Under the Kenyan Sun with Hooves

By the Vet Student Team

 

The first week in Kenya flew by! There was a lot of time spent talking and learning about the livestock here. Most of our time has been spent between the local donkey and dairy groups in the region, but we have had the opportunity to dabble with the poultry and newly formed small ruminant projects. There are so many different projects going on that it has been nice to get a chance to participate in all aspects of the “boots on the ground”work going on here.

The 4 vet musketeers after the first walk-in clinic

Everyone has been very welcoming, sharing endless mugs of tea, and laughs. We held seminars to share information on cattle and donkey welfare, but to also understand the issues affecting farmers in the region. The dairy team held sessions for two new groups in Kiirua and Ruiri, where we went over six essentials to maximize milk production. Over the next year these groups will continue to meet with Farmers Helping Farmers (FHF) staff covering topics such as nutrition, making silage, cow comfort, and breeding in more detail. At the end of year, we hope farmers will feel better equipped to tackle dairy production in Kenya. 

The donkey seminars consisted of “punda” (donkey) owners who had the opportunity to learn “pressure & release” halter training, a new type of knot to tie their donkeys, as well as an introduction to innovative harness and cart designs focused on donkey welfare.

Happy donkey grazing

To wrap up the week we participated in a whirlwind cattle health clinic in Mbaaria where nearly 500 cattle were vaccinated, dewormed, and treated by the FHF vet team and veterinarians and paravets from Meru County. Ng'ombe (cows in swahili) received anthrax, BVDV, and Lumpy Skin Disease vaccines, while many dogs were dewormed and vaccinated against rabies. The farmers were especially enthusiastic about the anthrax vaccines, as there had been cases in the area not 3 weeks prior. The health clinic included farmers from the surrounding area, some of whom walked with their cows over 5km to attend! We had the opportunity to see some incredibly interesting cases, including East Coast Fever,m Habronemiasis, and Anaplasmosis, as well as participate in their diagnosis and treatment. It was a day of laughter, hard work, and organized chaos under the hot Kenyan sun. 

The organized chaos of the first walk-in clinic

There has been a lot to see outside of seminars and clinic days. There are people transporting goats and furniture on Boda Boda’s, which are Kenyan motorcycle taxis. Baboons on the side of the road, hoping you will toss them a snack. Crops and water being hauled by donkeys and oxen, and mangoes around every corner. Perhaps the most exciting thing we have seen so far are the elephants on the way to and from the office. We are sure that Kenya will continue to surprise us and cannot wait to see what the next two weeks bring!

Sharing the road with two oxen pulling a cart

Improving Welfare for Working Donkeys in Meru County, Kenya

    By Dr. Martha Mellish

     Equus asinus—the donkey—known locally as punda in Kiswahili and ntigiri in Kimeru, does a lot of work for families in Meru County, Kenya. Despite their importance, working donkeys often labour with harnesses that compress the airway, leading to coughing, breathing difficulty, and reluctance to work.

    The Working Donkey Project in Meru County, supported by the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Center and Farmers Helping Farmers is now in its third year and focuses on improving donkey welfare through practical, community-driven solutions. In 2024, our concerns about airway compression with the current harnessing were confirmed through direct visualization of donkey airways, guiding the development of a prototype cart and harness system designed to reduce pressure on the neck and improve breathing.

    In 2025, the project expanded to include community conversations, seminars, and demonstrations. Five donkey carts have been constructed in partnership with a local welder with the goal of a demonstration of a potentially more welfare friendly cart and harness.

        However, challenges remain. We continue to have difficulty identifying a harness design that is both welfare-friendly and adaptable to local materials and repair skills. In addition, frequent flat tires on the carts have highlighted the need for easy repair kits.

    This year, our team returned to interview the same donkey owners surveyed last January, gathering feedback on welfare perceptions, cart performance, and design improvements. Alongside this work, we provided basic donkey health clinics, including deworming and vaccinations.

