Greetings
Well I have been back in the states for a couple of days now and I thought I would be able to blog last night. I was wrong. Yesterday after I left the plant I found myself very tired. I guess my body must have thought it was two in the morning so I slept. I do not remember having the time change problem last time I came back. For the last week I have been very tired and sometimes I get very nauseous. Both Pastor Dave and Councilor Ben came down with something while I was in Busia. This time I am going to continue to take my malaria medicine for a couple more weeks as recommended.
Overall I feel that this last trip was a success. Our goal was to be planting seedlings the first couple of weeks in October or five to six weeks before the rainy season starts in late November. Some of the seedlings were planted about a month ago. Some more were planted last week and some more are being planted this week. Next week the balance or close to it should have been planted. The chemicals, timber, and wire are all purchased and instructions have been left on how to distribute them all. A training session is being planned in Mumias next week or the week after to train all the stake holders in proper care of the orchard. I have also given instructions to everyone that if there are any problems I want to know about it. Some time in February or March we will know if our efforts have paid off.
On my last visit to the first Kakamega widow’s orchard I noticed that the seedlings were starting to really take hold. I did some more research on passion fruit and found out that the first 3 months after transplanting the seedlings are very slow to take hold. After the third or fourth month they really start to take off. I guess this is why there are different size vines all over the orchard. The highest of the vines had just started to reach the eight foot mark upon my first visit during the first week. After the third week that vine had already grown another one to two feet and is traveling across the wire. Other vines that were below the wire had already reached the wire and have started to move across the wire as well. Most of the vines that had survived from the fungi infected scions were in the four to seven foot range. As I said in one of my earlier blogs Robert had been given some diseased scions that were grafted and did not take hold. They have all been replaced with a new batch of seedlings.
As I get progress reports I will blog the results with some pictures of the various plots as time goes on. We have prepared a total of about six to seven acres of passion fruit on 27 plots. This is way more then I thought we could accomplish. I am still of little faith and maybe I worry too much. I am back here eight thousand miles from the six thousand little babies and if something happens I pray that I can fix it from here. So stay tuned as I will continue to blog as I get information to pass along. I would again like to thank everyone that reads this blog, everyone that has contributed to our venture, to all my hosts while I was in Kenya, to all that have prayed for our success, and to the one that has made all this possible our Lord God Almighty. It is for him that we do this. Amen!
Here are some more pictures I shot out of the plane window.
A few fish ponds outside of Kisumu
Western Kenya farmlands
One of the many tea plantations in Western Kenya
1/3 or all the world's tea comes from Kenya
Another tea plantation with workers quarters
Edge of Kakamega forest with tea fields
Take care and be blessed.
Dave
No comments:
Post a Comment