Photo Diary of Kenya
I am back from my trip to Kenya and I am more than delighted to share that the project was such a success!
Priscilla, the other permaculture trainer, and I led workshops on how to recondition and cultivate the infertile land the participants were forced to settle on. Accompanying the theoretical, we spent much time on the practical, teaching them all the techniques they needed to know to improve the soil, grow vegetables, and green the environment. Remember, as former nomadic herders, agriculture was never something they needed to learn. But due to the geopolitical changes, they are now expected to adopt an agrarian lifestyle without the know-how. It was a challenge but everything was achieved with laughter, love, friendship, desire, and songs!
Thank you again for your donations, which allowed me to purchase seeds; food for the participants during the workshops; materials such as notebooks, paper, pens, etc; tools such as shovels, hand-plow, nails, saws, and wood; and clean water until we found a way to harvest our own.
Everyone was so grateful for your generosity and for being able to finally own their way forward with this newly acquired knowledge, skills, and start-up material.
I will be writing a lot more about this experience and will let you know when and where it can be accessed. But for now, I hope you enjoy these photos:
Pic. 1- Building swales to catch and store water
Pic. 2 & 3- Making a mud oven with anthill dirt and dry grass; even the kids got involved.
Pic. 3
Pic. 4, 5 & 6 - Cactus was introduced by the Norwegians but it has become extremely invasive, harming wildlife, damaging land and causing harm to people. So borrowing from the Mexicans, I introduced their idea of eating it by making nopales salad. It was a bit slimy. I found tomatoes, onions and cilantro in the next town over (2 hrs away by car).
Pic. 5
Pic. 6
Pic. 7 & 8 - One of the sites we are reconditioning using double dig beds.
Pic. 8
Pic. 9- Another swale on another site
Pic 10 & 11 - My love, my god-daughter. Named after me, Klara Kipto was born in 2016 during my first visit. She is now 2 and the little love of my life. Her father is one of the participants; hilarious and engaging with his crazy stories but isn't quick to pick a hammer unless I hand it to him. Notice the wet ground! It was an omen that it rained the day before we planted the seeds.
Pic. 11- There she is
Pic. 12- Distributing seeds to the participants
2 Responses
Nina Melendez Ibarra
I love these pictures! <3 Such great work, Klara
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Allegra Emmanuelli
November 21, 2018
I am so proud oy you and your work! People like you make so a huge difference in this world! Great job teaching and empowering others to make it better and survive with what the land is able to provide. Congratulations on your success. Love you.