CAMANO ISLAND — When Ric Shallow was a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School in 1975, he never dreamed of raising chickens and goats or traveling to Africa.

He dressed well, styled his hair, made his classmates laugh and sang in the school jazz choir, the Dynamics.

Shallow and his high school sweetheart, Julie Larson, eventually married, started a family and moved to Camano Island. Rural life took hold, and the chickens and goats soon followed, along with Ric’s vegetable garden, well-fertilized by his animals.

In January, Shallow joined his friend, Dr. Dan Haskins, a Stanwood veterinarian, on a trip to the hill villages near Kisii in southwest Kenya. Ravaged by AIDS, villages such as Menyinkwa are home to many widows and children. They need help with their goats, chickens and gardens.

Shallow was a natural.

He helped Haskins vaccinate more than 350 farm animals, worked with people in their gardens and composting systems, distributed 400 pounds of clothing and treats for children, and attached gutters and rain barrels to mud-hut homes for rainwater collection.

“After this trip, I will never again complain about what I don’t have,” Shallow said. “They are scratching to stay alive.”

For Haskins, a longtime member of Christian Veterinary Missions, it was his third trip to Kenya. Before that, he had worked on similar projects in Haiti and Brazil.

In Kenya, Haskins cooperated with Bosongo Community and Veterinary Agri-Project on community farms with gardens, banana trees, goats, chickens, bee hives, nitrogen-producing calliandra trees, latrines and wells.

Before the wells were dug last year, people walked a mile or two down from their hillside villages to streams or springs, filled 5-gallon buckets, and then hiked back home with the buckets on their heads.

Much of the work completed and now in progress near Kissii is being funded by Shallow’s and Haskins’ church, Our Saviour’s Lutheran in Stanwood.

Church members paid for the wells and donated clothing and currently are raising money for more chickens, goats and rainwater cisterns.

“I love our church,” said Shallow, who works for Bank of America in Stanwood. “People are so willing to help.”

Shallow plans to assist Haskins when he returns to Kenya next winter.

Encouragement is the biggest part of the job, said Haskins, who practices at Northwest Veterinary Clinic.

“We bring hope and encouragement,” Haskins said. “Because the people see that somebody cares, they get energized and they don’t want to let us down by not practicing what we have taught them.”

Shallow is eager to work again with Kenyan people on their chicken egg production and the goat project.

“We need to go back to encourage people to raise goats instead of cows,” Shallow said. “Goats are a better fit, but many Maasi people in the area believe that cows are status symbols.”

Shallow hopes to see the introduction of South African Boer goats, which produce both milk and meat, and are easier to raise than cattle.

“I have a Boer,” he said. “They’re the best.”

Many southwest Kenyans have photos of President Barack Obama on their mud walls of their homes.

“If I said that I like Obama, people would cheer,” Shallow said. “That was fun.”

Visiting people in their homes was an honor, he said.

“The families stood while we sat and listened to their beautiful songs and prayers,” Shallow said. “When I go back next year, I will bring songs to sing to them.”

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.

How to help

Donations to Dan Haskins’ work in Kenya can be sent to Christian Veterinary Mission, 19303 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98133.