Day 3 To the farm at Kinangop

This is another Turning Point project and an innovative one at that. Nine single mums and their children moved from Kibera about 18 months ago and now live 100km away at Kinangop in the beautiful setting of the Aberdare mountains at 8000 feet.

Jon, Florence and Pastor Shadrack showed us around the farm.

Here under the manager Florence, the mamas learn farming skills, including the concept “Farming God’s way”, a continent-wide initiative using less pesticides and fertiliser, taking care to plant appropriately for the soil type and drainage and using crop rotation to keep down pests and disease.

http://www.farming-gods-way.org/

Margaret was working on her shamba (plot) growing beans, peas and potatoes. She was also looking after her own baby daughter and another little girl, Angel, belonging to one of the other mamas. She was working in bare feet and obviously (and rightly!) proud of her field.

Charles was the only child there when we arrived as he was off school that day. He happily followed us around, playing with a hoop and stick. Here he is with his mother Fatima and their calf.

And here he is with Pastor Shadrock very pleased to show us the potatoes grown on the farm!

We met Grace and Rose who insisted on posing with each of us in turn outside Grace’s front door. Each mama has her own living / sleeping room and opposite, her own kitchen. Each one prefers to be completely independent of the others when it comes to living and cooking!
We met Karioke’s niece, Wahu and her dogs who were very friendly, mock-tussling with each other and frequently coming over to us for more attention.
As we prepared to leave, bags of cabbages grown on the farm were loaded into the back of the car to take back to the Kibera projects. Pastor Shadrack and Florence agreed the right price for them; everything is worked out from an economic point of view. It has to be so. This is the way skills and produce are traded the world over.
On our way home we stopped for a meal of Kenya’s main dish – ugali and Nyama Choma. Ugali is made from boiling millet flour in water and letting it set and Nyama Choma, which means “meat barbequed” is usually goat. The ugali is bland but quite edible when dipped in a well-seasoned gravy. The meat was tasty but tough and requires the use of a toothpick for several minutes after the meal!

We arrived back in Kibera and the cabbages were unloaded into the new wheelbarrow which Karioke bought recently for the project. Here we see another member of the TP team wheeling it away!

Many of the mamas are now looking forward to moving onto the next phase of the project – having their own dwelling and shamba. Also that will mean there will be place at the farm for the next group of mamas to come and learn farming skills. This is part of the bigger plan in enabling the women to achieve an independent life.