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Kenya Diaries: Day 1 - Elephants and Giraffes and Crocs, Oh My! (Part 2)

Jill Richardson — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:02:31 GMT

After visiting the baby elephants on my first day in Kenya, I got to see a white rhino, Rothschild's giraffes, Nile crocodiles, and a few tortoises and ostriches. Here are the photos - enjoy!

For previous diaries in this series:
Travel and Arrival
Day 1, Part 1: Elephants and Giraffes and Crocs, Oh My! (Part 1)
On our way out of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, we visited Maxwell the blind white rhino. You can tell the difference between black and white rhinos by the lips. The black rhino is a browser, whereas the white rhino is a grazer, and they have differently shape lips to accommodate that. Of course, I can't tell the difference between them at all, but maybe it's obvious to Kenyans. Rhinos are horribly endangered, killed for their horns by poachers. The Swahili word for rhino, I have learned, is Kifaru.

From there we headed to the Giraffe Centre, which breeds the endangered Rothschild Giraffe. The other two types of giraffes in Kenya - the Masai Giraffe and the Reticulated Giraffe - are not endangered. Here, a mere 700 shillings ($8) buys you entry plus two handfuls of food to feed the giraffes. Giraffes in Swahili are Twiga.

"Here, giraffe!"

They don't have spots below their knees

The giraffes' warthog companions. These guys mop up whatever giraffe food falls on the floor.

Chillin'

Giraffe coming to get food.

Feeding the giraffe. Their tongues are black!

Giraffe begging for food.

Next up were crocs. We went to lunch at a place called Mamba Village, mamba meaning crocodile in Swahili.

Crocs are very aggressive to humans, much more so than alligators. They wait until you get very, very close and then they act quickly. They grab you and drag you under water until you drown. If necessary, they will whack you with their tails to bring you to their mouth so they can get you. Sometimes women gathering water are attacked in Kenya.

Big Daddy

Crocodiles have a dominance hierarchy. The croc above, Big Daddy, is the dominant croc here. He's about 40 years old and 3 meters long. Crocs can live to about 100 and they grow all their lives, so they can get much bigger than this. When they feel threatened, crocodiles hiss.

Crocodiles open their mouths to cool off when it's hot.

A nesting mama who fears her eggs are being disturbed (by us).

Coming to protect her eggs.

"Lay off my eggs, bitches!"

Crocodiles lay many eggs because adult crocs think that newborn babies are lunch. So many eggs are laid, many hatch, and few survive to adult hood. The females become more aggressive when they are nesting, and they do not eat for the entire 90 days it takes for the eggs to hatch. The eggs are sensitive to temperature - here it is too cold for them to hatch so they will not. She'll give up after 90 days have passed and nothing has hatched. However, where it is warm enough for eggs to hatch, the sex of the crocs are determined by the temperature.

Peter with a crocodile egg. They are about the size of chicken eggs and they are edible.

Baby croc with meat in his mouth. He was shaking it all over the place to get it to break into small enough pieces to swallow.

"Say ahh!" Notice that cros do not have tongues.

After the crocs, we saw some tortoises.

This is a female because her shell is U-shaped near her tail.

This is a male. His shell is V-shaped near his tail.

An enormous bird's nest. The bird is called a Hammerkop. Unfortunately, their young often become crocodile food. They picked a bad place for a nest.

And a few ostriches. These ones are female. Males have black and white feathers.

Kenya Diaries: Day 1 - Elephants and Giraffes and Crocs, Oh My! (Part 1)

Jill Richardson — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:04:43 GMT

My first full day in Kenya was a HUGE TREAT. I got up close and personal with elephants, giraffes, crocodiles, and tortoises. This post only covers the elephants.

For previous diaries in this series:
Travel and Arrival
My poor, jetlagged body first woke up around 4 or 5am Nairobi time. I stayed in bed until 6 something and then got up. By 8am, Maurice arrived. Kaka the dog bounded into Kifaru House and promptly jumped up on my brand new beige shorts, leaving dusty paw prints all over. I ran back to the bathroom to wash them, having no idea just how pointless it was to do so, given where we were going that day. Maurice prepared me a lavish breakfast of eggs, toast with jam, fresh tropical fruit, Kifaru House's special Kifaru tea, and cereal. I asked for coffee too, knowing that the jet lag would certainly set in at some point and it wouldn't hurt to have a bit of caffeine in me.

While he made my coffee, I tried to sneak my papaya and banana to Kaka the dog because I didn't want to look rude for not eating them. I hate papaya. Kaka, it seems, hates it too. She took it in her mouth and spit it out. "Kaka," I hissed at her. "Eat that! You're going to get me in trouble." I attempted to toss it outside into the bushes. If Kaka didn't eat it there, maybe a monkey would. Unfortunately, I fell short, so there was a half-chewed piece of papaya sitting a few feet from the door and I'm sure it confused Maurice when he found it later.

Peter arrived around 9am and helped set me up on the internet with a plug-in wireless modem and some software he downloaded for me. This area is not wired up to have the cable modems and wifi devices I'm used to in the U.S. Then we set off for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an orphanage for baby elephants and rhinos. You must get there just before 11am because that is when they open for tourists. For a mere 500 shillings (about $6), tourists can watch the keepers feed baby elephants bottles of infant formula and even pet a baby elephant or two. I can't remember the last time I took so many photos.

The elephants sleep here, and the keepers sleep in a bed in the same room with them. The keepers rotate which elephant they are with to prevent any one elephant or keeper getting attached to one another.

Peter and I as we wait for the elephants

Here come the elephants!

Hup two three four, keep it up, two, three, four... I hate Disney so why is the elephants' march from the Jungle Book in my head?

"More milk!"

These elephants were all found in the wild as orphans. In far too many cases, their mothers were killed by poachers. You can hardly be in Kenya for a day before you hear elephant-loving Kenyans lament the lifted ban on the ivory trade, which has been a very bad thing for the elephant population here. Elephants are about 120kg at birth. The youngest one here is 3 mos old, and the oldest ones in this group are around 18 mos old. They need to nurse until about age 3 and these elephants would not survive in the wild without a mother's milk.

