Mtwapa will be missed

Two things I'll miss.

Mumtaz: The best beef birihani ever.






This cooky lizard. Ahh the stories ....

Small Scale Greenhouses in Kenya

Small Scale Greenhouses in Kenya.
Conception - Education - Investment - Construction -Production

I grew up around green houses. . . Mostly getting kicked out of them.

December 2008 - I worked with my host family in Loitoktok Kenya building my first.

Then in Feburary 2009 I invited Mr. Kimani (who taught me in Loitoktok) to come give a seminar about the benifits and construction of greenhouses. I brought in a local NGO - Eco Ethics International to pay for, teach business skills and help facilitate the conference.



We had teachers from 7 different schools and envorinmental club students.

Through the pushing, organizing of Dan Abrahams, a FSD volunteer with Eco Ethics, the first greenhouse on the south coast of Kenya was built with a men's and women's group in a small village named Munje. (*This project would not have been possible with out Dan - thank you so much!)

The kids of Munje were great. They helped us build and taught us Kidigo (their language)

Here was our first crop planted at the end of July.

And 3 months later!!!!!!

Its amazing!

They are harvesting 40kg every three days ... and the plants have not even reached full growth. Selling at 30 shillings per kg.

The community has nearly made back the money for their initial investment already! ... profit anyone?

The market is booming - there is nothing but demand. Most tomatoes are shipped from far away.

Here are some of the tomatoes. Delicious.

...... This picture speaks a lot to me .... the look so natural there next to the onions.


.. In case your wondering 'why greenhouses?' - let me know and I can send you a project proposal.... in brief:

1.High yields
2.Water economy
3.Fruit quality
4.Low labor input
5.Market timing
6.Prolonged production
7.Shortened maturity period
8.Low pest and disease problems
9.Reduced use of land to achieve the same results (ratio of about 1:10)
10.The ability to grow the vegetables for the school and community
11.Valuable skills for the students and community
12.A model for the community and neighboring schools
13.Reduced transportation costs for food

... beyond these reasons ...... I am seeing the local education around agriculture being extreemly valuble.
Not to mention - this is a country currently faces with the prospect of massive starvation.

... I am thinking a passion fruit greenhouse could be amazing ..... anyone want to help build one? - let me know! ( motomoto.kenya @ gmail.com )

the news

A job for Kenyan scientists
Myth Busters – Kenya

Some recent Headlines:

HUMAN-GOAT BABY!

“This marks the beginning of end times!” a crazed man yells.
A goat gave birth to something that looked vaguely human.

15 women burnt alive for witchcraft

"My mother has always been a role model to the entire village and why the mob had to kill her will remain a mystery to me forever," lamented 32-year-old Emily Monari.

…............

Kenyan scientists / doctors / psychologists – need to go out to these locations when news like this breaks out and explain things – like genetic mutations and evolution (in the case of the goat) ….... at the very least a group of scientists needs to be on national TV to explain these events........


in other news:
$60 Nairobi slum tours – are now available! Do your part to end poverty by taking these exciting tours!
See things you never though possible. Flying piles of shit! Malnourished children! The Kenya-Uganda Railway! Dozens of people sleeping in the same bed – inches from an open sewage system! Best of all ….. All these wonderful things are only a wall away from a beautiful golf course, which you can goto and relax after the tour for only $20....
http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/10/22/kenya-60-for-a-slum-tour/

I actually see groups of foreigners being toured around by religious groups and vacation tourism companies here in Mombasa. What they tell the foreigners is that their money will go toward helping the children …. but I haven't heard of a case where it does.

That's how I ended up here.

But the happy stories are more fun!
(picture: on the street)

The other day I was riding a bus.

I asked the driver – how much to Timboni?
50 bob he said.

Later the conductor asked me for my money – I gave him 50 bob
He asked where I was going.
Timboni I said.
Ok he said.

All the other passengers got off before Timboni and the driver didn't want to take me all the way.
The conductor asked for more money.
I told him I already paid.
He told me the fare was more.
I told him he already told me the fare.
The drive told me that we never talked about the fare.

I got angry and said some unsavory things about his mother's vagina in Kiswahili.
He told me to not forget South Africa.
I told him to not forget Jomo Kenyatta and got out.

The other passengers stood around me and apologized saying – if the driver was not going to take me there he should have given me back some change. But none stood up for me.

I got another bus – who took too much money and missed the stop.
I was tired of arguing.
I took another bus back.

Compare to … Small Print corruption.
While traveling around the Bay Area my Avis rental car contract was a reduced price of $175 for a week – I opted to change my return location from Santa Cruz to the airport – when I arrived the price was $650 ….oooh? They had forgotten to tell me the reduced price was voided if I changed the return location.

As long as enough people don't complain . . . .

But there are other things to worry about - tribal hatred for instance:

A story from one of my students:
“In 1993 we left our homes. There were at least thirty of us hugging our belongings, family and chickens in the back of a lorry. I remember it getting dark, we were so scarred. We had watched our homes burn down and heard the screams of our friends. We ran.

A rock hit the side of the lorry and in the distance we saw a group of men with machetes and rocks telling us they would kill us if we didn't stop. An old man told the driver that if we stopped we would all be killed. We held metal roof sheets over our heads to protect us from the rocks and drove on. A window broke. A child screamed. The driver's hand was hit and became bloody. But we didn't stop.

In 2007 things were worse. That's how I ended up here.”

Better. . .

At the end of Ramadan there is a festival called Eid al-Fitr. Eid meaning "festivity", Fiṭr "to break fast" - it basically a four day party here in Mombasa.

Tents are erected and professional acrobats perform inside them. In order to get in you must pay 50 shillings and there are thousands of people there.
.... but something went wrong. For some reason thousands of people were not going in the tents but instead watching a group of .... street children?!

This was a problem. The street survivors spinning fire were more entertaining and having more fun than the 'professional acrobats' - who take themselves very seriously ... So what do to but invite the street children into the tent and given them a cut of the profits?

The money generated during these shows has actually launched one of our performers into an apartment! - and has really boosted their self esteem (being seen by thousands of people who would normally rather they just vanish).

This Saturday we will be be doing an outreach at a children's home on the south coast and are looking at costumes. (I'm excited about costumes ...... )