Day 5 September 21, 2011 Kakamega

Greetings

The internet seems to be working better today.  It doesn’t take as long as it did yesterday.  Yesterday we spent most of the day at the Kakamega orchard site.  We arrived mid morning and Councilor Bianna was having a little celebration and had brought some food for the widow’s and orphans.  John Imala had talked about how far his school for the orphans has come in the last few years with over 600 children having passed through the doors many going on to local primary schools.  After my two lengthy speeches, a small meal we toured the orchard and went inside to hash out the details of where the seedlings were going.

Blessed the blessed orphans school and widow's group

Councilor Bianna addressing the crowd

Councilor Bianna brought some maize and grain for the children

To me this is most remarkable on how all this happened.  When I left Kenya back in July it was determined that we were going to come back and plant some more passion fruit to make the orchard here in Kakamega viable.  It was decided that we would plant late September or early October before the rainy season in November.  In early August the decision was made to plant 5000 to 6000 seedlings enough to fill a truck weekly for the market.  I emailed Robert back in August to prepare 6000 seedlings since they had to be grafted at least six weeks prior to planting.  Many and I mean many emails passed across the 8000 miles including the big deep to Africa every day.  Overcoming the communication barrier was almost an impossible task.  If I was to tally up all the seedlings that were requested and how many were promised before we had made any decisions to whom would get them it would be well in excess of 10,000 seedlings.  The excitement and the hope of these people was just too much.  I understand it and I can appreciate it there is nothing like hope.  It was like a kid in a candy shop with 10 bucks burning a hole in his pocket.

Before I left the states I had given directions for the distribution as follows.  Kakamega would get 2000 seedlings for a multitude of different ministries.  Mumias would get 1000 seedlings for their ministries.  Bungoma would get 1000 seedlings for their ministries.  Bulinda would get 1000 seedlings for their ministries.  The other 1000 seedlings would be split evenly between Mt. Elgon and Busia.  Upon my arrival a few days ago the number of seedlings requested was still in the 8000 range and I had no idea how to fix it.  Some of the locations had more seedlings then allotted and some had less but the number was still in the high range since Kakamega was still around three to four times their allotment.   On Sunday I had let the Galilaya church increase their number of seedlings as well as the Jerusalem church to double their plots from one to two.  Then on Monday we let the Khabukoshe church have their two plots.  As I was crunching all the numbers I still had the problem with Kakamega and three to four times too many seedlings.  Here I am increasing the number of seedlings when I have to somehow reduce the number.  What was I doing?  It is just to hard to say no!!

After lunch yesterday it was time to address the issue of Kakamega and how to reduce the seedlings to a manageable level.  Before we discussed the Kakamega issue John Imala had asked me about Teresa Musungu his neighbor who is also a widow if she was going to get a small plot.  Her plot was not that big and I said ok we can plant one more plot for her.  What am I doing?  I said ok since we had reduced the size of the Kakamega’s widow’s plot so they could have some soil to grow vegetables on to help them before the first harvest comes in.  It's good how I can rationalize giving her a plot when I just reduced another.  We all thought that was a good idea to reduce the size of the widow's second plot since they had planted all the kale in the orchard and it has grown very well as you will see in the pictures below.  So well in fact I think it is taking away from the passion fruit. 

As Councilor Bianna, Pastor Morris, Pastor John, Bishop Hezron, and I were trying to come up with a solution to the lack of seedlings for Kakamega I asked them if it would be possible to reduce four of the plots in half and eliminate Pastor Ambetsas one and a half acre plot.  I knew this was not going to be a good solution but I knew once I put it out there they would start to think.  All of them said it wasn’t a good idea and was there a way that we could get him a little something.  At this point I had no idea how many seedlings we were talking about and how many were going to be distributed among the ministries.  Bishop Hezron then spoke and said that most of his seedlings had already been planted and that he only needed to replace some dead ones and the empty holes to finish his plot.  Every one agreed that the four plots would be cut in half and Pastor Ambetsas would get 250 seedlings to plant for his ministry.