Because elephants cannot survive drinking another animal's milk and because you'd have to be insane to attempt to milk a wild elephant, these elephants drink infant formula. (Also, a mother elephant does not produce enough milk for more than one calf, so even if milking wild elephants WAS possible, it would jeopardize the lives of wild elephant calves.)

These elephants live much of their days in a wild environment, but they are fed every 3 hours and they sleep indoors at night. Around age 3, they will be reintroduced to a herd in the wild. While it probably is not optimal for them to be so exposed to tourists, no doubt the revenues raised from this operation helps provided needed funds to keep the rescue and fostering program going.

Elephant chewing on a branch.

Branch after the elephant was done with it.

Teeny elephant

Close up of teeny elephant

We also watched the elephants dust bath a bit. Unlike my chickens who roll and flop around in the dust, elephants fling it on themselves with their trunks.

At that point, the first group of elephants left. Check out how dirty my hand is after petting the elephants!

Then, a second, older group of elephants came. These elephants are around ages 18 mos to 3 years.

"I'll do it myself, thank you!"

Ahh, milk.

In this group, we watched each elephant quickly chug one bottle of milk after another. I think I counted them drinking 3 bottles each. The one nearest us would not relinquish his bottle once he was done. Instead he chewed the nipple right off it to make sure he got every last drop, and then spat the nipple out afterward.

Getting a drink of water

Kenya Diaries: Travel and Arrival

Jill Richardson — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:34:50 GMT

As always, this trip began with a hellish plane trek that could have been a lot worse. No cancellations, and only one slight delay. A lot of harassment about the size of my very large carry on luggage, which they wanted to check and I wouldn't let them. And a man with long legs refused to let me recline my seat on the entire Chicago to London leg of the trip.

Strangely enough, the man next to me on the flight to London was the great nephew of Norman Borlaug. We talked about Borlaug a bit but he didn't know much about him other than what he was like at family reunions.
I was very worried about whether I could get through Heathrow to meet my connection in just 2 hours and 15 minutes, but since my flight arrived on time and I powerwalked the entire way, I made it with some time to spare. Check out this ad in Heathrow:

So there you go Africa (and Asia and Latin America). Western capital sees you as an "opportunity."

The flight from London to Kenya had surprisingly few black people on it. Mostly it was white people going on safaris. A British couple going to a wedding. A Finnish couple going to play golf. One man I spoke to was a food aid worker. A few people did appear to be African but I did not speak to them. I sat next to a young 20 something from Bristol who was going on a safari.

Despite arriving an hour and a half late, I was met by Samson and Peter of the African Network for Animal Welfare, an amazing group that has save countless wild animals here. They drove me to Kifaru House, ANAW's guest house. Kifaru is Swahili for rhino. Just as we left the airport, I saw a few zebras grazing in the median in the middle of the road and gasped. Then common sense got the better of me and I said, "Oh, they are statues." Samson told me that they were, in fact, zebras. "The herd's not far from here," he said.

We headed to the guest house, located in the tony suburb of Karen on 5 acres of natural vegetation leased from an elderly woman who is originally from the UK but has lived in Kenya since it was a colony. I'm told the land is home to Sykes' monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) - known as Kima in Swahili - but I have yet to see one. At Kifaru House, we met Maurice, who had a hot vegetarian dinner prepared for me, with delicious vegetables that compare most closely with Indian food, I think, and fresh mango and pineapple as well. I have finally managed to time one of my trips so that it coincides with mango season!

We also met Kaka the dog, a dog who has not actually been a puppy for a long time but still has puppylike energy and bad manners. (She jumps up to say hi and doesn't know "Down" or "Sit" - or if she does, doesn't care to obey them.) Kaka is Brother in Swahili. I told my hosts it means Shit in Spanish. Not a bad name for a dog, really.

Samson showed me ANAW's "snare art." They remove countless wire snares set by poachers each year and then they employ the communities where the poachers come from to turn them into art that they sell to tourists. The money from the art goes back to the communities so that they will not need to resort to poaching. This is one of several ways that ANAW helps these communities cultivate alternate livelihoods instead of poaching.

An elephant made from wire snares.

Birdfeeders made from calabash gourds.

I went to bed after dinner and a shower. The next day, Peter promised to pick me up because they had a big treat planned for me - going to see baby elephants and endangered giraffes up close.

Pot Luck

JayinPortland — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:00:00 GMT

Pot Luck is an open thread...

On My Way!

Jill Richardson — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:03:58 GMT

This has been quite an eventful week. First of all, Daisy my Neurologically Challenged Chicken, who I thought might never lay an egg, laid an egg. A bluish green one, because she's an Ameraucana. Then Goldie Hen the Barred Rock and Frizzie the Frizzle Cochin/Silkie bantam both laid eggs. So now we've got 5 out of 6 of our flock laying. We should get somewhere between 15 and 20 eggs a week now, although Frizzie's eggs are TINY.

I'm now in the San Diego airport, enjoying my last moments of high speed internet before I leave. Some folks have asked me how one even gets to Kenya. Well, I'm flying from San Diego to Chicago to London to Nairobi. I'll leave at 9:40am PST today and arrive at 9:40pm Nairobi time tomorrow. Nairobi is 11 hours ahead of California. I'm a little worried about getting through Heathrow with only a 2 hour layover tomorrow morning, but the airlines said it should be all right.

I can't believe I've crammed everything in my suitcase that needs to go with me. In addition to 10 or 11 shirts, 3 pairs of shorts, all of the underwear I own, and a few pairs of socks, I've got 24 solar flashlights and a bunch of cell phones that I am carrying with me as donations. They were purchased by others but I've agreed to bring them with me.

