Day 13 September 29, 2011 Busia

Greetings

This morning I had my usual breakfast and then went to the gazebo to work on the chemical calculations.  I am really confused and not sure how to proceed with this issue.  I think I just need to walk away from it for a day or two and wait for the answer to come from above.  He hasn’t failed me yet.

Around noon Pastor Ososo, Councilor/Mayor Ben, his cousin George, and Pastor Dave arrived at the guest house.  They had lunch since I was still full from breakfast.  We talked about fish farms and passion fruit.  After lunch the five of us went to visit with an unfortunate guest at the Kakamega prison.  This was my first visit to a foreign prison and let me tell you that this kid has now seen the innards of a Kenyan prison.  I now confirm my earlier statements about foreign prisons.  Ok to visit but not a place I would like to call home.  I must say that the guards and staff were all very polite, professional, and well kempt.  Maybe our impressions of foreign prisons from the movies are a little exaggerated.  I wanted to take some pictures but for some reason I did not think it would even be appropriate to ask.  You know I wonder if I was a guest would they let me write my blog every day.  My luck I would be in solitary confinement and my blog would be pretty much the same every day.  “Today I sat in my cell” “Tomorrow I am going to sit in my cell”.

After the prison we were off to Busia.  Along the way we had a flat tire and had to replace it with the donut.  Once we arrived at the Generations Hotel in Busia we sat down had some more discussions with Pastor Ososo and Pastor Dave while George and Councilor Ben went to fix the tire. 

Tomorrow we are off to visit with the 5 member leadership team of the Funyula Fish Farmer Association.  Mayor Ben has been very busy since my last visit and has gotten them organized with a membership of around 150 farmers.  I am anxious to hear what they have to say.  After the meeting we will be heading to the two orchard sites to map them out and finish with the preparations.     

Take care and be blessed.               

Dave 

Day 12 September 28, 2011 Bungoma

Greetings

Today did not start out as planned.  Hezron had car troubles this morning and we were not able to do the schedule today.  We also got a call from Mt. Elgon and it had rained pretty hard and the road would not be good until maybe in the afternoon.  So we had a change of plans.  Today we went back to Wamulu International and got all the application data for the passion fruit chemicals.  Robert had deleted one chemical since it was fairly similar to another chemical and the two chemicals should be rotated every six months and not used together.  I am only looking to supply the orchards six to seven months worth or until the orchard starts to produce income.  We are now down to thirteen different chemicals.  I wrote down the application data and tonight I spent some time putting all the numbers together.  The problem that we have is that not all the chemicals are needed at once and some chemicals only need to be used if there is a problem.  Once the problem arises then it will need applications to correct it.  In order to take into account every problem and give every plot the chemicals to combat every problem it drives the cost up considerably.  If we were to do only the recommended fertilizing and some pest management then the cost is well within the budgeted amount.  I really need to think about this longer and possibly look to have corrective chemicals in smaller supplies stored at various locations in case there is a problem at one of the orchards.

While we were at Wamulu we also took a look at the timber that Robert had looked at.  We talked with the owner of the land and his prices were way beyond what we wanted to pay.  Like four times as much.  After much discussion and Hezron doing his bargaining skills upon the poor soul we came to a decision that we think is workable.  Here in Kakamega we are buying the posts already cut and at our number 80 Ksh a piece.  Where Robert wants to buy his timber they are still trees and the owner wants good money for them.  How many posts can be gotten out of the tree is up for debate and you could win some and you could loose some.  Anyway I told Robert that we have a budget price based on what we can buy timber at.  He needs to have a certain number of posts for his area and if he does not have enough money to cover the cost then it is on him.

Nice straight pole trees

After the timber we headed over to the second of the areas plots.  This plot is on a hill and will house about 190 vines on fourteen rows.  After this plot we had a bite to eat and then it was off to see the third plot at Stephan’s farm.  Presently he has green beans planted and will plant the seedlings in the rows of beans.  This orchard will have about 110 vines on eight rows.  After here we were to go to visit some of the Bungoma sites but the afternoon monsoon came in and we were done for the day.  We decided to head back to Kakamega since it is very difficult driving when water does not run off the road and Hezron cannot see the potholes.  So it is very slow indeed.