By openly addressing challenges and working collaboratively with donkey owners, this project continues to evolve toward sustainable improvements for working donkeys—and the communities that rely on them.

Catching Up with Old Friends

By Teresa Mellish

Ken and I were thrilled to see Rhoda Sanayo ole Sein on the first Sunday after we arrived in Kenya. We were so thrilled to see her after many years of not seeing her at all.    She came to live with us in PEI for a few months  when she was in PEI on a year long exchange program in 1988.  She lives on the family farm near Nairobi where they have Simmental cattle and Dorpa sheep.  In addition, they have turned their  family farm into a Conservancy and offer disc golf for entertainment.   

Some of our group went on  a tour of the farm.  I stayed at the house and caught up with Rhoda about our families.  Just a wonderful visit. We could hardly believe how our families had aged after 38 years!!

 Water and elbow grease: change makers

By Dr. Jill Wood

    This is Nkando. It is very dry and rocky with little vegetation other than cacti and acacia trees. It is where I have been working with our partner women’s groups for the past week.

The women are farming a variety of ways as best they can in this harsh environment. Goats, we have discovered, do surprisingly well here. They are able to browse the shrubs and short grasses and find what they need. We are excited about the introduction of small ruminant training for our women’s groups this year.

    None of the women here milk cows though; there simply isn’t enough of the high energy feed dairy cows need to produce. The women have responded very favourably however, to our poultry program. Chickens do just fine here and the women are especially attentive poultry keepers. The birds are valuable to them given the limited alternative livestock options in the area. 

    Like the vast majority of the women’s groups we work with, the Nkando women’s groups were provided with water tanks when they first signed on as Farmers Helping Farmers partners in 2021. Water is so fundamental to everything else we do. This cannot be stressed enough and is of particular importance in a dry area like Nkando. By reducing the need to walk to the nearest kiosk for water (where water has to be paid for), the women have more time to devote to their shambas and are better able to provide water for their livestock and gardens. 

     Success cannot come from water alone though. The women must be dedicated to using the water judiciously and strategically and must work hard to maintain coops, weed gardens, tend to saplings and feed azolla ponds. These are just a few of the examples where I could see farmyard access to water making a huge difference in Nkando. 

    On our way to a training session, we stopped by the Grace Sisters tree nursery where they had recently sold many of their trees to neighbouring schools for planting. Numerous members were inside the screenhouse tending to the new plants they had started in order to maintain their supply of products. Avocado trees, lemon trees, meru passion and tree tomato were all thriving in the Kenyan sunshine. 

    On another day, we stopped by member Rosemary’s shamba after a group training session because I had learned she had an azolla pond and I was hoping to see one. Azolla is an aquatic plant that is high in protein and makes an excellent supplement to chicken feed. The ponds are easy to maintain with timely additions of water and manure and provision of shade. Rosemary did not know we were coming, but everything looked like it had been prepared for company! Her chicken’s waterers were full, her goats water trough was full and her azolla pond had lots of healthy looking azolla growing.

     I asked if she was worried about the rains not coming and things getting so dry that she may have to give up the azolla pond. She told me no, she was not worried because if her tank did not have rainwater, she would be able to purchase water from the local water line with the income from her egg sales. She said the azolla pond only required water top ups about once a month and even when it was very dry, twice per month. She was confident that was something she could keep up with, even during dry spells.

     So let’s think about that…. The azolla helps reduce her feed costs and maintain a healthy flock. That healthy flock lays eggs that nourish her family and provide extra income. The extra income can pay for water that will keep the azolla pond flourishing… it is a beautiful circle of success. When Farmers Helping Farmers helps with a few of the basic start up needs (water, seeds, chicks and knowledge) and you add in the elbow grease and perseverance of these incredible women, you see the wheels of positive change in motion.

Last blog of the summer by Maggie Grover

Last blog of the summer!