I've got traveling to the Global South down to almost a science. I've got Malarone (my malaria med of choice), oral dye-free Benedryl (for the itching from bug bites), an herbal bug repellant that I hope works, Grapefruit Seed Extract pills and Jarro-Dophilus (to prevent food poisoning), Azithromycin (in case I get sick), and something stronger than the herbal bug repellant that I'll use if I have no other choice, which I imagine might be the case. Usually I just deal with the itch and hope for the best, but I'd rather not come home with African Sleeping Sickness.

I've also got a headlamp (for late night trips to the bathroom), extra camera batteries, extra triple A batteries, and a small towel. I had to leave my mosquito net at home because the suitcase is so crammed full but they'll have them all over the place there. I'm a little worried that all of the nets there will be treated with insecticide, because I like my mosquito net to double as a blanket. And I've now been vaccinated for typhoid, yellow fever, tetanus, Hep A, Hep B, polio, and rabies.

For food, I've got an entire loaf of Bread & Cie Fig & Anise bread, 3 PB&J sandwiches, a few fuji apples, some mandarins, tamari almonds, homemade muesli (the store bought stuff costs a fortune), a chocolate bar, and dried fruit. Plus several Earnest Food bars. I'll be fine once I get there, but the flights are gonna suck and I won't touch airplane food. For reading material, I've got The Constant Gardener and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

So all in all, I'm ready. I think. I remembered to put my deodorant and my alarm clock in my bag this morning - the last two things I needed to pack. Late last night I realized I hadn't yet packed my passport and I frantically packed that. Just before leaving, I remembered my cell phone charger. And once I got to the airport I realized I forgot my piece of paper that had all my flight info and phone numbers and addresses for everyone in Kenya, so I re-wrote that up while waiting for my flight.

Once at the airport, the security people got fussy about the size of my luggage, which I am taking all carry on because I don't want any of it to get lost, as is so often the case on any international flight when there are connections involved. But they gave me a pass, and I thanked them and told them they had saved some elephants, since my suitcase is only so dang full because of all of the donations, many of which are going to an anti-poaching group. And they haven't canceled or delayed my flight (yet). So far so good.

I didn't sleep well last night and my tummy feels a bit upset. I ate breakfast but I'm hungry again already. I ended up raising about $900 approximately, which is roughly 1/3 of the cost of the total trip. I'm so grateful to everyone who donated or bought my handmade jewelry to help me out. I didn't raise enough to cover the entire trip, but $900 ain't nothing and it's a HUGE help. I've got a new article out about one of the people I am going to visit and that will offset some of the costs as well.

We board in 10 minutes. Wish me luck.

Malaria, HIV/AIDs, and Infant Mortality in Africa

Jill Richardson — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:24:36 GMT

I thought I'd take a look at the distribution of a few issues like HIV/AIDS or Malaria across Africa. Details are below.
Least Developed Countries
Here's a map showing which African nations are designated as Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by the UN. The LDCs are in pink:

Malaria
According to the UN WHO's data, some 69% of the population of Africa are at high risk for malaria. (575,872,867 people at high risk out of a total population of 833,633,324) I only examined their data for nations in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Here's a map I made to show what percent of the population is at high risk in each country:
Pink: 100% population at high risk
Orange: 90-99%
Green: 67-80%
Blue: 50-59%
Lavender: 24-36%
Grey: No data

A few nations have a small percent of their population at risk but it's greater than zero (South Africa, Ethiopia) and I ran out of colors to use for those.

The next map shows the percent of the population in each nation sick with probable or confirmed cases of malaria. In most cases, these numbers are very similar to the numbers for suspected malaria cases, but in a few countries (Niger, for example) there is a huge population that is suspected to be ill but not counted as probable or confirmed.

Legend:
Pink: 57% of population probably or confirmed sick with malaria
Red: 46%
Orange: 32-35%
Green: 10-19%
Blue: 6%-9.9%
Purple: 0.1%-5%
Grey: No data
Unmarked: Zero percent (and in some cases, I suspect that's bad data)

HIV/AIDs in Africa
Here's a map of the distribution of HIV/AIDS among adults ages 15-49 in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Legend:
Pink: 24-26% of adult population has HIV/AIDS
Dark Red: 18%
Light Red: 11-14%
Orange: 6-7%
Green: 5%
Blue: 3-4%
Purple: 1-2%
Grey: No data

Infant Mortality
Measured as the number of deaths per 1000 live births.

Legend:
Pink: Over 100
Dark Red: 90-99
Light Red: 80-89
Orange: 70-79
Yellow: 60-69
Green: 50-59
Teal: 40-49
Blue: 30-39
Purple: 20-29

Per Capita GDP
Here's a graph of per capita GDP. Of course, just because there's a lot of wealth in a nation doesn't mean there isn't a lot of poverty. I wonder how this corresponds with a map of which nations have oil.

Legend:
Under $200: Pink
$200-$299: Dark Red
$300-$399: Light Red
$400-$499: Orange
$500-$599: Yellow
$600-$799: Yellow-Green
$800-$1425: Green
$2000-$5000: Teal
$5000-$10,000: Blue
$10,000-$20,000: Purple

Percent of Population Below Poverty Line
The info below is from the CIA's website. Unfortunately, the data is not all from the same year. I also checked the World Bank's numbers for the percent of the population living below $1.25/day but since exchange rates change each year and they did not have data for every country in the same year, it seemed worthless to use for comparisons.

Legend:
Pink: 80%
Dark Red: 70-79%
Light Red: 60-69%
Orange: 50-59%
Yellow: 40-49%
Yellow-Green: 30-39%
Green: 20-29%
Grey: No Data

Kenya Trip Update

Jill Richardson — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:39:02 GMT

Hi folks, I want to just give an update about my trip to Kenya. I leave in a week! Today I got the bad news that a five day portion of the trip in which I would visit Samburu pastoralists in the northern part of the country would cost more than $2500. I canceled that part of the trip. I am very sad to have canceled that part and I still want to see if I can spend some time visiting with pastoralists. However, the scheduling was getting very tight so now I've got 5 extra days to play with to fit in some other stuff I was hoping to do.

