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 

Day 5 September 21, 2011 Kakamega

Greetings

The internet seems to be working better today.  It doesn’t take as long as it did yesterday.  Yesterday we spent most of the day at the Kakamega orchard site.  We arrived mid morning and Councilor Bianna was having a little celebration and had brought some food for the widow’s and orphans.  John Imala had talked about how far his school for the orphans has come in the last few years with over 600 children having passed through the doors many going on to local primary schools.  After my two lengthy speeches, a small meal we toured the orchard and went inside to hash out the details of where the seedlings were going.

Blessed the blessed orphans school and widow's group

Councilor Bianna addressing the crowd

Councilor Bianna brought some maize and grain for the children

To me this is most remarkable on how all this happened.  When I left Kenya back in July it was determined that we were going to come back and plant some more passion fruit to make the orchard here in Kakamega viable.  It was decided that we would plant late September or early October before the rainy season in November.  In early August the decision was made to plant 5000 to 6000 seedlings enough to fill a truck weekly for the market.  I emailed Robert back in August to prepare 6000 seedlings since they had to be grafted at least six weeks prior to planting.  Many and I mean many emails passed across the 8000 miles including the big deep to Africa every day.  Overcoming the communication barrier was almost an impossible task.  If I was to tally up all the seedlings that were requested and how many were promised before we had made any decisions to whom would get them it would be well in excess of 10,000 seedlings.  The excitement and the hope of these people was just too much.  I understand it and I can appreciate it there is nothing like hope.  It was like a kid in a candy shop with 10 bucks burning a hole in his pocket.

Before I left the states I had given directions for the distribution as follows.  Kakamega would get 2000 seedlings for a multitude of different ministries.  Mumias would get 1000 seedlings for their ministries.  Bungoma would get 1000 seedlings for their ministries.  Bulinda would get 1000 seedlings for their ministries.  The other 1000 seedlings would be split evenly between Mt. Elgon and Busia.  Upon my arrival a few days ago the number of seedlings requested was still in the 8000 range and I had no idea how to fix it.  Some of the locations had more seedlings then allotted and some had less but the number was still in the high range since Kakamega was still around three to four times their allotment.   On Sunday I had let the Galilaya church increase their number of seedlings as well as the Jerusalem church to double their plots from one to two.  Then on Monday we let the Khabukoshe church have their two plots.  As I was crunching all the numbers I still had the problem with Kakamega and three to four times too many seedlings.  Here I am increasing the number of seedlings when I have to somehow reduce the number.  What was I doing?  It is just to hard to say no!!

After lunch yesterday it was time to address the issue of Kakamega and how to reduce the seedlings to a manageable level.  Before we discussed the Kakamega issue John Imala had asked me about Teresa Musungu his neighbor who is also a widow if she was going to get a small plot.  Her plot was not that big and I said ok we can plant one more plot for her.  What am I doing?  I said ok since we had reduced the size of the Kakamega’s widow’s plot so they could have some soil to grow vegetables on to help them before the first harvest comes in.  It's good how I can rationalize giving her a plot when I just reduced another.  We all thought that was a good idea to reduce the size of the widow's second plot since they had planted all the kale in the orchard and it has grown very well as you will see in the pictures below.  So well in fact I think it is taking away from the passion fruit. 

As Councilor Bianna, Pastor Morris, Pastor John, Bishop Hezron, and I were trying to come up with a solution to the lack of seedlings for Kakamega I asked them if it would be possible to reduce four of the plots in half and eliminate Pastor Ambetsas one and a half acre plot.  I knew this was not going to be a good solution but I knew once I put it out there they would start to think.  All of them said it wasn’t a good idea and was there a way that we could get him a little something.  At this point I had no idea how many seedlings we were talking about and how many were going to be distributed among the ministries.  Bishop Hezron then spoke and said that most of his seedlings had already been planted and that he only needed to replace some dead ones and the empty holes to finish his plot.  Every one agreed that the four plots would be cut in half and Pastor Ambetsas would get 250 seedlings to plant for his ministry.

