Migori, Rongo, Sweet Potatoes, etc.
There's nothing as exciting as my last few updates to report on but things are coming along well here and I'm trying to stay productive. The day after returning from my Nairobi/Kitui adventure I was contacted by two Dutch friends, Ilsa and Yvonne. The Dutchies are working with street children and they were volunteering in Kitui when I was in training. When they called me they were driving back from Uganda and needed a place to stay for the night. I had about two hours notice before they got to my house at 10pm. They were with two Catholic priest friends they work with in Kitui, and the priests needed to be in Eldoret the following morning. I threw together a place for them to sleep and had just a few hours to catch up with them before they left the following morning. The next day I went to Mbale, a nearby town, to get information on Moringa, which is a tree with tons of nutrition benefits that grows very well here. While there I purchased a kilo of Moringa seeds, enough for a forest of the stuff. I then worked with farmers to get six large bags of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato vines together. My plan was to bring the Moringa and Sweet Potato down to Migori with Habakkuk, the network chairman, and educate the farmers in the area on how to grow these crops. The meeting with the farmers was organised by friends I made at the Brittany James Chirdren's Fund and we were invited to stay at the orphanage while in Migori. The following weekend was fairly low key and I had a chance to relax. There was a 100km Boda Boda race that I wanted to be in but I had a sore throat I couldn't kick, so I'll try to enter the next one.
After the weekend I spent the next few days at the office, and a network meeting was scheduled. One thing I'm starting to notice is that there are so many people in my farmers group who talk about getting things done, yet it seems that so little is actually accomplished. For instance, there are village commodity boards that the Network wants to use to update villages throughout Kakamega district on agricultural prices, so farmers selling their crops do not get ripped off. The boards have been sitting in the office ready to be deployed in the field since the volunteer before me worked with the farmers to get them finished, and they are still there now, despite repeated promises to get them deployed. It can be frustrating how slow the pace moves here and how unconcerned people are about it. I sometimes worry that out of the 10 committee members leading the network, Habakkuk is the only one really going out of his was to help out the farmers, while some of the others appear to be in it for there own self interest. I have been speaking to Habakkuk about this and we are working together to motivate and get other network officials involved more. I'm afraid that otherwise people will continue to sit back and take the grant money until all of it is gone, and the long term sustainability intended for this project will fail, something that happens all to often here.
So Habakkuk worked with me to get all the inputs together for our training in Migori, and I spent Wednesday night at his house so we could catch an "Express" matatu that was leaving at five in the morning for Migori. I learn time and time again that there is no such thing as an express matatu. It stopped in as many places as a regular matatu and we even had to switch matatus at the chaotic stage in Kisii, which involved unloading all the bags of vines from the roof and reloading them. We finally arrived in Migori seven hours later, and since we had such an early start we were still able to work with the farmers that day.
When I arrived at the orphanage I was surprised to see two surgeons from my home town who had come for a week to check up on the children and visit nearby clinics and hospitals. We joined them for lunch and following my meeting with them we left for a training session for farmers that had been organized by Pastor Fred, the manager of the orphanage.
There were over 100 farmers in attendance to learn about the crops we brought, and luckily we brought plenty of bags of vines, so we were able to distribute enough for each farmer to start a rapid growth vine nursery, where they will be able to grow enough vines to fill their gardens with Sweet Potatoes if they want to. I also had several thousand moringa seeds, and each farmer got a handful. I spoke to them on the benefits of the Moringa tree and Habakkuk educated them on the Sweet Potatoes. They were very appreciative and we are planning a return trip later this year to assist the farmers in finding markets and processing the harvested crops.
I also had Pastor Fred organise a meeting with the disabled in the community, and six people showed up in need of a wheelchair. I got their names, pictures, and sizes (the requirements of the donors) and will let Benson know of the need in Migori. Hopefully I will be able to get at least six of the donated wheelchairs to the Migori area, while at the same time I'm also working in Kakamega on the same thing.