To be fully transparent with my finances, I've posted my donations thus far plus estimated trip costs below.
I've been selling handmade jewelry as a fundraiser and a few kind souls have just donated to me outright. January 30 I guest bartended at a local restaurant, Local Habit and all of my tips plus $1 per draft beer and $1 per special ordered was contributed to my trip. I want to be accountable with the money I've received. As you'll see below, from the costs I have either already paid for flights or I am already aware of, the trip will cost at least about $2250. However, that doesn't include about 7 nights in hotels or hostels, meals, etc. I've been using $3000 as a ballpark figure for the cost of the trip.

I have received $276 in donations, $195.61 in tips from the local restaurant fundraiser, and I've sold about $570 in jewelry (gross). I'm having a hard time figuring out how much the jewelry has earned me net because I've bought supplies at drastically different prices over time. But I think it's probably a fair estimate that I've made $390 net in jewelry sales.

Donations: $276
Tips from bartending: $195.61
$1 per draft beer & special donated by Local Habit: ???
Jewelry Sales (Gross): $570
Jewelry Sales (Net): Approximately $390

Total Amount Raised: $861.61

Trip Costs:
Flight to Nairobi: $1416.94
Flight from Nairobi to Kisumu: $298.96
Visa for Kenya: $50
Hotel in Nairobi (including 2 meals per day): $55/day x 7 days = $385
Roundtrip bus Nairobi to Thika: $3
Hotel in Thika: $10/day x 4 days = $40
Meals in Thika: $15/day x 4 days = $60
Transport to G-BIACK in Thika: $3

Total: $2256.90

Not included in the total above:
- Additional meals in Nairobi
- A potential 5 additional nights in Nairobi hotel ($275)
- Transport to SARDI in Thika
- Costs incurred within Kisumu & Bondo including 2 nights in a hotel in Kisumu

Other trip-related costs not included (these ones are on me):
- Polio vaccine ($55)
- Thank you gifts for my Kenyan hosts (I got them Local Habit organic cotton T-shirts!)
- Food, probiotics, and meds to bring with me

Pre-Trip Blogging: African Sleeping Sickness

Jill Richardson — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:38:55 GMT

I leave for Kenya in one week! Between this trip and previous ones, I've been vaccinated for Tetanus, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Rabies, Yellow Fever, Typhoid, and Polio. And I've got a nice stash of malaria meds (Malarone is my drug of choice there) and some antibiotics just in case (Azithromycin). Plus some probiotics too (Jarro Dophilus). And Benedryl for the bug bites.

So with all of that, unbelievably, there are still diseases out there to get. Dengue fever is one. AIDS is another (I'm going to an area with a rather high HIV/AIDS rate). And then there's African Sleeping Sickness, a disease that sounds terrifying. It's one that, until now, I knew nearly nothing about. So I decided to take a look and find out more about it.

African Sleeping Sickness is transmitted by the tsetse fly, a bug that feeds on human blood, and its' endemic all over Sub-Saharan Africa. Left untreated, the disease is lethal. It's caused by a protazoa, and there are two forms, called East African and West African, even though they don't entirely respect the geographic boundaries that their names imply. Kenya's got the East African version, which shows symptoms and progresses much faster than the West African one. The good news is that Kenya has under 50 reported cases per year. The bad news is that the rural poor who are most at risk for the disease might have it but not report it. The disease begins with itching, headaches, fevers, joint pain, etc, and at that point it's easier to treat. Then it moves into the brain and - if left untreated - it's fatal. The treatments for the latter stage aren't great either - sometimes they kill the patients. Long story short: Don't get this disease.

Chicken Dramas: Introducing Old Chickens and New Chickens

Jill Richardson — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:13:35 GMT

Welcome to the latest installment on urban chicken keeping. To update on where I last left off, we had two full grown hens, a "special needs" hen (Daisy, who suffered a bad brain injury and has not laid an egg yet even though she should have months ago), a bantam frizzle, and two roosters. The bantam and the roosters were all juvenile, so the roosters weren't crowing and the bantam wasn't laying. Since Daisy doesn't lay, and the two hens (Diana and Elizabeth) were molting, I was getting zero eggs.

So here's what's happened since: First, Diana resumed laying. Then Elizabeth did too. Then Spot the rooster began crowing. Roosters aren't very good at crowing when they first try, but by the time I managed to trade Spot and his rooster friend George in for two hens, Spot had nearly mastered it. And he was crowing A LOT. It wasn't a fully enunciated cock-a-doodle-doo but it was LOUD.

So last Saturday, Spot and George went back to the woman who sold them to me and she traded me two hens instead. I selected a Rhode Island Red and a Barred Rock who has a bunch of gold feathers on her neck, both nearly six months old and about ready to start laying. The Rhode Island Red was to replace our previous one who had died, and my roommate's youngest daughter had already named her Rosy Rose (same name as her predecessor). His other daughter gets to name the Barred Rock... but I really want to name her Goldie Hen. Of course, the kid's never heard of Goldie Hawn, so she might not go for that one.

I dropped Rosy and Goldie off in the undisclosed location where the chickens live (a fenced yard). Diana tried to attack one of the new girls, and the other new girl tried to attack Frizzie, the bantam. Then I headed to the farmers market. I thought they'd be OK.

When I got back, I was informed that one of the new chickens had hopped the fence and the firefighters had rescued her from a busy street below. Oops. I bet she panicked when she met the dog, who is not interested in eating chickens but VERY interested in sniffing chickens, which can be scary to a chicken who has never met him before.

At that point, I caught Rosy and found Goldie (who was well hidden and very high up - it involved me climbing on a chair and then onto a six foot high wall) and clipped their wings and put them in the coop for the rest of the day. For that day and night, they got to look at and check out the rest of the flock without any pecking.

The next day, I let all the chickens hang out together out of the coop. It seemed OK. The yard has many places for chickens to hide, and I've been giving everybody lots of treats so that there isn't much competition. I also put the food down in several places so that the new chickens can eat in a different location from the old chickens if necessary. Goldie's even timidly started eating out of my hands, but Rosy's still too scared to do that.

