Out of Africa: Kenya 2008

Don and I are just back from two weeks in Africa. Our first week was for the Africa Harvest Board meeting. I've been working with this NGO for about 5 years now, whose mission is to bring appropriate agricultural technologies to small farmers in Africa to enhance crop yields, food security and economic well-being, often for the 'poorest of the poor'. Although we generally think of 'farmer' in the US as a man, in Africa many farmers are women, often single mothers supporting large extended families, which are additionally swelled by the numbers of 'AIDS orphans'. To see how these people live, and how hard they work to make even a meager living for their families is a profound wake-up call for us in the richest country in the world. We who think nothing of tossing things away when they get a little too shabby, who build houses on the scale of the palace of Versailles, whose children sleep in beds and go to school and can anticipate a better future, who have so much food that our critical health problems are caused not by scarcity but abundance. For me, personally, participation in this organization forces me to re-examine my outlook and causes me to think about what, really after all, is the best use of my labor and talents.


In any case, board meetings in conference rooms are not so interesting. But we always end the African board meeting with a field visit to meet some of the farmers who are engaged in our programs. This year was a visit to a small village called Githembe, near the city of Thika and about an hours drive from central Nairobi. These farmers are part of Africa Harvest's tissue culture banana program - growing bananas from strong, disease-free planting stock that improves yields and gives them not only enough to feed their families, but some extra to sell. Together with an NGO called Technoserve, we also have created a market structure for them to sell their extra fruit. Although one doesn't always think first of markets as the barrier in solving rural poverty and hunger, in fact lack of an accessible market is a big problem. These people cart hundreds of pounds of bananas for miles in a push wheelbarrow over dirt tracks that are nearly impassable in the rainy season - and that's if there's a market to get to! Picture above left is the actual market - the whole thing! - an open structure with a corrugated tin 'roof', a scale and a guy from Technoserve who shows up once a week to buy bananas.



For our visit, the whole village turned out, plus many people from the surrounding area who are part of the program. Singing and dancing is a way to welcome visitors to the community, and everyone is expected to join in. Even Don was enticed by the village women to dance, and he felt his dancing style - keeping his feet firmly planted but waving his arms wildly and moving his body stiffly if at all - fit right in. Click the arrow above to get a sense of the welcome.



All the children were curious to see the visitors - at first shy and fearful of having their picture taken, but once shown the image on the digital camera screen, enthusiastic to pose again and again! Many speeches, mostly in Swahili, but recognizable in form - welcome to the visitors, introductions of dignitaries, kudos and thanks to the organization, exhortations to the crowd to continue participation. Some of the more energetic speakers got audience participation almost like a revival meeting, with each sentence greeted with an enthusiastic 'uh-huh' like sound from the crowd, and the nods and smiles around the audience communicated their support better than any translator could.

After Nairobi, we spent an additional week travelling in Kenya. Two different camps in very different areas gave us a view of the natural beauty of the country. More in my next two posts about that!