Hive Drive

In 2003 Thomas Okore and his wife started a support group for widows and other disadvantaged people. In 2005 Thomas’ wife tragically passed away due to complications in child birth leaving him a single dad with five children to take care of. Since that time he has continued to lead Amen Widows and Orphans Group (AWOG) in between working, attending seminary school, and taking care of his kids. The main function of the group is mutual encouragement, although they do occasionally manage to pay school fees for orphans that are being looked after by group members. About a month ago Thomas and I began discussing the prospect of his group beginning a small-scale commercial beekeeping business. Our idea was to start with 20 hives and then re-invest a portion of the proceeds to purchase additional hives. The remaining money raised through the sale of honey would allow the group to have a much more tangible impact in the lives of its members.

One of the group members has some land that would be ideal for beekeeping. Between me and Jess’ dad (coming in July) they will have plenty of knowledge about business and beekeeping. The one thing they lack is the money needed to buy the hives and equipment. One beehive costs $55 which means 20 hives would cost $1100 – far more money than the group can come up with. However, if I can find 20 people back home to each purchase 1 hive we could have a lasting impact on the lives of the group members. In fact, the average beekeeping business of this size in Kenya earns $3600-$4800 per year. That’s a lot of money in a country where the average income is $900 per year. Anyone interested in partnering with us can either comment on this post or e-mail me at steventhomsen266@hotmail.com. If you’d like to help but can’t afford $55 we will also need 2 beesuits and a smoker.

Honey Harvest...kind of

We made our first attempt at harvesting last night and it was one of the most stressful things I've ever done. From the moment we opened our first hive until we decided to call it quits 2 hours later we were swarmed with hundreds of angry bees trying desperately to kill us. At one point I was having difficulty seeing because there were so many on my veil. In that 2 hour span we inspected and cleaned only 2 1/2 hives and retrieved NO honey. I wasn't terribly surprised by this because of the sad state of our hives. I'll be thrilled to get ANY honey from this harvest. My main goal is to get the hives cleaned up and put back together like they should be - a simple task if empty, rather difficult if filled with thousands of African bees. Once we get the hives back in working order the bees can get down to business and start making honey. As excited as I am for this to happen, I'm not in a great hurry to get back out there and do battle with those little demons.

Easter Sunday

Happy belated Easter everyone! We have enjoyed our first holiday in a different country. I began my day with rounding in the hospital as usual. And as always, pediatrics is my favorite ward :) The children are getting used to this strange mzungu (white person) who sometimes comes to listen to their lungs and sometimes comes to paint on the walls (and always squeezes their chubby cheeks).
After Hubert and I finished rounding we all went to church, where the sermon was in English, much to our relief. The hymns are still in Swahili though, which I kind of like. I've gotten a Swahili songbook so I can at least move my lips generally in the right direction :)
After church we went to visit our friend Alex, who lives on the mountain behind us. When he said he lives at the top.....he wasn't kidding. It was a rather grueling hike in a skirt ( I didn't want to take off my new Easter kanga yet), but the view was definitely worth it. We got to meet his wife and daughter who were home visiting that weekend. Since jobs can be very difficult to find here, especially ones that routinely get paid, so it is pretty common for a husband and wife to live in different cities simply because that's where they can find a job. That said, Alex's wife Rhoda, who is also a nurse, works at a government hospital and hasn't gotten paid in 8 months.
As for the Phoebe House, things are still going pretty smoothly. My dad (Stephen Jeter) raised $450 dollars at his school for the house, and they are thrilled. They are currently spending 500 shillings each day to buy water and have it carried in(they are too weak to do it themselves). That adds up to 15,000 shillings a month, which is almost double the cost of rent. So for 8,000 shillings, we are getting a water tank and a gutter system put in so they can use rain water. That will save them so much money! $450 is about 30,000 shillings, so we will be going into Kisumu tomorrow to investigate some small business ideas that the Phoebe house may be able to manage.
Not much else to report. I have a acquired a boyfriend (according to his mother) who is 8 months old and is absolutely adorable. In her patchy English his mom told me that he usually won't interact with any strangers, but he seems to have fallen in love with me. I guess that gives Steven a little competition. Good to keep him on his toes, I suppose :)

Going to see the bees

One minute I'm (Steven) walking down the road to visit my honeybees and the next I'm in the hospital cutting the cloths off a patient. What a curious turn of events - especially since I'm not a medical person . As I walked the rocky dirt road between the hospital and the beehives I came upon an emaciated man lying on the side of the road. As I approached I realized his pants were down and he was soaking wet from the heavy rains we had received all morning. I came around to his front and saw an open gash on his forehead about 2 or 3 inches in length. A sense of dread came over me as I realized he was not moving and that he may not be alive. I looked closer and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw his chest move up and down ever so slightly. I began asking the frequent passers by if they knew him or knew what had happened or if anyone had called for help. A security guard said he had most likely been dumped there at about 7:30 that morning - it was now 9:30. Fortunately I live with 4 medical people and had all there numbers in my phone because the idea of 911 emergency response is laughable here. As I was calling them a police truck drove by that I flagged down. I pointed to the man laying in the road and they slowly got out of their truck and sauntered over to the man. They somewhat reluctantly agreed to help me pick him up and put him in the back of the truck and take him to the hospital. As we moved him he began to wake up and groan in pain, although he was not coherent at this point. We got him to the hospital, lifted him onto a stretcher and took him inside. The man was so tense that we could not get his shirt off for an exam. As the medical staff struggled to remove the shirt he moaned in pain so I decided to cut it off of him rather than cause him such pain.

