Apparently, Nairobi is a little elevated (I haven't looked up the exact height), so it keeps the weather very beautiful. You can find more information about Kenya at (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ke.html) and more about Mercy Corps programs and our emergency response there at www.mercycorps.org. I headed to the hotel and then spent Wednesday in meetings. Not much getting out and checking out Nairobi. : ( But, I have another training there from Sept 5-9, so I hope to be able to get around and see more then. Aug 25, I packed up and checked out of the hotel. After a super brief visit to the MC office, I headed out with one of our drivers, Peter, to drive east towards Garissa (map is on the first page of the CIA World Factbook website). I was a little shocked to see how green and beautiful Kenya and the surrounding areas were. I got a little hungry as we drove by a pineapple plantation (yummmmmy!). But I paid attention as it slowly turned more into a scene like the US southwest. The difference in the landscape between central Kenya and northeastern Kenya were clear! After spending the night in Garissa, one of our drivers from Wajir (reference the map) picked me up to drive the rest of the way to northeastern Kenya. I felt a little guilty as I enjoyed a mini-safari on the way to our office where we are responding to the Horn of Africa drought. I saw probably a dozen giraffe, but didn't think to pull out my camera until afterward...figures. : ) But I made sure to catch the dik dik (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dik-dik), gazelle, ostrich and warthog on camera! I even got the maribu stork. Hope you enjoy the pictures! When my deployment is over, I'm hoping to have a few extra days in Nairobi to enjoy the wildlife opportunities nearby there. If I do, I'll be sure to post more pictures later.


I'll be in Kenya until mid/late Sept supporting our office in setting up our cash programming in order to support people in eastern Kenya to purchase food for their families. Currently, in Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya there are about 12.5 million people affected by the drought and animals that are dying everyday, which is devastating for the people as many of them are pastoralists raising goats, sheep, cattle and camels for income, meat and milk. Our staff have talked to many families who's situations have been getting worse and worse over the last two years. Some have lost children, most have lost someone. Mercy Corps is currently trucking water to vulnerable villages both for families and for the livestock (to try to make sure there is still a livelihoods asset if the rains come). But we are about to start some cash programming. The really frustrating part is that there is food in the stores and markets and available for purchase. But because of the decline in livestock and the rising food prices globally, people can no longer afford to purchase food and they're having to walk farther and farther to find water for the animals. Hopefully, we can help relieve some of the current suffering, but also help find longer-term sustainable programs to reduce vulnerability to disasters like this in the future. I'm looking forward to getting into the field! More to come...

From Libya to Scotland

Ok, well, I haven't updated my blog since April, but as most of you know that's because I was in Libya from April to July to support the start up of our emergency programs there. I posted some blogs to the Mercy Corps website from there, so I didn't post them here. But if you missed them, you can find them at http://www.mercycorps.org/supporters/jillmorehead. So after Libya, I was in DC for about a week and a half before leaving for Scotland. In Scotland, I got to stay in Glasgow and attend a two week training entitled Making Markets Work for the Poor and it is about a sustainable way of effecting change to make markets function more effectively for our beneficiaries, either through advocacy, access to credit or whatever is needed. Our European HQ office is based in Ediburgh, so the first week of August I worked from there and got to meet a bunch of colleagues there, which was great! Edinburgh is amazing. So beautiful! Then I took a long-coming vacation the second week of August to trek around Scotland. It was really fun. I was able to go to a Scotch distillery called Glengoyne. Wasn't really a fan before I went, but now I can appreciate a good scotch. I also went to a bunch of castles...let's see....Dumbarton (on the river Clyde), Sterling, Holyrood House (palace, not castle), and Edinburgh...not to mention the other palaces and castles that we saw from the lake and the road. Supposedly, during the month I was there, there was one of the best weather days since they started recording the weather and one of the wettest. The Thursday before I left Scotland, they received more rain in that day than they usually get in the entire month of August. I, of course, visited the Scottish highlands and Loch Ness as well. No sight of Nessie. We stopped by mountains called the Three Sisters where the British Army was called to carry out the massacre of the MacDonald clan. They were really beautiful and one car had a message to make sure that people are motivated to Save the Earth. I think if this isn't the best reason to become an environmentalist, I don't know what is. ; ) Ok. There was also a Scottish bagpiper there which our tourist guide says was terrible, but I couldn't tell. I liked it anyway. Ok, the last thing I have to say about Scotland (which is awesome, by the way, even with all the rain), is that they have the cutest cows I've ever seen. The Highland Cow used to be black and they are starting to breed more of the black ones now, but when the Queen said that she wanted to see Highland Cows that were a golden browny color, they made sure to breed the cows to her liking. Personally, I just love their shaggy hair! Sooo cute!! After Scotland...one week in DC and then off to northeastern Kenya for famine response and another training....stay tuned....