Urban Growing

Lucy and I.

For my last few days I checked out different projects around Nairobi. Oddly enough everywhere I went growing bamboo came up a lot.

I started out by going with a 65 year old man I met at the hostel to see a bamboo plantation. This was a man who has put a lot in to starting imported bamboo seedlings to sell on a commercial scale for furniture, but also as a fuelwood to dry tea at some of the big plantations. It was a bit confusing as he doesn't want to sell too much, but he's not interested in small scale. His farm was beautiful and the idea is good, he's just trying to work out some of the kinks in his plan.

The Headquarters.

 Monday I went to Kibera, a well known large slum in Nairobi. I met with Ras Ambassa who works with the Haile Selassie I Foundation and Shiriki Organization. They run youth organic farming projects outside of the city, though they also had a small tree nursery behind their main office. The organization also makes sandals from old tires, which were pretty neat. We spent a few hours discussing organic farming, but mainly talking about Ras Tafari. It was very educational. I enjoyed that many of their principles are similar to those of permaculture in that people care for the earth, they care for their fellow people and they practice fair share. There were a few points I took issue with, but this is the case when discussing any one faith.

Organic kale, spinach, cowpeas and onion.

Tuesday I met with a woman named Lucy who I had met at the permaculture course. She is an amazing Kenyan woman who has worked with the Kenya Institute of Organic Agriculture for many years. She invited me to come see the projects she was working on with COOPI in Huruma, another slum outside of Nairobi. There was a presentation being given to the community, mainly the women of the community, on none other than bamboo! I liked the concept of growing bamboo more in this context as it is planned to be used for income generation and will grow well on the grey water that is rushing in to the river that flows through this slum. Ideally the bamboo will purify some of this water as well as being a material to work with in making different types of marketable goods.

River side farming.

Lucy also showed me the small plots they had where they were growing with the garden sacks. In one fenced area they had around 40 bags and in another 68 bags and a cow. It was inspiring to see so many people interested in growing food. There was also a lot of independent pieces of land growing different foods on them... it looked like the Kenyan countryside compacted beside this small river. The project faces different challenges, but are working through them and expanding to include more of the community and train them in organic food growing.

Wednesday I went to visit Amrita Childrens' Home in Athi River, outside of Nairobi. This home is sponsored by Amma, the hugging saint (I'd probably let her hug me). Here they are starting small and hoping to be certified organic. The teacher I had for the permaculture course, Warren Brush, had done the design last year and two girls who had taken the course in previous years were working on the upkeep. It looked great and it was amazing to see how quickly this piece of land came to life after only 8 months. Currently the kids who come to school there are being fed lunch with foods that all come from their kitchen garden as well as being involved in the maintenance. Pretty super.

I also met with a friend of a friend who introduced me to many different projects happening in Kenya and the idea of numerous grants being offered to do similar work. So now it's time to hibernate in Brockville with my computer and start putting the pieces together to develop a program. Any ideas are welcome and I look forward to seeing you all soon!