We started in an area stricken by drought and famine, in
September of 2012 after the long rains failed to come to Turkana in April and
May. People were truly desperate and
malnutrition in children was double the normal rates. Our goal was to keep people alive until we could
begin teaching them to raise food for themselves. We knew this would prove to be quite a
challenge as these peoples have survived off the land as pastoralists, not
farmers, for as long as anyone can remember.
When flying from Nairobi to Turkana, the all encompassing
fertile fields of the Kenya highlands shift from continuous fields, to green
mountains, to brown mountains to grey desert sands with little to no color
variation, except for the green tree-lined traces of dry stream beds. Evidence of people is hard to find except
along the one river in the region.
Welcome to Turkana, we are here to do agriculture.
This trip came about as part of a conservation agriculture
conference in Arusha, Tanzania, put on by ECHO, out of Ft. Myers Florida. They are a great organization, founded to
help educate people like me on different options for helping people grow
nutritious food in the places where they live.
That part was educational with great networking and new friendships
established.
On arrival back to Nairobi, I spent a day with our director
J.P., driving out to Molo-Kurisol, where much of the violence and death
occurred following the disputed presidential election in 2007. WR is planning an agricultural and youth
intervention to address the idleness and discontent among young men working on
their parent’s farms. My sense is that
they are great young men, but frustrated by a lack of purpose and progress in
their lives. This land is rich and
productive where minor improvements can make a big impact.
By the time I got home that night, my stomach was roaring
and kept me up half the night, emptying itself with great energy. No fun indeed and the thought of food was
banished for 36 hours. What a way to
lose those extra Christmas pounds. To
top it off, after a series of miscues, I missed my flight to Turkana and was
“forced” to rest for the entire 24 hours before catching the next one by the
skin of my teeth. I was literally the
last person permitted on the plane.
(Actually, it was pure mercy that I was able to rest.)
Upon arriving in Turkana, we took off on a 5-hour, grueling
trip through uncountable riverbeds, up the mountain and over paths that have
never once in their existence seen anything you could call a road grader. After 2.5 hours I called for a stretch
break. The mechanical stress points on
my backside were burning, neck and shoulder aching and it felt like my head was
on a swivel. We arrived at 10:30 p.m.
after meeting no cars after dark, ate supper and fell into a hot, restless
sleep. When the sun came up, I was not
ready to get out of bed! However, this
being the third meal in 2.5 days, I needed to get something in my system for
energy.
We spent the day visiting agricultural project
locations. Most were pretty sad and
stressed by the lack of water, high heat, high wind and no mulch. Caretaking of crops is difficult. There is little natural ground cover, (except
for the stones) and most of the greenery is thorn trees with tiny little
leaves. There were a few bright
spots. One was Pastor Peter whom I had
met the year before. He greeted me by
first name like a long lost friend and enthusiastically showed me his “kitchen”
garden. The tomatoes were doing so well,
they were selling more than $12 of produce per picking and were the talk of the
town. 
He said, “I remember what you told me last year, that it was
possible to grow vegetables here and look, we are doing it.” (I was glad he reminded me because I didn’t
remember saying it myself.) He went on
to say that he was using the money to send a young promising, but vulnerable
young man to high school. This boy was
helping to carry water to the garden and helping to earn the money that would
send him to school. Joseph says he wants
to become a doctor. I encouraged him to
study his sciences well and he would have many options to use what he will
learn.
In several areas we have put in deep wells or boreholes to
provide the communities with water for the household, livestock and gardening. They are just getting started and do not
understand many things. For example,
they wanted another big water tank so the pump would produce more water. It was a pleasure to meet with them and find
them drinking clean water that was no longer available in the deep holes they
used to dig in the river bed, due to the lack of the short season rains. Without this water resource, they would be
forced to move out of their community in search of enough water to survive
until the next rains come.
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