Then this morning, while feeding the chickens, I noticed a huge pile of Rhode Island Red feathers... but no Rhode Island Red. I searched the yard - twice. There was no blood anywhere, or any part of a dead chicken. It seemed like it was most likely that the chickens had pecked Rosy, not that a predator ate her. But there was no Rosy anywhere.

A little while later, I looked out back and saw a tiny Rhode Island Red head peeking out from behind a trashcan in a very narrow corner of the yard. I caught her and put her in the coop. I brought treats out several times today and fed the chickens from my hands right where Rosy could see me and then put some in the coop for Rosy. I managed to catch Goldie and put her in the coop to so Rosy could have a friend. I gave them rolled oats, half a bagel, and a piece of string cheese as treats today. I looked through the compost and one of the garden beds for grubs to give them but found none.

Late in the afternoon, Rosy and Goldie seemed eager to get out of the coop so I let them out. I figured there wasn't much time left before Chicken Bedtime for anyone to peck anyone else. The chickens did well together until bedtime. And everyone went to bed in the coop like they were supposed to. After dark, I moved the old chickens into one section of the coop and shut the door, and put the new chickens in the other section and shut their door. So in the morning, my roommate will let the old chickens out and leave the new chickens in. I don't know how long we'll do this for. I've never had any pecking incidents before so this is my first. I can't say I'm enjoying it.

Pot Luck

JayinPortland — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:00:00 GMT

Pot Luck is an open thread...

Kenya Or Bust

Jill Richardson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:26:29 GMT

Hi folks, my apologies for my long absence. I've been working on planning my trip to Kenya, writing my book, and trying to pay the bills by writing articles. Writing for free on this blog in addition to that hasn't seemed very attractive. You will hear from me A LOT once I'm home from Kenya, because I will write daily diaries of the trip and post all of my pictures.

That said, I want to share what I've come up with for my trip to Kenya. Unlike my previous travel, I'm going alone this time. The research and the legwork was mine alone to do, although I'm very grateful for a number of people, both American and Kenyan, who have been incredibly helpful. I'll be gone for most of the month of February, and my itinerary is below.
First, why Kenya? I was looking for an African country that was colonized, which rules out only Ethiopia. I also didn't want a place where I could get killed, which knocks out Sudan and Somalia. I wanted somewhere where the U.S. was very active in providing agricultural aid and had been for some time. Kenya fits the bill but so do many other nations. Kenya specifically had something special: When Monsanto approached USAID to suggest that they would donate technology if USAID would fund the development of "humanitarian" GMOs back in 1990, Kenya was the first country targeted by that program, which began in 1991. (For more, see this article.) This year, Kenya legalized GMOs. Add to that the fact that they speak English, I actually took a class on Kenya in college so I know a bit about it, and it seems like it's a lot easier to find contacts in Kenya to visit than any other country, and the choice was simple.

Once I made my plans, I realized another reason why Kenya's a great pick. Africa's agriculture developed along the same lines as it language families. The first Bantu speakers, for example, domesticated a successful package of crops in modern day Cameroon, West Africa, and used that to spread out across the continent. Ethiopians domesticated another package of crops, as did those living in the Sahel region just south of the Sahara. Ethiopians and their crops are associated with Afro-Asiatic languages and in Kenya I believe the Afro-Asiatic speakers are all within the Cushitic group. Those who domesticated pearl millet and sorghum in the Sahel speak Nilo-Saharan languages (and within Kenya, the Nilo-Saharan speakers seem to be within the Nilotic branch). And Kenya also has plenty of Bantu speakers. So aside from the non-Bantu Niger-Congo speakers of West Africa and the strange group in Madagascar that speaks languages related to languages in Indonesia, Kenya has ethnic groups from each of the major language groups and hopefully agriculture to match! (For a quick primer on this topic, read the chapter on Africa in Guns, Germs, and Steel.)

So here's where I'm going:

Feb 4: Leave U.S. Fly through London, since my flights are always canceled and I might as well be in an English-speaking country when that happens.

Feb 5: I am scheduled to arrive in Nairobi at 9:40pm. If I actually arrive then, I'll be shocked. I'm hoping I get there by Feb 6 or so. (I love you, airline industry...)

Feb 6-7: Recover from jetlag in Nairobi. Visit museums, the huge slum Kibera, the African Network for Animal Welfare and see if I can get in touch with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), who has not answered any of my emails yet. I REALLY want to hear directly from them what they are up to and how they feel it will help farmers. Maybe look up the World Agroforestry Centre and the International Livestock Research Institute as well. ILRI, to their credit, HAS answered my emails and was in the process of helping me plan to visit one of their sites. Then they asked me who I write for, I gave them the name of my publisher, and I haven't heard anything since. Again, I am VERY interested in hearing about their work directly from them and - even better - directly from the farmers they help.

Feb 8-11: I'll spend this time in Thika, a city about 30 km from Nairobi. From what I understand, this area is mostly populated by the Kikuyu, which is a large ethnic group and also the most powerful ethnic group within Kenya. There are a few NGOs I'll be visiting here, and two groups will take me out to meet the farmers they work with for two of the days I am there:

Grow Biointensive Agriculture Center of Kenya (G-BIACK), winner of this year's Food Sovereignty Award
SARDI Kenya (Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Initiative)
African Biodiversity Network
Participatory Ecological Land Use Management
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa

Feb 12-16: Travel to and visit Samburu. If you look at a map of Kenya, Samburu is roughly halfway between Nairobi and the northern border, directly north of Nairobi. Roughly half of this five day period will be taken up by travel to and from Samburu. The rest will be spent with the Samburu ethnic group. The Samburu are pastoralists who are similar, at least linguistically, to the more famous Maasai. Here I'll be with the African LIFE Network, who doesn't appear to have a website.