As I started to feel the relief that we are on our way to solve this problem it was time to crunch the numbers.  I had developed a spread sheet to determine the number of seedlings, posts, wire, chemicals, holes, hardware, etc. and a final cost for each orchard with only the length times the width in meters.  Put in the length, the width and presto you have all the information you need.  I started to put in the dimensions of the various plots and wrote down the plots that are large and those just getting a set allotment.  Here is what I started to put down on a spread sheet as I collected the data. 

Pastor John Imala 430, Widow’s # 2 Kakamega 231, Bishop Hezron 259, Teresa Musungu 121, Jerusalem Church 190, Galilaya Church 192, Widow’s Mumias 234, Khabukoshe 120, Jeremiah 108, Paul Wangila 280, Doricus 65, Augustine 180, Mt. Elgon Clinic Pastor Joseph 416, Freedom Ministries Mt. Elgon 416, Pastor Ososo 250, Pastor Odongo 250, 3 plots in Bulinda 1000, Pastor Morris Opiyo 330, Lydia Barasa 178, Pastor Ambula 250, Syvanus Jomo 250, and Pastor Ambetsas 250.  Here we have the 24 plots and if you do the math what do you get?  I put all the numbers on the excel spreadsheet and did the summation and when I scrolled down to see the number I was stunned.  Six thousand even or as we would say “on the money”.  Tell me this is just a coincidence and there is no God.  As my friends here in Kenya would say “no worries”. 

Granted as we start to plant there will be a few seedling to many here or a few short there but I would say that God is telling us that he is in control and have some faith dude.  Another problem solved and it was time to leave, visit the orchard and take a few pictures.  As you can see we have a little problem with kale.  I am not sure if this is contributing to the various sizes of passion fruit or not.  We have one plant that is already at the wire eight feet up.  There are many others that are between four and eight feet up.  We have many others that are healthy but between two and four feet up.  We also have some more dead ones.  Pastor Robert had told me that he had gotten a bad batch of scions (baby seedlings) before grafting from one of his sources.  He feels that we must have gotten some of these seedlings.  These dead ones are in the same holes as the previous dead ones.  I am not sure of the total but they will be replaced at no cost.  On our tour the other day at Wamula the seedlings we looked at were all very healthy after the graft and I pray that we have this issue behind us as well.  I will count the dead ones and have them replaced when the new seedlings arrive in Kakamega. 

At the eight foot point ready to branch in each direction

Almost six feet high looking good

Very healthy but only about four feet high

A little too close together (just my opinion)

A healthy one and a dead one above

The kale is doing great

As I said above the widow’s were told that they could plant kale in between the rows of passion fruit as a cash crop until the passion fruit start to harvest.  Well the kale is doing very well and they are making money.  Yesterday they made over 1500 Ksh.  I think it is time to rethink when we plant crops in between the rows.  KARI said it was a good thing to do but I believe we should wait until the passion fruit is mature.  We should also only plant in the rows and not everywhere as you can see.  Pastor John, Councilor Bianna, and the widow’s felt that I would be disappointed with what I saw.  During my speech to them yesterday I did tell them that I was disappointed.  I did want to come here and see all the seedlings at eight feet.  But I also told them that my disappointment was a good thing and that it is a valid emotion.  From here we fix the problem.  I also told them that they need to get used to it because we are going to have other challenges along the way.  I went on to explain that I had already told them that these things would happen and that we learn from our mistakes, we rejoice, and we move forward.  In the end we win.

The widow’s other plot will have an area set aside on the side to grow other vegetables instead of passion fruit to make some money before harvest.  They can always come back later and plant that small area.  This is getting long so I will cut it off now and get completely caught up tomorrow.  Tomorrow Pastor Robert will be in Kakamega to discuss the last major cost.  The chemicals.  I would say that the last few days have been very productive and I am really happy that I arrived earlier then planned.

Take care and God bless.               

Dave