kenya: kibwezi
my dad has had a project recently in a place called kibwezi - about 100km from nairobi in the general direction of mombasa and he invited me to come along. so we started off early, his van loaded down with several hundred seedlings (more on this anon).
we stopped briefly at a roadside market on the way. many of these communities perhaps have one main crop, so once a week there is a market held by the side of the road where guys from other parts of the country come with their crops, sell them, maybe buy some of the local crop and take it back. sadly i didnt get a shot of the market, but i did get one of the 'more great shop'...when just 'great' is not enough...
travelling in kenya is always interesting. as with much else in life, the destination is only part of the attraction. once we had turned off the main road and driven a considerable distance on a backroad, we came across this guy pulling his mkokoteni (hand cart). who knows what he was planning to do with those huge bundles in the middle of nowhere?
finally we got to our destination. kibwezi is a fairly dry area. so my dad had the idea of planting mango trees there. once established, mango trees do well in hot and dry areas. strange that such a juicy and succulent fruit comes from the dry, isnt it? here you see all the mango seedlings laid out.
apparently the mango is the national fruit of india, pakistan (????!!!) and the phillipines. who decides this kind of stuff anyway? what if another country already 'took' your favorite fruit?
anyway, we found an interesting project going on whereby one of the aid organisations (and, truth be told, aid organisations in africa often do a lot more to enrich the organisers and originators of said aid then to actually help people, so this was a refreshingly different project) provides some knowlege and funds to the women of the village. they all come together and run this little nursery.
seems women are way more trustworthy when it comes to taking the money and actually using it for growing their crop rather than drinking it away! as you can see their nursery was growing very well and we added a couple hundred melia trees to their stock. this tree is from the mahogany family and produces excellent wood.
of course the biggest problem for all these trees is water. though they are all chosen because of their ability to grow in dry areas, for the first couple of years they need a constant water supply. so we went to visit a neighbour who had dug a well to see if we could do something similar. heres my dad testing the existing well!
the remainder of this blog is a few pictures of some of the kids of kibwezi. they dont have much, but they were all unfailingly cheerful and friendly.
the littlest kid was afraid of the camera, so all his siblings, in the manner of sibling all over the world laughed at him.
it was an enjoyable day and a great opportunity to spend some time with my dad. for those of you who havent met him, hes a pretty amazing guy with many diverse skills and creative ideas. his philosophy usually is, 'why should i buy this when i can build one cheaper?' and then he tries it and usually does end up building a better one than the original one. i always learn something from him whenever i spend time with him.
we stopped briefly at a roadside market on the way. many of these communities perhaps have one main crop, so once a week there is a market held by the side of the road where guys from other parts of the country come with their crops, sell them, maybe buy some of the local crop and take it back. sadly i didnt get a shot of the market, but i did get one of the 'more great shop'...when just 'great' is not enough...
travelling in kenya is always interesting. as with much else in life, the destination is only part of the attraction. once we had turned off the main road and driven a considerable distance on a backroad, we came across this guy pulling his mkokoteni (hand cart). who knows what he was planning to do with those huge bundles in the middle of nowhere?
finally we got to our destination. kibwezi is a fairly dry area. so my dad had the idea of planting mango trees there. once established, mango trees do well in hot and dry areas. strange that such a juicy and succulent fruit comes from the dry, isnt it? here you see all the mango seedlings laid out.
apparently the mango is the national fruit of india, pakistan (????!!!) and the phillipines. who decides this kind of stuff anyway? what if another country already 'took' your favorite fruit?
anyway, we found an interesting project going on whereby one of the aid organisations (and, truth be told, aid organisations in africa often do a lot more to enrich the organisers and originators of said aid then to actually help people, so this was a refreshingly different project) provides some knowlege and funds to the women of the village. they all come together and run this little nursery.
seems women are way more trustworthy when it comes to taking the money and actually using it for growing their crop rather than drinking it away! as you can see their nursery was growing very well and we added a couple hundred melia trees to their stock. this tree is from the mahogany family and produces excellent wood.
of course the biggest problem for all these trees is water. though they are all chosen because of their ability to grow in dry areas, for the first couple of years they need a constant water supply. so we went to visit a neighbour who had dug a well to see if we could do something similar. heres my dad testing the existing well!
the remainder of this blog is a few pictures of some of the kids of kibwezi. they dont have much, but they were all unfailingly cheerful and friendly.
the littlest kid was afraid of the camera, so all his siblings, in the manner of sibling all over the world laughed at him.
it was an enjoyable day and a great opportunity to spend some time with my dad. for those of you who havent met him, hes a pretty amazing guy with many diverse skills and creative ideas. his philosophy usually is, 'why should i buy this when i can build one cheaper?' and then he tries it and usually does end up building a better one than the original one. i always learn something from him whenever i spend time with him.
