Africa Arrival

Greetings!  It has been two weeks since I arrived in Kenya.  Hard to believe!  It was a long journey across the big pond, and more interesting travelling to get from Nairobi to here.  I caused a bit of chaos with not having a cell phone of my own at that time of arrival, but it all worked out in the end.  Patience is a necessity in Africa.  So is buoyancy when travelling on the ill-kept roads.  Vehicles drive on whatever side of the road has the fewest potholes.  Or even on the side of the road.  But on the (limited) smooth highways, speed bumps make for an interesting way to maintain speed limits.  I considered it all to be a good way to get the lymph fluid circulating after so many hours of stationary plane sitting.

I’m now living in a rural area outside of Kakamega.  It feels very good to be back on a farm – home sweet home!  There are a few chickens around, a bull in the back yard, and tethered livestock on the lawn now and again.  Many garden beds surround the house with some familiar crops (amaranth) and some new to me.  Since it is the tail end of the dry season, most of the plants are maturing to harvest the seed.  I look forward to the opportunity to plant some of my own crops at the KBTC.

The KBTC (Kenya-grow Bio-Intensive Training Centre) is where I am volunteering to teach nutrition, starting tomorrow.  It is a good fit to the curriculum of organic and intensive farming practices.  The family farms here are small in comparison to Canada – more like the back yards of larger homes or ‘hobby farm’ sized.  But it suits the needs of feeding families, for the most part.  Part of the KBTC mission is to educate people on how to grow more food on small parcels of land.  Many produce maize (corn) but it is not necessarily the most nutritious or efficient crop to grow.

I was able to (somewhat) participate in a community outreach project the first Friday and Saturday of my visit.  The KBTC provided an information session to the community as to what they are about, and then some basics on soil fertility.  English words are often interspersed amongst Swahili, so I picked up on a bit of what was going on.  The periodic translations were also helpful, as well as for me being able to provide a bit of information to the attendees.  It has taken many, many years, but finally my agricultural, environmental, and now nutritional education and experience can finally be combined.  It no longer feels like I have spent the last nearly twenty years of my life wandering aimlessly.  I have found the venue (KBTC) through which it all works together perfectly.

It has been relatively easy for me to adapt to the living conditions.  I don’t mind using a latrine (outhouse) as I prefer not to waste water if I don’t have to.  We have enough electricity for lights and charging cell phones and my laptop.  There is a small television but it hasn’t been on since I arrived, which is fine with me.  I’ve laundered clothes by hand before, which was a bit of a surprise to my host family.  Apparently the previous two volunteers had to be taught that trick! 

This week will see new challenges, as I start teaching and will start training in home cooking duties.  The daughter of the family left to return to boarding school Sunday, so she didn’t have much time to prepare me!  I’m sure I’ll be fine once I get the hang of lighting the fire . . . I never really was one for starting fires!

I’ll wrap this posting up here, and hope to post something weekly now that I’ve figured out the Internet access.  I can’t promise any pictures yet, as I have a new laptop with a new program and I haven’t figured out how to shrink the images yet.  Though with two more assignments hanging over my head for school, I likely won’t be taking pictures for a little while . . . sigh.  No rest for the weary or wicked!