Trees of Tenwek

In a continuing effort to give you a look around our surroundings, and enable you to "see" where we live our lives here, we present a tour of the trees of Tenwek. These are the "I know what they are and they are interesting" sampling. There are others, but I'm sure you would agree that this sampling is sufficient.

1. The Jacarandas outside the front doors of McCropder-plex. The aforementioned treehouse is in one of these, and apparently later this year, they will drop some mad purple blossoms.

2. The Acacia is the quintessential African tree, known for being the trees that giraffes prefer. Anna has taken to calling them "The Giraffe Tree" or "The Thorn Tree". Both fitting names.

3. The banana tree. We transplanted a few saplings into our shamba (garden). They are doing OK, but we might not get any fruit by the end of our two years.

4. The Eucalyptus is not native here, but there are tons of them, presumably because they produce timber faster than almost anything else. However, they suck up lots of water, and the government is trying to clamp down on the planting of them.

5. I'm told the Loquat trees (which we have a lot of) will produce their yummy goodness within the next couple months, but that we'll have to be quick in gathering any, if we're to beat the climbing Kenyan children to them. (Not that we would try to...)

6. We have 3 Avocado trees within 50 yards of our home, and they are starting to produce in a big way. Apparently, you pick them, and then they ripen. Hmm. The experiment on this issue sitting in our window-sill casts it somewhat into question.

7. There aren't any tea trees on Tenwek land, but the hillsides within a 10 minute walk are carpeted with them, Kenya being the 3rd largest tea-producing country in the world, after India and Sri Lanka. They are only about waist-high, and the mature plant gets its leaves picked every 17 days. Prolific!

8. Though not quite a tree, we're quite proud of the ginger plants in our shamba.

9. Not a tree or especially exotic, but I have never dreamed Rosemary could grow into such a big bush as lives in our shamba. You are welcome to come and help yourself.