{"id":21002,"date":"2022-09-14T16:00:55","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T20:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=21002"},"modified":"2022-11-14T18:59:36","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T23:59:36","slug":"down-in-the-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=21002","title":{"rendered":"Down in the Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linda Lou Burton posting from Sarova Lion Hill Lodge, Lake Nakuru National Park, Nakuru, Kenya \u2013 <\/em>Reading the brochure may prepare you for the road ahead, but sometimes you get surprised. Like me, and the Great Rift Valley. I\u2019ve studied this geological phenomenon for years, and even perused it in \u201clayers view” on google maps. Being the aftermath of millions of years of volcanic eruptions, and the ripping apart of a continent due to those shifting tectonic plates, I thought the Rift Valley would be a dry, washed out moonscape. It is not.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the greenest, most fertile farmland I\u2019ve ever seen, and I grew up in Alabama farm country. The roads today took us through hills and valleys so full of GROWING STUFF it is hard to believe anyone, anywhere in the world, could be hungry. It has a Land of Plenty<\/em> look.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We stopped at a farm in the Subukia area this morning, where Margaret gave us a lesson in tea harvesting \u2013 \u201ctwo leaves and a bud\u201d are hand-plucked from the tea trees, which are kept at the perfect height for human convenience. And yes, Abdi had called ahead for a chair for me; Margaret brought it from her house! The tea I bought is labeled \u201cPearl Tea Subukia\u201d and is packed by Green Valley Tea Factory; the hills around are covered in tea trees, or row after row of coffee trees. Or greenhouses growing – flowers maybe? I didn’t get a chance to ask.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>The market area where we stopped and bought bananas was buzzing; trucks coming to haul stuff away; people there to sell, or buy, or maybe just socialize. The area had a feeling of busy people, of work, of abundance. Give Mother Nature (and our Great Creator) credit \u2013 that volcanic lava and ash turned into red earth and deep sandy loam full of magnesium, and potassium, and phosphorus. Add plenty of sunshine, year-round warm temperatures, and stuff just GROWS.<\/p>\n

I asked Abdi how Kenya could be suffering such poverty; there was no drought here; no scarcity. Maybe big business? Maybe politics? I’ll save that discussion for another day.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a cup of tea? Grown right here in the Great Rift Valley.<\/p>\n

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Linda Lou Burton posting from Sarova Lion Hill Lodge, Lake Nakuru National Park, Nakuru, Kenya \u2013 Reading the brochure may prepare you for the road ahead, but sometimes you get surprised. Like me, and the Great Rift Valley. I\u2019ve studied this geological phenomenon for years, and even perused it in \u201clayers view” on google maps. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4318,4319],"tags":[4342,4461,4462,4458],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21002"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21175,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21002\/revisions\/21175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}