A Day at the Country Home - Day 16: Wednesday, 3/2/2010

Sounds like a well-to-do family from the big city going out to spend a weekend of rest and relaxation at the country estate - well not exactly.

There is a distinct tie to the land in Kenya.  Those who have moved to the cities for work are still connected to the family homestead, which is often subdivided so that each son has a plot of ground.  Some choose to stay and earn a subsistence living on ever shrinking size plots of land.  For those who become urbanized, it is still quite common to build a "rural home." 

For John and Susan who live in a home furnished by the church, their "rural home" is their source of security when mandatory retirement comes.  They know they will have a place to call home when they are no longer serving a parish.

Today, we went to the country.  It took us an hour or so to get there.  We reached the edge of Thika and turned right into a developing estate.  The houses there were spread out and grew thinner as we went on.  As we traveled on, the earthen roads grew worse and eventually seemed to be nothing more than a well worn path over the ground.  Finally we arrived at the homestead, a 15+ acre farm where John grew up.  The family home was there as well as the duplex house he and his brother Henry had built for their two families.  The dwelling here was a bit more rustic than in town.  There was no electricity save a solar charged battery that allowed for watching TV.  The stove burned wood rather than gas and water was gravity fed from elevated tanks built to hold rain water.  You guessed it, the "facilities" were outside!

On the farm, the principle crops were chicken, goats and maize.  Since Henry had just moved back to the farm, the agricultural use of the land was expanding.  You could sense the pride of home ownership among the two brothers.

As we drove back and I could see from where we had come, we were really not that far out into the courntryside, it just seemed so because the travel had been at such slow speeds.  We were not but a mile or two away from the outskirts of the estate.  Taking a page from the American experience, I know that one day urban sprawl will gobble up their farm and their home.  I suppose they will be the wealthier for it when it happens, but the ties with the land will be gone.