Day 4 September 20, 2011 Mumias

Greetings from Kenya

I guess I need to pick up at the beginning.  Three days behind on the blogs not getting off to a very good start.  Last night I was able to get back on the internet and I guess there is a huge difference between a 2G network and a 3G network.  It reminded me of the early days of the PC that were really not that long ago.  It actually takes minutes for a web page to show itself on the screen.

On Sunday Bishop Hezron and I attended morning service at the Galilaya Church in Mumias.  After church we had lunch, chatted a bit, and then took a walk to the site of the Galilaya Church orchard.  I made it the short distance to the plot but the walk back reminded me that I still can’t walk up a hill without seeing stars and running out of breath.  Maybe someday it will go away.  This plot has been plowed and was waiting for me to tell them the size of the plot so they could dig the holes.  You see we only have 6000 seedlings and dividing them up among six different areas on twenty four plots was proving to be difficult.  Today I was able to tell them to plant the larger plot.

Galilaya orchard site

After we departed the Galilaya plot we headed over to the Mumia’s widow’s plot across town.  This plot had already been reduced and they had plowed and are finishing with the digging of the holes.  This plot just so happens to have a couple of permanent residents to oversee the plot as you will see in the picture below.  Only one of the residents was marked and the other is not.  We are hoping to plant this orchard early next week.  Just as we were starting to leave one of the widow's came up to me in the car and presented me with a cup.  She took off the napkin and behold a cup full of live termites.  I have my limits and she then commenced to show me that they are indeed tasty.  She says they are sweet and delicious.  Part of me said it was time to try the little critters and the other part of me (my mouth) said no way.  I know that there are many of you reading this blog that really love this delicacy and maybe someday I will get the nerve to eat one of the little flying things.  I think I would prefer them fried and dipped in chocolate.

Mumias widow's orchard site

Multi-purpose orchard

Cup full of live termites

I just can't get myself to do it

After the widow’s orchard we headed over to the Jerusalem Church to see their orchard site.  This site had also reduced their plot considerably.  The site I looked at was pretty small and today I was able to tell them that they could acquire another plot of similar size to get them to a couple of hundred seedlings.  After leaving the orchard site we went to the home of the General Secretary of Freedom Ministries Morris and his family to have dinner.  It was only an hour or so after lunch and I could not eat that much.  I passed on the chicken (it was getting dark and I couldn’t see to find any white meat) and some potatoes, kale, and chapatti’s.  For lunch I had some beef, cabbage, rice, and chapatti's.  Tonight I will be eating at the guest house and I think dinner will consist of a beef filet, potatoes, and chapatti’s.  I might even throw in an order of carrots.

Jerusalem orchard site

On Monday it was back to Mumias to the Equity Bank to fix the problem with the bank accounts.  In order to keep the funds under the supervision back in the states we created a dollar account (current) and a shilling account (savings) on my last trip.  Well it turned out that we were unable to transfer funds between accounts because a money exchange had to take place.  Well the guy that is in control of the money lives in the states and the process to exchange dollars into shillings via fax machines etc. was not going to happen.  The solution was to open a dollar savings account and the officers of Wamula International can withdraw dollars and exchange into shillings at the bank.  I want you all to thank God right now that you are not in Kenya and you do not have to open any type of business account.  Trust me it wasn’t pretty. 

Since we were unable to complete the banking transaction because the bank needed an original NGO certificate we had to take Robert back to Wamula to get the proper documents to finish the process.  We arrived at the bank around nine thirty in the morning to open the account and by three thirty in the afternoon we were complete.  Along the way we had a bite to eat.  I had chicken soup without any chicken in it and some chapatti’s.  While at Wamula we quickly went into the nursery, met the staff, and viewed the seedlings.  I do not know why I did not take any pictures.  Anyway I will report on the seedlings tomorrow. 

On the way back to Mumias and finish with the bank we stopped at the last orchard site of Mumias.  The Khabukoshe (don’t ask me how to pronounce it) Church plot.  This church had also reduced its plot size and decided to plant two small plots for their projects.  We were only able to see one of them because we did not want to travel back down the road where the plot was because the road was not as wide as the car.  Did I ever tell you how really bad the roads are here?  I thought I took a picture of the plot but I didn't.

After we finished with Mumias it was time to come back to Kakamega and go to Safaricom to find out why I cannot access the internet and get my new phone (thanks Paul) working.  The 3G network for Safaricom is growing and needs some maintenance and work so the lines will be intermittent for a couple of weeks.  I am now 2G and it is slow.  They were also able to get my new phone working with email and voice service.  However the internet and my M-Pesa account are not working.  I will need to pay another visit when they get the answer.  It seems the phone I have which is not new is an htc phone whatever that means and Kenya is on a different system.  Hopefully in the next couple of days I will have this working too.

Also on Monday maybe our most successful coup was the reduction of wire cost.  The widow’s support wire cost us 250 Ksh a kilogram.  The gage wire we were using was on the heavy side and by the meter it cost about 18 Ksh per meter.  We are able to reduce the gage size smaller and buy in bulk.  We have been able to reduce the cost of support wire from 18 Ksh a meter to 5.36 a meter.  In order to plant the 6 acres we will need about 12,000 meters of wire or about 40,000 feet.  This is a significant savings of $1700 for the six acres and will now put the cost of an acre to under $900.

Tomorrow I will update on the events of today and tomorrow.  For Wednesday I will stay at the guest house and finish the worksheets of all the plots.  I will also journey into town and try to get the phone working properly.  I will also look to find more sources for supplies.  I will also try to tell a story of something that happened today that was truly remarkable.  When I showed the Pastors, Bianna, and the Bishop they were amazed when I showed them.  To me it was a sign that God is in charge or he is really looking over us.

If I haven’t said it before I will say it now.  It is a real blessing to be here with these people and I pray that I can continue to tell their stories and even mine.  People here have a difficult life by any standard and they really could use our help.  Our goal is to help them help themselves.  It’s not easy and I cannot even tell you half the story.  I do pray that you are getting something to think about.

Take care and God bless.               

Dave