Stacey's Family Farm

I wrote about a visit to Stacey's family last weekend. I thought you might be interested to see what a middle class family's farm looks like. They moved back to their home area 5 years ago and bought 11 acres. The first thing they did was to plant a hedge around the homestead area with eucalyptus trees also known as sweet gum trees. The are fast growing trees that are used for lumber. Kennedy, Stacey's dad said, "It won't be long until Ryan and Stacey will be needing them for their own homes. The trees were probably already 60 feet tall. The next thing was building of a brick house.

They started an orchard with many types of fruit trees: mango, guava, macademia nut, orange, apple, sweet apple, passion fruit, and papaya. This one is a papaya.

This apple tree was grafted and had several blossoms.

The banana grove probably had at least 30 varieties of bananas, some for cooking and some for sweet eating.

Passion fruit vines had started producing and they weren't even a year old.

They had recently sold over 50 chickens and were starting to rebuild their flock. It was unusual for the chickens to have an inside place to go.

This is Margaret's outdoor kitchen. It is unusual that it is located inside a building. Most Kenyan women cook outside using sticks and charcoal. It is a new development from Kennedy's project, being more efficient. A fire is lit in the bottom part, the fire and heat are contained, the cement around it is heated, smoke isn't a problem since air can't interfere with it and cooking is more efficient. They have only had this stove for a month and were very proud of it. Kennedy was telling that all farmers involved in his project were required to have one.

This is napier grass that is grown to feed cattle. Their hired man was chopping it up to make silage. They also showed us a hedge they have planted that is also used to feed both the cattle and chickens that has protein in it.

Directly behind the bull calf is the house. To the right is the outdoor kitchen building and chicken room.

Uncovering our feast of pilau (spiced rice), spaghetti, meat sauce, Maryland chicken, meatballs, chicken stew, salad and chapati. There was cake, probably the best cake I've had in Kenya that Stacey made for us, fruits from their orchard and ice cream. That's a mango tree behind Kennedy, Stacey's dad.

Behind the family you can see the corner of the outdoor kitchen building and the stand they use to wash and dry dishes and the firewood pile used for cooking.

In the backgronud the closest building is the outdoor kitchen and chicken room, on the right is their house and the far building is the barn for the cattle.

Visit to Stacey's Home

The KCSE results were released on Tuesday. It is a huge day for students, parents, teachers, administrators, literally anyone involved in the educational system.

Stacey is one of my Form IV Leavers. That means she has finished school at St. Monica's. She was one of the top students in my homeroom class. Her parents were extremely active and involved in school activities, coming to visit Stacey any time they could giving not only Stacey advice and support, but also many girls in our class and others.

As I expected, Stacey did very well on her KCSE, scoring an A-. That gives her direct admission to the university and a chance for a good career. Her parents had asked me to come visit them but it had never worked out until this past weekend. We were invited on Saturday to celebrate her results. In these two photos they are examining the official results.

Her father as I understand it, has a position similar to a county extension agent, he advises farmers on agricultural and animal husbandry. He works for a British project similar to the American Project Heifer. Stacey's mother supervises their farm activities. They have an orchard with many types of fruit, grow maize and beans, napier grass to feed their cattle, have started a small dairy herd and poultry. They sell their products to local projects and hotels (restaurants). Kennedy, Stacey's father, was proud to tell us that the farm is what has been paying school fees for both Stacey and her brother, Ryan, who is in university.

Stacey is a bright, responsible girl who will do well in whatever career she follows. She is hard-working, conscientious, motivated, and sensible. With young people like her as future leaders, perhaps the country will eventually get rid of corruption. Her family was surprised and thrilled by her results especially since her score on the KCPE (test at the end of 8th grade) was a B-.

As we were leaving they presented us with a bunch of bananas from the banana orchard. They are the small, about 4 inch bananas that are really sweet. We look forward to enjoying them at the end of the week. We also received the gift of some fabric. You know how I love fabric!

It was a wonderful visit and day. I think everyone felt blessed with the fellowship and friendship.

Teresa's Visit to Kitale

Teresa Villaruz, our newest Maryknoll Lay Missioner visited Kitale last weekend. She arrived in January and is currently going to language school in Mombasa. She is going to live and work in Mombasa but we wanted her to visit those of us in Kitale and visit our sites of work.
She spent time at both Weaver Bird and St. Monica's. John took her to visit most of his classes. She also talked to his YCS students.



Kenyans love visitors, especially those from other countries. They loved meeting Teresa.


My class wanted to teach her how to dance the Kenyan way.


They are always curious about our hair and want to touch it!