City Girl Meets Farmer

By Crystal Scott, participant in 2006 Africa Food Study Tour

As the bus pulled up to the village of Kwanga in Eastern Kenya, I could see the group of over 100 people waiting for us. We being a group of 13 Canadians traveling with the CFGB on a food study tour, had the opportunity to stay in small-scale farmers homes for a few nights. This village was it seemed at least an hour away from anything. My first thought was that being from the city, why do people with no transportation, electricity, local water source, etc. live so far out in the countryside?

The village project coordinator had arranged for the village to have enough food to feed everyone for this meeting. The village women had been working very hard on the preparations. As soon as we where seated, they distributed plates of goat meat, rice and a green vegetable something like spinach.

Watching the local people eat left no doubt that food like this was a treat. We had the opportunity to talk with the local small-scale farmers as we had the meal. Then a family would host us for the night.

Mutinda Kingoto was the translator for our meeting with the Kwanga village. Mutinda translates extremely well. Mutinda and his cousin Mweu Mulwa offered to host Esther Bett and myself. Esther Bett is a Kenyan small-scale farmer that had an opportunity to travel to Canada last year with CFGB. I had the privilege to meet her when we arrived in Kenya. Mutinda knowing English was definitely a bonus for me in communicating. He told us it would be quite a long walk, but we quickly accepted the invitation.

The sun was setting as we left for the night’s accommodations. I have never experienced a dark night like that. Here in Canada, the moon is out before the sun sets and twilight extends into the night with bright stars. Walking at night is not that big of a deal at home.

Now I was so far from the city there was no glow and the moon does not appear for a good two hours after the sun goes down, stars are not yet glowing. The night was black! I knew that I had a small flashlight in my backpack but I thought that I would not take it out because this is something that the villagers do on a day-to-day bases.

We walked and we walked… I am sure it was over 2 km. Esther thought it was more like 5 km it is hard to say, but it was a long walk and it took us a long time, in the black night. Fortunately, our hosts had done this walk so many times they knew that thorn trees lined the path and tried to warn us of low branches and ruts in the path I being unfamiliar with the path, could not see so my new friends and they would untangle me from the thorn bushes when I strayed.

I did take out my flashlight after about an hour in the dark and being untangled from the thorns several times. As soon as the light was on, I noticed something crossing the path in front of us and wondered how many things I had missed walking in the black of night in the countryside of Africa.

When the moon appeared there was no problem seeing our surroundings. While we walked, we had an opportunity to talk to Mutinda about his life. He is married to one woman only and they have three children. His wife is away trying to get her education to become a teacher. His brother and his sister-in-law passed away and Mutinda took their four children into his home. All together he is raising seven children on his own. He would not see his wife until the school year ended, then she can return home.

Mutinda is a small-scale farmer and owns 5 acres of land given to him by his father. The land was dry and not producing, due to the drought. Mutinda and Mweu worked on the sand dams with material and trainers to assist, supplied by CFGB. They were happy with the accomplishments and the differences that they had noticed already. Although the riverbed is currently dry, the water table was higher. They were praying that rain would soon come.

When we arrived at Mweu’s home, he asked us to come in, our hosts had set up a meeting with the Sand dam chairman and approximately 10 others that had not made it to town earlier in the day. They had several questions about Canada and what we where doing in Africa and were very excited to share information on their village and the Sand dam Projects. After we had talked for some time, they showed us our accommodations for the night.

We were very fortunate, one of Mweu’s daughters had gone for a few months to town and we were able to use her home for the night. They were willing to share everything they had. They gave us a couple minutes to clean up then the women came in with a bowl of corn meal and two bowls of yogurt milk. Having just eaten in the village we had a little and asked if the children could finish the food for us. They were happy with this idea. The women stayed and chatted with us for some time. We agreed to meet early in the morning to visit a couple of the sand dams and start back for the village for the 9 am meeting.

In the morning, I had the opportunity to see the sunrise and the women milking the goats and cow. I was surprised, not being a farmer as to how little milk they were able to get. The milk that they offered us the night before would have had to be at least two days supply of milk. They were willing to give us so much when you could see so easily that they had so little.

Walking to the sand dams in the morning was much easier then the walk the night before. The community had worked hard on building the Sand dams and were very proud of their accomplishments. Rain is what they need so desperately to survive. With such a struggle to survive, the people that we met that day were so happy and full of hope for the future. Their kindness will be long remembered and appreciated.