Feb 17-19: Back to Nairobi, unless I can find something better to do with myself. I am VERY MUCH hoping to use this time visiting and learning more about KARI, ILRI, and their work. However, I might end up taking a day trip east of Nairobi to visit an ethnic group called the Kamba. The Kamba are a Bantu-speaking group that live in one of two regions targeted by USAID for ag development work. It's a semi-arid region with several ethnic groups (Meru, Embu, and Kamba, if I remember right - all Bantu-speakers). But we'll see. If I do that it would be to visit the family of a random Kamba lady I met here in San Diego at the farmer's market.

Feb 20-24: Fly to Kisumu near Lake Victoria and stay in Bondo District, also near Lake Victoria (Nyanza province if you're looking at a map). Here I'll be with Amy Lint and Malaki Obado of Grow Strong. I have an interview with Amy that will be published soon (I hope) and I cannot wait to share it with you.

The two of them are INCREDIBLE. Malaki is a Luo, the same ethnic group as Barack Obama's dad. Amy's from the U.S. and was assigned to Malaki's area while in the Peace Corps. They lived in San Diego for the past several years and both did amazing work on community food security and urban agriculture, although Amy has been the more recognized of the two (Michelle Obama and the New York Times both thought she did great work - not bad, huh?). Malaki's work is less celebrated but incredible all the same. He does beekeeping and bee rescue and set up an aquaponics facility, among other things.

If you look at a precipitation map of Kenya, you'll see that the area in between Nairobi and Lake Victoria is more or less where all the rain falls. However, Bondo District does not get enough rain. It's also suffering from a very high HIV/AIDS rate, which Amy spoke poignantly about when I interviewed her on Monday. They moved to Kenya yesterday.

Feb 25: Return to Nairobi. Tie up loose ends.

Feb 26: Fly home.

So that's the trip. Also, in case you're wondering, Kenya is home to just about every African animal you can name except gorillas and chimps. Among the animals I might see (or not see, since I'm really there to learn about people, crops, and livestock) are:

Baboons (Yellow Baboon and Olive Baboon)
Lions
Cheetahs
Leopards
Cape Buffalo
Zebras (Burchell's Zebra and Grevy's Zebra)
Elephants
Rhinos (severely endangered)
Flamingos
Gazelles (Grant's Gazelle and Thomson's Gazelle)
Wildebeest
Warthog
Vultures (Egyptian Vulture, Hooded Vulture, Lappet-faced Vulture, Ruppel's Griffon, White-backed Vulture and White-headed Vulture)
Ostrich
Monkeys (Vervet (Green) Monkey, Colobus (Guereza) Monkey, Sykes' (White-throated, Blue or Samango) Monkey, Patas Monkey, De Brazza's Monkey and Red-(Copper-)tailed Monkey)
Mongoose (Banded Mongoose, Dwarf Mongoose, Slender (black-tipped) Mongoose and White-tailed Mongoose)
Impalas
Jackals
Hyenas
Hippos
Giraffes (Masai Giraffe, Reticulated Giraffe, and Rothschild's Giraffe)
Dik-Dik
Crocodile
Bushbaby
Porcupines
Much, much more

To put it another way, Simba, Puumba, and Rafiki all live in Kenya, but Timon definitely doesn't. Simba, by the way, is Swahili for "lion." An animal I hope I do not see is a Black Mamba.

Dow & Monsanto in deadly race on the pesticide treadmill

Marcia Ishii-Eiteman — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:13:03 GMT

Originally posted on Pesticide Action Network's blog, Groundtruth.

You've all heard the news: farmers across the country are losing their fields to superweeds so formidable and fast-spreading that they break farm machinery and render millions of acres of farmland useless. These superweeds have evolved as a direct consequence of Monsanto's RoundUp Ready pesticide-seed package. Now superbugs are emerging, resistant to Monsanto's transgenic insecticidal crops. Ecologists predicted this ecological disaster 15 years ago.

The big question is, can we possibly learn from this ecological and agronomic disaster? The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Monsanto's rival, Dow Chemical, apparently cannot.
From bad to worse

Instead of abandoning this losing strategy, Dow is trying to get us running faster on the same old broken pesticide treadmill. Dow and USDA are hoping to quietly approve a new genetically engineered corn seed that basically swaps RoundUp (glyphosate) out and an even worse weedkiller (2,4-D) in. Bad idea.

As with Monsanto's RoundUp Ready lines, the herbicide with which these seeds are engineered to be used (2,4-D) will surge in use. Dow aims to get 2,4-D-resistant corn to market this year, soy next year and cotton in 2015. These three crops dominate U.S. agriculture, blanketing over 100 million acres of mono-cropped countryside and driving the pesticide market. Only this time, the fallout will be even worse. Here's why:

➤ 2,4-D is a more toxic herbicide, both to humans and to plants. 2,4-D is a reproductive toxicant (associated with lower sperm counts) and its formulations have been linked to cancer (in particular non-Hodgkins lymphoma), disruption of the immune and endocrine (hormone) systems and birth defects. EPA has also expressed a "concern for developmental neurotoxicity resulting from exposure to 2,4-D."

➤ 2,4-D does and will drift off of target crops - both through spray drift and volatilization. The latter enables chemicals to travel with moving air masses for miles. Neither applicator nor innocent bystander can prevent such movement. The spread of 2,4-D across our lands will damage non-target crops and vegetation, devastate adjacent ecosystems and poses a very real threat to rural economies and farmers growing non-2,4-D-resistant crops. Conventional farmers growing their product miles away will suffer severe crop losses, while organic farmers will lose both crops and certification, resulting in business failures, job losses and an economic unraveling of already-stressed rural communities.

➤ 2,4-D-resistant "superweeds" will arise and spread just as RoundUp-resistant "superweeds" have taken over farms and countryside in the Midwest and Southeast. Where will this leave struggling farmers? What even more deadly pesticide will the biotech companies resort to next?

➤ Corn is wind-pollinated which means that genetic material from 2,4-D corn will contaminate non-GE corn. You cannot put a GE genie back in the bottle.

