Fish Farms, Springs, Widows and Dreams

Terry has gone off for his run. Yesterday I went with him for the first time in perhaps two weeks. It was lovely, more of a shuffle than a run, but I am glad I went. The pointing, yelling and laughing has calmed some. Terry has been running every morning so we are less of a spectacle – even the ridiculous becomes normal when seen often enough.

The past two days have been wonderfully full. On Tuesday we met with the Rotary Club of Vihiga. We took a matatu to Mbale (about 40 minutes from Kakamega over the pot-holed, bumpy highway) and met with four members of the club; Paul Gimode, Jack Anduvate, Karani and Mama Avedi. After chai, we took two cars to visit a project that has been a dream of Jack’s for years. On the way I had quite a conversation about Christianity, divorce, Heaven and hell with Paul. The missionaries have done a very good job of ingraining Christianity in this region – EVERYBODY belongs to a Christian church of some flavour or another. Paul seemed quite intrigued and a bit concerned that I don’t attend church or believe in Hell. Everyone is surprised that I have two practically grown up boys – I look like just a girl myself, or so they tell me  And when I told Paul that Terry & I were just married this year, he hoped for me that Terry was a virgin! “It could happen,” he said. As for Heaven and Hell, we decided that we would find out when we get there and in the mean time Paul will pray for me.

We arrived at Ingudumani Valley where Jack has a vision of damming the valley to make a lake for fish farming with a potential for hydro electric power. Of course, he would have to have buy-in from the families that are farming on that land (it is public land), but he feels it would be an easy sell. A project of this size would have to be done in stages; the first stage being to build the dyke which Jack estimates would cost about $30US. This may be a potential matching grant opportunity for Terry’s Rotary Club.

We then visited Avedi’s shamba where Rotary has rehabilitated a spring for fresh water for the community. The spring is down a VERY long, steep hill. Seeing young women and children carrying 20 litre buckets of water on their head up this hill is sobering, no matter how many times we see it. Apparently before the spring was done, the area was just marshy and people were basically getting their drinking water from a big puddle. Now the water runs clean and fresh constantly. The Vihiga club has done a lot of water projects and have decided that the springs are the best way to go. Bore holes are expensive and wells break down if not properly maintained. Springs can be put in for $500-$700 and require no maintenance.

Talking to Avedi, who does so many good projects in this community, the most urgent needs here are clean water and sanitation. We saw a typical family bathroom as we walked along the shamba (farm) property line – a falling down mud shack with little to no privacy, a hole that is not deep enough, no where for the gas to escape… just a mess. This causes so much illness as the flies go down the hole and then are free to fly around and land on your food. Proper latrines and sanitation education; another good project potential.

Our Rotarian friends suggested that we have a little snack before they took us back to catch a matatu. So, we stopped to pick up a few sodas and went to Avedi’s house. This is by far the most beautiful house we have been to. She lives in a large colonial style, dare I say, mansion with lovely grounds. I asked what she did to become so successful, to which Paul answered, “She worked very very hard.” As we are becoming used to, our snack was a full course meal of eggs, ugali, beans and maize, cabbage, chicken and fish. Avedi is a good African Mama, she did not sit down with us, but she knows we will not finish everything, so will eat after we go.

We promised to meet again and to do some good work together.

Yesterday we had another tour with the KASFOOC folks. This time it seemed like the whole board came out with us – Matano, the Secretary and his wife Joy, Jackson, the Chairman, Amos, the Manager, Moses the Co-ordinator and Esther the Treasurer and Hussein came along to advise on fish ponds. We all piled into a matatu and drove to the Shilonga village where we were to tour widows and impact farmers’ potential fish ponds. Yesterday was the hottest day so far, so after 4 hours of touring farms in the hot sun, I was pooped and thirsty. We walked between 12 farms and saw everything from little puddles, to large holes ready for fish.

It is hard for us to understand how with all this land, they can be struggling to feed their families. Matano explained that they lack education. Many of the fields are full of maize or sugar cane, or grass for feeding cows. If the cows die, as happened to one widow who had expensive dairy cows, then there is no food for the children. KASFOOC educates and supports food sustainability, changing the mindset from cash crops to food for a balanced diet. Many of the widows are established in bananas, cassava, sweet potatoes, cow peas, skuma wiki and are now ready for either poultry or fish. We hope to help with the fish farming, through Rotary. We will introduce the chairman (they like to call each other by title rather than by name) and the secretary to the Vihiga Rotary Club.

The tour ended with soda, a meal and lots of laughs. Terry was saying that it is hard for us to get used to being fed spontaneously so well. Hussein laughed and said, “In Canada you have to apply to be invited for a visit, that’s so funny.” I love the warmth and hospitality of this country.