Around the house and shamba, December 2013

Duane and Zach absolutely love it when I bring crayons and a coloring book for them!

Adu fetching water

The dog has really gotten big since I last saw it!

Agnes making a dress for her friend, Eliza

This is an 'iron box'. Hot coals from the cooking fire are used to make it hot.

The sun is just above the horizon on Boxing Day, December 26th. A great start to a new day.

Arrowroot is a common staple food in Kenya, typically eaten for breakfast. 

Sukuma wiki ('push the week') is how Kenyans refer to kale, cooked as greens.
It's a relatively cheap food and helps to stretch the weekly food budget.

Agnes has planted several sugarcane plants like this young one.

She also has several healthy pumpkin plants.
We had boiled pumpkin one morning for breakfast.

Seed beds for more kale plants.
The mosquito netting keeps the chickens away from the seedlings.

Adu and Tony started a rabbit project. Eight babies were born while I was there.

Cool shot of the sky at dusk, looking past the outhouse sitting on top of an ant hill

Tony just added water to a pot of boiling milk, to make chai (tea)

Agnes had part of the house 'plastered' and a new veranda added to the front. Both give it a more finished look.

Duane and Zach seem to never run out of creative ways to play!

They're sliding down an ant hill in a piece of an old tire. Simple pleasures!

Christmas in the village, December 2013

This was my fourth time to celebrate Christmas in the village (or rural areas of Kenya). I was with Agnes and her boys last year for the holiday, as they had just moved into their new house on Christmas Eve. In past years, I've also spent two Christmases with Mary Alu and her family.

Christmas in the village is a simple affair, without all the glitter and glitz of the Western world or the big city of Nairobi. The emphasis is placed on attending a church service on the morning of Christmas Day, being with family, and having special foods that aren't affordable the rest of the year. Gift-giving doesn't really factor into the celebration.

Duane and Zach, dressed in their new outfits, try to construct a 'house of cards'.

The stereotype for this part of Kenya is that people always have chicken for Christmas dinner.
However, Agnes bought a duck from a neighbor for the special occasion this year.
Adu slaughtered it early in the morning and Pope was the one to cook it over a three-stone fire.

Pope tending to the duck

It was a simple meal - duck, soup, ugali, and soda. Quite yummy, I might add.

Even the kitty got to have a bit of the special Christmas dinner :)

Agnes, just home from the market

Adu, with a snack of orange slices and biscuits

Tony, catching up on the previous day's news

June 2013, The maize is getting tall!

Agnes' maize is getting tall and the groundnuts (peanuts) are also looking good.

A beautiful foggy morning in the valley of River Nzoia. The structure on the left is the 'choo' (outhouse).

Soon the sun comes up, for the start of another day.

View from the outhouse (on top of a termite hill). Maize on the left, groundnuts (peanuts) on the right.

Lots of red beans.

Two kinds of greens, planted on a termite hill.

Finger millet

Cow peas

Adu heads out to fetch water and also gives Zach a ride part-way to school. Abraham, a young neighbor boy, looks on.

Duane and Zach really enjoyed these simple airplanes. Be sure to see the video below!

The older boys, Pope and Adu, are thrilled with their newly cemented floor, table, and chairs! (Tony was away at school)

The older boys now have two small lights in their house. Pope and a neighbor, Levi, install the solar panel on the roof.

A pretty morning in the grassy yard 

The entire farm has now been fenced!

Agnes sits by her newly-built 'smokeless jiko' in her kitchen. It uses less firewood and burns more efficiently for quicker cooking.

The older boys' house on the left, kitchen in the center, and the main house on the right.

Their dog is scrawny just like almost all dogs in Kenya.

On this visit, as well as my last one in May, I did some painting in the sitting (living) room. It really brightened up the place!

Agnes loves her new home!

May 2013, It's the rainy season and the crops are growing!

Agnes stands proudly in her 'shamba' of maize, with Duane and Zach at her side!

The daily 2pm rain storm rolls in from the east.

Agnes tilled practically every square inch of her two acres... except where the houses and kitchen stand... and the yard.

Besides maize, she also planted millet, cassava, bananas, tomato, potato, beets, kale, pumpkins, carrots, onions, etc!

Besides lots of maize and other vegetables growing and producing, several other improvements have happened on the property. The floor of the older boys' house was cemented... a huge enhancement over it simply being a floor of mud. Additionally, they now have a table and three chairs for their - previously empty - sitting room. They are very happy about these simple things.

The entire property is now fenced with barbed-wire. Agnes feels much more comfortable now, as the neighbor's cow's and goats won't be able to disturb her crops! Chicken wire has also been put up to protect the various seed-beds and vegetable garden areas. This will not only keep out the neighbors' chickens... but Agnes' as well :)

Tony collected Eucalyptus seeds from around the neighborhood, starting his own 'small forest'.
As he proudly showed it to me, he said he'll plant the seedlings during his mid-term break from school.

Zach and Duane love to do the activity pages I always bring for them.

Agnes with a load of firewood she just split, so she could cook dinner

Agnes made some improvements on her 'three-stone' cooking area. Here she is spreading fresh cow manure on it.

This beautiful sunrise represents the 'new dawn' in the lives of Agnes and her boys, since they moved to their new farm!