Maggie Grover, August 10, 2015

It is hard to believe that 10 weeks has gone by so quickly and that our internships have ended. The final few weeks were not only busy with finishing up the projects, but also full of new, fun experiences.

I (Maggie) also had a chance to visit the Meru side of Mount Kenya and help with the Farmers Helping Farmers (FHF) project that has been started there. As Mira and Sarifa have previously mentioned, it was really interesting to see the differences in the management styles of cattle in this area, as well as such a new and rapidly growing dairy with such a promising future. Some of the major differences I noticed were that most farmers have larger herds of cattle, graze their cattle, and use more natural breeding as opposed to artificial insemination (AI). These different management practices resulted in different health implications; the tendencies I noticed were that the grazed cattle were in better body condition, but had considerable number of ticks, and I even saw one that had severe skin cancer from sun exposure.

While there, I also had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with the two Atlantic Veterinary College students (Emily and Krista) at the Mother Maria Zanelli Children’s Home, which is run by the Sisters of St. Theresa’s. I was extremely impressed with the facilities and the staff, and we had a lot of fun helping out with meals and playing with the children…they were very excited to learn “Red light, green light” and “Hot potato”!

Photo 1: Maggie (back) and Emily (front) with a group of children showing off their “Hot potatoes” (donated homemade dolls from PEI) at the Children’s home in Meru.

When I returned to Mukurwe-ini, Emily came with me. It was a great week for her to visit, as we continued working on farms from the nutrition project, while also having the chance to accompany a local veterinary technician on his calls. The Wakulima Dairy has one veterinarian and four technicians whose services are available to members; it is a great system in which farmers can use their credits to pay for these services. Patrick is one of these technicians, and was kind enough to let two students (per day) accompany him for a couple of days. It was very interesting for us to see how veterinary services work in this area; in general, the veterinarian is usually called to challenging cases, and the technicians are called to treat the more common problems and to do AI, which is the primary method of breeding in this region. Despite being extremely busy (visiting 10-15 farms/day), Patrick was an amazingly patient and informative teacher and we learned so much in such a short period!

Photo 2: Maggie helping treat a cow for metritis (infected uterus) following calving.

That week, we also taught at our last primary school. Once again, I was blown away by the attentiveness and enthusiasm of the pupils and the questions that some of them had, which demonstrated some impressive critical thinking. As veterinary students, these teaching experiences have been invaluable to us. Not only have we been able to share knowledge that we are well versed in and that we believe is important in the daily lives of these children, but we have also been able to strengthen our communication skills while being inspired by the motivation and studiousness of these children. At the end of the lesson, we were actually told an unfortunate story of a women in the area who died of rabies only a few years ago; this tragedy really reinforced the fact that the diseases we taught about are very relevant and of real concern.

Photos 3 and 4: Students at Mweru Primary School going over the review activity on zoonotic diseases.

After teaching, we had the opportunity to spend the night billeting with some local farmers. Both Joyce and Esther are directors at the Dairy and were gracious enough to host two students each in their homes. It was a really enjoyable time full of cooking, meeting friends and neighbours, and engaging conversations! We also toured their farms, checked their cows for mastitis, and discussed some ideas for changing stalls to improve cow comfort.

 Photo 5: Mira helping Esther cook our delicious dinner

Photo 6: Maggie and Mira have morning chai (tea) with Esther (right) and her friend Mary (left).

At the end of the week, we also had a chance to visit the University of Nairobi Veterinary School. We had a great tour of the facilities, and even got to try some yogurt made by the Department of Food Science that shares the campus. The campus was fairly quiet, as the veterinary students are out on 2-month rotations around the country; in Kenya, this is part of the curriculum for all students in second to fifth year.

