July 17th, 2008

     Today was one of those days where you knew you were exactly in the right place at the right time doing the right thing that you were made to do!!  After doing a bit of laundry (Allie rinsed and hung) I called a couple of people who were wanting to meet with me.  One was George Kagumba who picked me up at the airport.  He is wanting to get into aquaculture and contacted me via the internet a while back.  He is a member of the barrelponics yahoo group I formed.  George is an accountant here in Nairobi but with a yearning for the country life.  He has an edge for entrepreneurship and has an internet café as well as his full time employment.  He is from the lake area not too far from where we have some property.  The other fellow was Raphael Kasiu.  He contacted me via the internet in Feb. of 2006 and we have been in correspondence ever since.  He is the District Fisheries Officer for the Kiambu District here in Kenya.  Raphael is the equivalent of an extension agent in the US.  Both of these men wanted to talk aquaponics and discuss it’s potentials.  I thought it would be good to get them together since they had similar goals and they were in the same area.  I also thought of Dr. Simon and his pond at The Greenhouse Church thinking he too would be a good one for them to network with.  

     I made all the calls and got things arranged even with Dr. Simons phone dropping off.  Gotta love those cell phones.  It was 10:00 AM and I told Allie we were having visitors at 11:00.  We quickly made some breakfast, got the dishes done and I went to greet our visitors at the main gate at PAC.  George and Raphael were to meet here to discuss things and then I would take them over to Dr. Simons operation to see what he was doing there.  George showed up first dressed in a suit and tie having just come from his place of employment and he waited with me for Raphael.  We talked a bit about things and noticed several people were coming in.  I did notice one distinguished man in a suit come in and wondered if it was him but did not ask him straight away.  Turned out it was him and when I turned to go to the reception area he must have overheard me as he introduced himself.  We walked back to the apartment where Allie had chai on the boil and we began discussions.  Raphael began explaining how he was working with local farmers and getting them to start growing fish in ponds.  George was familiar with the fishing industry being raised on Lake Victoria and we discussed the problems with the current marketing strategies which leave the fishermen on the lake at the mercy of the buyers and cold storage facilities.  It seems there is a vast shortage of fish to the local markets and the strange thing is the fish are more expensive on the lake than in Nairobi.  Part of it is the cold storage facilities end up buying the fish at a serious reduced price with the balance of cold storage being deducted from the agreement.  This allow them to sell at a very low price so for the fishermen to get the money they need they are pricing the fish a bit high at the shore. I needed to ask some questions that could be taken the wrong way so I explained that the questions I ask are not meant to be judgmental, but simply trying to understand the situation fully. Raphael said it was OK so I asked why we are not teaching fish farmers to sell pond side and eliminate the middleman and give the customer a fresher product?  I know that strategy would be problematic for very large operations but for small operations it would work to the farmers advantage.  He said they are in fact working hard to accomplish that very strategy and some places it has taken off so well the fish farmer can’t keep up with demand.  We had some chai and then I brought out the laptop to show them some pictures.  They were very impressed with the plant growth and density of fish an aquaponics system is capable of producing.  Raphael also talked of putting a barrel-ponics system at his office since there are many people who come through. We talked about me bringing kits over on the next trip if there was funding from the government for such things.  He seemed to think there was and very much wanted to be on the leading edge of this whole thing.  George was interested in developing a three acre parcel he has by doing an agro tourism business with a floating restaurant being supplied by his aquaculture project.  I showed them the alcohol burner and they were amazed.  I told them I was interested in making this technology available to the people involved in charcoal making to give them an alternative since the government has banned the making of charcoal from standing trees.  Charcoal will never stop being produced as long as there is no viable alternative.  Raphael said the same problem exists with the fishermen on Lake Victoria.  Over fishing has made the government close the lake to commercial fishing for 3 and 4 months each year.  The problem is when the government stops fishing it provides no alternative to the fishermen while they are without any income during the closings.  George was particularly interested in it as this thing perked his interest in how things can be used in different ways to do different things.  The thought of using tin cans to make clean burning burners perked the entrepreneur in him.  We also discussed the problem with heavily funded projects and what they do to communities and how people who are used to getting something for nothing have no reason to see it succeed.  They both heartily agreed that what is needed most is ideas and encouragement not simply having someone do it for you.  Empowerment is the name of the game.  It was a great time together and all total we talked here for about 2-½ hours before leaving for Dr. Simons.
     We got in the van and I drove George and Raphael to Dr. Simons place.  They were instantly amazed and impressed with what he had done.  

     Dr. Simon asked about stocking densities and Raphael said they try to get 5 tilapia per sq. meter.  We calculated that Dr. Simon had approximately 300 sq. meters so he could stock it at about 1500 fish.  He had 1000 tilapia and 100 catfish so he still had room for more.  We discussed feed options, security issues, construction details, water quality as well as how this thing also is a tool for evangelism (we all four are believers).  

     We joked how if Dr. Simon gave discounts to congregation members for fish purchases he may well have to expand his building program because everyone would want to go to such a church for sure.  Kinda strange though using fish as bait to catch humans when usually it is humans who use bait to catch fish.  We discussed how Dr. Simon had room to do a small breeding operation to provide fingerlings to other small farmers.  We calculated that the fingerling operation could possibly fund the security personnel as well as the feed bill for the aquaculture operation.  This would make it even more profitable if it would all work out.  Raphael does aquaculture field trips for farmers interested in getting into aquaculture and asked if he could put Dr. Simons operation on his tour list.  Dr. Simon agreed.  We then went down to the church building to take a look at it.  All three of these gentlemen live within a metaphorical stones throw from each other and it took a guy to travel from halfway around the globe to get them together.  Way cool, if you ask me.  You didn’t, but it is still cool.  They will be keeping in touch and who knows what will come of all this.

     We left Dr. Simons and I gave Raphael a ride back to his office.  George and Raphael had a very good conversation about the potentials while I concentrated on driving in such a way we all stayed in one piece.  We also talked about what the Swahili name for Barrel -Ponics would be.  I will have to put it in later because I don’t remember it right now.  There was so much that went on today.  After arriving at the fisheries office we all signed his visitor’s book and then he took us on a tour of the place.  There was a man there tying a net.  He said he got his net from Mombassa and I asked him if there were any places to get it in Kisumu as I wanted to make a seine for a friend in Rongo.  He did not know as he did not go there.  

     We went outside and looked around ad Raphael discussed his plans for the grounds around his office.  He showed us where he wanted to put a Barrel-Ponics system and we had fun fishing avocados from a huge avocado tree on the premises.  Allie was especially fascinated at the size of the seed in the avocado.  

     Raphael and I got our picture taken (by my photographer Allie) and we had to leave.