HEATHER ARRIVED Sunday night!!! We spent the first night at Wendy’s house. We were greeted with a special treat after arriving at the house from the airport: That morning I caught Phoebe looking in the cookbooks, she was excited about Heather’s arrival and wanted to prepare an incredible dinner for her first night in Nairobi. She was hard at work when I left in a taxi to meet Heather. When we arrived back at the house, the lights were dim, there was a candle burning on the table, romantic music was playing in the background and the table was only set for two. It was great; Wendy and Phoebe arranged a romantic dinner for us. The food was terrific. By the end of the meal Heather was tired and more than ready for bed.
We woke up early the next morning, packed our bags and headed to the ANAW (Africa Network for Animal Welfare) office to meet with Daniel and Samson. After a short meeting, we packed into Daniel’s car and headed to ANAW’s Kifaru Guest House in Karen – a neighborhood in Nairobi named after Karen Blixen, the author of ‘Out of Africa’. A lot of organizations have guest-houses here as a way to generate extra income. We knew Karen was supposed to be very nice, but we were pretty amazed by the neighborhood, especially given the contrast between it and the rest of Nairobi (or the rest of what we have known anyway). You feel like you are in a park, because there are so many trees and flowers everywhere, and all of the houses are hidden behind high fences and gates. The house where we stayed was more than we expected. It is set at the top of a sloping 5 acres of natural habitat with a river at the bottom of the hill. It is open and spacious…lots of windows and it came with a private chef, Tortester…it even has a huge master bedroom. Tortester prepared lunch for all of us shortly after we arrived. After lunch, Daniel dropped us off the Giraffe Center on his way back to the city.
The Giraffe Center is well known for increasing populations of a certain kind of giraffe, and for giraffe kisses…Daniel insisted we ask the park staff about this. We didn’t have to because we were quickly invited to feed the giraffes from a raised platform – it is surreal to be petting giraffes and feeding them after only seeing them on tv or in photos or maybe at zoos your whole life. Suddenly you are up close, at eye level with them. And then the park ranger instructs you to hold the food tightly in your lips, and let the giraffe give you a big lick with their tongue and their strong lips take the food from you. Talk about surreal! It’s kind of gross and totally amazing at the same time…definitely a once in a lifetime experience. The animals are majestic, elegant, and it was fun that there were two babies there, already 10 feet tall or more.
The next day we were woken early by syk monkies landing on the metal roof…sounded like thunder. Apparently, if you leave the front door open they will come into the house and take any fruit that is lying around. We spotted them during breakfast about 20ft from the house peering in on us as we ate breakfast. Later that day we had another amazing experience with the wildlife of Kenya the when we visited an elephant orphanage that is part of the Nairobi National Park, which is a wildlife refuge just on the outskirts of Nairobi – the only park of its kind in the world. Young elephants who are injured and/or separated from their families – sometimes by other animals, but usually due to human interferences with their ways of life – are brought by airplane to the orphanage and raised over 8 – 10 years before being re-introduced into the wild. Again we were able to have close contact with the amazing little beasts – such rough skin! And they are incredibly playful and cute, and have strong relationships with their care-takers, and with each other. It was very special. On our way out of the park we saw a family of small baboons! These two days were very relaxing, and a great way for me (hred) to get over jet lag.
We were so well taken care of by Josphat, Daniel and Sam of ANAW, who are also key members of KBioC, Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, formerly named Kenya Anti-GMO Coalition, who formed to contest the proposed “Bio-safety” bill voted on last year in the midst of the food crisis, which makes it easier to introduce GMO’s in Kenya. We are very excited that they are quite interested in developing a joint campaign with CAGJ to confront the Gates Foundation and AGRA. They arranged for us to meet with other members of the coalition (there are over 60!), including KOAN – Kenya Organic Agriculture Network – and ABN – Africa Biodiversity Network. Our meeting with KOAN was excellent. One of their staff, Wanjuri, has been the “face of the coalition” in the media during the campaign, and we could see why. A very articulate and strong woman, capable of concealing her fierce passion beneath a calm exterior (I – heather - can’t do this very well!), she is an excellent advocate for organic agriculture as well as explaining the dangers of GMO’s. She described the organic movement as quite strong – between 50,000 and 100,000 people belong to their organization alone - and their major challenge being the need to increase production to reach growing demand, including organic restaurants in Nairobi and one supermarket is now stocking organic produce. We met with 2 other organizations, located in the same compound – ICIPE, the Kenyan group with over 50 scientists studying the role of insects in sustainable agriculture who won the Food Sovereignty Honorable Mention Prize, alongside CAGJ last year, and Travis met with IFDC, an AGRA grant recipient who claims that they support organic alongside use of chemicals, but Travis got them to admit that they only actually train in applying chemicals!
After these meetings, Wanjiru’s nephew drove us to Thika to visit Samuel and Peris, a married couple who run GBIAC – Grow Biointensive Agricultural Center. After a one hour drive from Nairobi, at the end of a dusty road, the center emerges cheerfully from the landscape, with colorful murals featuring a young girl surrounded by fruit and the center’s mission and vision written in large letters on the outside of the circular building, clear for anyone passing by to see. You can also read the word “Karibu”, Swahili for welcome. As you enter the Center you are surrounded by their beautiful demonstration gardens, expressing the passion of this amazing organization.
Today, Thursday, we had the privilege of learning about multiple components of GBIAC’s work, in what was truly one of the most amazing and moving days I have ever experienced. We started off the day meeting Stanley and Duncan of Community Sustainable Development Empowerment Program (COSDEP), an organization that trains farmers in organic agriculture. We drove a ways out of the town of Thika into the near-by hills, and were amazed by the stunning scenery – deep red earth and lush green farm communities growing tea, maize (corn is everywhere!), banana trees, vegetables…It was a breath of fresh air to be in such a beautiful place. I was amazed to see older-looking women carrying impossible loads up the steep hills of the highway. After a rather treacherous drive on deeply rutted dirt roads (me sitting on Travis’s lap in the back seat as we were also transporting 3 others in a small car) we arrived at the farm of a woman who had been trained by COSDEP. The purpose of the trip was for Samuel to evaluate the progress of the community who has been learning organic farming methods. Travis and I brought our radio and film recording equipment to record their stories and experiences. With a lot of help from interpreters, the mostly women farmers used their limited English to describe the advantages they see of converting their fields from chemically-based conventional farming to organic, using the resources of their farms to grow enough food for themselves, their families, and in good years, for the market as well. As we asked questions the size of the group kept growing until at the end of our visit there were 20 – 25 farmers watching curiously as we taped and filmed the interviews.
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