Last week marked our final week of work, but we were fortunate to continue having new opportunities! The Dairy has several extension officers whose roles are working with and educating farmers in different topics. On Tuesday, Sarifa and I attended a training session that Elias, one of the officers, was holding for a new group of farmers. Farmers can come together and form a group (this one had 10) that can then request free training on subjects of their choice. This particular day, the topics were on cow comfort and calf nutrition, and we were excited (but a little surprised!) to get to teach the portion on cow comfort.

The following day, Mira and I accompanied Elias to several farms to see some silage making. In the past year, the Dairy has invested in several new chaff cutters that are available (free of charge) for members to borrow to make silage. In addition, when a cutter is borrowed, an extension officer also comes and helps/teaches the farmer the entire day that they are making the silage! This investment certainly seems to be paying off, in the past year, the number of farmers making silage has gone from 40 to over 200! This is very exciting as it means more reliable feed sources during dry periods, which translates into increased milk production and increased profits. It was really interesting to see the process on different farms, since each farmer has to work with what they have available and what they can afford. We saw a wide range of storage methods, from 200 kg bags to 1 tonne plastic-lined crates, to 2 tonne pits! 

Photo 7: Elias (left) and Susan (right) packing maize silage into a bag that will fit 200 kg.

Photo 8: Mira checking out one of the crates that Elias is packing approximately 1 tonne of silage into.

Elias also brought us on a tour of the Dairy’s Demo Farm. This is a plot of land that they acquired just over a year ago and on which they are now growing several crops including Calliandra, sweet potato vines, desmodium, maize, and Napier grass. The crops are used for both educating the farmers, and growing seeds to provide to members (again, free of charge!)

Seeing Elias and the other Wakulima Dairy extension officers at work these two days and learning about all the services they provide to farmers was really impressive and inspiring. It was very evident that they really care about their jobs and that farmers are benefiting from their help.

On Thursday, Mira and Sarifa had the opportunity to accompany Patrick on calls again, while Shauna and I visited the final farms of the nutrition project. These last visits brought the number of farms I had been to up to nearly 150 and yet, I continued to be moved by the eagerness and generosity of the farmers.  In fact, while not surprising, it was definitely a nice treat to finish off the visits being invited into one last farmer’s home for chai and food!

Photo 9: Enjoying some chai and lunch at Supa Café, our favourite spot in town. From left to right: Maggie, Shauna, Priscilla, Jeremiah.

Friday was my final day in Mukurwe-ini, and it was definitely a great end to an amazing summer! The morning was spent helping our chef Samuel prepare a huge spread of Kenyan food including chapatis, Mukimo (potatoes, greens, and maize), beef stew, chicken, and stir-fried vegetables. That afternoon, we had a party to thank all the incredible people (and their families) that we have been fortunate to work with this summer. The party extended well into the evening, and was a blast of delicious food, heartfelt speeches and thank you’s, and bittersweet goodbyes. It was really nice to have a chance to express our gratitude to everyone, including (but not limited to) our awesome drivers, talented chef, skilled translator, incredible laundress, and all the wonderful employees of the Dairy.

Photo 10: Sarifa, Samuel, and Matthew (Shauna’s husband) working hard preparing food for the thank you party.

Photo 11: Maggie making mukimo for the thank you party.

This summer was truly a once in a lifetime experience. I began the internship with the hopes of helping farmers improve their milk production and maybe learning and improving a few skills myself, but in the end, got so much more. As student interns, we did get to share the knowledge we have from our schooling, and were extremely fortunate to actually see some nearly instantaneous results; extension officers told us that one farmer went from getting 8L to 15L of milk/day solely as a result of the stall changes we made to improve cow comfort. However, I had no idea this experience would be such an exchange of knowledge; for everything that we taught, there is no doubt in my mind that we received 10-fold back in return. In the past 10 weeks, I have learned more than I could have imagined about veterinary medicine, farming, teamwork, communication, Kenyan culture, and being resourceful, generous, and appreciative for all the wonderful people and things in my life. On behalf of Mira, Sarifa, and myself, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all those that made this unique opportunity possible, including all those who donated time or money to our fundraising, Veterinarians Without Borders and all their sponsors, Farmers Helping Farmers, and all the wonderful people we were privileged to work with in Mukurwe-ini!

