Day 6 September 22, 2011 Kakamega

Greetings

I promise today’s blog will not be as long as yesterday’s.  I went back to the Safaricom store to see about getting the android phone working.  They were able to get the phone working and the messaging working but were not able to get the internet working.  I finally went online and found some sites where people had the same problem.  It was a matter of getting the right proxy and server to get on the internet.  I now have all the bells and whistles on the phone except M-pesa.  If I want to send someone money I have to take out the sim card and put it in my old phone.  The android phone is missing the sim tool kit app.  Seems like this could be a problem for them here in Africa where having money on a phone is very important to the people.  However I do not believe many people will be able to afford the android phone.  I was looking in the store at the phones and they were upwards of 40,000 Ksh.  Pretty hard to afford when the average salary is 200 Ksh a day.   

I was quick to add a few apps.  I first added google translate and then found talk to me cloud.  I tried it out and spoke some English into the phone but the computer voice for the Swahili translation is too mechanical.  Seems like it’s the same guy on both apps.  I still can’t understand a word he says.  I need to try it out on some poor soul.  I was going to try it on my waitress at lunch but her voice is just too soft and tiny.  If anyone knows of a decent translation app I would greatly appreciate it.  I might even be willing to pay 99 cents for it.

Yesterday I spent much of the day at the guest house working on the calculations of the orchards.  Took a trip into town and checked out a few more hardware and lumber stores to find a better price for the expensive items we need for these orchards.  We did find a vendor for the end posts that are needed for the two acres here in Kakamega.  We secured a price of 80 Ksh for a nine foot and five to six inch diameter post.  I had budgeted 100 Ksh so again we will be able to reduce the cost even more.  I have been in Kenya about a week now and the shilling is falling like a rock.  It was 90 Ksh to a dollar when I arrived and it is already up to 95 Ksh a dollar now at least on the ATM.  The sell price is now 99 Ksh to a dollar.  I will continue to look for bargains to help reduce the cost even more.

Today I continued to work the numbers on all the orchards.  Pastor Robert arrived at the guest house later in the afternoon to discuss the problem with the bank and the chemicals.  It seems as if the bank did not sign us up for E-banking and the new account is not on the internet.  Tomorrow poor Robert and his accountant must take a long journey to Mumias to straighten out the problem.  I do not understand how the bank manager missed this one he knew that we were doing this all online from the states.  TIK.

Pastor Robert and I discussed the chemicals today and he brought his long list of about a dozen different chemicals that are needed to keep the bugs, disease, rot, and proper nourishment to the plants.  It looks like he has been able to reduce the cost of the chemicals by buying in bulk.  I had budgeted about 121,000 Ksh and he looks to have gotten it down to 99,100 Ksh.  As I crunch the numbers what started out to be $1000 an acre is looking to be more like $750 to $800 an acre.  The smaller plots still take much of the same supplies needed to do a larger plot.  A row 20 meters long takes two end posts just like a row of 40 meters takes two end posts.  It costs just as much to plow one sixth of an acre as it does to plow one half an acre.  For all the supplies that were used on the first orchard it came out to be about 41,000 Ksh or $450.00.  I put the same size plot into the new spreadsheet and that same size plot is just under 26,000 Ksh or about $290.00 which included the fence in both calculations.  To do just the plot without the fence and paying someone to dig the holes (farmer’s responsibility) the cost would have been less then $200.00.

Tomorrow Robert will be at the bank to fix the money problem.  I will stay at the guest house and finish the calculations.  I will also take another trip into town to get information on all the chemicals so we can figure out how to distribute all the chemicals to the various plots since we are buying in bulk.  It looks like we will be looking to start planting some of the seedlings early next week.  I believe we are going to pick up a batch of seedlings on Monday or Tuesday.  Also today I had to rearrange some seedlings and the total still came out to be 6000.  Tis exciting indeed.

Take care and God bless.               

Dave