What next?

Will Dow provide compensation to farmers, their children and rural communities for the harms likely to occur should the company secure approval of its 2, 4-D resistant corn? I rather doubt it. Dow has still refused to assume responsibility for the deaths and devastation arising from the pesticide explosion in Bhopal, India in 1984, so why would the company show any integrity now?

What about USDA? Can we expect our public agency to carefully scrutinize the likely fallout of approving 2,4-D resistant corn? One problem is that USDA does not really want to know what the public thinks.

One giveaway sign: USDA opened the required public comment period over the holiday break, as the Agency tends to do for controversial decisions they want to bury.

More significantly, they've asked the public to comment only on whether or not the new GE corn poses a "plant pest risk" - not on whether the impacts of this new GE crop are more likely to strengthen farmers' ability to grow healthy food safely or to devastate their health, livelihoods and the environment all in one go.

But Agency reluctance to face facts shouldn't stop us from exercising our rights. We'll have to be loud - really loud - because an active engaged public is what it will take to get our agencies back on track and in the business of serving the public interest, not corporate profits.

Take Action » Tell USDA we want off the pesticide treadmill! This dangerous and antiquated herbicide shouldn't be on the market, and we certainly should not be giving Dow license to profit from driving up use. Sign our petition to USDA.

Pot Luck

JayinPortland — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 03:00:00 GMT

Pot Luck is an open thread...

Trials with Chickens

Jill Richardson — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:23:26 GMT

We had a death in our family today. Rosy Rose, the Rhode Island Red chicken, met her maker. And if I get my way, she'll be an excellent source of fertility for our fig tree (my plan involves somebody who isn't me digging that hole so we'll see if it happens).

I just want to share the craziness of our little flock with everyone, to tell you how it is that I had seven chickens (now six) and get about one egg a week.

Rosy Rose, who is no more

My girls (and boys)

Of the original four chickens, I got, three were hens, and two are still alive. Victoria, the third hen, was constantly broody and she died in the nestbox during a stretch of 104 degree weather this summer. My two remaining hens, both Buff Orpingtons, are alive and well... but not really laying. This time of year is when chickens molt and they stop laying, but Buff Orps supposedly consider laying through the molt. Diana gives us maybe an egg a week these days. Elizabeth went broody for a long time and got attacked by mites until she was anemic. She's still not back up to her former weight, and her comb and wattle are still pink and not quite red yet. I give her as many treats as I can to help her recuperate.

Diana and Elizabeth

Diana. I love this chicken!

In March we got four more chickens, three Ameraucanas and a Wyandotte. I didn't like the Wyandotte much and I gave her away. We raised the other three until early August, when I was leaving for Bolivia and worried that we would have roosters crowing while I was gone. Of the three, two were roosters. You can tell because they have pointier saddle and hackle (neck) feathers than the hens do, and their feathers are also shinier. Plus, they are assholes.

Just before we re-homed the two boys, our only hen of the bunch, Daisy, bumped her head and got a brain injury. We nursed her back to health with vitamins and prednisone, but she's still not quite "all there." And she hasn't started laying, even though she's now over 9 months old. She still seems underweight for her age too. Who knows if she'll ever lay, but she is a lovely, lovely bird. I think Daisy is destined to be a pet.

My beauty, Daisy

Our next attempt was a purchase of four baby chicks who were just old enough to live outside (about six weeks old). I think we got them in September or October. We got a Barred Rock (Spot), a Rhode Island Red (Rosy Rose), an Australorp (Ella), and a Frizzle Cochin/Silkie mix (Frizzie). Rosy Rose is the one who died today. Spot is a boy for SURE. And it's now looking like Ella's a boy too, since his feathers are just too beautiful and shiny to be on a hen. The kids are working on thinking up a boy's name for Ella. My room mate and I are working on plans to eat Spot and Ella, and the kids are not down with that plan.

Spot and Ella

Last is Frizzie. It doesn't much matter whether Frizzie is a boy or a girl. I kind of hope Frizzie is a boy so we can find him a new home. He or she is a bantam, which means Frizzie will always be small. If Frizzie is a girl, the breeds (Cochin and Silkie) are notorious for being broody, so we won't expect many eggs. Having a bird who can incubate and hatch eggs and raise chicks is a nice idea, but it's not something I want to do until our mites are all gone. They are mostly under control but not 100% gone.

Frizzie

I've just emailed my "dealer" to see if we can get a few hens who are old enough to lay NOW. I've asked for another Rhode Island Red and either a Barred Rock or an Australorp. If she doesn't have any, then I'm going to go to another woman who sells chickens and get a few Black Star sexlinks from her, ones that are ready to start laying. We've got a full coop of chickens and almost no eggs, dammit!

Sunday Bread - Almond Christmas Pudding, with Grand Marnier Butter

Something The Dog Said — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:40:54 GMT

Happy Sunday Bread Heads!

I have a bit of a problem, since I have promised two things for this week, Gingerbread Men and Christmas pudding. Since the pudding recipe is a little more rare than the Gingerbread Men, I am going to go with that one, sorry for those looking of the cookies, I promise that next year I'll do them early and thoroughly.

Now, let's talk Christmas pudding. This is a really traditional English dish. It is a cake made of bread crumbs, and studded with dried or candied fruit that is cooked in a mold surrounded by boiling water over several hours.

The real deal Plumb Pudding is made with suet, which is the beef version of lard. You can make this recipe with suet, which is really good and tasty no matter how much you squirmed reading about it, but it is not always easy to find, so I am going with butter instead.

The recipe I am giving you today is my own take on Christmas pudding. I come from a family that inexplicably does not like rum nor brandy which are the traditional flavors for the cake and the hard sauce that go with it. So I have changed things around to us Amaretto and Grand Marnier.

This gives a wonderful almond and orange flavors to the dish that contrast nicely with the fruit which is raisins (white and regular), candied cherries and the special twist ingredient of candied pineapple.