Photo 12: Group photo with all our wonderful colleagues and their families

Photo 13: The 3 student interns with our amazing laundress and friend, Ruth and her son Cedric.

VWB student Sarifa: a Trip to the North - the Naari Dairy

A Trip to the North: the Naari Dairy

We only have 2 weeks left in Kenya! Time has gone by very quickly. We have continued visiting the nutrition study farms. This past week, I (Sarifa Lakhdhir) spent time in Naari with two veterinary students from PEI who are representing Farmers Helping Farmers (Emily and Krista) and two Kenyan veterinary PhD students (Joan and Dennis). They are all starting a project in Naari similar to the one we have been working on down here in Mukurweini. Our project has been of great benefit to the dairy farmers in Mukurweini, and that is the reason for starting the same type of project in Naari.

 Naari Dairy Farmers Co-op Society

We visited several farms during the week. Normally the PhD and veterinary students would have a guide from the dairy to help them locate the farms in the study. On the first day of my visit however, the Naari Dairy was having a general meeting and all farmers and dairy employees were required to attend. Thus, we were left to find study farms on our own. We managed to find the first farm and after we were done, we asked the farmer for directions to the next farm. This worked fine for the first few farms. But we had quite a time locating one farm in particular. It was only after we had hopped around three farms that we managed to get to the farm that we thought we were looking for. Upon arrival, we found out from the farmer that we were at the wrong farm! The mix-up occurred because this farmer’s name was the same as the name of the farmer we were looking for. So we were back to square one! Looking for these farms while driving on dusty and bumpy roads definitely did not help! After the exhausting search, we found the farm and managed to examine the animals there. Thankfully we had a guide for the rest of the week.

At every farm that we visited, we performed a physical exam of each and every cow and calf, recorded some identification information for future visits, and collected some baseline data. The number of cattle on the farms varied from as few as 1 to as many as 10. I got a lot of practice drawing blood and performing rectal palpations! The farms contained a mixture of both grazing and non-grazing cows. Many of the non-grazing cows were tied via rope to a stake. It felt like a rodeo trying to corral and restrain them!

 Enjoying tea, eggs, and “malaria oranges” with a farmer. Malaria orange is a fruit thought to prevent malaria if eaten regularly. It tastes like bitter grapefruit with a lasting aftertaste. I think I’ll stick to the malaria pills! Left to right: Dennis, farmer, Steven (our guide), Joan, Emily, Sarifa, Krista.

I also had the opportunity to attend to some interesting veterinary cases during my time in Naari. During one visit, we examined a cow that had a growth on part of her eye. It was a squamous cell carcinoma of the third eyelid. This is a cancer commonly found in cows, especially those with sun exposure. In most instances, it does not hurt or harm the animal in any way during the early stages. Treatment is surgical excision of the affected tissues when the growth becomes invasive and causes discomfort to the cow. In this case, the cow was still behaving normally and there was minimal discomfort associated with the growth. Thus, we did not need to perform surgery on her during this visit. Another cow we visited had metritis, an infection of the uterus. The cow had recently given birth but had not immediately expelled her placenta. So someone had manually pulled it out of her. In cows, it is best to leave retained placenta alone and let the cow expel it herself so long as she is still behaving normally. Pulling out the placenta can harm her reproductive tract and introduce bacteria into it. In this case, the cow had pus in her uterus due to the infection. Thankfully, within one week of treatment, the metritis had improved drastically!

Zebu bull in Naari. Cattle in Naari tend to be more of the local Zebu breed.

Over the weekend, two Kenyan members of Farmers Helping Farmers, Salome and Steven, took us to visit some interesting places.

