Kisumu agricultural show

When we heard that there was a regional (East African) agricultural show happening in Kisumu, a town a mere four hours away, we decided we should go check it out. Firstly, because I wanted to talk to some people there about stoves, and secondly because it was Mike's birthday and I thought it would be a cool weekend getaway because he loves farm stuff.

The diarama like the one below is a simple, popular and effective to show people what you are about. This one talked about water and sources of pollution in the water system. All the stands at this show were sponsored by a company, government ministry or NGO. We got there around 11am but some booths were still closed and uniformed guards were standing at the entry point making sure you didn't enter. Pomp and circumstance seems to be important here, and they couldn't think of letting anyone walk through the stand without their special guest doing it first. It's not like it was opening day or anything though. People had been walking through it yesterday. Ah well.

This is sugar cane. Cool, eh? It looks like bamboo. You can eat chunks of the canes once they are cut and dried a bit.
This is cassava. People eat it's starchy tubers, boiled or fried. A lot of seed companies were represented here, and showed all the crops that could be grown from their stock. I think the stands are permanent from year to year, with permanent structures and garden plots, so most were very impressive.
They even had a display on raising ostrich! Somehow it makes more sense to raise ostrich in Kenya than in Canada.
A sketchy light bulb and wiring in the thatched roof of the patio table we had our lunch at. Mike's dad is an electrical inspector for the Canadian Standards Association... this pic is for him.

A display on how to plant rice. Apparently it is cultivated to a small extent in the country.

I have no idea who these two characters are. I just pretended I was in Disneyland and took a picture with them. I think though, since they are a man and a woman in front of the Ministry of Health booth, they were probably doing some sort of HIV/AIDS mime.

Also notice how my white running shoes are the same colour as the dirt. This happened quickly after I arrived in Kenya and I can't for the life of me get them clean.
Mike, happy to finally see a tractor at the agricultural show. A far cry from the kind of farm machinery he is used to seeing at shows in Canada. We didn't ever see tractors that were much bigger than this one here in all of our time there.

There were no 'biggest pumpkin contests' or kids parading their pet goats around to be judged, so it wasn't like our agricultural fairs... but there were rides! We thought that every time we went on public transport it was like an amusement park ride, so we opted out.

There was also a helicopter that came down and was mobbed by a crowd. That was exciting to watch. Apparantly the Prime Minister, who narrowly lost the election for President in December, and who is from the area, was inside the big outdoor stadium. Many people said he should have won the election, but the results were rigged so he didn't. Instead, in an effort to stop the violence that followed and appease his outraged followers and the international community(?), his office of 'Prime Minister' was invented. The helicopter was to pick him up, but we left our peephole int he fence before watching how he managed to get into the thing with so many people crawling all over it as soon as it landed.

Interestingly, just beyond the fence of the showgrounds, were the white tents and big UN sign of an IDP camp. I wonder if whatever it is Prime Minister Odinga said was any comfort for them, homeless for the past eight months because of their ethnicity and little else.