This recipe, like all traditional feast foods takes some advanced preparation, it is going to take a couple of days to candy the fruit (unless you want to commit the heresy of using the candied fruit from the store, in which case you may be cursed onto the seventh generation. Just sayin') and you will need to make a loaf of bread for the bread crumbs, and there is a need for part of the recipe to sit overnight in the Amaretto.

So, all told if you want to have a pudding for Solstice or for Christmas Eve or Day you have to get started today!

For the bread I use either French Bread or English Oatmeal Bread. By clicking on the links you can find the recipe for each.

Before we start, I have to warn you, this is an unlovely if tasty dish. It is not going to have the pristine look of a cake that is iced or even the smooth texture of bread, it is going to look more like what it is, a bread pudding. But if you can get around that it is delightfully tasty!

But enough cautions and warnings, let's make a Almond Christmas Pudding with Grand Marnier Butter!
Ingredients:

For Grand Marnier Butter:

¾ cups (1 ½ stick) butter, slightly softened
1 cup powdered sugar
5 tablespoons Grand Marnier

For Candied Cherries and Pineapple:

1 can pineapple chunks (drained)
1 can cherries in water (drained )
8 cups sugar
8 cups water

For the Pudding:

¾ cup Sultana (white) raisins
¾ cup raisins
½ cup candied cherries
½ cup candied pineapple
¾ cup prunes (finding fresh plumbs at this time of year is a drag, but you can't have a plumb pudding without them, so prunes it is)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly shaved preferred)
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup Amaretto (I like Lazzaroni but DiSarrono is the one that you are most likely to find, don't use a cheap off brand whatever you do).
3 cups fresh bread crumbs (use French Bread or English Oatmeal Bread if you can)
½ cup packed brown sugar (dark preferred but light will work as well)
6 tablespoons of flour
½ cup finely chopped almonds
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
3 eggs
¼ cup whole milk (no sense in scrimping at this point, eh?)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract

Equipment:

1 2 quart mold - There are special molds for this. But any bowl or soufflé pan that you can cover with a lid will do. I used to have a mold but I gave it to my sister and started using my soufflé dish.
1 pot large enough to fit your bowl or mold
1 grate or Mason jar ring

Method:

For Grand Marnier Butter:

In a large bowl or the work bowl of your stand mixer beat the butter until it is smooth. Beat in the sugar. Then beat in the Grand Marnier.

This can be made up to 1 week ahead. Just place the butter in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow it to come to room temperature before serving.

For the Candying Cherries and Pineapple:

You can use the same method for both the cherries and the pineapple, but don't do them in the same pot, as the cherries will make the pineapple a very unappealing color.

In a large pan, bring 4 cups of water and sugar to boil. Clip on your candy thermometer and let it cook until it comes to 228 degrees (216 above 5K feet). Carefully add the cherries or pineapple. Reduce the temperature and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to stand for 8 to 24 hours uncovered.

Bring the syrup back up to 228 (216 at 5K feet or above), reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to stand overnight. Bring the syrup up to a boil, then pour the fruit and syrup out into a colander. When the syrup has drained turn the fruit out onto a wire cooling rack to dry. When just tacky (about 8 hours) toss the fruit in a bowl filled with sugar to coat the outside. Store in an air tight container for up to 3 months.

For Pudding:

Chop the raisins, pineapple and plumbs into ¼ pieces and, in your largest bowl, combine them with both types of raisins, the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Pour the Amaretto over the whole thing and stir to combine. Let stand for 30 minutes while you get the bread crumbs sorted out.

We want fresh not dried bread crumbs for this recipe so we need to start with fresh bread and make bread crumbs. Start by cutting the crust off of about half a loaf of the bread you're going to use. The easiest way to make the bread crumbs is in a food processor. Just cut some thick slices and plop them in the work bowl with the metal blade attachment. Pulse 10 or 12 times until you have a nice even small crumb.

Now, if you don't have a food processor, it is a little more work but not that much. The best way is to use a bread knife to cut really thin slices from the half loaf after you've taken the crust off. When you have them put them in a bowl and then use your fingers to shred them into a fine crumb. Take your time and don't rush. It'll take about 10 minutes or so. You won't get the evenness of the food processor but it will not matter at all in the end result.

In a medium bowl mix the bread crumbs, the brown sugar and flour together until it is evenly mixed. Pour this mixture into the fruit and Amaretto mixture and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and let it stand on a counter for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Combine the almonds, baking powder, melted butter, eggs, milk, vanilla and almond extracts in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

Remove the plastic wrap and stir the milk mixture into the fruit and bread mixture.

Thickly butter the bottom and sides of the mold that you are going to use. For the love of the FSM do not skip this step! Your pudding might adhere to the sides of the bowl and that would be a disaster!

Pour the mixture into your mold and press down firmly all around. Now it is time to boil this bad boy!

Place a rack or a Mason jar ring in the bottom of your largest pot. I like to tie four piece of kitchen twine to the ring to use a way to lift my soufflé dish out of the water. Place a pot lid over your mold or bowl or soufflé pan (it is there to keep water off the top of your pudding, not to make a seal). Fill the pan with boiling water up to the middle of the mold. Cover the pot and put it over medium heat for about 2 hours. The pudding is done when a tester comes out clean from the middle.

You want to keep an eye on the water level; you will almost certainly have to add more to keep it from boiling dry.

When the pudding is done, remove it from the pot and let it stand on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Invert it onto a serving dish and serve with the Grand Marnier butter.

The great thing about this dish is you can make it ahead and then re-heat it to serve. Just unmold it and let it cool completely. Then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate it.

To bring is back, just rebutter the mold, put it in cover and put in a pot of boiling water half way up the sides of the mold. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 45 minutes. Then treat it just like the first time, 5 minutes on the wire rack and unmold.

So there you have it Bread Heads, the way to make an updated version of the English Christmas pudding; sweet, moist with bright fruit flavors and smooth almond taste. Enjoy!

The flour is yours!