Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
West Virginia University has had a partnership with the United States Agency for International Development – USAI since 2011 – to expand international relations between universities and communities around the world.
One of those partnerships was between WVU and Egerton University in Njoro, Kenya. In an effort to reestablish this partnership, WVU Extension Associate Dean and Associate Director Jennifer Williams organized a trip for extension employees to visit Kenya to provide education and materials about agriculture development.
Pocahontas County’s WVU Extension Agent Luci Mosesso was one of those employees.
“Their goal is to get kids excited about agriculture at a young age to help the future,” Mosesso said.
“They’re really looking toward the next twenty, thirty, forty years of how do we get more people interested in growing food and get educated about it.”
The area to which they traveled is very food insecure, but agriculture is not seen as a viable profession, so the hope is the project will help change that opinion, starting with educating the children.
“In Africa, agriculture is kind of looked on as a poor person’s level in society,” Mosesso said. “The opportunity isn’t really looked at as something that could build wealth. People want to get away from that, so they’re trying to find ways to help change that dynamic.”
The program works with 10 schools in Kenya to grow student gardens.
“They have school gardens, and they’re incredible,” Mosesso said.
“They’re using all that to get one meal for the kids per day. They have no government subsidies, so their school food is what they grow there.”
During her time in Kenya, Mosesso spent two days at the university, one day at the primary schools and two days experiencing the country and its culture.
“I got to teach one day at the college at Egerton,” she said. “It was with their ag education students, so they’re college students who are going to go on to be agriculture educators. It is growing. The part I got to teach was about ages and stages. It was just about different ways of interacting with kids at different age levels and how they learn.”
Mosesso and the five other WVU employees spent time with faculty and staff, helping them build the agriculture curriculum and program.
When it came time to visit the primary schools, Mosesso put on her 4-H leader hat and played games with the students.
“We visited three primary schools,” she said. “4-H is learn by doing, so we did some agricultural games with the kids that were there.
“They call their 4-H clubs 4-K clubs. It’s very similar to what 4-H is here.”
Like 4-H, the 4-Ks all stand for an aspect of the club. Kuungana – Unity of the youth and young farmers as members of the club to foster growth and empowerment in the society.; Kufanya – Engaging in doing work with one’s hands and mind in bid to meet the society’s present needs; Kusaidia – Aid of the country by ensuring its progress through offering innovative solutions to national challenges; and Kenya – an educated, healthy, self-reliant nation points to an assurance of prosperity.
In the game called “Get to the Harvest,” students rolled a large inflatable die and moved forward according to the number they rolled and drew a card to see if the harvest was doing well or not. Cards included items like, “you had a sunny day, move forward two spaces” or “zebras ate all of your crops, go back four spots.”
The children also made Circle of Life bracelets to learn about where people fit in the cycle of water, pollution, soil and nutrients and how to keep the Earth healthy.
“The one school we went to, they were singing, ‘If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands,” when we got there because that’s the song they practiced in English,” Mosesso said. “I cried. It was adorable.”
Mosesso said it was hard not to notice the stark differences between home and Kenya, explaining that the primary schools weren’t as nice as 4-H camp, and the students were wearing patch-ed school uniforms that were at least 60 years old.
But that did not dampen their spirit. They were joyful and happy to learn about gardening and to meet new people.
“People with what we consider so little were so joyful and just happy we were there,” Mosesso said. “They had so many questions. They wanted to take selfies. They love the idea of seeing themselves on the camera to take a picture. They wanted to touch my hair because I had hair. Most of the girls had shaved heads.”
Bookending the trip were two safaris where Mosesso was able to experience the game preserves and learn some of the history of Kenya.
“In Kenya, all safaris are owned by the government and they’re 30,000 or 40,000 acres,” she said. “They’re giant, giant parks, but to get where we needed to go, you have to drive through them to get there.”
On the safaris, they saw lions, giraffes, zebras, wart-hogs and more.
“There are zebras everywhere,” she said. “They’re like our deer. Zebras are just alongside the road. The first safari we went on, we saw a zebra and we were like ‘oh my gosh, there’s a zebra! Look there’s a giraffe’ and then the last one, it’s just more zebras. They were everywhere and giraffes were everywhere.”
One experience on the safari was something Mosesso couldn’t keep to herself. Despite the time difference – eight hours – she called home to have her husband, Nate, and sons, Silas and Victor, Face Time a once in a lifetime moment.
At 6 a.m. in Buckeye, Nate received a call from Luci who said,”wake the kids, they have to see this.” She was witnessing a lioness dragging a warthog down the road after a hard-fought hunt.
“I was watching it with them, and they were completely disturbed,” Mosesso said. “They were like, ‘Mom, you should probably get out of there, are you sure this is safe?’”
To put it mildly, the trip was an adventure.
It was also a great success. Now that the WVU employees are back to work, they are focusing on ways to share what they learned with the 4-H clubs here, as well as looking at ways to continue the partnership with Egerton University.
“We, as WVU extension, submitted another grant through the USDA to continue the partnership with Egerton University which will allow for faculty exchange for the next four or five years,” Mosesso said. “They’ll send people, we’ll send people back and forth and get college students involved, as well.”
As for the younger students, Mosesso has some ideas of what she wants to do here in the county.
“We’re going to start a virtual – it’s called a Spin Club – which is a special interest 4-H club to do a pen pal back and forth and learn about Kenyan culture,” she said. “We’re going to eat Kenyan food. We’re going to do a postcard to the kids that are in the school gardens and just build up that communication.
“It’s really cool because we can Face Time them,” she continued. “The timing is hard, but if we would do first thing in the morning of the school day, we could get them at a time that’s 4 p.m. for them. It wouldn’t be awful.”
Mosesso also plans to incorporate African dance at the annual 4-H dance camp in March and thinks it would be interesting to try to grow a Kenyan green in the Marlinton Middle School high tunnel.
“I think we should grow sukuma wiki and try it out,” she said. “It’s a different version of greens, like collard greens or kale.”
When asked if she’d go back, Mosesso said probably and is happy she decided to take the long trek.
After learning of the opportunity, Mosesso said she got lots of encouragement from friends and family, including neighbor Ellie Gay and friend Blair Campbell.
She also attributes the lessons of former French teacher Dr. Denise McNeel who always encouraged her students to travel abroad.
Not only was it an adventure, but it was also a chance to meet new people and spread her knowledge about agriculture and 4-H.
“The people are incredible,” she said. “Just instant hugs and excited to meet you. It was great. I tell people, if you want an adventure, it is definitely worth doing.”
Following the 4-H pledge – My club, my community, my country and my world – Mosesso has been given many opportunities to participate in all those levels because of her tie to the organization.
“4-H has given me an opportunity to participate in service on all of those levels,” she said.