On Saturday, Steven took us to some farms to show us screen houses and greenhouses. Many people in the Meru area, with the help of Farmers Helping Farmers, own either a screen house or a greenhouse and use them to grow crops, especially tomatoes. Steven explained that a screen house is an area enclosed by screen cloth. Air can freely pass through the enclosure, and the temperature inside varies with the temperature on the outside. On the other hand, a greenhouse is an area enclosed by plastic sheets. The temperature inside the greenhouse tends to be higher than that on the outside, and this allows crops to grow much faster. The downside of a greenhouse is that any disease brought in will tend to stay inside the enclosure and spread rapidly to all the other crops.

I found it interesting that tomato plants planted in screen houses must be grown and maintained differently than those planted in greenhouses. Due to the accelerated growth in greenhouses, it is essential that only one main stem of the tomato plant is allowed to grow vertically up. All side branches must be trimmed down regularly. Once the stem has grown tall and matured, it is laid flat onto the ground and a new stem is allowed to take its place vertically. This process controls the growth of the tomato plant. In screen houses, tomatoes grow much slower and because of that, less maintenance is required as the plant will not be able to quickly reach the size of the plant grown in a greenhouse.

 Screen house (top) vs greenhouse (bottom). Notice how the tomato plants in the greenhouse are bigger than those in the screen house.

Later in the day, Salome and Steven took us to visit the Muchui Women Group Business Centre. This group of women grows crops such as tomatoes, kale, beans, and an assortment of trees to sell to the community.  There are now around 110 women who are part of this group. I was impressed and very happy to see how this initiative has helped to empower women in the community to work together to make a living in order to support their families.

Visit to the Muchui Women Group Business Centre. Left to right: Steven, Krista, Emily, Salome, Sarifa.

On Sunday, Salome took us to visit the Ngare Ndare Forest Trust. We hiked along the Ngare Ndare river and visited some waterfalls and springs. The river has about 11 springs along it. These springs are often visited by elephants looking for a drink or just to cool off. Elephants will tend to slide down steep banks to get to the springs! Salome had packed us a wonderful lunch of chapatis (baked flattened dough), cabbage, and chicken, which we all enjoyed sitting beside one of the springs.

 Group picture by one of the springs of the Ngare Ndare river. Left to right: Emily, Krista, Charles (our driver), Salome, Zablon (our guide), Carol, Sarifa.

In the afternoon, we went on a canopy walk. This canopy was built in 2007 and is 500 meters long! The view from above was breathtaking. On our drive out of the forest, we had to cross the river in our car. Thankfully we had a four-wheel drive and the river was only one foot deep at that point! We also passed under dangling live electric wires.  I came to learn that the wires are strategically positioned above the roads to keep the elephants from crossing into areas inhabited by people.

On our way back to Meru, we drove through the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. We saw so much wildlife along the way, including giraffe, lesser kudu, ostrich, and even a rhino and its calf! The mini safari was a great end to our productive and adventure-filled weekend.

 Beautiful drive to and from the Ngare Ndare Forest.

 

              Seeing the Naari side was a great cultural and veterinary experience for me, but I am glad to be back in Mukurweini for the last few weeks of the project. We have continued our visits to nutrition study farms. The weather has been cold and rainy, making for very muddy and slippery roads. We have had to hike to some farms and push our car out of the mud a few times! And we occasionally got a break from the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Our chef, Samuel, made us some veggie sandwiches for lunch one day, which we very much enjoyed. Unfortunately, our driver, Jeremiah, was not a big fan of the green, leafy stuff. Priscilla, our translator, really enjoyed watching Jeremiah’s face as he attempted to finish the last of his sandwich!

Walking to a farm near Mukurweini.

I am excited to see the project wrap up successfully as we near its end. We have received positive feedback from the farmers and the dairy, and I am so glad that the work we have done here has benefitted the community. I have really enjoyed my time in Kenya, and I am already dreading the time when I will have to say goodbye to our Kenyan friends and families. This amazing experience has been life-changing and humbling, and the generosity and hospitality of the Kenyan people has been second to none!

