Day 67 Kakamega July 14, 2011

Greetings

Today we spent the morning at the orchard site with some of the widow’s continuing with the pruning and replanting of the seedlings.  After a few hours everything was done.  The orchard site had been weeded again, completely pruned, and the new seedlings planted.  It was good to see the care that was taken to make sure that the razor was cleaned and sanitized between each seedling to help prevent disease.  The seedlings are being tied to the sticks as they continue to reach for the wire 8 feet up.  Some of the widow’s broke up the soil around the plants and removed all the weeds and debris.  I can see that they have attention to detail and the will to make this work.

After the orchard site Hezron, John Imala, and I headed over to the Kakamega Sports Club to meet up with Councilor Bianna and her husband for lunch.  We sat next to the ninth green and the way to the first tee of the local golf course.  I am happy to say that we were not hit with any overshot golf balls today.  From what I saw of the course it was pretty nice and I understand that a lifetime membership fee is about $300.  This also allows the member to attend all of the other sports clubs here in Kenya.  I understand a round of golf if free but you cannot carry your own clubs you must have a caddy.  The caddy is 200 Ksh or about $2.25 for nine holes.  Also do not answer you cell phone or you will have to pay a fee of 500 Ksh to do so.

We had a very good discussion with the Councilor about the widow’s program and she has promised to continue to encourage and monitor their progress through this project.  She has expressed her desire to plant the other third of an acre and if this can grow she will be willing to add more acreage later.

I got a message about an hour ago that the control keys for the bank account will not be available until Saturday morning in Mumias.  Tomorrow I will stay here in Kakamega for another day passing time until my departure.  I will need to find a way to Nairobi on Saturday or Sunday at the latest.  I will be leaving Nairobi Monday night for the long tiresome journey home and a spicy chicken sandwichJ 

Take care and God bless

Dave

Day 66 Kakamega July 13, 2011

Greetings

Today we continued with the passion fruit training seminar at the Blessed the Blessed ECDC for the widow’s group.  I guess their official name is the Blessed Widow’s Group of Kakamega.  This morning was spent both in the classroom and in the field learning how to prune and properly plant.  While the class was going on this morning I went back out into the orchard and started to count dead plants.  As I was going around I noticed that many of the dead that I thought were dead have come back to life.  I thought that there were forty dead and sixty questionable.  I then recounted the dead and there were only seventeen confirmed dead.  Later when Robert came out to the field he said the questionable ones are ok too.  Sometimes the seedlings can take up to a month before the grafted portion starts to sprout and take off.

Once Robert and the widow’s got out into the orchard everyone got a chance to prune their own seedling with a razor and bleach (Jik).  After everyone got pruning lessons we started to replant some of the dead seedlings and Robert gave the women detailed instructions on how to properly plant.  After the training session the widows had a little celebration to celebrate their project and to thank everyone involved to help improve their lives.  They really love to sing and dance.  Of course me being about as white as can be I have literally no ability to move like they do.  I thought this group was about forty women and I asked the secretary for the exact number and she told me that there are fifty members.  Today we had over forty in attendance as well as a few area pastors, Bianna, Hezron and his wife Melissa.  I am quite pleased that the women and others are starting to really take ownership of this project.  I pray that every thing goes well for them during the next six or seven months as these passion fruit come to maturity.  There is a great deal of detail to keep these little babies healthy and in shape to maximize yield.  Robert also showed us that many of the plants that are starting to take off are starting to flower after only three weeks.  One of the seedlings already had three flowers that he cut off.  He told us that all the flowers have to be removed until they are at least a foot onto the wire eight feet off the ground.  I must say these women have their work cut out for them in the next six months.

Pastor Robert Wafula explaining proper pruning of passion fruit seedlings

Widow's and guests gathered around for instructions

Pastor Robert at the blackboard

Hezron’s and Melissa’s grandson (18 months) is doing better and should be released in a few days.  Hezron had told us that the boy had plus plus malaria which I assume is really bad and had it for a least a few days before he started passing out.  Thank you for your prayers for this little boy.

Tomorrow we will be back at the orchard site to finish pruning the older seedlings, removing the grafting tape and replanting the last of the dead ones.  I am still looking to wrapping up my trip here in Kenya and am anxious to get back to Nairobi.  We still have not got word of the control keys arriving at the bank in Mumias.  I do hope they come in tomorrow or Friday.

Take care and God bless

Dave

Day 65 Kakamega July 12, 2011

Greetings

Today we got off to a slow start again.  Hezron had a flat tire this morning and we were late getting the instructors to the training session.  We dropped Brenda and Robert at the Blessed the Blessed ECDC for training the widow’s while Hezron and I went back into town to fix the tire and get some more chemicals for the orchard.  In the states we usually pick up a nail or screw every now and then.  Hezron had four holes in his tire two in the tread and two on the side.  What made this interesting is that the holes were not from a man made item such as a steel screw or nail but a fierce weapon of nature called a thorn.  You see when you travel around in the bush there are these really nasty bushes that have spikes up to three or four inches long and they have a really sharp point.  They have no problem going through steel belted tires.  Don’t let one of them get you they really hurt.

