New Season

At Maragua and most other regions of the country the mood is that of celebration as the rains continue falling from the heavens, now being about one week since its onset – what a blessing!

Needless to say it is a moment that we have been eagerly waiting for, and by the Grace of the Almighty we have come to see it pass. It’s like a festival. And the activities are mainly planting here and sowing there.

To grace this festival, InI beloved Istren, Sista Maria gave an official call at the Shiriki farm at Maragua. To her, it was a vision come to reality after being an ardent follower of our blog since its inception.

Firstly, as a sign of consciousness about our environment, Sista Maria planted a Mango and a Moringa Olifera tree with the aid of Ras Rukundo. 

Moringa tree: It's highly nutritious, and quite handy.

Planting Mango seedling.

 

Later on the Sista would help the other volunteers in sowing some beans. Maragua is has an ideal climate for bean production. During the past season we only managed to harvest a modest package which was preserved for seeds; the reason for this limited performance is attributed to late planting. 

Planting beans mixing with ginger

 

With the coming of the rains, the farmers have also transplanted some eggplants which have been growing in the nursery bed for about a month. 

EGGPLANT: newly transplanted.

Sista Maria, who is a student of Afrikan Studies in Hamburg University Germany, is also the architect of Mama Afreeka Repatriation Initiative, a project focusing on helping young and jobless mothers in the ghetto to reshape their lives by repatriating to rural areas and learn vital skills which would eventually enable them be self-reliant and help their community. Help her achieve this noble objective.

Shiriki volunteers were joyful to receive a solar lighting system donated by Sista Maria. This is a highly welcomed facility which will not only help the volunteers to produce at night but also study various texts we have in our library. 

Indeed, with the current progress of work in the farm, we realize the need of electrification. Besides providing a reliable source of light, with electricity power we will be able to run such electronic equipment as computers for research and communication, water-pumps, blenders, mills and driers among others.

The sista also donated a publication of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I speeches, a Kenya News Agency handout on HIM Haile Selassie I visit to Kenya in 1964 among other books.

Meanwhile, as one volunteer leaves the farm, another or two enter. So has been the case as Ras Githaka and Ras Abasa reenter the farm well armed – with lots of new seeds, after running errands in the city. Among the seeds include Hibiscus, varieties of Ithiopian beans, pawpaw and Ithiopian mangoes which one of our own volunteers has been growing up in Ithiopia.