November 18, 2011

Greetings

It is really agonizing to be here eight thousand miles from the passion fruit project.  I have been back in the states five weeks now and my eyes yearn to see how the little vines are doing.  Well I hope that they are not so little anymore.  This waiting till they grow up is driving me crazy.  I am waiting on word on how the first orchard planted in July is doing.  Last I heard it was doing well and I would believe that by now many are at the 8 foot mark and starting to flower.  The first fruits should be ready by sometime in January if all goes according to plan.  The orchards planted last month will not be ready until sometime in March or early April.  Much to long of a wait.

The other day I got word that the training session in Mumias was completed with an attendance of thirty nine students.  It was originally to be only about twenty students over three days but was changed to two really long days with up to forty students.  I am waiting for the session report to see whom all attended.  The last I heard there were groups coming in from Kakamega, Mumias, Busia, Bulimbo, and Bungoma.  I am not sure if Mt. Elgon was able to come to the session or not.

I have also heard we did lose some seedlings but not in the percentages that we experienced with the first orchard.  The first orchard had some bad scions and we had replaced the dead ones.  All of them have taken hold and are doing fine now.  This batch of seedlings looked much healthier and more foliage then the last batch in July.  The seedlings are grafted from the yellow disease resistant variety and the purple preferred passion fruit we expect some to die but I do not know what that percentage should be.  I am sure some are damaged during grafting, handling, transportation and possibly during the planting process.  According to what has been replaced it looks like so far we are under five percent.  Again I do not know if this is normal or not.

Hopefully soon I will get word and some pictures of the first widow’s orchard planted in July and an update on the widow’s plot in Mumias and the plot that was put on Mt. Elgon.  Its one thing to fund a ministry but it is another if we can duplicate orchards to help support widow’s, orphans, and with Mt. Elgon a clinic to help provide much needed medical care to the community.  I pray that I will have a progress report to you all soon.  As we approach our Thanksgiving please give a few blessings to our friends that have much less then we do.  If you would like a good verse to read this Thanksgiving check out Matthew chapter twenty five verses thirty one thru forty six.

Take care and be blessed.

Dave