vegetables and flowers in Kenya. Hot, dry, sunny days and peak production destined for consumers shivering in the European winter and longing for a taste African sunshine. But in Kenya, as elsewhere, the weather is not behaving as it should. Months of rain, often torrential, is washing away hopes of a good harvest. Flowers are reluctant to flower. And perhaps worst hit are growers of peas and French beans.
“In the whole of my life and I’m talking about somebody who is over 60 years old. I’ve not experienced a season like this. The whole of that period, I’ve not seen rains like this in January in Kenya.” James Masengi, chairman of the Fresh Produce Exporters’ Association of Kenya, who speaks not only for his members but out of personal and bitter experience.
“Crops are flooded. We are finding it even difficult to meet the requirement of our consumers because crops have been destroyed.” Are you going to be able to keep your business orders up to date? Are you going to complete your export orders?
Yes we are struggling very much to keep the export orders. In some places, we are not able to supply them 100 percent, but we are supplying something. James Masengi.
B
Very little happiness disease pressure / slows down growth / production down 30%
Some / deficiency
If sunshine in the next month / catch up a lot
No / sales on contract price Maize
Threat of disease
Pick & transport / nightmare / roads / impossible conditions 听力原文：
And for growers of roses, the flower associated with love and romance, there’s very little happiness in the air. Ian Maroe is managing director of CN Roses Limited, one of Kenya’s leading rose exporters.
“Cold, cloudy, wet weather increase disease pressure and slows down growth. So our production is probably down a six-month figure, is down 30%.”
Are you disappointing your customers?
“Some. We try to keep the more important ones contented, but some are definitely disappointed. Definitely. Yeah.”
Do you think you’ll be able to pick up over the course of the season?
“ The bad weather as such will continue for a depressingly long time according to the forecast. But if we get sunshine in the next month or so, we’ll be able to catch up quite a lot.”
Are you making up the short fall in production by an increase in price?
“Uh, no, because a lot of our sales are on the contract price.” Ian Morae.
And I should add that even more of Kenya’s crops are in trouble. Maize has suffered badly. Coffee is under constant threat of disease. And although tea is growing well, getting it picked and transported is a nightmare on roads that become all but impossible in these conditions. But the greatest fear is that the rain could be followed by the opposite: drought.
Item One
Judith Wallerstein studied 93 children over a
generation. Her findings haven’t been published in a medical journal, only in her book.
She says children of divorce are more likely to abuse drugs, and that 40 percent of them avoid marriage themselves. When they do marry, fail at nearly twice the usual rate.
Wallerstein’s families divorced a generation ago. Times have changed and with them the attitude toward divorce and the attention to divorce’s innocent victims.
“In our parents’ generation people who got divorced didn’t talk about it, they were embarrassed by it.”
Programs like Kid’s Turn try to mitigate some of the effects of divorce with family counseling. So the next generation more aware of the trauma may be better equipped to handle it.
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