With field work concluded, I have the chance to sit back and consider with gratitude all we were able to accomplish in such a short time in Kenya. In the final weeks of research, our marvelous research team finished up all the final interviews of the elder farmers of Bethlehem Home. We continued to learn amazing things, such as the curious trend for recently married women to learn farming from their husbands or parents. We also had the good fortune to interview some amazing community members about farming to provide some comparison to the answers we were getting from our Bethlehem Home elders. One woman, a widow, was generating enormous yields of extremely varied crops on the same kind of land as our elders. Learning about her practices and attitudes towards farming was informative and exciting. We’re already talking about inviting her to be involved with some farming education workshops we’re hoping to design as a follow up to our research.
In the weeks to come, I hope to be able to give you a richer and detailed account of what it was like to be on the ground in rural Africa for eight weeks. I’m compiling the best anecdotes and stories from our team, and we look forward to sharing. For now, consider this. One day, my research partner Daniel Nassar and I were heading to the local Kuoko Academy, which services many of Bethlehem Home’s orphans, in order to discuss plans for the future of the school garden Daniel and I had been constructing alongside faculty and students of Kuoko under the leadership of Charles Tei. In a mud and sheet metal office, the headmaster of the school, Danny, myself, and local agricultural expert Charles Tei all brainstormed about how to integrate the children into the workflow of the garden, how to divide the produce, and how we could raise funds for an even larger school garden in the future. To recap, Danny and I presented a proposal for said garden at Yale University last year, and we were hard at work on it in the hours between interviews for our farming questionnaire project. We achieved some ambitious and exciting goals for the future. Above all, we left the meeting thrilled that the first harvest was only weeks away. That harvest, which will be occurring soon (stand by for live updates!), will include fresh beans, butternut squash, maize, kale, and a lot more. That food will feed the students of Kuoko at lunch, lunch that right now only consists of maize, rice, and beans when the funds are available.
I couldn’t have hoped for a better experience conducting this research through BIPI. The team was stellar, the project smoothly executed, and the experience of working with the people of the Nyakatch Plateau- words cannot describe it. Now, Daniel and I look forward to a year of data analysis and ongoing communication with our friends in Kenya on how to improve, expand, and enhance the Bethlehem Home and Kuoko agricultural yields. Stand by for more updates this week!
Jul 16
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BIPI 2012 Interns
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This blog will highlight Baylor students participating in 8-10 week summer internships with established non-profit organizations and civic groups. Students are chosen for their commitment to create systemic social change and for their ability to connect their placement to their discipline of study. These are the future movers and shakers of the non profit and for profit world. Join the dialogue.Photo Stream
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