January 30, 2012

Hi all
Hezron has reported in from Bungoma county with the plots that are in Kamukuywa.  These orchards were planted for the Pastors Augustine, Doricus, Jeremiah, and Paul.  Again some of the plots are doing well and some are not doing as well.  It is the dry season and the plants that have survived are doing very well.  We will be replacing any of the dead ones before the next rains start so the plots will be back to their original size.  As for the pictures the plants that have survived look really great.  Within a few more months we should start seeing some fruit.

Pastor Augustine and passion fruit 

Doricus and passion fruit

Pastor Jeremiah's wife and passion fruit

Pastor Paul and passion fruit

Why is it when I am in Western Kenya it rains every day and when I leave it does not rain enough?  I noticed that the posts are not up and the wire has not been run yet.  I assume that the sticks will be replaced with taller ones as the vines continue to grow to seven or eight feet.

Hezron will be reporting in soon on the other plots in Kakamega, Mumias, Kitale, and Busia.  Again please pray for my friends in Kenya and please God let it rain.

Take care and God bless

Dave



January 26, 2012

Hi all

Just got an email from Mayor Ben in Funyula on Councilor Magangu's orchard.  As for Councilor Magangu we added an extra plot (75 seedlings?) at the last moment because the soil on his property looked very much different then the other areas we had planted.  I wanted to see how the seedling did on such rich looking soil.  Ben tells me that is is very hot and dry right now.  The Busia area is much lower in elevation (Lake Victoria) then the other areas of western Kenya so the temperature is more reflective of being on the equator.  The lack of rain is keeping the plants from growing faster.  As for the pictures he sent me they look very green and are working their way up the sticks.  These plants are about three months old and to me 8000 miles away they look healthy.

Councilor Mabangu's Passion Fruit Orchard

Good use of Kale within the orchard

Ben tells me that he was not able to visit Pastor Ososo's or Pastor Odongo's plots just yet.  As I get more pictures and reports I will keep you all informed.  I have still not heard of what happened to the widow's in Kakamega but I assume that the two plots that we had planted for them are being taken care of.  This waiting and not being in Kenya at this time is really taking it's toll on my emotions.  I feel completely helpless and the burden of possible failure(s) is almost too much to take.  There are two planting seasons in Kenya for their cash crop Maize.  We have taken one of their seasons and are now approaching the next.  I cannot think of what happens if these orchards do not produce an income for our friends in Kenya.  So if you do not mind please keep the passion fruit in your prayers.  As for me a little prayer for me won't hurt.

Take care and God bless you all.

Dave  

January 22, 2012

Hello everyone

Well I hope all of you are doing well and the new year is treating you right.  The weather here in Chicago has been pretty inconsistent.  A day ago it was 10 degrees F and tonight it is 40 degrees F.  The snow is melting and so far January has not been as bad as it could of been.  No telling what February will bring.

Bishop Hezron has and is taking to the road to check out the various orchards around Western Kenya.  Hezron has sent me some pictures (below) of a few sites in Kakamega.  Pastor Robert also sent some pictures from Bulimbo but they are too grainy to post.  Robert says the three plots in Bulimbo are doing well.  Hezron has told me that some plots are doing very well, some are doing fair, and some are struggling.  Some areas did not get the rains in November as expected and therefore did not grow as fast as planned.  We had one of the plots in Busia overflow with water and we lost quite a few seedlings.  As the week progresses I should have more details on how the other areas are doing.

Pastor Elijah Ambula's and his wife working their orchard

This picture says Kakamega Widow's plot 2 however I believe this is the 1st plot

Melissa Okaba's plot



Hezron has also told me that the Kakamega widow's have all but disappeared and John Imala is taking care of the original plot.  After they had harvested the Kale they have not been back to work the plot.  I have asked Hezron to get with Councilor Bibianna to see what is going on with the widow's.  It will be very sad indeed if they have decided to give up on this project.  Once I get more details then I will report back to you all.  Please keep these women in your prayers.  Their lives are difficult to say the least and I possibly cannot begin to comprehend what they go through.  One of our main goals is to come in and help where we can.  We need to do this without causing any harm.  Again it is very difficult for me to get a grip on this situation being 8000 miles away.  So right now I am in complete denial and can't comprehend what is happening.  These women have two orchards and the potential to have money in their pockets to feed themselves, their children, etc.  Sorry I cannot dwell on this anymore until I hear more.

