Tuktuk, Minibus, Motorbike, Walk: Tracking in Western Kenya by Felipe Dizon

I am with Merceline today, one of our field staff. It’s 8:30am: she packs up her rucksack and grabs some rain boots. She is off to find Caroline—to sit and talk with her for a couple of hours.

We first take a tuktuk: a motorized three-wheeled vehicle. The driver and a man with crutches are sitting up-front, while four of us are squeezed in the back. Then, we get on a minibus—and have back row seats, ugh. It has 12 actual seats, but with a whole lot of squeezing and the use of makeshift wooden planks, there are now 16 people “sitting” in this minibus.

Then, we get on motorbikes. Despite the fact that the sky was clear, each person heading into the villages had rain boots on. They stare at me oddly, “No rain boots? It rained heavily yesterday.” I say that it will be fine. We get on the motorbikes and ride into the village. The dirt roads quickly turned into mud roads. And the mud roads quickly turned impassable.

So, we walk in the mud and cross some streams under the almost-noon Kenyan sun. With the help of people in the village we finally find Caroline’s mud house. She welcomes us into her home—she had been expecting us. They sit themselves under the shade; Merceline switches on her laptop and begins conducting the interview with Caroline.

This is the 15^th time this year that we have had to make this trip to visit Caroline. She is 1 of 600 vulnerable women who are part of a rigorous evaluation of a new simple savings product; one that we hope will help these women cover small emergency expenses.

These women are scattered over 90 villages in Western Kenya, and some have also migrated to far-flung places across Kenya. Our field staff track down these people: all part of getting the right answers to what we believe are crucial questions.