World Fisheries Day....Finally

After the slightly traumatic planning process that had claimed all my attention at IFP for 2 months, World Fisheries Day 2009 finally happened. And somewhat to my surprise, the day itself actually went quite well.

On the 19^th of November, IFP began our workshop that formed part of the celebratory weekend. At this point, the money from the Ministry of Fisheries Development was still in transit from Nairobi to Kisumu and the original budget had been slashed by about two-thirds. We had yet to hear about what, if any, materials had been procured and all attempts to start advertising early through print and radio media had been thwarted by the lack of money. So it was to our great surprise that on our arrival to Usenge on the 21^st that there were banners, tents, a large crowd, cultural dancers, several exhibition stalls, boat racing teams, and important guests.

The greatest surprise of all was that our guest of honor (with about 30 minute’s notice) was the Prime Minister himself! Honorary Raila Odinga arrived in all his glory by helicopter right on the fish landing beach. Samantha and I rushed over as throngs of Kenyans crowded under the blast of wind generated by the chopper’s blades. Embarrassingly, we couldn’t really tell which of the three men that hopped out was in-fact the PM. The next thing we knew, we were walking right beside him and he was reaching out his arm to shake our hands! It is now my firm conviction, based on our white skin and the way he continued to eye us throughout the day, that Mr. Odinga believed we were representing an important foreign development agency. If he only knew we were just the interns of a tiny, ill-functioning NGO. The honorary guest brought quite a thrill to the rest of the day. Although his interest in the event may have been lacking (evidenced by his reading the sports page during some of the other speeches), it was fun to see the grins on everyone’s faces at his presence.

Our 15 seconds of fame: Samantha shaking Raila's hand

Unfortunately, the excitement of the day is a bit tainted by my firm belief that the success of the event had nothing to do with what IFP or I did to plan the celebration. I was attempting to bite my tongue about the inefficient and less-than-punctual way IFP engaged in the planning and fundraising process until after the event. I was really hoping to be proved wrong and shown that the uptight, all-to-rational way Americans prefer to plan things is unnecessary. However, now that the event is all over, I can finally say, “I told you so!”

While the Ministry of Fisheries was able to throw together a very large and successful at the last minute, IFP was largely left out in the end. The magazine that I was largely responsible for creating was never printed due to funding constraints. The media and publicity campaign, including radio interviews and newspaper ads Samantha and I went to great lengths to organize went undone. I spent many frustrating hours designing banner templates that satisfied everyone’s desires. Ultimately, the banners the Ministry had printed completely ignored my designs and didn’t even include IFP’s logo. Since we arrived late with our workshop guests, IFP was not even given an exhibition booth and our brochures weren’t printed. We basically had to beg the MC (another pretentious politician) to allow our chairman to speak for just 5 minutes. The workshop we put on, due to short notice and unsuccessful fundraising attempts, was held in Kisumu instead of Usenge, lacked significant participation by important stakeholders, and functioned almost completely as a separate event.  Sadly, due to poor planning and a bit of bullying, IFP lost an amazing opportunity to really get our name out there.

Nonetheless, I suppose it was a great learning experience for me. I certainly will use a very different approach to any event planning and any partnership with a government agency in Kenya in the future. Maybe the Thanksgiving spirit is making me a bit sentimental, but even though I feel as though most my efforts for the last 2.5 months seem to have been in vain, I am grateful for the opportunity.