As I started to feel the relief that we are on our way to solve this problem it was time to crunch the numbers.  I had developed a spread sheet to determine the number of seedlings, posts, wire, chemicals, holes, hardware, etc. and a final cost for each orchard with only the length times the width in meters.  Put in the length, the width and presto you have all the information you need.  I started to put in the dimensions of the various plots and wrote down the plots that are large and those just getting a set allotment.  Here is what I started to put down on a spread sheet as I collected the data. 

Pastor John Imala 430, Widow’s # 2 Kakamega 231, Bishop Hezron 259, Teresa Musungu 121, Jerusalem Church 190, Galilaya Church 192, Widow’s Mumias 234, Khabukoshe 120, Jeremiah 108, Paul Wangila 280, Doricus 65, Augustine 180, Mt. Elgon Clinic Pastor Joseph 416, Freedom Ministries Mt. Elgon 416, Pastor Ososo 250, Pastor Odongo 250, 3 plots in Bulinda 1000, Pastor Morris Opiyo 330, Lydia Barasa 178, Pastor Ambula 250, Syvanus Jomo 250, and Pastor Ambetsas 250.  Here we have the 24 plots and if you do the math what do you get?  I put all the numbers on the excel spreadsheet and did the summation and when I scrolled down to see the number I was stunned.  Six thousand even or as we would say “on the money”.  Tell me this is just a coincidence and there is no God.  As my friends here in Kenya would say “no worries”. 

Granted as we start to plant there will be a few seedling to many here or a few short there but I would say that God is telling us that he is in control and have some faith dude.  Another problem solved and it was time to leave, visit the orchard and take a few pictures.  As you can see we have a little problem with kale.  I am not sure if this is contributing to the various sizes of passion fruit or not.  We have one plant that is already at the wire eight feet up.  There are many others that are between four and eight feet up.  We have many others that are healthy but between two and four feet up.  We also have some more dead ones.  Pastor Robert had told me that he had gotten a bad batch of scions (baby seedlings) before grafting from one of his sources.  He feels that we must have gotten some of these seedlings.  These dead ones are in the same holes as the previous dead ones.  I am not sure of the total but they will be replaced at no cost.  On our tour the other day at Wamula the seedlings we looked at were all very healthy after the graft and I pray that we have this issue behind us as well.  I will count the dead ones and have them replaced when the new seedlings arrive in Kakamega. 

At the eight foot point ready to branch in each direction

Almost six feet high looking good

Very healthy but only about four feet high

A little too close together (just my opinion)

A healthy one and a dead one above

The kale is doing great

As I said above the widow’s were told that they could plant kale in between the rows of passion fruit as a cash crop until the passion fruit start to harvest.  Well the kale is doing very well and they are making money.  Yesterday they made over 1500 Ksh.  I think it is time to rethink when we plant crops in between the rows.  KARI said it was a good thing to do but I believe we should wait until the passion fruit is mature.  We should also only plant in the rows and not everywhere as you can see.  Pastor John, Councilor Bianna, and the widow’s felt that I would be disappointed with what I saw.  During my speech to them yesterday I did tell them that I was disappointed.  I did want to come here and see all the seedlings at eight feet.  But I also told them that my disappointment was a good thing and that it is a valid emotion.  From here we fix the problem.  I also told them that they need to get used to it because we are going to have other challenges along the way.  I went on to explain that I had already told them that these things would happen and that we learn from our mistakes, we rejoice, and we move forward.  In the end we win.

The widow’s other plot will have an area set aside on the side to grow other vegetables instead of passion fruit to make some money before harvest.  They can always come back later and plant that small area.  This is getting long so I will cut it off now and get completely caught up tomorrow.  Tomorrow Pastor Robert will be in Kakamega to discuss the last major cost.  The chemicals.  I would say that the last few days have been very productive and I am really happy that I arrived earlier then planned.

