Chemomi Tea Factory

One of our first visits after we got acquainted with Eldoret and Moi University was to the Chemomi Tea Factory, which is in the Nandi Hills.  The hills are a beautiful site, and were part of the White Highlands, which had a significant number of white residents during the colonial period.  Most of the tea plantations and factories are still owned by whites, I believe, with foreign white supervisors and administrators of the tea plantations, and Kenyan workers actually doing the planting, tending, and harvesting of the tea.  These are just some pictures from that day.

This is the main building of the factory.

 Tea growing on the hillsides.

 A view of the factory in the background.

Tea growing on the hillsides.

 One of the rooms in the main building, where the supervisor let us try some of the varieties of tea they are growing. 

The tea that we could sample.

 The workers on the tea plantation.  Very hard and delicate work, since the tea, once it's ready for picking, must be picked quickly or it goes bad, and can't be harvested.

 A rest area at the factory.

Workers at the tea plantation.

 Old driers that were formerly used at the factory.

 A bridge across a pond.

Me at the tea factory, taken by Evan.