After working all day with the farmers and disabled folks we ate dinner and I stayed up late talking with the surgeons from Huntsville. The next morning I went to Rongo, a nearby town where I had heard a grant had been approved for Sweet Potato processing and marketing. Before making it to Rongo I stopped at the Sally Orphanage, where I went on my last visit in the area to learn that some of there funding going towards assisting the children is allegedly being stolen by a women acting as a collaborator in Nairobi. I once again spoke to Molly, the primary caretaker at the orphanage, about this and she was nearly in tears. Children are unable to take their final exams because the money they were promised for school fees was not being delivered, and she showed me receipts and paperwork to back up her case. I got as much information together as I could and plan to write a detailed letter to the donor in Belgium regarding this. I'm not sure I'll be able to get anywhere with him, because Molly showed me a rather nasty letter the donor wrote to her when she told him about the problem. Unfortunately the collaborator in Nairobi happens to be the donor's Kenyan girlfriend, so I'm going to have to be careful with what I do here, but Molly's case is compelling and if she is being honest with me the woman in Nairobi is a rotten person.
I left from the Sally Orphanage for Rongo, and learned that an organization there has received over 10 millions shillings in Grant money towards the production, processing, and distribution of Sweet Potato products. I visited several farmer sights and had a chance to see where and how the potatoes are growing, where the mills are located, and even a bakery where bread is being baked and sold. I was very impressed with their project, and interior Nyanza province near Homa Bay is an absolutely beautiful area. The biggest issue I saw was that the mills and the bakery are in the middle of nowhere. The grant money is currently being used towards packaging and barcodes so the bread can be sold in larger markets, and the transportation logistics of actually getting the bread to these markets looks like it will be a huge problem. I'm hoping that I can also apply for grant money to start a similar initiative in a better location with farmers in my network. I have several potential donors (Farm Africa, Africa Now) that I am going to schedule meetings with over the next few months.
That evening I stayed with some volunteers, a couple living in Rongo, before heading out the next day. One great thing about the Peace Corps is that it provides a network of people all over the country to stay with when needed. The next morning I went to Kisumu to relax with some friends for the day, and I also bought several gifts for friends and family from the craft market. I managed to carry everything home in one piece and as I was leaving the Matatu to take a boda boda to my village, the matatu Tout took my bag from me and threw it on the ground, breaking about half of the things I had purchased! I was pretty pissed but he drove off before I could say anything, and what can you do? At least some of my stuff is still intact.
So that about sums up the latest. There was a Sweet Potato Graduation ceremony yesterday where all the farming trained on growing were given certificates of completion. As usual there was singing, dancing, and plenty of long speeches from everybody. Things finished up around 5 o'clock, which is pretty typical for an itinerary ending at 2.
Now I need to get going, lots going on but I'll write more soon. Going on three weeks without electricity at the house but if I ever get it back I'll post some pics from all my latest adventures.
After the weekend I spent the next few days at the office, and a network meeting was scheduled. One thing I'm starting to notice is that there are so many people in my farmers group who talk about getting things done, yet it seems that so little is actually accomplished. For instance, there are village commodity boards that the Network wants to use to update villages throughout Kakamega district on agricultural prices, so farmers selling their crops do not get ripped off. The boards have been sitting in the office ready to be deployed in the field since the volunteer before me worked with the farmers to get them finished, and they are still there now, despite repeated promises to get them deployed. It can be frustrating how slow the pace moves here and how unconcerned people are about it. I sometimes worry that out of the 10 committee members leading the network, Habakkuk is the only one really going out of his was to help out the farmers, while some of the others appear to be in it for there own self interest. I have been speaking to Habakkuk about this and we are working together to motivate and get other network officials involved more. I'm afraid that otherwise people will continue to sit back and take the grant money until all of it is gone, and the long term sustainability intended for this project will fail, something that happens all to often here.
So Habakkuk worked with me to get all the inputs together for our training in Migori, and I spent Wednesday night at his house so we could catch an "Express" matatu that was leaving at five in the morning for Migori. I learn time and time again that there is no such thing as an express matatu. It stopped in as many places as a regular matatu and we even had to switch matatus at the chaotic stage in Kisii, which involved unloading all the bags of vines from the roof and reloading them. We finally arrived in Migori seven hours later, and since we had such an early start we were still able to work with the farmers that day.
