The drought is affecting us all

It has been a very busy day at the farm as usual. We are in the middle of a severe drought that I have never experienced in our area before and it is affecting us all. I got little harvests this time compared to other seasons since the rains have failed completely but am still lucky since I have got some water in the farm. I irrigate my maize and beans plants and I manage to get enough food for my family though not as much as I have been harvesting before. I didn’t get much harvest for sale.

Though I am not giving up. I have planted 1500 tomato seedlings that will be ready for harvest in September. I have also planted maize, garden peas and beans. Today I went to water them immediately after breakfast. It is very important that we don’t get out of food. But I don’t think we will as long as I keep watering.

Our neighbors though - are faced with famine and they can even have as little as one meal a day. It makes me very sad.

 

Something positive is that I have learnt on how to harvest honey. We have a bee farming activity in our youth group and we acquired skills on honey harvesting and we managed to harvest some honey by ourselves.

Another positive thing is the way our babies are growing. Baby Lucy can now run very fast and she now speaks very well. She seems to grow very slowly unlike or newborn baby Judy who is growing very fast. Lucy likes playing a lot and now she has realized there is another baby which means she doesn’t bother us so much anymore. One day Lucy followed me in the farm which is down the slopes and I realized later when I saw her in the farm that she is trying to imitate what I was doing.

 

What else? Right now I am dreaming of earning a lot of money that I would save in the bank since i have plans to construct a new permanent house early next year.

 

Talk to you next time!
Stephen

 

Läs om torkan i Kenya på:

 

http://www.kenyaredcross.org/

 

http://www.kenyafoodsecurity.org/

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/609868/-/ujtfxb/-/index.html

 

She knows there is another baby

I woke up at 7.00 am and breast fed baby Judy, fed baby Lucy and prepared breakfast. The day has been okay to me though it is very cold. Basically I fed the babies, prepared breakfast and went to the farm to look for animal feeds after which I gave the animals. Later I went back home to wash clothes and prepare for lunch.

Baby Lucy can now feed herself and she speaks very well. She is always playing and now she knows there is another baby who she always keeps monitoring in case the baby cries she reports that to me. Baby Judy is quite fine and she is growing very fast. She is very jovial compared to baby Lucy at her age.
 

That was all for now!

Regina

We have gotten a new baby!

Baby Judy

Judy on 6th March 09.

I was so delighted since I had planned to have three children and to me this is part of my dream fulfilled. I learned about the pregnancy last year on July and this was good news to me. As a man this meant more respect, maturity though added responsibility I was prepared for. For my wife it was a different story. She thought the baby had not come at the right time since the other child was still young.

 

Today two women who are my wife’s’ friends visited us during the day to see the new born baby and they also carried with them water which is a good gesture according to our traditions to the nursing mother.

 

The older one Baby Lucy is now walking very fast and she can run a few steps on her own. She is also mentioning some words like calling her mother and me in mother tongue. When she saw the new born baby she smiled at her and tried to touch her though with some fears.

 

I am spending more time with baby Lucy than before since Regina is busy with baby Judy. I mostly cloth her, change her nappies and sometimes feed her although she can sometimes feed herself. I have not yet touched the new baby though. I fear that I might hold her and she slips away since she is very tiny and delicate.

 

Now it is 12.45 P.M. After taking my lunch I will go back to the farm to water my pilipili hoho seedlings which are in a nursery then meet with a buyer who wants us to negotiate prices of some timber he wants to buy from me in my small forest.

 

On my way from the farm I met two of my neighbors and we talked about the hot sun and the delay of rains which have supposed to have started so far.
Due to the continued inadequate rains I have not been able to farm pilipili hoho as before and this has affected my income the enterprise. There has been famine in our area/village which makes some of our neighbors to come for me for help like food.

 

What made you most surprised lately?
The rapid increased prices of commodities/items in our country. I got surprised at increased cost for my new born baby’s’ clothes and items when I went shopping. When I compared to the prices when I was shopping for my first child there was a very big price difference.

 

Till next time.
Stephen