The Fishermen Return

The Fishermen return from their expedition. John and Dishon are two young fishermen that's future is at stake due to the lack of fish in Lake Victoria. So the learing begins for them as I have sent them, via Mitattoo to go and explore the Fish Ponds in Kenya........ they left very early in the morning and John asked me prior to leaving if I could buy him an exercixe book so that he can take notes......I said ofcourse and off they went.

Travelling in Kenya is not an easy task as no doubt you have read stories about my Mitattoo experiences. Anyway as they are always overloaded there happened to be a police blitz on them so these poor boys struggled to get one, but as resourceful as they are they managed to visit two fish farms spread over quite a large area.

So excited about their day they couldn't wait to tell me about their findings they called in to my house about 7.00pm. I can't tell you what it was like to hear them talk about the day.....see the notes they had taken and share their ideas. What I have asked them to do is put a proposal together regarding costs to build the pond, size of pond, number of fish, cost of feed and the process they will adopt. Once I receive this we will then assess and talk about moving forward with the test pond. Our aim is to produce a fish within a 6 month period to the market size. Currently they are taking about 6-9 months but not reaching the market size so this will be the challenge for John & Dishon. One of the interesting things they told me was that as a part of the feeding programme, they build chicken sheds over the pond, to one corner, and the chicken droppings fall into the pond and become a part of the feeding process......I told you these Africans are very smart. They also submerge a bag of cow manure in the corner of the pond and this serves to make the water discoloured so that the birds can't see the fish and also to keep the snakes out as if a snake eats cow manure it is like a poison....this bag is changed every two weeks. I gave them a week to put the submission together for me. What I also talked with them about was trust and honesty. Here in Africa it is not something that is practiced readily. We talked about the importance of trusting each other and working together. The importance of being able to come to me with any issues they may have, about stealing from me and each other, about deceipt and how it will effect the success of their project......they aknowledged what I was saying so here's hoping things will turn out OK for them.

I think that if enthusiasm is a sign of success, I think they will make it.

I will leave you all with this saying "I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbour. Do you know your next door neighbour?

Cheers