On the Road Again

Sorry we did not have internet to upload this entry, but we are now post-safari and back to the grind. More updates to come from Mombasa.

July 24, 2012

We just finished our time in Kisumu and got a first hand experience driving on a Chinese road construction project! The road from Nakuru to Kisumu is being built by at least three different Chinese firms and during our trip, we bounced along on it for several hours. Though the experience was less than pleasant, we did discover the actual locations of a few Chinese firms and added an additional one we did not know about to our list. Overall a hard way to achieve success!

While in Kisumu we rode bicycles around the entire city. We found the branch offices of Lifan Motors and Foton East Africa, both of which we already interviewed in Nairobi. We also discovered that Sinohydro is working on a huge flyover road project in Kisumu, which is to be completed next year. Unfortunately we were not able to meet with anyone from Sinohydro while in Kisumu, but it was good to see their site and add another project to the list.

We are going to be spending a few days on Safari in Tanzania and will not have internet access. Our next update will be from Mombasa, where we will be looking at the ports and interviewing some of the companies' coastal affiliates.

Thanks for following our adventures!

Kyla and Mollie

Roadwork we drove through!

Research Update

July 15^th

Two weeks into our research trip we have completed 6 interviews—in construction with China Wu Yi, China Road and Bridge, and Dalian, and in manufacturing with Beiqi Foton Motors, FAW East Africa, and BMG with Tiger and LiFun motorcycles.

We have interviewed two of the most prominent construction firms, but still need to get appointments with other big players—Shengli, Sinohydro, COVEC, CATIC, Zhongmei and so on. We have leads on several of the companies—it is shockingly difficult to get working phone numbers and email addresses for companies, let alone addresses for physical sites. But things are progressing well.

However, all of the “manufacturers” we have looked at have been mainly assembly rather than actual manufacturing. We have scheduled an appointment for next week with Aucma, which is an electronics manufacturer, where we think they actually manufacture things.

There seems to be a great deal of overlap in terms of the people who work at these Chinese firms. Chinese and Kenyans both move between Chinese construction firms, and the main investor in Beiqi Foton also owns Aucma. Most of the companies arrived in Kenya in the early to mid 2000s, but China Road and Bridge has been here for 30 years—arriving in the early 1980s!

From talking to people seems like the Chinese have had a hand in nearly every significant public infrastructure project in Kenya since 1982. However, we need to find some sort of paper trail to confirm this story.

This next week should be a busy one. We got a list from the Chinese Embassy of 64 companies which work in Kenyan. Some are in tourism, which we are not looking at, and perhaps half of the list lacks a working phone number, but on Monday we are going to call all the numbers we have and try to set up appointments for this week. We are also going out to Kenyatta University to meet with the director of the Confucius Institute there.

When it Rains, it Pours

July 10, 2012

After sending letters, emails, and calling all of the contacts we could find online, we decided it was time to start doing drop-ins to different companies. We knew that several were located in the industrial area behind the railway station, so we hired a very patient taxi driver to take us around.

**We are leaving out specific information about the companies until we verify and obtain approval from the firms that the information is correct.

Stop One: TransAfrica Motors

We knew the parent company of TransAfrica Motors was FAW, a Chinese truck company. We circled the industrial area a few times, since there are no addresses or directions to ANY locations in Kenya, but finally we found it. It seemed to be a showroom, but we walked up to the counter and told the receptionist our story. She found someone we could talk to, and we were able to conduct our first interview. Though we could not obtain all the information we needed, we were provided contact information for the boss, who we will call tomorrow. We did figure out the relationship between FAW, Beiqi Foton Motors, TransAfrica Motors, and Kenya Vehicle Motors, so that was a plus.

 Stop Two: BMG Holdings

While we were driving out of the industrial park, we saw a small sign that said LiFan. It sounded Chinese so we decided to check it out. We had no idea what we were in store for! First, the original awning that has the company name on it looked abandoned. There were two guards standing near the next building so we asked them if people ever come to the facility. They laughed and said LiFan was actually across the street in an unmarked building. Go figure! When we entered the compound we were enthusiastically met by one of the managers. We discovered that LiFan was a Chinese company and BMG Holdings was the exclusive distributor of their motorbikes in Kenya. The bikes are brought in pieces to Kenya and BMG actually assembles and then sells them. Not only did this group distribute LiFan motorbikes, but they also distributed Tiger generators, chainsaws, and cement products from China. Two Chinese employees from LiFan in Beijing are stationed at BMG Holdings to oversee the assembly process.

