In March of this year, the entire One Acre Fund community picked up and moved to an entirely new city in Kenya. Our new home, Kakamega is not far - only about 1.5 hours away from Bungoma. However, it was still a major undertaking to relocate 5 separate offices, 100s of Kenyan head office staff, and 50 odd international head office staff. Not to mention our infrastructure team has been building the new office and many of our houses from scratch over the past 3 years. The move was driven by the location, more central for our future expansion, as well as the rent savings, since we own the land and buildings. Kakamega is a slightly bigger town, though Bungoma's been closing the gap over the past few years. Kakamega still has the distinct advantage of being more or less in a rainforest.
This post is a brief tour of our new office. The first and most noticeable improvement is its size: it's big enough to house the entire Kenya team under one roof. After 3 years working in just 1 of 5 offices in Bungoma, it's great to see how big the Kenya team really is and to interact with lots of new people in the hallways and canteen. And that's the next best thing about this place- we get free daily lunches of simple but tasty Kenyan food provided in a large canteen where it's easy to connect with people you may not interact with often through work. Third best thing about the office is how spacious, light and breezy it is. It was designed with an open floor plan and entire walls that can slide to let in the breeze or keep out the rain as needed. It's a unique building with some nice spaces, sorely needed functionality (like a big amphitheater / training room) and a beautiful setting. It seems like a solid permanent home for One Acre Fund Kenya over the long term, and it's been fun to have the chance to enjoy it.
This post is a brief tour of our new office. The first and most noticeable improvement is its size: it's big enough to house the entire Kenya team under one roof. After 3 years working in just 1 of 5 offices in Bungoma, it's great to see how big the Kenya team really is and to interact with lots of new people in the hallways and canteen. And that's the next best thing about this place- we get free daily lunches of simple but tasty Kenyan food provided in a large canteen where it's easy to connect with people you may not interact with often through work. Third best thing about the office is how spacious, light and breezy it is. It was designed with an open floor plan and entire walls that can slide to let in the breeze or keep out the rain as needed. It's a unique building with some nice spaces, sorely needed functionality (like a big amphitheater / training room) and a beautiful setting. It seems like a solid permanent home for One Acre Fund Kenya over the long term, and it's been fun to have the chance to enjoy it.
(Reception)
(Training hall)
(Canteen)
(Sliding walls)
(My desk)
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