What does 1250 Garden Towers Per Quarter take? 

We returned from our trip to Kenya with Brian, and spent the rest of the year working with 500 more families to build garden towers in Bomet, Nkareta, and the Maasai Mara. 

During those months, we had 4 additional teams go to Kenya, and each one focused on building garden towers and delivering water tanks for rainwater capture.

We also spent countless hours at The USANA Foundation, working on sewing garden towers to go to other countries, and revamping the pattern to something that was a bit easier to manage. Believe it or not, that process took a year!

Building the Seedling Gardens

Then, in early 2022, Brian reached out and said, “Could your team do 1,250 garden towers each quarter?” 

I said, “Yes, absolutely!” Then, I panicked when I realized that we couldn’t actually do that with our existing team. The previous year, we had done a few pilot projects in Kenya, building 10 garden towers in each location to see how they would work. 

We reached out to those three communities and said, “So, we’ve been asked to do this. Are you in?” They said, “Yes, absolutely!” 

Creating the Garden Tower System

The amount of work that it took to make this happen was astronomical. First, seeding beds needed to be cleared, fenced, and started, so that they could be transplanted into the garden towers. 

Then, the families needed to be identified, and asked if they wanted to participate in the program. At 5000 garden towers over the year, that meant 2500 families spread out over our 6 communities. 

Along with that, fabric needed to be ordered in bulk, and shipped to the different locations. Sewing teams needed to be established and trained, and the building teams needed to be trained. The task seemed impossible.

And then, the first quarter ended, and the count began. In spite of all of the obstacles, we had reached our goal. The systems were in place, and the rest of the year went by in a flash as we counted the numbers each month. 

We finished the year in December with a little over 5000 garden towers, completed in just 11 months. In 2019-2020, it took us a year to do 400. We were all blown away, but what we started to discover, was that the garden towers were a pathway to greater community development. 

Not only that, we tracked the names and challenges of every single family we built garden towers with, so that we would be able to track their path out of poverty. 

Next week: What if we built out 100 villages with garden towers, boreholes, and HopeKits? 

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Can I Build a Cottage Here?

Have you ever wanted to build a cottage in Kenya? We had landed in Seattle en route to Amsterdam, and had a few hours to walk around and gear up for the long flight. At some point I asked Brian, “How many times do you think you’ll go to Kenya with us?” He laughed and said, “Oh, probably one and done. I need to get all of the video I can on this trip.” 

I recall just smiling. He had never been to Kenya, although he had been to almost 30 other countries. 

After our visit to Nkareta and Bomet, we got on the road to the Mara, with the opportunity to stay at Kokoo’s Guest House for the first time. 

Meeting the Maasai Warriors

We pulled into the gates of the Cultural Centre, and drove up to the house. As we got out of the jeeps, a large group of Maasai warriors came from around the corner, singing and dancing to welcome us for the first time. The experience was both beautiful and overwhelming, as there were so many emotions at the surface for what it took to get there. 

We were led into the house, engulfed in the incredible smell of lunch waiting for us. Somehow, Moses had managed to hire the best chef in all of Kenya to cook for us – Mancha Letura. 

Can I Build a Cottage?

We wrapped up lunch to go on an afternoon safari, and as we walked out onto the front porch, Brian said, “Okay, what would it take to build a cottage here? I’ve got to retire somewhere!” We had a good laugh over that. It’s very common for people to come with us again and again to Kenya, because they build a strong connection with the people there. 

I shared with him my dream of being able to create Family Humanitarian Expeditions for people, so that they can come to Kokoo’s Guest House,  work with families in the community to help better their lives, and have a cultural immersion experience. Oh yeah, and go on safari in the #1 location in the world! 

He said, “It will happen.” And it has. We’ve had 5 families over the past year experience a Family Humanitarian Expedition. 

There were several days left in our trip, but this day was a day that we will always remember. Staying for the first time at Kokoo’s Guest House was a miracle we never truly thought possible. Since April 2021, we’ve had 13 groups stay at the guest house. 

They all rave about Mancha’s food.

Next week: Can you do 1,250 garden towers per quarter?

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Let’s Go to Kenya

When Brian said we were going to throw gas on the fire, he wasn’t kidding. Building garden towers with 500 families required us to go to Kenya, and expand to three different communities. We wanted to get a more realistic picture of what growing the garden towers looked like in different climates. Believe it or not, an hour away in Kenya from Bomet is the dry desert region of Narok County. 

This was February 2021, and the world was still in the middle of a pandemic. I had gone back to Kenya in October to buy furniture for Kokoo’s Guest House so that it would be ready for our teams, but we hadn’t gone in as a team since getting stuck in Kenya the year before. 

Eating Greens Grown in a Garden Tower

Allen Roberds, Marissa Waldrop, and I decided that we would go to Kenya to help get things organized and set up for expansion. One day, I was at a sew-a-thon at The USANA Foundation and asked Brian if he wanted to go with us. There was almost no hesitation on his part, and we set the date for late April. A few other members of our team found out we were going and jumped in, and suddenly, we had a full group and the opportunity to stay for the first time at Kokoo’s Guest House. 

However, opposition came in full force when a month before we were scheduled to leave, Kenya locked down 5 counties, including Nairobi County. Their mandate was that people could travel within the 5 counties, or outside of the 5 counties, but they couldn’t cross the border. 

That put a wrench in our plans, and we went back and forth on whether or not to go for a few weeks. Finally, we got word that if you were a tourist, you would get a special permit to go to the Maasa Mara. We decided to take the chance, and boarded the plane. 

When we started driving a few days later to the Mara, a collective prayer went up that it would work. As we drove through the first checkpoint, we saw cars pulled over by police lining the road. And then, the first miracle occurred. As we drove past, every police officer turned away from the jeep. It was almost like they didn’t see us. We weren’t stopped or prevented in any way from driving through. 

We still had the second checkpoint to get through, and the same thing happened! We had crossed the border of the counties, and we were free to continue. 

The first few days were spent in Nkareta and Bomet, as we got video of everything the teams were doing to make and build garden towers. Watching Brian’s reaction was priceless. Truthfully, we were all pretty emotional about how it had impacted families. There are many stories that we hear when we are on the ground in Kenya, that are too sacred to share publicly. 

Next week…Can I build a cottage here? 

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