August 7, 2012

Greetings

Today Hezron e-mailed me with an update on the orchards in Mumias and Melissa Okaba's plot.  He has also sent some pictures from them as well.  A few months ago I was worried that the drought in Western Kenya this last winter took a really heavy toll on the orchards.  Granted we did lose quite a few seedlings and early reports were more then half died.  Out of the seven orchards that Hezron just reported on it looks like we lost between thirty and thirty five percent of the vines.  Some of the seven lost more and some have lost less.  I am not positive of the actual number of seedlings planted at each location.  I allocated each plot the number of seedlings based on the size of the orchard but when it came time to plant the dimensions had changed a bit.

Galilaya church started as a smaller plot and it was increased after the land owner gave some more land to use.  Their allocation was 190 seedlings.  The widow's in Mumias had a larger plot but only half was planted so the land owner could continue to plant maize.  If the passion fruit did well it was planned to expand to the other half.  The widow's in Mumias were allocated 246 seedlings.  The Jerusalem church in Mumias had two small plots and their allocation between the two was 134 seedlings.  The Khabukoshe church on the road to Bungoma is also two plots with an allocation of 156 seedlings.  Melissa Okaba's plot was allocated 250 seedlings.  Hezron tells me that there is many fruit and they are starting to ripen for market.  It is now time to get them to market.  My prayer is that the income generated from each orchard will sustain the maintenance and needs of the orchard.  In addition this should start to provide an income for the stakeholders.  As the income generates and money becomes available the stakeholders are to start repaying the cost of these orchards.  These returned funds then can be used to help finance more projects within the community.

 Galilaya Church Plot

Mumias Widow's Plot

 

One of the Jerusalem Church Plots

Another of the Jerusalem Plots

One of the Khabukoshe Church Plots

Another of the Khabukoshe Church Plots

Melissa Okaba's Plot 

It's been nine months since the plantings last fall and a few years since my first trip to Kenya.  It has seemed like an eternity since I paid my first visits to this area of Kenya and spoke of coming back to do what I could to help.  In my humble opinion this has taken way too long and I probably should of been fired long ago.  Maybe just maybe we are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.  There is more to come as Hezron is on the way to report on the other orchards.  Hopefully now I can start to make my return plans to Kenya next month. 

Take care and God bless

Dave