You would think LiFan Motors would be located in this building...

But in reality, it is located here!

Stop 3: KVM (Kenya Vehicle Motors)

Jacob, Mollie, and Kyla at KVM/Beiqi Foton Motors

Kenya Vehicle Motors is located outside Thika Town, which is about a forty minute drive outside Nairobi. To get there, you have to drive on the newly constructed Thika Road (China Wu Yi is the main contractor). We'll talk more about the experience of driving on the road later. After several phone calls to the receptionist, our driver was able to find the factory. We had an appointment with one of the Administrators and he proved to be a vital asset to us. He took us to lunch, walked us through the entire facility (from the paintshop and degreaser, to the body-building and paneling areas), and spent several hours discussing the policies, processes, and experiences of working in the auto industry in Kenya..

Kyla, Mr. Otieno, and Mollie at KVM

KVM is a Kenyan company that was established in 1972 and does CMC assembly of over 200 different vehicles. One of the vehicles they assemble is Beiqi Foton Motors, a Chinese car and truck company. The administrator introduced us to the Beiqi Foton administrator at the plant, a Kenyan engineer hired by Foton. He also provided a wealth of information about the company and even got a ride back to the city from our driver.

Stop 4: China Wu Yi

The last appointment of the day was with the administrator of China Wu Yi, the second largest Chinese construction firm working in Kenya. The men we met with were extremely nice and helpful. After the formal interview, we ate dinner with them for several hours and talked about everything from Kenyan politics, American politics, family values, football supporters, children, entrepreneurial ideas, and the future of China in Kenya. We are now great friends with them and are sure to meet again, as they would like to take us to see their hometowns, meet their wives and children, and even meet Obama's grandmother (one is from the same area). Completing an interview with China Wu Yi is a giant stepping stone because now we can tell other companies that we've spoken with China Wu Yi and they cooperated. It should open many doors for us in the coming weeks!

China Wu Yi Plaza site

Fun things of note:

-Thika Road is a twelve lane highway but most of the walking bridges are not complete. As such, there are crosswalks in the middle of the road (with no lights), so mass amounts of people, including hoards of schoolchildren, walk across twelve lanes of highway, no problem.

-Fun signs on the roads: Amazing Funeral Parlor, Marriage Experience Center, God Dwells Here Estate Apartments, Welcome to Thika Town: The Birmingham of Kenya

-The music on the radio is hilarious. Songs we heard today on Classic Rock: “I Want to Know What Love Is,” several Backstreet Boys hits, Patsy Cline, Jackson Five, “Rhythm of the Night,” and many Celine Dion classics including the Titanic theme song.  

An (Almost) Interview

July 9th

Today we almost interviewed our first Chinese company.

This morning while Mollie took an Swahili tutorial to brush-up on her language skills, I called the various phone numbers we managed to find for 10 different Chinese companies. Some of these numbers were from their websites, some from the public records of construction bids, some from posts advertising jobs at the firms, and some we got from Chinese people we've spoken to.

Of the 10 companies I called, 3 of them had disconnected the numbers we'd found, 3 were busy or not picking up (we called them back later and connected with some... more on that), and 4 I actually talked to.

Of the 4 I spoke with, 1 wanted more information before she would give me an address or name or information, so we emailed our letters of introduction and information about our project. 2 were drapery sellers (likely import focused, but we want to check and see if they make anything locally) and were happy to have us come by their main shop anytime. And 1 was a Chinese state-owned construction company where a really helpful Kenyan man gave us directions to their office and said we could come by today to chat. It looked like our first interview was a go!

We packed up our things and walked up to where the office was located. After a bit of wandering, we found the place—a construction site for a new residential building the company is making. The Kenyan man was very welcoming, and we could see both Kenyan and Chinese workers building on the site. The man gave us a sales flyer about the site and the name and number of an administrator who could answer our questions. We talked to the Chinese manager, who had been in Kenyan 5 years, but he was very firm that only the administrator could answer our questions. The Kenyan man pointed us in the right direction, and, after chatting with a middle aged Chinese construction worker from Xi'an who had been working in Kenya for a year and was heading home soon, we set out around the corner to their headquarters.

