Cows and Milk

Wakulima Dairy Farm
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Today was awesome. Julie, the Senior BA responsible for Dairy took Don and I on a little field trip to Mukurweini to visit one of our clients, Wakulima Dairy. Don and I picked her at a local supermarket close to her home. We were supposed to be there at 8:30 but because of traffic, we got there at 9. Julie got there at 9:15. I don’t think anyone works in the same time zone here.

In the car, Julie explained to us how the dairy industry used to work and currently works today.    It was a fascinating narrative. She is obviously extremely intelligent and passionate about her work. Previously, local dairy farmers would sell their milk to dairy traders who drove from farm to farm. There was no standard unit of measurement, quality control or efficient market in which to sell milk. Traders can buy or not buy a farmer’s milk any given day and therefore, milk price varied widely from day to day and farm to farm. The farmers would barely be able to produce / sell enough milk for cattle feed much less sell surplus milk for cash. Cash was becoming increasingly important as it was needed for things like school fees, health services (for the cows and the humans) or additional equipment.

Moo
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Though TNS did not start up the Wakulima Dairy – it had a large role in its restructuring. It is now organized into business units, with a board of directors, transparent bookkeeping / reporting and a small credits and loans component where farmers can take out small loans based on historical milk productivity in order to finance acquisitions of carts, cattle vitamins or even human food etc. This obviously makes sense in retrospect but 10-15 years ago, there was nothing but cows, cows and some milk.

Outpost Treetops Hotel
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We spent the next few hours touring farms and the Dairy headquarters. I felt extremely stupid wearing dry clean only pants and leather loafers trying my best to avoid swarms of flies over cow patties. (If someone takes pity on me upon reading this, please send any kind of cotton, easily washable pants in a size 2P, THANKS!)   The farmers we visited were poor but no where near destitute, the Dairy cooperative has had a huge impact on their standard of living. I do think however that we were shown the “best practices” company and the highest producing farmers (one cow produced over 45L of milk a day!!). I wonder how wide the range is even within the cooperative.

Outpost Treetops - grounds
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Juxtaposition was my word of the day yesterday and today is no different. For lunch, Julie took us to a hotel called Outpost Treetops. I have four words to describe it – British Colonial East Africa. It was by far the nicest complex in the area. We drove up the long driveway and walked into the restaurant where every single person sitting at the restaurant was white and everyone single person serving them was black. The grounds were extensive and during lunch, a peacock walked by! The hotel caters to tourists on safari and is part of the Aberdare Safari hotel group. Outpost’s sister hotel, Treetops Hotel is literally built into the trees in a game reserve so animals (ie giraffes, elephants, rhinso etc) can walk by. It was also where Princess Elizabeth was where she became Queen Elizabeth after the death of her father. (There are a lot of pictures of the Royal Family on holiday in the lobby)

Peacock that walked by during lunch
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On our way back to Nairobi, we passed by the Sagana River. There was a sign for white water rafting and I couldn’t resist. Julie said it was a mere 5 mins out of our way so she wanted to show us the launch point. The campsite was NOT 5 mins away but 20 mins on a rock (not dirt) road. We only had a sedan that day and we must have scrapped the bottom of the car at least 10 times. I’m definitely going back there with an SUV.

We also stopped at a roadside market along the way. As soon as the farmers saw our car pull up with muzulus (sp?) – Swahili for foreigners – they came rushing towards us. It was actually kinda scary as the mob swarmed us shoving melons, French beans, avocadoes, bananas and tomatoes in our windows. I couldn’t help but lock my door as Julie stepped out of the car to divert the farmers away from us and to buy produce for herself. I think I actually would have bought something if I weren’t a bit scared – maybe TNS should work with them next on marketing!

To make a long story short, the little rock road we traversed on was not such a great idea. We got a puncture (ie flat tire) on the side of the highway and another one on the same wheel when we got back to Nairobi. Fortunately, we were only a few feet from the car hire place and ended up swapping cars.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful, we went out for dinner and to this sheesha place called Casablanca. I was exhausted and excited to unpack since by bag finally arrived (woohoo!). I’m glad I had clothes since the next day, I’d be traveling to Muranga and Meru…