We woke up this morning with a knock on the door from Florence; she is the one looking after us. Apparently, our breakfast of white bread and tea starts at 7:00 when we thought it was 7:30. Good thing we saved the High Energy Biscuits from our night bus because that was all we had! Also, we had been waiting for just the right time to break out our “sexy pants”. Thank you Sheryl Max for providing the most hideous, zip-off nature pants. Today was their day of GLORY!
After about 8:30 we decided it would be a good idea to find Florence and see what the day had in store! Get pumped!
She led us to Baru. He is Ethiopian. He speaks no English! She told us we would be feeding the rabbits and then weeding the garden… the whole garden! The rabbits live in a shed; they are mostly white and some have creepy red eyes. Baru brought a bag of greens for us to give them. They enjoyed their breakfast…. Glad somebody did! J
He lead us to the tool shed for the weeding tools. In the shed, they also keep the animal feed for the pigs and chickens. Of course, the food also attracts mice and rats! We watch them, in slight horror, as they climbed the walls to scurry away. One little mouse, hiding in a bag of feed, was not so lucky! All of the sudden, Baru grabs a machete and begins pounding away at the bag. When he is satisfied with the crunch, he opens the bag, pulls out the dead mouse and throws it outside! What an initiation!
After laughing at our mortified faces, he hands us our own machetes and demonstrates the way to whack the ground to loosen the dirt by the weeks. Us being the experienced farms hands that we were raised to be, we carefully examine each plant before extraction to make sure we are not uprooting an important vegetable. Then, we weeded, and weeded, and weeded. We found some interesting bugs and creepy crawly things. We broke for tea, and then we went back to weeding! We finished at about noon.
Then our weeding friend, David, showed us around the grounds a bit more. We had some interesting conversations about the local economy. He told us that the area we are in is a major mining area. He explained that mining is a highly sought-after job because it pays well. Rocks have in high demand for construction. There are also salt mines. He told us that the weeding work we did is the most menial job around. The work that we did would have paid about a dollar. David also told us that he had a cow, but the profit it allows him is only $3.50 each month. The money he had to spend to keep the cow and feed it is also $3.50, so he does not make a profit. This was the distinction between mining and having animals as a local job.
After a lunch of ugali, cabbage and beans, the real fun began. Turning the compost! We met Baru in front of a giant pile of manure by the composing hut. We spent the afternoon piling layers of manure on time of hay covered with ash and water. The ash and water help get rid of any parasitic worms. Picture this, two muzungu (white girls), in sexy pants, shoveling warm cow manure, swarmed by flies, in the heat of the day! Pretty picture, right? Eventually, Baru must have thought we were going too slowly because he came over and, rather than shoveling a load and walking to the compost pile, he remained stationary by the manure and shoveled and flung it. He was fast!
We were quick to split from the leveled pile of manure and for once we were excited to take a cold shower. Although, we first had to scrape and pound the manure off of our shoes. We had put in our day’s work.
Once we were clean, our friend Mercy stopped by to see if we still wanted to go into Juja, the town near the farm. Mercy is one of the students here at the Kenya Institute of Organic Farming. She is in a two-year “diploma” program studying eco-tourism. She and her cousin, Vivian, accompanied us on our very first matatu ride. A matatu is a small transit bus. In town, our main objective was to stop at the super market for water and snacks. We also bought bananas and started a bit of a parade as little Kenyan children followed us chanting the only English they knew, “How are you?”. With groceries in hand, we got to know Mercy and Vivian well and made plans to meet them in Nairobi on our last weekend here in Kenya.
At dinner, we learned that politics have been further disadvantating the Kibera slum, our next location. The politicians want to maintain the status quo and for a while would punish anyone trying to empower the poor. We were glad to hear that that policy has been abolished. It was an enlightening conversation and reinforced our desire to be here, doing this work!
We hope all is well in Denver and that everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July!
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