It rained!
For half an hour during my nine days in Kenya, it rained just when we visited the trees on the plantation in Nyongoro.
We were on the clock at that, as the local chief who came along for the trip there to guaranteed our safety has us on a tight schedule. Driving through four police checks to reach the plantation, he wanted us to be out again past the first roadblock we drove through within three hours, so when we got to the trees, we were told to get off the bus, take whatever pictures we wanted, not stray out of sight, and be back on the bus whenever the chief called for us.

Nyongoro is south of Kiambere, but most importantly, it’s a lot closer to the coast, hence the climate is more humid. So the plantation here was more rainforest-like than that in Kiambere which was much drier with a lot of felled leaves during our visit (remember, June on the Southern hemisphere means winter-time!). The most apparent difference was in the baobab-trees which still had all their leaves here in Nyongoro.

The plantation lie in a sparsely populated area, and Better Globe Forestry is the biggest employer of the area, with 60-120 workers, depending on the season. These are two of the workers on the plantation, eager to come into work a few extra hours for our visit on a Sunday. Normally, they work 5,5 days a week, 7:30-16:30 or so Monday-Fridays and half days on Saturdays. Better Globe Forestry Ltd. aims at ensuring better working conditions for their workers than what is custom in the areas where they are operating. The Kenyan day workers of Better Globe Forestry are paid 400 KSH (around €4) a day, which is twice the minimum wage of Kenya. Interestingly, this is more than state employees receive – as they get approximately 250 KSH.

This is another reason why I put my savings into trees. As the Chinese proverb reads:

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

My monthly purchases of trees and donation packages ensure BGF can plant trees around the year (regardless of dry or rainy seasons) and provide much-needed job opportunities in poor areas. Your savings can do the same: what better time to buy a tree, than now?

Advent Calendar for 2019: sharing pictures and stories/reflections from my trip to Kenya in June. I went to visit “my trees” and get a hands-on experience of the social entrepreneurship of the Kenyan forestry company that I buy trees through.

Full disclosure: I am proud to say I am both a customer and an ambassador for the company. If you are curious to find out more, let me know and I’ll gladly get in touch with you! Here’s my sponsored link: https://betterglobe.com/27216