Week 10 with the Naari Dairy Group – by Emily Egan

 

Week 10 with the Naari Dairy Group – by Emily Egan

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog…And so much has been going on I don’t even know where to start!

We’ve been hiking on Mt Kenya, white water rafting on the Tana River, mountain biking in Segana, we’ve seen cows with cystic ovaries, endometritis, gangrenous mastitis, we’ve eaten tilapia (whole!) and some very strange and wonderful fruits, we’ve been to church several times, and we’ve watched the Lion King at least three times! It’s been a truly incredible summer…

Over the last 10 days or so, we’ve had an opportunity to spend some time with the highschool students who are here from PEI. We spent a morning with them at sports day at Buuri Secondary School, which was a lot of fun even though we were definitely not wearing the appropriate footwear! They also came out with us to visit a few local shambas and get a taste of how farming is done in Naari. And yesterday we went with them to the Naari Dairy Co-operative and Geoffrey gave us all a tour of the facilities there. The students all seem very enthusiastic about all of it and asked lots of good questions at the dairy. They appear to be having a great trip and making the most of the amazing opportunity!

Work has been going very well, we have only a handful of farms left to visit for the study, and then a few “freebies”. Over the last few weeks we’ve had a rotation of students from the other project staying with us, which has been very fun, plus it means Krista and I get to relax while the new girl does blood draws and palpations!

While Mira was here, we went on an adventure to the Lewa Conservancy to visit one of her friends who lives there. The directions we had to go on were the most amazing I’ve ever seen, and included instructions like “left 100m after euphorbia hedge” and “past more farms/rocks/s**t, turn right”. Obviously, we got very, very lost and it ended up taking us 3 hours to get to the house. Took us 20 minutes to get home. But the conservancy was gorgeous, and the people were lovely. We got to go for a swim in a spring while baboons played in the trees overhead! Even the drive was nice because it meant we got a great tour of the area!

Sarifa has visited us twice, and we’ve had a great time with her. She and I both bought milk cans from the dairy to take home as souvenirs, and I have to say that it was the best shopping experience I’ve ever had! We got to climb on the pile of feed sacks to reach the top shelf where the cans are stored. Talk about shopping till you drop!

 

Last weekend she was here and we all went with Salome, a FHF employee, to see a waterfall and suspension bridge in the Ngarendare forest. The water in the pool at the base of the falls was a beautiful silty blue and the falls were amazing. The park ranger told us that elephants visit the pool by sliding down the hills on their rumps. I was really hoping an elephant would come out of the woods and demonstrate, but no luck! And the suspension bridge through the treetops gave us a wonderful view of the surrounding area. At the end of the day we drove back through the Lewa Conservancy and pretty much had our own mini safari! We saw giraffes, zebras, antelope, and even a rhino way off in the distance! Our guide had incredible eyesight and could spot animals so far away that they looked like little specs of dirt on the window to me! And to top off an incredible day, we went to Jennifer’s for a sleep over and a delicious dinner with the group of high school students visiting from PEI.

 

Sarifa left this morning and Maggie was dropped off. As yet, we haven’t had any super exciting occurrences during Maggie’s stay, but I’m sure that will change! We did manage to visit 4 farms today and all the farmers were very generous. The first gave us a chicken (our fifth this summer!) which we then carried around for the rest of the day. The second fed us a very tasty lunch and tea, the third gave us hot milk (a first for me!), and the last gave us more tea. We are all very well fed and appreciative!

The last 10 weeks have been a whirlwind of new experiences and great adventures with wonderful people, I feel so privileged to have been able to meet so many amazing people and learn from them some small part of Kenyan culture, farming, and community.

This is my last week in Naari, and I will certainly be sad to leave, but more adventures await and I’m very excited to visit Mukurwe-ini and see how things are done on the Vets Without Borders project!!