I wish I could say the hospital nursed him back to health and now he's fine, but unfortunately the man turned out to be a schizophrenic which in this country means he's doomed to wander the streets and will never get better. All we can do is focus on the ones whose lives we can change.

Weekend in Kakamega

This is Steven and I in front of our little banda where we stayed in Kakamega forest. Isn't that cute! It gets you right in the middle of the forest with the wildlife. Literally. After lunch on Saturday we came back to find that little porch section full of monkeys. And they also like to jump from the treetops onto the grass roof, which makes a loud thud and then smaller thuds and they wrestle with each other. I call it monkey thunder :) The butterflies were amazing of course, and we also got to see how they extract essential oils from plants in the rainforest that they use to make herbal products. It's a very cool conservation project they have going on there.
This crazy little guy dropped out of a tree right in front of Steven's camera. I think I spent a whole afternoon just watching all the havoc they wrecked. It's a good thing they are so cute, because they're kind of a menace. I watched one particularly motivated monkey try for 30 minutes to find a way to break into our banda. He must have smelled my coconut biscuits :)
Steven talked me into a 4 hour sunrise hike, and I was actually really glad I did. The climb was incredibly steep at times, and we were surprised in the darkness by a herd of pack mules, but overall great.

We actually hiked above the level of the forest and could see the treetops poking out of the mist. It was pretty silent when we started our walk in the dark, but on the way back down the hill, the forest was roaring with birds singing and monkey troops declaring their territory. Not a sound you hear everyday :)




Back to work-I am scheduled to teach a first aid class to local teachers on Monday since many school are too far from a hospital to be practical. I am also putting together a decent first aid kit, as many schools don't even have band aids handy. I will be teaching a Mbaka Oromo school, which is also were a dispensary (clinic) is being built to serve the local community. The local chief got involved and said EVERYONE had to help get this thing built, which was very wise of him to see how this could benefit his village. And sure enough, when we arrived at 7 am before school started, there were tons of children and parents, like this one pictured, carrying dirt and gravel in buckets on their heads. The trucks can't get all the way to the construction site because the roads are horrendous, so they dump the supplies as close as they can get and it's up to the community to get it the rest of the way. Pretty impressive, huh?
Well, lunch and the threat of rain are calling me away from the computer.
Jessie

Baby bananas and bottoms

I have compiled some random pics of everyday life that I though y'all might enjoy at home. Perhaps some things that you don't see everyday.

Baby bananas. How cute are these? About the size of a chubby thumb, these are all over the place here. The locals say they are sweeter than your average banana. I don't know if I agree with that, but I prefer to eat them anyway because they're just so stinkin cute. What a great way to start a morning.


Bare baby bottoms. I don't know if this picture does this dimply little bottom justice, but take my word for it, it's pretty cute. And as for the mystery of why the mamas never get peed on......I am still mystified.

Interestingly enough, this little guy is baby Gary. Gary Hardison, named after the american doctor I am here working with. Cute. You've got to be a pretty big deal around here to get babies named after you, as evidenced by all the baby Obamas and baby Michelles that I have encountered recently :)
Here I am perched perilously on a rickety old wooden chair in the pediatric ward. I am still on my first wall of the mural, but it's coming along nicely. I have painted the bottom half of the wall green(like grass), and the top will be all kinds of flowers. The fact that I have to clean my little brush with turpentine between each color is not helping my time much, but apparently acrylic paint is another "American luxury". When I first arrive on the ward to start painting, it become absolutely silent, as the children watch with curiosity and trepidation what the mzungu will do next. After a bit of time passes however, they start to slowly stalk closer, using the beds and their mama's skirts for cover, and soon become brave enough to speak again. I try to appear very involved in my work until they have gotten to the audible speech stage, then I come down from my chair to clean my brush and shake some little hands that are suddenly thrush from under beds and behind skirts. They always seem surprised that I know their names. Apparently when I take my stethoscope off they can't recognize me as the nurse who was rounding with Dr. Hardison a few hours earlier :)
This picture is of Steven, Anna, and Diane is our nightly games of scrabble. Sometimes we even shake things up a little with speed scrabble :) Mom-you'd be proud to know that I have finally attempted to make popcorn the "real" way on the stove. I made if for our most recent movie night, when we watched Sister Act on one of their laptops. I think there may be some room for improvement, especially with my proportions, but if you don't mind standing oil in the bottom of the popcorn bowl, then I'm doing great.
Well, I can hear thunder starting to rumble outside the internet cafe, so I better skedaddle. It hasn't rained for almost a week now, and I'm really starting to miss it. I love the excitement in the air that lingers before a wonderful storm. I do prefer to experience that excitement from under my porch though, so goodbye for now!
jessie

Anatomy of a Hive

For those of you not familiar with the world of beekeeping, I thought a brief overview of a typical beehive may be in order. I also wanted to show off our new hives we've had built. Some of the old beehives were in such poor shape that we just needed to start over. I've had two new hives built so far and will continue building more as finances allow. Pictured here is what is known as a Langstroth hive. It consists of two main parts - a brood box and a super. The brood box is the larger box on the bottom where the queen lays her eggs (brood). The two slightly smaller boxes on top are the supers. This is where the honey lives.

If we remove the metal lid and take a look inside we'll see a bunch of wooden frames. These beehives have 11 frames in each super. After coating the underside of the top piece of the frame, the bees will begin to build individual combs on each of the 11 frames. Once the comb is built, they begin to make honey in each of the little hexagonal chambers of the comb (except in the brood box where they fill the chambers with eggs). In the picture below you can see a small piece of honeycomb inside the frame. You can also see the rough condition of the hives and why I decided to start fresh.

Steven