Russell Jones and Branwen Niclas are staying with the Muchiri familly in Kenya. It’s a very hot morning and everyone is busy carrying water from the river. Here they carry water from the river for everything – drinking, cooking, cleaning and washing.
The African people have been growing and eating the Khat or Mirra plant for a long time. The Khat is a drug but it’s not illegal to grow the plant. The family grow the Khat to make money.
Russell goes fishing with George. George goes to the river every morning in a boat to catch fish with nets. They’ve brought catfish to the river because there’s more meat on the catfish than the local fish.
The family are preparing to go the local market to sell the food they’ve grown. Today they want to sell green peppers and tomatoes and Russell and Branwen go to help.
In Kenya there are many small farms that grow food for Europe. Russell and Branwen go to see one of these farms. The water comes to the river near the farm from Kenya Mountain. They pump the water from the river in to a large reservoir on the farm. They then pump the water from the reservoir to the plants.
These large farms give work and money to the local people and the companies who run the farms look after their workers. But is this fair trade? Branwen is not sure.
Russell, Branwen and the family have arrived at the local market. The market is here once a week and it’s a very busy place. There are a lot of people here selling and buying fruits, vegetables and clothes. A bag of tomatoes sells for 15 pence but the daily wage in this area is 60 pence.
Russell and Branwen have bought a present for the family – a billygoat and two pregnant goats. Russell’s not happy to leave because he’s leaving his new friends.
Russell and Branwen have come to Nairobi. Branwen leaves Russell here and goes back to Wales. Russell goes to an area of Nairobi called Kibera – a huge slum where half the people of Nairobi live.
Here in Kibera in 2007 there were a lot of problems and protests. They started a project to change a rubbish tip in to a garden. Today in the garden they grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables and the project has given work and hope to the people.
Near Kibera there’s a national park where many wild animals live. Russell wants to go to the park to see giraffes, zebras, topi and ostriches.
