KMFRI

Staying at a Christian based hotel, many mission groups from throughout the world stay here when doing work in Africa. Being at a hotel, it’s a little hard to walk up to random tables to join so I end up sitting by myself for meals. Last night at dinner, a woman from Arkansas introduced herself to me and invited me to eat dinner with them the following night. The woman was really friendly. This morning in the middle of getting ready for the day, my phone rang. I found this strange because who would be calling my hotel phone in Kenya? Turns out, the lady I had met last night had not seen me at breakfast and had gotten worried; she was just checking in to make sure I was okay. It’s good to know that even half way around the world Americans are looking out for one another.

This morning I arrived at KMFRI to be greeted by Miriam’s fellow office mates. The room in which they worked was quite small. I squeezed into a desk in the corner. Miriam began the morning by giving me a quick presentation on KMFRI. KMFRI is divided into multiple research programs including aquaculture, environmental ecology, socio economics, fisheries, natural products, and information and database management. Miriam explained how each of the different components are linked. She works in aquaculture and although I didn’t see her lab I heard her one the phone talking about different fish feeds. Miriam also explained to me how the Kenyan government would like to make aquaculture a big industry, especially in rural areas, but this cannot be done due to the high cost associated with starting up.

Throughout the morning, I visited other researchers in KMFRI. The first stop was Dr. Bernerd Fulanda who works in marine ecology and fisheries. He talked with me about the field research they have going on about commercial trawling off of the coast. This practice has been banned on a majority of the Kenyan coast due to declining fish populations. Many of the concepts I had learned about in environmental science came in handy as he discussed bycatch and other related terms. Dr. Fulanda also talked on how many of the rural fishermen are having troubles catching enough fish for even subsistence use. I also learned a lot about the different masters and doctorate programs students come to Kenya for. Once I was finished talking with Dr. Fulanda, I was tasked with finding my way back to Miriam’s office. New to the campus, it took me walking down a few random halls to find my way. She then took me to a scientist doing work on mangroves in Kenya. Having done some work on mangroves in the past, I found the reasons for diminishing mangrove areas in Kenya quite fascinating and different from other areas of the world. The researcher explained to me many of the rural communities used the mangrove trees to create their homes or burn as firewood because of the strength and support these trees provided. Little do the people know, as they use the mangroves for their homes, they are diminishing the surrounding fish populations since mangroves serve as a fish nursery. Earthwatch, a travel group I have had some experience with, currently has a project with KMFRI further south in the mangroves. I was really surprised to see maps of the many mangroves on the Kenyan coastline. Programs are working on community capacity building so people stop using the valuable trees. However, if there isn’t a solution for the people, their ways are not going to change, even if the security of their food is at risk.

I was taken back to the hotel for lunch and randomly joined by a lady looking to plan her son’s wedding here. I’m not really sure why she joined me as there were plenty of open tables, and when her friend joined as well, they didn’t speak to me or in a language I could understand, for that matter. I was really confused, and finished my lunch quickly. I headed back to KMFRI where I attended a seminar on microbiology in the ocean. Many of the concepts were way past my education level. I did understand why microbiology was so important to study—much of the ocean has millions of microorganisms living in it. I do have to admit, the view of the ocean outside of the window did make concentrating tougher than usual. My first day at KMFRI was a success with a store of knowledge gained. Being here with food insecurity issues in mind, I continually see connections between many components that lead to food insecurity. Every little part of a community is interlinked and with a missing piece or a falling of a domino, everything seems to go array—including a community’s ability to have another meal.