We headed out of Bungoma at 9am and travel into the countryside. The first portion of the journey was on the main road but once we turned off onto very narrow dirt roads we quickly saw our driver asking for directions all along the route. As you can guess there are no street signs and each set up directions sounded very much like " just up the path and then take a left". I think the driver spoke with at least four individuals before we reached the left. The road was getting narrower and narrower, until we reached a fork in the path at which time our guide phoned the Field Officer for further directions. Take a left, no no right he said and we all chuckled hoping we were headed in the right direction. A little while later a gentleman was waiting to guide us the rest of the way. He jumped in the car and we continued along the path taking a left turn here and a right turn there until we reached the community church. A very large brick structure with a tin roof, a dirt floor and several movable benches. Inside we were met by the Field Officer for the site and his group leaders. Apparently the church is used for all group functions.
After a lot if handshaking and introductions, the meeting was ready to commence. Each of the group leaders introduced themselves, there area and the number of farmers they were responsible for. Group leaders are farmers who take on the mandate of collecting weekly payments from their group. The groups range in size from 6-17 farmers.
Some of the meeting was conducted in English but the majority in Swaheli so our guided translated for us. It is always interesting to me that the person speaking seems to talk for ever and the translation is "our top up delivery will be arriving next Wednesay". 
I am thinking if Randy does get the position that Swaheli lessons would be a good investment, I so envied Erin who was able to converse with the group leaders in their native tongue. Then I will know basic English, a little French and Spanish and hopefully conversational Swaheli. Probably nobody will be able to understand me at that point.
Once the short formal portion of the meeting was complete the group leaders handed in the funds they had collected for the week, presented the their passbooks which had a page for each farmer confirming the payment amount and total payments todate and received a receipt from the Field Officer for the total team payment.
Once collected the Field Officer takes the cash to the local MPesa office where the funds are deposited and an e-transfer is made directly to the One Acre Fund account. This appears to be a pretty slick system where money transfers are completed through the phone system rather than the banking system. Eventually all farmers will be able to make their payments directly through the MPesa system, eliminating the need for large amounts of cash to be transport.
After the meeting we headed out to see a farmer's crop. Walking cross country we found our way to a crop of maize and beans. One row of maize, one row of beans, repeated through the plot. I learned that the crops are cross planted like that to balance the nutrients in the ground. One of the plants takes the nutrients from the ground (I think the maize, but might have this backwards) and the other replaces them. The typical crop is about 1/2 an acre.
To see more we continued walking cross country, through people's fields and yards. We hoped they didn't mind the group of white visitors tramping through their space. Thank goodness someone knew where we were going as I was totally lost. We did see a variety of health in crops though. Some that appeared to be prospering quite well and other not so good. You could tell the farmers that were using the One Acre Fund methods versus those that weren't. 
The country side is gorgeous. Not at all what I expected for Kenya. Rolling hills covered with trees, lots of green grass, cows grazing and a variety of adobe brick homes. 
Eventually we met back up with our ride and headed back to Bungoma.
No comments:
Post a Comment