Pauline's plot near Wamulu

A typical passion fruit hole

Stephan's plot with beans already planted

Tomorrow it is off to Busia with Pastor Ososo and Councilor Ben.  They will be here at the guest house around noon and off we go.  While in Busia we will be meeting with some of the fish farmers and take a look at the two plots while we are there.  I really hope that we can come up with a connection between the Western Province and the slums of Nairobi.  Every time I look and think of the slums I draw a blank on what to do there.  If the average income in Kenya is somewhere between one and two dollars a day then I would think that most people in the slums make much less then that.  Passing money from one pocket to the other in the slums really does nothing for them since there is not much money to begin with.  What is the answer?  I do not know but money has to come in from the outside somehow.    

Take care and be blessed.               

Dave 

Day 11 September 27, 2011 Kakamega

Greetings

Thought I would blog a little early tonight to beat the power outage.  Wrong again.  The guest house has gotten a generator to run the restaurant and kitchen so off I was to get dinner as well.  Tonight I am getting something special.  I have asked the cook to make me a chicken filet.  If they can do it with a piece of beef then I would assume that they can do it with a piece of chicken.  Now I only need some spicy, some tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, a decent bun, and presto a Spicy Chicken Sandwich.  You would think I could go ten days without my bringing this up.  Not a chance.

This morning I worked on the chemical list until Hezron arrived and we headed off to the widow’s orchard outside of Kakamega.  We arrived just after noon and spent some time looking at the plot.  The women were there weeding and harvesting their collard greens to take to market.  After a brief stay and chat with Councilor Bianna it was off to Bulinda to talk with Robert about the chemicals.  Once we were there we could not stay long since the afternoon storm was coming in fast and we did not want to get stuck so we left in a hurry.  The road out of there was slippery again but not as bad as Saturday.  Robert is going to get me the chemical application data so I can get it into the computer so we can get all the supplies needed to plant these orchards starting next week.

Tomorrow early it is off to Moi’s bridge where we will meet up with Pastor Moses and his wife Jane.  Then we will visit with Colin at his family’s passion fruit orchard.  After this we plan to head up onto Mt. Elgon if the road will allow to meet with Pastor Joseph to discuss passion fruit and clinic on Elgon.  After this we will head back through Bungoma and stop at a couple of orchard sites if possible.  It is going to be a really long kidney punching day.

Take care and be blessed.               

Dave 

Day 10 September 26, 2011 Kakamega

Greetings

The power is out again tonight.  Go figure.  I used up my last candle and matches on last nights power outage.  Went to the office seems there is a shortage of candles too.  They were able to finally find me one and I am typing by candlelight once again.

Today I went back into town to look for another modem.  Went to the Orange network and their modem is pretty expensive and to buy airtime I have to go to their store to recharge.  Too much work.  With Safaricom everything from my phone.  Tonight the internet is working 3G pretty good.  Not sure if it will last.  While I was in town I went to another hardware store to see about lowering the wire cost some more.  This guy gave me some outrageous price and I told him that I was going to purchase over a half a ton.  He would not come down on his price so I left.  I was going to go to my original place but the afternoon storm came in.  I had to make way into a shop and wait for the monsoon to stop.  The nice lady gave me a chair to sit in while we chatted.  I am not sure why most people take cover when it rains and there is no movement in the streets but I will tell you why I take cover.  You see when it rains here not only do I not want to get wet I do not want to take the chance of slipping on the mud.  Cars do not have traction and sometimes people do not either.  Some of you reading this know what I am talking about.  The difference with falling in the country side and falling in the city is the nasties that are being washed away with the rain.  In America you know that smell when the rain just starts to hit the pavement well that is not the smell that permeates the air when it starts to rain on the city streets here.  I guess it is a good way to remove the raw sewage to somewhere else.

I also took the chemical list that Robert had given me to try and find out what they are.  Some of them I could find the real chemical name and some I could not.  There is one product called Dudutrin and when I was at the chemical store I saw a bottle of something that gets rid of the Du Du bug but it was not Dudutrin.  If anyone knows what the chemical name of this is please let me know.  Maybe the bottle I was looking at is Dudutrin and I did not realize it.  The chemical list has 14 items on it and I have gotten about half of them to where I can determine my calculations.  I will have to finish this up with Robert since he has the book that tells me what everything is.