Take care and God bless.               

Dave 

Day 4 September 20, 2011 Mumias

Greetings from Kenya

I guess I need to pick up at the beginning.  Three days behind on the blogs not getting off to a very good start.  Last night I was able to get back on the internet and I guess there is a huge difference between a 2G network and a 3G network.  It reminded me of the early days of the PC that were really not that long ago.  It actually takes minutes for a web page to show itself on the screen.

On Sunday Bishop Hezron and I attended morning service at the Galilaya Church in Mumias.  After church we had lunch, chatted a bit, and then took a walk to the site of the Galilaya Church orchard.  I made it the short distance to the plot but the walk back reminded me that I still can’t walk up a hill without seeing stars and running out of breath.  Maybe someday it will go away.  This plot has been plowed and was waiting for me to tell them the size of the plot so they could dig the holes.  You see we only have 6000 seedlings and dividing them up among six different areas on twenty four plots was proving to be difficult.  Today I was able to tell them to plant the larger plot.

Galilaya orchard site

After we departed the Galilaya plot we headed over to the Mumia’s widow’s plot across town.  This plot had already been reduced and they had plowed and are finishing with the digging of the holes.  This plot just so happens to have a couple of permanent residents to oversee the plot as you will see in the picture below.  Only one of the residents was marked and the other is not.  We are hoping to plant this orchard early next week.  Just as we were starting to leave one of the widow's came up to me in the car and presented me with a cup.  She took off the napkin and behold a cup full of live termites.  I have my limits and she then commenced to show me that they are indeed tasty.  She says they are sweet and delicious.  Part of me said it was time to try the little critters and the other part of me (my mouth) said no way.  I know that there are many of you reading this blog that really love this delicacy and maybe someday I will get the nerve to eat one of the little flying things.  I think I would prefer them fried and dipped in chocolate.

Mumias widow's orchard site

Multi-purpose orchard

Cup full of live termites

I just can't get myself to do it

After the widow’s orchard we headed over to the Jerusalem Church to see their orchard site.  This site had also reduced their plot considerably.  The site I looked at was pretty small and today I was able to tell them that they could acquire another plot of similar size to get them to a couple of hundred seedlings.  After leaving the orchard site we went to the home of the General Secretary of Freedom Ministries Morris and his family to have dinner.  It was only an hour or so after lunch and I could not eat that much.  I passed on the chicken (it was getting dark and I couldn’t see to find any white meat) and some potatoes, kale, and chapatti’s.  For lunch I had some beef, cabbage, rice, and chapatti's.  Tonight I will be eating at the guest house and I think dinner will consist of a beef filet, potatoes, and chapatti’s.  I might even throw in an order of carrots.

Jerusalem orchard site

On Monday it was back to Mumias to the Equity Bank to fix the problem with the bank accounts.  In order to keep the funds under the supervision back in the states we created a dollar account (current) and a shilling account (savings) on my last trip.  Well it turned out that we were unable to transfer funds between accounts because a money exchange had to take place.  Well the guy that is in control of the money lives in the states and the process to exchange dollars into shillings via fax machines etc. was not going to happen.  The solution was to open a dollar savings account and the officers of Wamula International can withdraw dollars and exchange into shillings at the bank.  I want you all to thank God right now that you are not in Kenya and you do not have to open any type of business account.  Trust me it wasn’t pretty. 

Since we were unable to complete the banking transaction because the bank needed an original NGO certificate we had to take Robert back to Wamula to get the proper documents to finish the process.  We arrived at the bank around nine thirty in the morning to open the account and by three thirty in the afternoon we were complete.  Along the way we had a bite to eat.  I had chicken soup without any chicken in it and some chapatti’s.  While at Wamula we quickly went into the nursery, met the staff, and viewed the seedlings.  I do not know why I did not take any pictures.  Anyway I will report on the seedlings tomorrow. 