The headquarters turned out to be a residential complex where it looked like the mid-level personnel stay, with one or two apartments possibly used as offices. There were some Kenyan businessmen standing and chatting with large rolls of plans, and a young Chinese man chatting with two Kenyan drivers, but the man we were to meet was out and his phone busy. We chatted with one of the drivers and the young Chinese man briefly—the driver had worked for the Chinese company for 5 years, and said the Chinese weren't any different from other employers, just their English was harder to understand at first; the young man was from Hunan and, after hearing I worked in Nanjing, told me that the local weather there was a furnace, Kenya's weather was better and London had great weather—and then were shown out of the compound. We got in touch with the administrator a few hours later, and of course he was free right then, which was when we were getting ready to go eat dinner in our hostel a ways away.

Ah, the never ending glamor of research!

But now we have an appointment tomorrow with the administrator who can hopefully answer our questions. Fingers crossed, our first interview will truly take place—tomorrow!

Meetings Meetings Meetings

Yesterday we had several productive meetings with various actors in our research chain. In the morning we met with Sa Dequan, the director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi. He has been in Kenya about six years and clearly had a lot of clout in the Kenyan-Chinese community. The Confucius Institute is very interesting because it was the first government-to-government exchange program in Africa and it offers Kenyans courses in Chinese language, culture, and exchange.  He provided us phone numbers for contacts at some of the larger Chinese firms as well as for Han Jun, the Chairman of the Kenya Overseas Chinese Association, China General Chamber of Commerce in East Africa, and China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Nation Reunification in Eastern Africa (what a title!). We are in the process of setting up meetings with each of the contacts for next week. Also, we arranged to attend one of the Chinese courses to talk to Kenyan students next Wednesday. All in all, a victory of a day.

Interestingly, Susan, the receptionist, gave us a lot of candid information while we waited for Sa to arrive. She is Kenyan and had been to China twice on exchange, once for one month and once for six months. She said most students take the courses to get a leg up in their career and Chinese is the quickest way to do that in Kenya. She also flat out said "they [the Chinese] want to make it [Kenya] their second home." Susan thought the Chinese presence was not good for Kenya because she said most Kenyans do not realize that the quality the Chinese provide in the U.S. and Europe is not the same they bring to Kenya and it is not fair because Kenyans cannot go and open businesses in China. I think we are going to ask her out for coffee sometime next week and talk to her more about her experiences. 

If that wasn't enough, we attended a happy-hour with a Wellesley alum who currently works in the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. She was very fun, energetic, and reminded me a lot of my Aunt Annie Laurie. Her husband, sister, and another friend who works for the state department all came, enthusiastically giving us tips and support. It will be wonderful to have another American connection here, particularly when we travel to other places in Kenya. 

Kyla, Sa Dequan, and Mollie at the Confucius Institute, University of Nairobi 

Let's play the question game:

1) Roughly, how many Chinese people are permanently living in Kenya (more than a few months)?

Answer: 20,000, half of which live in the Nairobi area. Other large groups live in Mombasa, Kisumu, and Nakuru.

2)  How many Confucius Institutes are located in Kenya?

Answer: Two: University of Nairobi has a government-to-government program and Kenyatta University has a university-to-university program.

3) Where do many of the Chinese construction contractors live?

Answer: In the same compound as U.S. Embassy staff.

Thanks for reading! Check out our new pictures :)

Nairobi: Day 4, Making Meetings!

Success!

We now have meetings scheduled with Chinese academics in Nairobi!

Tomorrow we will meet with Sa Dequan, the director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi.  We had some trouble getting through to him via email, but managed to chat with him on the phone.  We are going to meet tomorrow in downtown Nairobi.

We also talked to Pang Hui this morning, the former Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at Kenyatta University, who said his car was broken and his internet down.  He called us back about 10 minutes ago wanting to meet right now, but by the time we would reach where he was, he would be busy.  So we are going to try to schedule a meeting tomorrow afternoon.  He talked about getting a group of lecturers together and helping us find a Chinese lecturer to help us translate.

We will let you all know how it goes!

For the rest of the evening, we are cooking American food with the staff of our guesthouse to (belatedly) celebrate US Independence Day!

Tutanana!

Nairobi: Days 2 & 3

Happy 4th of July from Kenya!

We have had a very productive first few days--really hit the ground running!

Yesterday we went to the city center, to look at a potential new place to stay.  We didn't find the hostel, but we did scout out a lot of useful government buildings--the Bureau of Statistics, the Central Bank, lots of offices for planning and licensing bureaus!  The streets downtown are very congested, and the air thick with exhaust fumes and dust.  There is a lot of security around the downtown as well; not surprising, as it houses the important ministries and business centers.

