Visiting Meru Herbs
Meru Herbs is situated on Mount Meru, a bumpy five-hour drive from Nairobi. As we jolt about and skirt around the pot holes, the driver, James Mwaniki, tells me this is a 'great' place for big snakes! The anaconda can hypnotise dogs and even swallow a goat – whole. The blog photo of me half consumed by an anaconda flashes ominously through my mind...
We started working with the farmers from Meru Herbs 10 years ago. They grow the most delicious hibiscus (carcade as it's known around here), camomile and lemongrass tea – all produced organically. The hibiscus flowers are voluptuous, rose red and the scent seduces you! It's absolutely wonderful.
A woman at Meru Herbs 'shelling' the hibiscus flowers by taking off the plump petals for drying to make tea.
The Nguuru Gakirwe water project was started in 1989 when Italian born Andrew Botta worked with local engineers they built an irrigation system in this drought prone area. Eighteen years on and it serves the 470 families of farmers who can enjoy access to water. This simple but effective engineering is pure genius as it has no automatic parts that could break and has stood the test of time, so rarely the case in development projects. The whole community pay for the water by employing over ten people to maintain it, and every family sends a member to clear out the sediment when the river is low.
Nguuru Gakirwe water project.
According to Paul Mucee, one of the herb farmers, all they could grow in these parts before the water project was created was millet and corn, because rain was so infrequent. 'With the chance of water for irrigation and access to Fair Trade markets I was able to treble my income,' says Paul. Success continues with his son recently graduating from the most prestigious technical college in engineering and now working for an alternative energy solar panel company.
Paul Mucee
I ask Paul if he is happy. 'Oh, I am happy. I used to live in confusion, not knowing how I might feed my family, but now I have direction and great hope. My calendar now follows the natural, organic cycles.'
Andrew, who is the most energetic and amazing seventy-something I have ever met, has created livelihoods for hundreds of people in this rural area with the water project. His friends may have thought him mad starting a project like this in the middle of nowhere, but he has helped to build a thriving community, to which roads, bridges and schooling have now finally found their way as well. Then I ask him about future challenges the farmers face. The climate is changing he says, because of global warming, we need to adopt 'drip irrigation' as it is a more efficient use of water. (This consists of a hose with holes in it, so that the water can drip through slowly.)
I visit the banana fields to see this method in action. The bananas will head for Nairobi, but the people of this community are able stay here - 'We have everything we need for a good life here,' the farmers tell me repeatedly.