The Moth - Planting Roots: Andrew Mude

Episode Date: May 28, 2021

This week, a story about losing and finding home with a story from The Moth's Global Program. This episode is hosted by Jon Goode.  Storyteller: Andrew Mude

Attention Houston! You have listened to our podcast and our radio hour, but did you know the Moth has live storytelling events at Wearhouse Live? The Moth has opened Mike's storytelling competitions called Story Slams that are open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night's theme. Upcoming themes include love hurts, stakes, clean, and pride. GoodLamoth.org forward slashon to experience a live show near you. That's theMoth.org-FordslashHuston. Welcome to the Moth Podcast. I'm your host for this week John Good. This week we have a story from the Moth's global program about home and how complicated that word can be. For me personally, for most of my life, home was Richmond, Virginia,

and more specifically the house I grew up in on the south side of Richmond. That was home. Then, at some point I realized that actually what home was for me was my mother. Wherever my mother was, that was home. Then I got a bit older, graduated high school, went off to college, and college felt a lot like home. My dorm room, the friends I had made, the community I had created, felt like home to me. Graduated college moved to Atlanta, Georgia home with the Limit Pepper Wings, all flats fried hard. And Atlanta felt like home,

lemon pepper wings always felt like home. I met a very nice young lady, we got married, and she became home wherever she was, was home for me. The marriage did not work out, as half of marriages in America do not. And did not discover the most important thing that actually home was wherever I was, that the most consistent thing in all of these places

I considered home was me. And if I could just accept that I was home, then I could never lose home again. Our story this week is from Andrew Mude. Andrew told this story at a global community showcase in partnership with the Aspen Institute's new voices fellowship. The theme that night in Washington, D.C. was front lines. Here's Andrew. Live at the mall.

Applause It was a hot but breezy morning in mid-January of 2010. We went in Marciabitown, a small dusty mountain oasis amidst the sprawling, average rangelands of Marciabit district in northern Kenya. We went to church that was filled to the rafters with local leaders and curious community members who must have had from the radio or the well oil grapevine that there was a livestock insurance program that was about to be launched and that would be graced by dignitaries that are quite rare in this remote rural town. Up on the podium in the front of the church were the VIPs. Those are the Minister of Livestock,

the local member of Parliament, the Director General of my home institute, the CEO of Insurance Company, and a couple others waiting to make their remarks. My team and I were sat on the front row, an honor for spearheading the research and development program that gave rise to this Livestock Insurance initiative. But we had done our work. And so we're sitting back and waiting for the show to carry on. And I already started daydreaming about the after party.

My colleagues and I had set up. You know, we would go and pat ourselves on the back, exhale, have a good time. And the next morning we would pack our bags and head back to the city in Nairobi. On the mic was a CEO of Kenya's fastest growing bank and the agent for the insurance product. He was a master of ceremony and so he launches right into the event. Welcome he says. I'm very excited to be here in front of you to bring for you this product that we believe

is going to solve some of the main challenges that you have as a community. We know here that livestock is so important for you. It's the main source of nutrition for your kids. It's the main source of income for school and many of your other needs. But we know that year after year, you live in fear of the regular droughts that come and wipe away this asset.

And you have to start all over again. And so with this livestock insurance program, we'll give you a chance to be compensated when you have this loss, to help you get up and recover quite quickly. But more, he says, I am proud because this product that I'm bringing is a product that was designed and developed by a son of this area. Andrew, it looks over to me. Please, come on stage and welcome the community and explain to them in local language what it is that you have brought to them. Local language. Someone must have told the CEO that I was from Marcebit,

but they forgot a crucial fact that I didn't know the local language. I hadn't grown up there, but my parents were born in Marcebit, both of them. They grew up there. But they were fortunate to be amongst the first to be schooled in the area by missionaries. When schooling was still a novel concept,

and actually the first boy and girl in the area to finish high school, and they moved to Nairobi, they went to college, they fell in love, got married, got jobs, had kids, you know, the typical middle class trajectory. Then my dad, he became a diplomat, and at the age of nine, we left the country. And for the next decade, we traveled four different countries across four different continents, and I graduated high school one way,

the United Arab Emirates, and then I came here to the United States, actually attended Gettysburg College, not far from here. And when I graduated there, I moved to Obstet, New York, Cornell University, where I got my PhD. And then I was done. I was tired of all this moving and migrating.

I was tired of not having a place in which I had memories that span for more than a couple years amongst a familiar people in the same place. And so I decided it was time to move back to Nairobi. And I was lucky because I got a job as a junior scientist at the International Lifestyle Research Institute. It was great because my dad had just retired. They had moved back most of my siblings while in Nairobi.