We eventually found the hostel at one of the 3 different addresses listed online.  Apparently people don't really have addresses in Kenya, just PO Boxes and often more descriptive than functional street listings.  I have a feeling we will spend a good amount of time wandering around areas where we know Chinese business offices should be, trying to locate them.  But, the good news is we have a nice, safe, central place to stay walking distance from where we think most Chinese companies are headquartered.  We move there on Sunday.

We also were able to locate online a lot of the Chinese companies whose names we have seen on various construction projects around town.  We have addresses for some, phone numbers for more, and emails for nearly all, which is great.  Tomorrow we are sending letters of introduction describing our project and giving our credentials; we will follow up with emails, calls and hopefully visits! Most of the companies we have found are construction and engineering firms, as well as over half a dozen restaurants and a few wholesale fabric/drapery shops.  Its more difficult to find out about the manufacturing firms, we may end up hiring a taxi for a day and just driving around the industrial areas and stopping at any Chinese firms we spot.

We spent Independence Day resting (still feeling the altitude, time change, and travel tiredness a bit), putting together our letters for the companies, and doing more online research. Tomorrow we hit the ground again, mailing letters and perhaps passing out some cards to people we meet in the local upscale malls.

Wish us luck!

Hot Pot!

Success! Walking down the main stretch on Ngong Road we see a sign in Chinese: Little Sheep Hot Pot. After knocking on the door for a few minutes, it is answered by Josephine, a lovely Kenyan worker that ended up befriending us. She leads us into the compound, past a small bar filled with Chinese liquor, and into the main dining room. Immediately Kyla strikes up a conversation in Chinese and we are an instant hit with the owner and his wife. At this point, it is clear we will be staying for lunch, even though it is too early in the day for traditional hot pot. Kyla continues to speak in Chinese and after a few hours (while eating) we discover they are from Jiangsu and have been in Kenya for about 15 years. Their daughter does not speak Chinese very well but is extremely friendly when she finds out we are students. After a slight mishap with some Kenyan soldiers, chicken and the bill, we exchange business cards and head off. Josephine secretly passed us her number as well, and we think it might be interesting to talk to her in the future about how she found employment there. The driveway has many fancy sportscars and several Chinese men entered throughout our time there to eat. It appeared that at least three Kenyan women worked there as well.

We headed back down Ngong Road to look at apartments near the Yaya Center and lo-and-behold: Chinese business men everywhere! By everywhere, I mean 3, but that is still a lot. We spy on a few and hear them discussing frozen fruit transportation. Too bad we did not bring our introduction letters today, as we thought it was going to be a housing-search kind of day. We can re-stalk at another time.

As we keep walking, we pass a young Chinese woman and a Kenyan woman carrying a Chinese baby. This is a surprise as we expected few women and virtually no children to be settled here. We figure they must live close by since they are walking. We pass by a Chinese wedding photo studio, a sign that young people are getting married and settling in Kenya. The workers there told us they had been in business around five years and provided us the phone number of a contact at Huawei. Score!

Argwings-Khodhek Road is filled with a fully-stocked Chinese grocery, four restaurants, and the Chinese Super Garage...the first "industrial" place we've seen. We exchange business cards in each place and feel satisfied with our China hunt for the day.

Unfortunately our sidetracking made the housing search less productive, but overall it was a successful day!

Be sure to check out the slideshow for pictures and the Our Research section to view the map. More places and pictures will be added as we go!

Nairobi: Day 1

Hujambo! Hooray! We made it to Nairobi with no problems and are getting our bearings about the city. For me, it is a bit surreal being back as many things are exactly the same. There is much more construction but generally, most of the areas we've been in today are the same. It almost feels as if I never left. We walked around the area I lived in in 2007 and it is amazing how familiar it still feels. G2 cyber cafe is still up and running, but the Squash restaurant is no longer there :( My Swahili is quickly returning, which is a relief as last night I wanted to respond to everyone in Russian! The most intriguing aspect about returning so far is the smell. It is so distinct and instantly jolts you back to the Kenyan way of life.

Our hostel is a bit far out, in the suburb of Karen (named for Karen Blixen who wrote Out of Africa). However it is beautiful and a perfect starting point for our adventures. Lucy and Felix are wonderful hosts and hopefully we can utilize them in the future.

On our way from the airport last night we spotted half a dozen Chinese advertisements and business signs, so things look promising from the beginning. This week we are focusing on making connections and finding a more central apartment. We stopped by the SIT office and left a note, so hopefully we can reconnect with them. We've touched base with some of our other contacts as well, so we are hitting the ground running!

We hope you are all well! Thanks for reading and we will keep updating as we go!

Asante!