We returned to the training site before lunch time.  Hezron’s wife Melissa got an emergency phone call from her daughter that her son was very sick and the clinic in their small town had just sent her home because they did not know what was wrong with him.  Melissa and Hezron rushed home to take their grandson and daughter to the hospital.  We later found out that he has a really bad case of malaria and they have admitted him into the hospital here in Kakamega.  Malaria is one nasty disease and we are so very fortunate to not have it in our country.  Please pray for Melissa’s and Hezron’s grandson so that he might survive this deadly disease.  It is said that up to three hundred million people come down with this disease every year.  There are up to a million deaths every year and about 90 percent of them are children under five.  Out of the million deaths each year almost all of them are in the poorest of countries here in Africa.  The medical care here is not the best but at least this young boy will get some treatment and his odds are better then most children that don’t have any access to medical care.

For those of you that have had malaria can attest to the feeling that you are going to die.  Then you wish that you do die.  After a while and there is no death comes the fear that you won’t die.  I told you early on about John Imala going to the CFO conference in Western Tennessee back in June and how he spent his first trip to the states in the hospital and the staff not knowing what to do.  While I was in Maralal a few weeks ago I met a young missionary girl Ann from the same area in Western Tennessee that John visited and she just so happened to come down with a case of malaria here in Kenya.  She had the same problem John did.  They did not know how to treat her and she ended up getting really sick after a nasty reaction to the medication they were giving her.  Both of them thought they were going to die.

Tomorrow we will finish up with the training session for the widow’s in the morning.  We will replant the dead seedlings and will have some live demonstrations on proper care of the orchard.       

Take care and God bless

Dave

Day 64 Kakamega July 11, 2011

Greetings

I continue to be amazed on what costs and what does not.  This morning we were to be off to go and pick up Pastor Robert and Brenda to bring to the widow’s passion fruit seminar.  Hezron picked me up around ten after eight we started up the road and we heard a noise coming out of the back wheel.  We quickly pulled into the Nakumatt parking lot and removed the back wheel to find out what was wrong.  As Hezron pulled off the wheel and the brake drum it became apparent we had a serious problem.  The back brake adjustment screw and the bolt that held one of the shoes in place were in many pieces.  This did not look good for the first thing in the morning.  Hezron as cool as ever gets on his phone and calls his mechanic.  Within about fifteen minutes his main mechanic had sent one of his workers walking across town to come and look what was wrong.  The mechanic took a photographic memory of what he needed and about thirty minutes later he walks back with parts to fix the brakes.  After another 30 minutes or so he was done and crisis averted.  We then drove the mechanic back to his shop.  He got out went to Hezron’s window and said something.  Hezron then handed him some cash.  I had to take a double take because I thought I heard 250 shillings.  I quickly asked Hezron how much that repair cost and he told me 250 shillings.  He had just given the guy a 500 shilling note and said he was waiting for the change.  This guy just spent an hour and a half fixing the rear brake for less then three bucks.  Yet a gallon of gas is pushing six bucks.  I quickly went to my pocket pulled out 250 shillings gave it to Hezron.  I then asked Hezron to tell the young guy to keep the change.  We made the young man’s day.

After the repair we were off to pick up Pastor Robert and Brenda for the seminar.  We arrived at Wamula International about eleven am and Robert informed us that we had to go back to Mumias to give some more money to the bank for the control keys to the micro-finance account and officially stamp the minutes and the Constitution of the NGO so the bank can proceed with opening the account.  Getting the control keys is now going to be delayed a bit but hopefully they will be here in a few days.  The manager said it could take up to a week but said he would expedite it since I will be leaving Kenya next Monday.  After the bank we headed back to Kakamega to the widow’s passion fruit orchard to start the seminar.

Once we arrived back at the orchard we quickly gave Robert the grand tour of the orchard and we showed him the good ones and the bad ones.  The ones that I showed him that I thought were fair he told me that they still looked good.  The 40 that are dead are dead.  Anyway we now have 60 extras in case any more die.  After spending a few minutes in the orchard we were then off to lunch.  After lunch the seminar started and lasted for a few hours before we adjourned for the evening.  I decided not to attend so they could speak in Swahili and not have to interpret for me.

The widow's did a fine job weeding this morning

The replacement seedlings

I watched a goat eat this one the other day and it looks like it is coming back

Starting to look really good

Another good one 

Widow's having lunch

Now that Robert had been to the site the only item left on the list to buy is the pesticides and other nutrients that will be needed for the next six months.  He also suggested that we buy a 16 liter back pack sprayer for proper control of the pesticides and fertilizers that will be sprayed on the plants.  We then went off to the Agrovet store and bought the needed items for tomorrows lessons.  This is now the last of the associated costs for this project.  It looks like the total cost of this project is going to be about 38,000 Ksh or about $425.

Tomorrow is an all day seminar with some classroom lecture and out in the field learning what is needed to care for the orchard.  We will be doing some replanting and we will also be pruning the existing plants now that they have taken off. 