When I arrived at the orphanage I was surprised to see two surgeons from my home town who had come for a week to check up on the children and visit nearby clinics and hospitals. We joined them for lunch and following my meeting with them we left for a training session for farmers that had been organized by Pastor Fred, the manager of the orphanage.
There were over 100 farmers in attendance to learn about the crops we brought, and luckily we brought plenty of bags of vines, so we were able to distribute enough for each farmer to start a rapid growth vine nursery, where they will be able to grow enough vines to fill their gardens with Sweet Potatoes if they want to. I also had several thousand moringa seeds, and each farmer got a handful. I spoke to them on the benefits of the Moringa tree and Habakkuk educated them on the Sweet Potatoes. They were very appreciative and we are planning a return trip later this year to assist the farmers in finding markets and processing the harvested crops.
I also had Pastor Fred organise a meeting with the disabled in the community, and six people showed up in need of a wheelchair. I got their names, pictures, and sizes (the requirements of the donors) and will let Benson know of the need in Migori. Hopefully I will be able to get at least six of the donated wheelchairs to the Migori area, while at the same time I'm also working in Kakamega on the same thing.
After working all day with the farmers and disabled folks we ate dinner and I stayed up late talking with the surgeons from Huntsville. The next morning I went to Rongo, a nearby town where I had heard a grant had been approved for Sweet Potato processing and marketing. Before making it to Rongo I stopped at the Sally Orphanage, where I went on my last visit in the area to learn that some of there funding going towards assisting the children is allegedly being stolen by a women acting as a collaborator in Nairobi. I once again spoke to Molly, the primary caretaker at the orphanage, about this and she was nearly in tears. Children are unable to take their final exams because the money they were promised for school fees was not being delivered, and she showed me receipts and paperwork to back up her case. I got as much information together as I could and plan to write a detailed letter to the donor in Belgium regarding this. I'm not sure I'll be able to get anywhere with him, because Molly showed me a rather nasty letter the donor wrote to her when she told him about the problem. Unfortunately the collaborator in Nairobi happens to be the donor's Kenyan girlfriend, so I'm going to have to be careful with what I do here, but Molly's case is compelling and if she is being honest with me the woman in Nairobi is a rotten person.
I left from the Sally Orphanage for Rongo, and learned that an organization there has received over 10 millions shillings in Grant money towards the production, processing, and distribution of Sweet Potato products. I visited several farmer sights and had a chance to see where and how the potatoes are growing, where the mills are located, and even a bakery where bread is being baked and sold. I was very impressed with their project, and interior Nyanza province near Homa Bay is an absolutely beautiful area. The biggest issue I saw was that the mills and the bakery are in the middle of nowhere. The grant money is currently being used towards packaging and barcodes so the bread can be sold in larger markets, and the transportation logistics of actually getting the bread to these markets looks like it will be a huge problem. I'm hoping that I can also apply for grant money to start a similar initiative in a better location with farmers in my network. I have several potential donors (Farm Africa, Africa Now) that I am going to schedule meetings with over the next few months.
That evening I stayed with some volunteers, a couple living in Rongo, before heading out the next day. One great thing about the Peace Corps is that it provides a network of people all over the country to stay with when needed. The next morning I went to Kisumu to relax with some friends for the day, and I also bought several gifts for friends and family from the craft market. I managed to carry everything home in one piece and as I was leaving the Matatu to take a boda boda to my village, the matatu Tout took my bag from me and threw it on the ground, breaking about half of the things I had purchased! I was pretty pissed but he drove off before I could say anything, and what can you do? At least some of my stuff is still intact.
So that about sums up the latest. There was a Sweet Potato Graduation ceremony yesterday where all the farming trained on growing were given certificates of completion. As usual there was singing, dancing, and plenty of long speeches from everybody. Things finished up around 5 o'clock, which is pretty typical for an itinerary ending at 2.
Now I need to get going, lots going on but I'll write more soon. Going on three weeks without electricity at the house but if I ever get it back I'll post some pics from all my latest adventures.
posted by KenyaJoe at 2:41 AM
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