As of right now my plans are to make my next mission trip to Kenya and Uganda late March or early April.  If there are larger problems that I need to deal with then maybe I will have to make a quick trip over next month. 

Take care and God bless you all, and please pray for the widow's in Kakamega.

Dave

 

January 10, 2012

Greetings and Happy New Year to you all

It has been a couple of weeks since I have last posted.  I hope everyone has gotten over the holidays and are enjoying your return to whatever is the normal routine for you.  Isn't the weather just great?  Chicago in the 50's in January who would of guessed?  Today was simply wonderful but I believe it will be short lived and old man winter will come to bite soon enough.

I haven't heard too much from Kenya on the orchards since my last post.  The first orchard planted in July passed the five month mark a few weeks ago.  The first fruits will start to trickle in within the next month or so.  After they are six to ninth months old they will start to produce more and more fruit for what we expect to be about 5 years.  The second and third years should be the best and then the yield starts to dwindle after that.  Within the next week or so I will have Bishop Hezron go out and get some pictures of the orchards.  Progress reports too.

I am presently trying to come up with my travel dates for my next visit to Kenya.  I would assume that since we planted the twenty six other orchards about 10 weeks after the first orchard in July it will be about 10 weeks after the first orchard starts harvesting fruit before the others start to harvest.  This looks to be sometime in early to mid April.  This still seems like a long time from now.  My goal is to be in Kenya a couple of weeks before the first harvesting and for a few weeks as the first harvests take place.

On this next trip I have to get into Uganda to visit the orphans that Bishop Moses of Freedom Ministries has told me about.  My heart aches that these children have to live like they do.  If we can be successful in getting widow's to be self sufficient groups then can we do it with orphans?  Out of all the money that is donated every year it is only a drop in the bucket for what is truly needed to reach all the children that are in need.  We hope to provide capital for an orphanage to venture into something that will produce an income for support and sustainability for the children.



Take care and God bless you all

Dave  

December 26, 2011

Hi all

The older I get and the more driving I do the more I hate driving.  Wouldn't it be great if we could just blink ourselves to our destination.  Not only do I not like it when people do not follow the rules at toll booths but I have come to the conclusion there are people out there that come up behind you on the interstate get into your blind spot and sit there on purpose.  It's not like the interstate was full today in fact it was pretty empty (Iowa is really flat) and riding my right back quarter panel where I can't see for umpteen miles is just plain rude.  It's like my cruise control is on and when I approach another vehicle I would like to pass them instead of braking so not to cause an accident with guy in my blind spot.  What's nice about the little Saab is that it goes from 80 mph to 120 mph in a matter of seconds.  There was at least two occasions today that I had to use the high speed getaway from rude driver and leave them about a mile behind.  The only problem with this tactic is that once I get back to my comfortable cruise control driving speed Mr. Rude finds his way back to my blind spot.  Sometimes I have to adjust my comfortable cruise control driving speed plus or minus a couple of mph's and I don't have this problem.  But there are those out there that know that I am changing my speed and adjust there's accordingly to stay on my back right quarter panel.  I feel better now.  Thanks.

While I was in Kansas celebrating Christmas with family and friends (Merry Christmas everyone) I was looking at some of the pictures from Kenya on the first orchard planted in July and behold I noticed that there was a fairly large passion fruit on one of the vines.  I know I have been waiting patiently for fruit to show up on the vines and should not complain but it's still a little too early to be fruiting.  The process is that the flowers and suckers are to be pruned on the way up to the wire.  Once it is on the wire then it is allowed to spread out, come back down to the ground, flower, and produce fruit.  Anyway the vines look like they are healthy and starting to grow more quickly now that they are at the wire.  This is great news indeed.  I am so excited and now its even harder to wait for a harvest.

