A Trip to the Tea Plantation

First, a Typhoid Vrinda update: Typhoid over. I feel normal again. However, I did learn that if it is typhoid, it has a 10 day incubation period meaning that the street samosas may not be the culprit! But, that also means that I got typhoid the same day that I was training children in schools on how not to get typhoid. Isn't it ironic, don't ya think? Yeah, I really do think. Although, not at all surprising since we tend to frequent a restaurant that has several cats roaming around inside. I went back there this week but just ate plain white bread. I'm making smarter decisions already. Aaand it's super boring.

Last weekend was supposed to be a trip to Lake Nakuru and the Tea Plantations. I couldn't really manage both so we ended up going to the tea plantations for a day trip on Saturday. An hour and a half outside of Kisumu is a place called Kericho, where they have several tea plantations. Kenya is the third largest producer of tea in the world and it was introduced here from India by the British, back in the day, when they ruled the world. The area itself is beautiful and the weather is cool and rainy since it's slightly elevated.

We took a matatu there and arrived at a place called the Tea Hotel, which was almost definitely haunted and very Bates Motel-esque. Then, we were off to tour the fields and learn how to pick the leaves. Interesting (to me) about tea picking is that you pick it in a very specific way, with one pod and two leaves off the tips of the bushes. Kenya mainly produces black tea but we learned that the leaves for various kinds of teas all come from the same bushes and that the difference comes from the part of the leaves that is used to make the tea and the processing. So based on that, you can actually get green tea, white tea, or oolong tea from these bushes.

The hills are aliveeee....

Our actual field practicums

With my harvest-- enough to make a quarter cup of tea.

After the plantation, we headed over to a tea factory to see what becomes of these leaves.

All the leaves get brought in, sorted, and cleaned. 

This where they're cut up. 

Various levels of drying/withering leads to tea, as we know it. 

This whole process makes me appreciate my four cups of tea a day a little more. But I'd still choose coffee every time.