Tomorrow I have to get back on the road if possible.  I have spent the last few days working the numbers and documents for this project.  There is more work to do to get all the timber, seedlings, wire, and chemicals to the locations.  I also am planning to meet with Pastor Ososo and Councilor Ben in Busia on Thursday and into Friday.  I do want to spend some time with the leadership of the fish farmer association to hear what they have to say.  We also have two passion fruit plots to look while I am in Busia.  Some of the orchards are ready to plant and others are still preparing.  I need to get a tally of where everyone is and what it is going to take that they are all planted in the next three weeks.  I do not have to be here to plant all the orchards I just need to make sure that they have everything they need to accomplish their tasks before I leave in a couple of weeks.

Pastor Ososo's plot in Busia 

Some more of our seedlings about ready to come out of the oven

Pastor Robert his wife and his workers in front of the seedlings

Take care and be blessed.               

Dave 

Day 9 September 25, 2011 Kakamega

Greetings

This is getting downright depressing.  Even the 2G network isn’t working all the time.  I think Safaricom is going to loose a customer.  They tell me two or three weeks of interrupted service before it gets better.  I guess it is time to visit the Orange store or the Yu store to get a different modem.  I wonder if their networks are going through the same problem as Safaricom.  I can’t believe Safaricom management would be allowing for their services to be interrupted for even a few hours more or less a couple of weeks.  TIK.  So this post is getting to the internet very late since I could not get any service last night before I went to sleep.

Today I spent the day at the guest house crunching numbers.  It looks like we can plant an acre of passion fruit for under $800 but I am having difficulty planting 24 plots at the same price.  Six thousand seedlings spread out on one six acre plot would cost just over $4100, six thousand seedlings spread out over six one acre plots would cost just over $4500, and our price to plant six thousand seedlings over the 24 plots comes in at $5300.  None of these prices reflect labor and plowing that we are putting to the stakeholder to furnish if possible.  Since most of these plots would have been plowed anyway to plant maize we are looking to only supply the materials for the orchards.  Each orchard will be calculated on a case by case basis.  I do not believe I will be able to get the wood costs any lower.  I might be able to still reduce the wire cost some more.  Total support wire needed is reaching 16,000 meters or well over a half a ton.  My first quote was for 12,000 meters and increasing it to 16,000 should be worth a few shillings.  Seedlings are already bought and paid for.  The last high cost is the chemicals.  Robert has been working the numbers for the dozen or so different chemicals needed to maintain the orchards.  Since chemicals are based on the number of seedlings we should be able to come up with a per seedling cost per chemical.  We will need this put together so we can get each plot its own allotment of assorted chemicals.  Robert says he has been able to reduce the overall cost of the chemicals down 20,000 Ksh but I still want to look at the specifications of each chemical to determine how much time it will take to use it up.  I want the chemical budget to reflect enough chemicals to reach harvest or until the plot can sustain itself.

Once all the data is given to me I will finish the spread sheet and hand it over to the ministries project managers.  All they should have to do is put in the length and width of the plot to determine everything that is needed including the cost to plant.  We are looking at sourcing the wire and chemicals in large supplies to keep the costs down.  If we are to keep them at the source of the seedlings then when we go to deliver the seedlings we can bring the allotted wire, chemicals, and other hardware.  The timber for the support posts will be at the responsibility of the stakeholder and what they can negotiate in their area.  Talking with both Robert and Hezron it is a crime to transport timber without a permit.  I need to investigate this some more since we are in need of transporting some timber to the sites.  If I haven’t told you before I have no desire to spend any time in a prison here or anywhere.

Tomorrow is more of the same.  I will work on the dozen or so chemicals to get the concentrations and costs needed for each seedling.  I will go and visit the hardware dude to see if I can get a better price on the wire.  I will also try and find out how far each of the twenty four plots is along for planting.  If the holes have been recently dug then another chemical must be put down into hole before planting.  If they have been dug for a couple of weeks then the chemicals are not needed.  I also have to address the training and transportation costs to make all this happen.  I also need to find some shillings to help reimburse Robert and his accountant for all their ventures into Mumias and Bungoma.  So far everything looks like it is possible to meet all the needs and stay at or under budget unless I am missing something (possible).

It took 20 minutes to get this picture of Bulinda orchard site uploaded

Take care and be blessed.               