Take care and God bless

Dave

Day 63 Kakamega July 10, 2011

Greetings

Today I spent the day resting and continuing to get over whatever I caught in Maralal.  I feel much better but it just continues to be a nuisance and I want it to be over.  I have two more days of Amoxycillin and I pray that will be the end of it.

I did walk into town today to try and find a fax machine.  I went to three different cyber café’s and all of them had network issues.  Africa must be cut off from the world I was not able to get onto Facebook all day as well. 

Tomorrow Hezron will pick me up around eight to pick up the two instructors to have a three day seminar on growing passion fruit.  While we are at Wamula International we are going to pick up the replacement seedlings to replant the dead and this time I will have proper instructors to teach us how to plant. 

This might actually be my shortest blog entry!!      

Take care and God bless

Dave

Day 62 Mumias July 9, 2011

Greetings

I can’t believe that I continue to write this blog everyday.  My attention span has never been this long.  It’s the weekend and my readership drops quite a bit for a couple of days but I continue to write for those of you that follow along daily.  I do appreciate it.  I still have no one from South America following along.  If anyone knows of someone in the other America could you please get them to take a look.

Today we went back to Mumias to open the micro-finance account at the Equity Bank.  It took about 2 hours but I am happy to say that everything went well.  There is one control account with the key in possession of one signatory in the United States.  We added another account for funds to be transferred into and will add other accounts as other ministries are added.  I do believe that this completes this part of the mission.  Hopefully the key will be in early next week so I can take it back to the states with me.  Pastor Robert with Wamula International is formulating the other documents needed to be legal here in Kenya and will have them to me in a couple of weeks. 

After the bank we headed over to meet with a widow’s group with Freedom Ministries here in Mumias.  I was told that the group had about 40 members but the real number is around 110.  About 35 showed up today.  There was another funeral today nearby so many of the widow’s did not show up.  I still did not feel that good today so I only talked for about an hour before my throat got sore.  After our meeting with the widow’s we headed into the house for the customary meal and of course I am never hungry.  It also does not help when you feel bad too.  Did you know that chickens are like dogs they eat almost anything?

The widow's group in Mumias

"Hey has anyone seen Fred?"

I'm in here somewhere

After we left Mumias we went back to the orchard site and counted the dead.  It appears that some of the seedlings were not properly planted.  I found one planted still in the black bag the seedling came in.  I did not care to look at any others until Pastor Robert comes on Monday.  I said earlier in one of my blogs TIA or TIK.  I am learning by almost every experience.  I am happy to say that we only lost 40 out of 169 and that 70 of them are growing like wildfire.  There are another 59 that look healthy but I think I am going to replant them anyway.  Lesson learned.

A healthy passion fruit seeding growing nicely

This is for Kym in Maralal

I believe this answers your question if chickens have a right and left foot

Tomorrow I am going to rest and get over this ailment.  On Monday it is off to get the replacement seedlings and pick up Pastor Robert bring him back to Kakamega to educate all of us on passion fruit for 3 days.    

Take care and God bless

Dave

Day 61 Mumias July 8, 2011

Greetings

I have been battling a bug that I caught in Maralal for quite a few days now.  I think I caught something when I was shaking hands with the children up at Lare-Oibor.  I don’t know why I let this linger so long.  Here in Kenya you can go to the Chemist and get the drugs you need without a prescription.  Drugs are pretty cheap too.  I bought fifteen adult Amoxycillin tablets good enough for a week for 460 Ksh or about five bucks and they were not generic they were GlaxoSmithKline. 

We were supposed to go to Mt. Elgon today to meet up with Pastor Joseph but Hezron has been unable to reach him for a couple of days now.  It was also better for me since I am not feeling that great and I have had enough driving for a while.  This afternoon we did go to visit with Charles and his family to celebrate the purchase of his motor bike.  We had a very good visit with Charles and he is about the happiest guy on earth.  I also got to meet his parents and they were so excited to finally have a white person come and visit their family enclave.

Before we headed to Mumias we went by the passion fruit orchard so I could look at the plants.  I am not sure what the prognosis is but some of the seedlings have really taken off, some have died or look like they are dying and some still look healthy but are slow to start moving up the sticks.  I talked with Pastor Robert and he has offered to replace the dead or dying seedlings.  He will also be in Kakamega on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to train the widows and a few others on growing passion fruit.  He seems to think that we might have planted them improperly.  This time we are going to let him plant them so everyone can see first hand how to plant them.

Tomorrow we will meet with Pastor Robert again in Mumias to visit with Equity Bank to see about opening up the accounts for the micro-finance institution with Wamula International.  It might prove to be an interesting day.  Hezron and I are also going to meet with another 40 plus widow’s group that one of his Pastors whom is a widow herself has formed in her church in Mumias.  They too have some land that can be used to grow passion fruit.  But before we plant another plot I need to find out what we did wrong with planting the first plot.  I tend to believe that there was a combination of errors and I know that we did some damage to some of them during transport.  Robert told me that he usually does the training before the planting not after.  I am so thankful that this has happened before I left for the states.     

Take care and God bless

Dave