So it was great as a place to go back and really put down my roots. And I went back and this crazy thing happens. The first assignment I get leads me right to the heartland of my roots to Marciabit town. And I was excited to go and that it was temporary because Marciabit is harsh country. It's far difficult to get to infrastructure deficient,

not many roads, if any. And the population, the livestock hiding population, that's there, they spend many weeks of a year traveling lost long distances in search of water and forage for their livestock. And well, I would have to track them as a researcher to understand what their challenges were, but I was excited, I was young, I was adventurous, and you know really this gave me an opportunity to go back

to my roots, to learn where we came from and where my parents grew up and got reacquainted with my relatives. And now here I am in the church, a day that's supposed to be triumphant and my vulnerability is exposed. You know, in this part of the world, ethnicity and its language is a really fundamental part of identity. You know, it is, you know, how you break the ice, how you tell stories, how you get deep. And here I am trying to reconnect, trying to get back to my roots, and I'm lacking this critical source of legitimacy. And this key to the people's hearts. And so I'm getting close to the microphone.

And all of a sudden, the heat, it's like the breeze that was previously flowing in through the rafters had abandoned me, or had paused waiting to see what would happen. And not blessed with any hair on my head, I really had nothing to hold back the rapidly gathering sweat on my temple. I'm at the mic and I've grabbed it. I have to think of something to say. Daddo, I say, Daddo, the community responds. I relax a bit because in this part of the country, the greetings are a series of answer response pairs. So at least I know I can engage the crowd.

I know I can engage the crowd. Babaro, I say, Babaro, they respond. Dagini San Badada, Badad, Kisan Badad. Well, that's it. That's all I know. And they silence, an extended silence, a bit of muttering in the crowd. And so finally, I have to fess up. And sorry, I say, I hope you allow me to address you

in English. You know, like the members of this community that my parents also migrated in search of opportunity. But they went a bit too far, crossing the oceans and the mountains. And in the process, we did lose some things. And as you can see, I lost a language. But at least we didn't lose the way back home. And in coming home, I have brought you something that I hope at least will compensate for the loss in language.

And as I looked out to the church, the congregation, and I could see some of my aunts and aunties amongst the community members, the dignitaries, my team, I felt myself reaching out for a source of identity that was beyond language. I find myself really wanting to communicate to them, how valuable their lives were to me, and how important their welfare was. And so without really realizing it or understanding what the implications were, I made a promise to commit to them. And I said, you know, this thing we bring to you, I'll keep coming back and we'll make sure that it makes the difference that we think it will. And we'll learn more about you and

understand your issues so that we can be better in the products we bring to your service. Now, several, about eight years later, I can say that I've been going back to Marcibit quite regularly. It's a lot more regularly than I would ever imagine. Marcibit ended up becoming the anchor or the laboratory of my work, my team's work, and the people, the pastoralist hardest, became the focal point of our work.

That day, that day at the church meant a difference to me. I think it made me a more impactful scientist because I became more intimately involved with the community that was my focus. And more than that, I think I can now say with confidence and with pride that I have a place I can call home. APPLAUSE That was Andrew Mude.

Andrew has nearly 15 years of experience as a scientist, program manager and practitioner in development economics. Andrew currently works at the African Development Bank, where he continues to build technology and financial systems to create real change to agriculture in Africa. Andrew was also the 2016 recipient of the Norman Boralog Award for Field Research and Application, which recognizes exceptional science-based achievement in international agriculture and food production by an individual under 40. We followed up with Andrew to hear about the years since his story.

Here's Andrew. We followed up with Andrew to hear about the years since his story. Here's Andrew. So my story was said about 10 years ago now. So much has happened since that hot, generally morning in Northern Kenya. And while I still have a way to go before I can claim command of the language, my sense of identity is more certain in my engagement with the community more familial and at ease Certainly my work much more impact oriented than people centered and I believe it otherwise would have been

So that perhaps that's why I was comfortable and finally moving further afield almost 12 years after I settled back home in Kenya I guess once a nom Matt, always I know Matt. So together with my wife and two kids, we now live in Abijan, Kodavwa, where we moved in January 2019, so I could take up a position at the African Development Bank. My passion remains, and I believe will always remain in agriculture. So ten years hence, I hope to have plenty more stories of community impact and transformation to share. That was Andrew Mude. You can learn more about the Moths Global Program on our website themoth.org slash global dash community. That's all for this week.

Until next time, from all of us here at the month, have a story worthy week. John Good is the regular host of the Moth Story Slim in Atlanta and an Emmy nominated writer raised in Richmond, Virginia. John's debut novel, Midas, is available now wherever you purchase your books. This episode of The Moth Podcast was produced by me, Julia Purcell, with Sarah Austin Genes,

Sarah Jane Johnson, and Recording Help from Tiffany Good. Andrew Mude's story was directed by Larry Rosen. The rest of The Moth's leadership team includes Catherine Burns, Sarah Haberman, Jennifer Hickson, Meg Bulls, Kate Tellers, Jennifer Birmingham, Marina Klucce, Suzanne Rust, Brandon Grant, Inga Godowski, and Aldi Kaza. Moth stories are true as remembered and affirmed by story tellers. For more about our podcast, information on pitching your own story, and everything else, go to our website, themoth.org. The Moth podcast is presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange,

helping make public radio more public at PRX.org.