Cake

I baked a cake.

Melissa, one of the WUSC/Uniterra field staff, and a valued support to me here, gave me the starter batter for a Herman Friendship Cake. If you have heard of that before, then you will know that it is yeast-based, and has to be fed every few days until it is ready for you to bake. I fed it sugar, milk, and flour at day 5, and once again, at day 10. I then took 3 cups from the mixture -- 2 to pass and 1 to keep -- and added my own special ingredients to the remaining mixture. The recipe called for bananas and coconut. I didn't have bananas and coconut, so I substituted pineapple and chopped nuts.

I shared the cake with my housemates and work colleagues -- it would have been a waste to have kept it all to myself. I then passed on the 2 portions of batter to Rebeccah and Bonolo from my office.

Friendship cake is a bit like knowledge and skills transfer. You are given the raw ingredients (information or a skill). You add to it, and nurture it, over time. If you don't, it becomes stagnant and dies. Then, you add your own flavorings (i.e., incorporate your own perspective and experiences), based on your resources at hand. You produce something that can be shared with others. Not only can you share the finished product, but you can also pass on the starter batter and recipe (i.e., techniques and tools) for others to adapt for their own purposes, and pass on, in turn.

One thing I like about WUSC/Uniterra's approach to capacity building is that there is an expectation that any training provided to us or our partner organizations is applied and shared. Not hoarded. Not set aside on the shelf. But shared with and passed on to others. Like Friendship Cake.

I know that may be a simplistic way to explain knowledge transfer and capacity building, but that's what I was thinking about, as I baked a cake.