On the way back to Mumias and finish with the bank we stopped at the last orchard site of Mumias.  The Khabukoshe (don’t ask me how to pronounce it) Church plot.  This church had also reduced its plot size and decided to plant two small plots for their projects.  We were only able to see one of them because we did not want to travel back down the road where the plot was because the road was not as wide as the car.  Did I ever tell you how really bad the roads are here?  I thought I took a picture of the plot but I didn't.

After we finished with Mumias it was time to come back to Kakamega and go to Safaricom to find out why I cannot access the internet and get my new phone (thanks Paul) working.  The 3G network for Safaricom is growing and needs some maintenance and work so the lines will be intermittent for a couple of weeks.  I am now 2G and it is slow.  They were also able to get my new phone working with email and voice service.  However the internet and my M-Pesa account are not working.  I will need to pay another visit when they get the answer.  It seems the phone I have which is not new is an htc phone whatever that means and Kenya is on a different system.  Hopefully in the next couple of days I will have this working too.

Also on Monday maybe our most successful coup was the reduction of wire cost.  The widow’s support wire cost us 250 Ksh a kilogram.  The gage wire we were using was on the heavy side and by the meter it cost about 18 Ksh per meter.  We are able to reduce the gage size smaller and buy in bulk.  We have been able to reduce the cost of support wire from 18 Ksh a meter to 5.36 a meter.  In order to plant the 6 acres we will need about 12,000 meters of wire or about 40,000 feet.  This is a significant savings of $1700 for the six acres and will now put the cost of an acre to under $900.

Tomorrow I will update on the events of today and tomorrow.  For Wednesday I will stay at the guest house and finish the worksheets of all the plots.  I will also journey into town and try to get the phone working properly.  I will also look to find more sources for supplies.  I will also try to tell a story of something that happened today that was truly remarkable.  When I showed the Pastors, Bianna, and the Bishop they were amazed when I showed them.  To me it was a sign that God is in charge or he is really looking over us.

If I haven’t said it before I will say it now.  It is a real blessing to be here with these people and I pray that I can continue to tell their stories and even mine.  People here have a difficult life by any standard and they really could use our help.  Our goal is to help them help themselves.  It’s not easy and I cannot even tell you half the story.  I do pray that you are getting something to think about.

Take care and God bless.               

Dave 

Arrival in Kakamega September 18, 2011

Greetings from Kenya

I have arrived in Kakamega safely but I was one really tired traveler.  I can’t sleep on airplanes and I can’t seem to sleep on a steel table at the airport either.  I arrived in Nairobi on Friday somewhere around 8:30 in the evening.  I waited in line and paid my fifty bucks for an entry visa.  The visa doubled in price since my last visit.  I then proceeded to get my bag and left the international terminal to make my way to the fly540 counter to get my ticket for the morning flight to Kakamega.  I could have booked the flight online in advance but it was $117 one way.  The fly540 sales office was closed and after about 30 minutes I was successful in securing a ticket for the morning flight to Kakamega at a much better price of $60 one way.  The really nice lady that sold me the ticket then told me that I need to be back and checked in at least an hour before the flight boards at 6:30 am.  By this time it was ten thirty or eleven o’clock and I had at least 7 hours to boarding time.  I had a choice I could leave the airport find a hotel and risk oversleeping.  I was going on 40 hours without any sleep and I knew once I get my head on a pillow I am out.  Also there is only one flight a day to Kakamega and missing that flight would not be good.  Or I could stay at the airport and rough it.  I decided to stay at the airport and went to a little coffee shop and had some Joe.  After midnight I then decided to go and find a place to rest.  I could not get back into the international terminal because I did not have any papers that allowed me pass security.  So I went to the domestic terminal and hung out there for six hours.  I was the only passenger in the terminal from like midnight until five in the morning. 

