PASSION FOR YOGHURT

Christine Kamau

09-1590

PASSION FOR YOGHURT

Every Sunday evening, if you happen to go to Yvonne`s room in patience, you will not miss a packet of vanilla yoghurt either on the table or in the dustbin. She loves yoghurt and always buys one whenever she goes home for the weekend. Sometimes the craving is too much such that she decides to buy in school. She loves yoghurt to the extent that she can skip a meal if given five hundred liters of yoghurt. When she is not feeling well, the only food she can take is yoghurt. When Yvonne is asked why she loves vanilla yoghurt so much, the only thing she says is she just loves the flavor and it is just the best. She does not need to elaborate because all she knows is that she loves vanilla yoghurt.

Janet Ragui, a fourth year student, is another great lover of yoghurt. Unlike Yvonne she is a fan of strawberry flavor and she does not need to buy her yoghurt because she can make it for herself. Janet started taking yoghurt when she was a very small girl.” Every time we travelled, my mother used to buy for me a packet of strawberry yoghurt and that would serve as her lunch or sometimes supper if we were travelling overnight” Says Janet.

It had never occurred to Janet that one day she would be able to make yoghurt especially her best flavor until in January 2010 when her aunt Lucy invited her for a sleep over at her house in Uthiru. When she arrived at her aunt`s house that day, she was welcomed with the sweet aroma of the yoghurt flavors. “At first, I thought my aunt was baking only later on to realize that she had been making yoghurt.” Janet was surprised to discover that the yoghurt which she was used to buying in the shops and supermarket at sixty to eighty shillings could be made at home.

That was the beginning of her classes on how to make yoghurt. Her aunt had earlier learnt to make the yoghurt in a class she had attended and did not hesitate to teach Janet since she saw that she had an interest to learn.” When I finally learnt how to make yoghurt without any mistakes, I did not feel like I could stop. I wanted to make it every day and practice more”. It was such a great experience for her.

In 2011, Janet decided to start her own business of selling yoghurt to students in school. By the help of one of her cousin, she was able to buy the ingredients and bottles for storing the yoghurt. She made the yoghurt at her aunt`s house who had no problem with her using her equipments. She decided to make strawberry, vanilla and pineapple flavors. Janet was not very confident with what she had made therefore she decided to make just a few bottles in case students did not like it. To her utter surprise, some students asked her to bring more for them. “I was really motivated when I came to learn that people loved what I had made, and it gave me a reason to keep on going” says Janet.

Janet wanted to move to the self catering hostels so that she could be making her yoghurt from her room. However, she had a second thought since she realized that it would interfere with her studies. She decided to use her free time during the weekends to make the yoghurt which had been ordered and come with them on Sunday as she came back to school. Unfortunately, the orders became too many that she could not carry and had to stop selling in school.

“Janet`s yoghurt was really nice and I preferred her yoghurt more than the one we buy in the shop because it was more fresh and thicker and well flavored than those in the shop” says Damaris Njeri, a third year student. Later on, Janet decided to sell it in her church at All Saint Cathedral church. Just like in school people in church liked her yoghurt.” Sometimes if I do not get time to make the yoghurt, some people in church come to ask me why I did not bring the yoghurt. Sometimes it is at a very high demand.” This is one of the challenges she faces. She cannot make many of them since she has to make it and pack it by herself which is a lot of work and her time is always limited.

Sometimes, she ends up in loses because sometimes she buys milk to make the yoghurt only to find that the milk has expired. Through her sale of yoghurt, Janet is able to make some good amount of money which enables her to buy the ingredients to make more yoghurt and also some she uses as her pocket money.” I feel independent since I do not need to ask my parents to give me money for my pocket money since I already have It.” says Janet.

“I like what Janet does since it is something that she is passionate about and she is able to use her free time appropriately and she does something constructive which is of benefit to her and other people.” says Njeri ,a fourth year student. Janet likes what she does with her weekend and it makes her feel relaxed and fresh even as she comes back to school on Sunday. She is able to concentrate fully to her studies without any distractions.

Janet has learnt that yoghurt is healthy for someone`s health since culture, which is one of the ingredients, is a bacterium which prevents people from being infected with diseases. “I have learnt to be patient since in making yoghurt one has to wait for more than six hours so that you obtain something efficient at the end “Says Janet.

After school, she hopes that she can start her own business which she could take as a part time job. Her business will open doors to those people who are unemployed. Among her yoghurts, people tend to like vanilla more. She hopes that one day she will be able to make more flavors despite the ones available especially in her business and hopefully convince more people to love yoghurt.