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Published: July 29th 2013
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Today was a good day to be in Kenya; we went out to Anton’s forest sanctuary. This paradise is located about a 15-minute drive away, just right on the edge of Kakamega rainforest. The Kakamega rainforest is a Protected rainforest forest; so admittance into the forest is prohibited unless you pay for an entry card. Anton’s land borders the forest boundary line. This plot has been transformed from an industrial sugar cane field, into a thriving ecosystem full of life that was originally removed for cash crop farming. In Kenya the farmers cash in on Sugar cane, because it grows well and pays even better. This is not a sustainable process for the locals because they dedicate most of their usable farmland to grow sugar, but you cant feed your Children sugar cane all year. I don’t want to get into the politics of Kenya, but the roots of poverty start with the lack of money management knowledge, the locals just seem to be unable to hang onto their money. A farmer collects a fat paycheck for his sugar, and blows it all in the first month. Everywhere you drive in rural Kenya you see Sugar cane lining the roads and
a small home in the middle of the field. Anton has made an unbelievable change to the landscape on his plot of land. There are five cottages, two ponds, and many intertwined walkways; it is practically a resort. It is his dream coming to life, growing his own biome in his hometown. There are many workers that maintain and live on the Estate. The first thing that came to mind was dropping our bags and explore the area. All of the passageways are made of cement and local quarried rocks, which made navigating around easy. My mom stayed on one of the cottage patios while Francis took me to explore the forest. We walked all over the property and eventually made it to the forest line. We sat in the forest and talked and soaked in the rainforest atmosphere. We were waiting for the wildlife to appear. Soon enough the monkeys came into sight, the monkeys moved fast in the top of the canopy that made getting a picture difficult. The rainforest trees are enormous and seem to explode at the top. The trees begin to mushroom out about 30ft up the trunk. The large canopies span across the sky,
swallowing the blue skies above. There is just a constant buzz in the forest, a humming sound of activity, everything from the wind in the canopies to the birds and bugs. Francis and I found a huge tree that had fallen over, Fran is 6ft 2in and his wingspan didn’t even make it half way around the trunk; and this was 20ft from the base! I have come halfway around the world to see Kenya, and I have seen so much already and it hasn’t even been a week! I’m very excited to see what more Kenya has in store for me!
Karibu Kenya (welcome to Kenya)
Lucas
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