The midnight shift at the domestic terminal at Nairobi has to be about the worst job that anyone could ever have.  There were a few security people that managed the baggage x-ray and the walk through metal detector.  From the time I walked through a little after midnight there wasn’t another passenger that came through for over 5 hours.  Those two guys didn’t move from their stations for hours on end.  They must have been Zombies there is no way I could sit in one spot for hours on end like they did.  I don’t even think they talked to each other.  I did give them a break at about three in the morning because I had to leave the terminal to go to the bathroom.  I took my luggage with me because you know what happens when you leave unattended luggage at an airport.  Dave does not want to spend any time in a foreign prison.  All the check in people started to roll in around 5 am and I think there might have been one or two cleaning people that had left the building and came back.  Me I just tried to get a few winks spread out on a steel bench or table I couldn’t tell what it was.  It just happened to be the only thing that was flat except the floor.  I played some Angry Birds offline on the laptop until the battery ran out.  I am happy to say I now have three stars on all 21 games in every level and three stars on every bonus play on Google Chrome’s free offline version.

Bishop Hezron was waiting at the Kakamega Airstrip upon my arrival there at eight fifteen in the morning.  I was now on my fourth wind and I decided I could possibly go and visit the widow’s orchard site.  First I checked into the guest house and then we went to the orchard.  We spent about six hours visiting with Councilor Bianna, Pastor John, some of the widow’s, and a few of the local pastors came by.  Hezron got me back to the guest house just before three in the afternoon.  I immediately crashed and spent the next fifteen hours asleep except for an occasional potty break.

I have been unable to get onto the internet for the last few days because my Safaricom modem has not been working.  I could not get on Saturday or Sunday.  Earlier this afternoon (Monday) we went to the Safaricom store and one of the salespeople reset my modem from 3G to 2G because the 3G network is going to be down off and on for the next couple of weeks.  So I am really behind on the blogs.  There is much to talk about on what has happened since my arrival and I will need to spend the next couple of days getting caught up on the events of the last three days.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will be out to the Kakamega widow's orchard to meet with the widow's and discuss what is happening.  We will also spend a great deal of time looking for the end posts for all the orchards.

Take care and God Bless

Dave 

Ready to go

Greetings

Delta didn’t text me today and I checked my flight for tomorrow it looks like it’s a go.  Maybe the plane will be empty and I can upgrade to Eerste class so I can stretch out maybe catch a few winks.  I don’t think my luck will be so good.  I leave Chicago Thursday at four twenty in the afternoon and arrive in Amsterdam at seven in the morning.  After a four hour layover I will depart Amsterdam at eleven fifteen in the morning and arrive in Nairobi at eight in the evening.  I will then get the pleasure of waiting at the airport in Nairobi for about eleven hours before my next flight for Kakamega that leaves at six forty five on Saturday morning with an extra puddle jump in Eldoret and finally after too many hours without sleep I will be at my destination.

Chicago O'Hare to Kakamega "what a contrast"

This will be my last blog until I arrive in Kenya unless something really interesting happens and I am able to get to the internet to post something.  I really hope that my journey is uneventful except a couple of upgrades to Eerste class.  I might even be lucky enough to be denied boarding again on the flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi.  Eight hundred Euro’s ($1200) to be booted from a flight is pretty good compensation.  I would like to thank everyone that has wished me a safe journey and a successful outcome to this mission trip.   

Take care and God Bless

Dave 

Still two days to go

Greetings

Well I still have two days to go.  Today Delta airlines texted me with an urgent message about my flight tomorrow.  Cancelled.  They were kind enough to book me on the next flight 24 hours later.  I now leave Thursday afternoon and arrive on Saturday.  I guess I can look at the bright side and I have an extra day to get ready or the not so bright side and I have a day less to get what we need to get done in Kenya.  We were going to Equity bank on Saturday to change one of the accounts that I had opened up on the last visit from a Kenyan shilling account to a US dollar account.  It appears that in order to transfer funds from the main dollar account to a Kenyan shillings savings account an extra step of exchanging currency must take place.  The procedure to do this is not that easy and just will not work for us.  So I will change the account to US dollars to make it easier to transfer funds into the micro-finance organizations savings account.