See the little guy at the bottom of the picture on the post

Well I hope you all had a very wonderful Christmas and will have a prosperous New Year.

Take care and God bless

Dave

December 18, 2011

Greetings

I have a little update on what is happening with the orchards in Kenya.  Bishop Hezron sent me a few pictures of the original widow's orchard in Kakamega.  I opened one of them and it struck me kinda hard especially from that angle.  I know it is just a plant but it reminded me of why I do this.

Passion

Anyway we have mixed results coming in from Kenya.  We have seedlings that are doing well and we have some that are not doing well.  I do not have a full report of all the areas but some of the plots are having a larger number of seedlings die then we wanted.  It appears that we are having some of the same problems that plagued the first batch.  They seem to die from the graft up.  The original yellow passion fruit is healthy but the purple passion above the graft does not survive.  During the inspection of the seedlings back in October the graft area and vine above looked very healthy.  The last time this happened we had problems with the scions.  To me it looks like we have a problem during the grafting process or during the handling, transportation or planting of the seedling.  I kinda rule out planting since most of the plants are just fine and many that die are only dead above the graft.  I will work on getting them replaced and we will move on.

Our vendor feels that much of this is from lack of adequate training.  I agree to a certain extent and we will work to make sure that training is a critical portion of our planting process in the future.  However I cannot get my mind to comprehend how training is going to help the plant above the graft area when the rest of it is doing fine.  Everyone is committed to making this work and I am sure over time we will do just fine.  Keep us in your prayers and if you have a little extra this holiday season to help our cause we would appreciate it too.  Fuel costs in Kenya is over $5 a gallon and we have quite a few different areas to attend to.  On the right side of this blog is our information on donating.  Thanks.

I am beginning to get ready to plan my next visit to East Africa sometime in late February, March, or early April.  Much depends on when we can expect the first harvests of fruit.  On this next trip I do want to get back into the slums of Nairobi and visit Uganda again to see what we can do to help with the orphans.  I recently got some pictures from Bishop Moses in Uganda on some of the orphan sites.  The vast majority of orphans are incorporated into church family homes where possible usually six to a dozen per household.  There are so many orphans throughout East Africa and my prayer is that we can start to help somehow.  An acre of passion fruit at an orphanage site will go a long way in providing adequate shelter, education, clothing, and a presence of family to these children.  The pictures below are just a small sample of the multitude of orphans that could use our help.

Namasavu, Uganda Freedom Ministries Orphan School

Kitambona, Uganda Freedom Ministries Orphan School

Bujagali, Uganda Freedom Ministries Orphan School

 

It is quickly approaching the day we celebrate our Lord's birthday.  I personally would like to wish everyone a joyous and wonderful Christmas.

Take care, be blessed and God bless you all

Dave

PS:  Last night at our Christmas party part of our dessert was Passion Fruit Cheesecake.  Very tasty but it wasn't colored purple.

 

November 28, 2011

Hi all

Well I pray that everyone here in the states had a great Turkey Day and have recovered from overeating, disappointing football games, or the rotten ride to and from where ever you traveled to over the holiday.  Just think you can do it all over again next year.  I find it amazing that we all love our T-day.  Has anyone done a study on how many woman hours are spent preparing the meal only to be eaten in about 10 to 15 minutes.  My guess it is well over a billion woman hours and a few man hours too.  Come to think of it the Christmas feast is just around the corner.

On the other side of the ocean is a couple of dozen passion fruit orchards.  I am waiting patiently for them to fully mature and produce some fruit.  My last emails that I have received are all promising and they are coming along fine.  Next spring can not get here quick enough.  Hezron took some pictures and sent them to me.  However I am unable to get them off the word document to post them here.  Hopefully before too long I will be able to post some pictures of our progress.

As we have already given thanks for our blessings this last weekend and are about to come into the season of Christ please remember those that are less fortunate then ourselves. 

Be blessed and take care.

Dave