Article

This is an original article as printed in the Guardian Weekly which is suitable for advanced comprehension classes written by Xan Rice in Nairobi.

Organic farm blossoms in Kenya's largest slum

Victor Matioli's organic pumpkins are plump and his spinach "very sweet and tasty". His half-acre farm used to be a rubbish dump in the heart of East Africa's biggest slump.

The unlikely story of Kibera's first organic farm has its roots in the political chaos that gripped Kenya at the start of the year. For weeks the sprawling, densely packed slum, home to up to a million people, was riven by ethnic clashes.

Among those concerned about a looming hunger crisis was Su Kahumbu, managing sirector of Green Dreams, one of Kenya's pioneer organic produce companies.

Initially, she hoped to organise a mass distribution of seeds to small-scale farmers in the Rift Valley. After a lack of funding halted the plan, a friend told her about a group of young, unemployed men in Kibera who wanted to learn how to farm - inside the slum.

Photographs of their would-be vegetable patch did not inspire confidence. "There was so much garbage there I thought, 'You must be joking'," said Kahumbu.

A rectangle of land bordering the railway line that cuts through Kibera, the proposed farm was being used as a refuse dump by nearby residents. Piled high were plastic cartons, cans, broken bottles, chicken and goat bones, as well as innumerable "flying toilets" - polythene bags filled with human waste. But when Kahumbu saw the enthusiasm among Matioli's 36-member Youth Reform Group, she agreed to help them get started.

The rubbish was compacted and tied down under tarpaulins on one side of the plot and the newly revealed soil tested for contamination. The tests showed high, but not dangerous, levels of zinc, which could be drawn out by planting sunflowers among the vegetables.

Fertiliser would come from vegetable waste turned into compost, and from plant-nourishing "worm juice" produced by earthworms kept in a half-barrel of soil. Within two months of planting, the first vegetables were successfully harvested.

Netting 18c for a cabbage and $1.85 for a pumpkin, Matioli's collective made a profit last month - a modest sum, but one that made him confident of the farm's sustainability. "People here are really inetersted in learning about our organic methods," said Matioli.

Glossary

ethnic clash

(noun) fighting between two different ethnic groups

densely packed

(adverb/adjective) full of people, with very little space

looming

(adjective) likely to happen soon; particularly a problem or difficulty

tarpaulin

(noun) a large waterproof sheet, used to keep the rain off things

collective

(noun) a group of people who own a farm and run it together

Questions

The questions below are divided into three groups - before, during and after reading the above article.

Before reading

Nouns from the article. Match the following words and definitions, Note that c = countable noun, u = uncountable noun.

This article is about Kenya. Work with a partner and try to answer the questions below.

1. Kenya is in ___.
   1. north Africa
   2. southern Africa
   3. east Africa
   4. west Africa
2. In January 2007 Kenya experienced ___.
   1. serious flooding
   2. a major earthquake
   3. the assassination of the president
   4. violence between ethnic groups
3. Kenya has the biggest ___ in its part of Africa.
   1. rubbish dump
   2. slum
   3. organic farm
   4. fertiliser factory

While reading

Read the first five paragraphs of the article. Complete the sentences below.

1. Victor Matioli's farm used to be a ...
2. Earlier this year in the Kibera slum there were terrible ...
3. Su Kahumbu was very concerned about a future ...
4. Kahumbu couldn't distribute seeds because of a ...
5. Kahumbu learned about the men in Kibera from ...
6. The vegetable patch didn't look good in the photo because ...

Complete the questions with the correct words from the following list - use each word only once. Then read the rest of the article rom paragraph six onwards and find the answers.

1. ___ type of things did people put on the refuse dump?
2. ___ did Kahumbu agree to help the Youth Reform Group?
3. ___ did the helpers put the old rubbish?
4. ___ did they draw the zinc out of the ground?
5. ___ did it take to harvest the first vegetables?
6. ___ does the collective get for a pumpkin?

After reading

What do you think the words in bold mean? Choose the best answer

1. The slum ...was riven by ethnic clashes. (para 2)
   1. destroyed
   2. divided
   3. united
   4. saved
2. A rectangle of land bordering the railway line ... (para 6)
   1. crossing
   2. going under
   3. separating
   4. lying next to
3. ... as well as innumerable "flying toilets" ... (para 6)
   1. hardly any
   2. several
   3. very many
   4. various
4. Netting 18c for a cabbage and $1.85 for pumpkin ... (para 9)
   1. earning
   2. asking
   3. paying
   4. giving
5. Matioli's collective made a modest sum ... (para 9)
   1. huge
   2. large
   3. not very large
   4. tiny

Rubbish related words. Copy the spidergram. Add the words that follow to their correct groups.

Look back at the spidergram. How many extra words can you add to the "specific items" group?