I was going to talk some more about passion fruit but today I want to mention the explosion that happened two days ago in one of the slums in Nairobi.  Here is the article from ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/International/oil-pipeline-explosion-ignites-slum-100-feared-dead/story?id=14499791 or the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14879401 about the events.  This slum is near the main road that goes to Nairobi International airport in a heavily industrialized area.  This is just one of many tragedies of this nature in Kenya.  There are numerous incidents of tankers overturning on the roads and people with their Jerry cans scooping up the fuel.  With fuel prices approaching six bucks a gallon five to ten gallons of fuel equals a half months or months wage. This is very dangerous indeed but profitable if you are able to get some of this liquid gold.  Opportunity knocks and it’s really sad that people have to resort to whatever they can to make some money.  Even if it risks their lives or their families lives. 

This particular incident was an accident just waiting to happen.  People have no where to go and they see a piece of land that just so happens to be vacant.  They become squatters and it becomes their homes.  The land was vacant because there was a pipeline underneath the ground and heavily signed of the warning.  These people had been served eviction notices many months ago but where do they go?  Once they are there moving them is an almost impossible task for a variety of reasons.  Letting them stay is the consequence of this event.  

Just a few years ago there was another large fire that swept through a heavily populated area killing hundreds mostly children.  I remember traveling with Pastor Ososo on our way to Busia on my first visit a couple of years ago.  We were approaching Kisumu and there was an overturned tanker on the side of the road.  It was actually two tankers but the main tanker and cab did not roll over.  Gasoline was everywhere, so were the people, and so were we.  As we approached I could see everything since it was on my side of the car.  I watched as people were not fleeing but coming to the event with Jerry cans in tow ready to catch some of the gasoline coming out of the tanker.  We just drove on by like nothing was happening.  I couldn’t believe it the vapors were pretty strong.   All I could think of was what are these people doing, what are we doing?  One spark and Kaboom.  Of course traffic was not moving that fast since Kenyans like to gawk at the accident like we do.  All this made me feel pretty uncomfortable as we approached and drove past.  Nothing happened and I assume there was no explosion or fire that I ever heard of.  I thank God for that.

Luckily not many people smoke in Kenya either.  Much too expensive. 

Take care and God Bless

Dave 

Two days to go

Greetings

Well were getting down to the wire and of course I am rushing to get everything done.  I am definitely packing lite.  My flight out of Nairobi to Kakamega I am only allowed 40 lbs total between my back pack and suitcase.  I was over last time and the nice guy at the airstrip let me pass.  Of course there were only 4 passengers on the flight and there were 19 seats so I do not think my extra pounds in my suit case were going to make that much difference.  I did notice when the plane landed in the morning before its return to Nairobi it was full.  Not looking to pack much, my beef jerky and slim jims don’t weigh much.

When we started thinking of working these projects one of our objectives was the ability to replicate what we did in one area and do it in another.  We have the 40 something widow’s in Kakamega and if we can get them working a passion fruit orchard we can get more widow’s groups involved.  In Mumias we have a plot ready for a widow’s group of over one hundred women.  Their first plot will be 42 meters by 42 meters.  This plot will be just over a third of an acre and should hold about 350 seedlings.  Again to help over one hundred widow’s we will need more then this plot but it is an excellent start.  Once we have orchards for the widow’s in Kakamega and Mumias we can go elsewhere and help other widow’s in other towns too.  We can also replicate this project and put some orchards to support orphans.  Within the various ministries we are working with there are literally thousands of widow's and orphans that could use some help.

Some of the widow's that I met with in Mumias on my last visit

The widow's sponsor the Galilaya Church in Mumias

      

Thanks to all of you that have given our cause your prayers and support over the years.  Today I rejoice that we are making a difference in the lives of some of us that have the least.

 

Take care and God Bless

Dave