Dave 

Day 8 September 24, 2011 Bulinda

Greetings

This morning I awoke early and decided to have breakfast.  I do not know why I don’t eat breakfast more often.  It is included in my evening rate.  I am starting to feel bad about the Kenya shilling.  When I stayed here a couple of years ago my room rate was 1000 Ksh a night and the exchange rate at the time was as low as 67 Ksh to a dollar.  So that 1000 Ksh a night was $14.93 a night.  Today I exchanged some money and it was 95 Ksh to a dollar.  I still pay 1000 Ksh a night or $10.53 a night.  To make things worse for the guest house is that they have to give the government 18% this leaves them with a whopping 820 shillings or about $9.11 per night.  I looked on the menu and if I was to buy the breakfast without staying it would be 400 Ksh or about half the room rate.  Where in America can you get a deal like this?  You could go to Denny’s and get a $1.99 breakfast deal but you do not get fresh ripened pineapple straight from the plantation.  Breakfast is usually quite tasty.  Every now and then I get an egg that tastes funny.  Here in Kenya they do not refrigerate the eggs and you never know how long they have been sitting on the counter.  I keep telling myself they come from straight under the chicken to the stove.

This morning I continued to work on the numbers until Pastor Robert came to pick me up.  We stopped by the Equity bank in Mumias to talk with the bank managers about the problem with the new bank account.  I guess it will all be worked out in the next couple of days.  After the bank we headed out to Bulinda to view the main orchard site and our seedlings.  This plot will be managed and worked on by the staff at Wamula.  This orchard will be used to help support Wamula International and Pastor Robert’s ministry.  This is the largest of the orchards we are planting.  This plot will be planted in a 2 meter by 3 meter layout and shorter rows.  All three plots in Bulinda are going to be planted 2 meters by 3 meters.  The other 21 plots are going to be 2 meters by 2 meters.  We stopped in the nursery to check on the seedlings and they still look much better then the last batches we picked up.  This time I took some pictures.  Early next week we will start to deliver the seedlings to the plots that are ready to plant.  I would load some more pictures but my computer took 10 minutes to get this one done.  I am back on the 2G network and it is really slow.  I have had to save and reboot this three times in the last hour.  Not having a good blogging experience tonight.

A few thousand of the seedlings ready for planting

 

Tomorrow I will continue on all the documents that are needed for Wamula to manage the loans.  I am still looking to reduce the costs of the chemicals, posts, and such so we can provide some training, cover transportation costs, etc.  For a few of you that are reading this you do know what happens on the roads here when it rains.  Some of you remember our journey down in a ditch.  It was a very exciting time.  Well today it was raining in Bulinda and I was worried that fate was going to repeat itself.  The road turns into zero and I mean zero traction.  The car goes where it wants no matter what the driver does.  You have to drive the crest of the road or you just slide right off.  The problem lies when two cars are approaching one another and neither want to leave the crest of the road.  As we approached each other both cars came to a near stand still as we passed each other and I then started to feel us heading for the ditch.  The car next to us was doing the same in the opposite direction.  Luckily for both of us we managed to get back onto the crest without sliding into the ditch.  I thank God that for the 10 or so kilometers that was the only car we encountered.  The motor bikes, bicycles, cows, people, chickens, etc. they just have to get out of the way. 

Take care and be blessed.               

Dave 

Day 7 September 23, 2011 Kakamega

Greetings

Today I slept in a while since I was up last night until fairly early in the morning.  After I awoke I headed out to the gazebo had a couple cups of coffee and spent most of the day working on the calculations for the orchards.  There is plenty of work to do to find out how many posts, chemicals, etc. we are going to need.  I am still short a few dimensions and I still have to get some good measurements of the plots in Bulinda.  The Bulinda plots are going to plant two meters by three meters.  All the other plots are going to plant two meters by two meters.  I have been having difficulty getting the spreadsheet to calculate the two by three plots properly.  I am always off by a row of seedlings.  It works perfect when I use the two by two calculations.  Also I am revising the calculator to reflect different exchange rates.  Today the exchange rate was over 100 Ksh to a dollar.  All my previous calculations were at 90 Ksh to a dollar.  I am also reducing the post costs and chemical costs.

Tonight I am trying a new variation of my meal.  Instead of beef filet and chips I am going to have Beef filet and onion rings.  I must say tonight’s beef filet was much tender then the last one the other night.  The onion rings are also very tasty.  After dinner I will continue to work the numbers to determine how much each plot needs of each item.  I will work a materials list for every plot with expected costs.  Not much else to report for today.  Tomorrow it is off to Bulinda to look at the three plots and the posts that are in the area for both Bulinda and Bungoma.

Take care and God bless.               

Dave