Meet Patrick, an IDEAS Associate and agricultural specialist, who lives with his family in Kazakhstan. Read how his travels throughout the world led him to working with orchard farmers in Central Asia in Interview with a Fruit Farmer - Part 1.

What is your professional background?

I have a BS in Agricultural Management from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a MS in International Agricultural Development with a focus on Integrated Pest Management from U.C. Davis.

What places have you lived and worked?

I grew up in Southern California on a citrus farm, which also included goats, chickens and rabbits. I enjoyed the opportunities to learn farming from my parents. I also started working in the orchard industry from age 14, namely in citrus and avocados.

I worked in citrus orchards throughout high school and college but I sensed God was preparing me for something totally different. I needed to be slowed down a bit from my hectic California personality. First, I went to work in Georgia for two years. This was to prepare me for another major adventure, working in the tropics, where the pace of life is even slower.

In 1994 I joined the Peace Corps to gain some international experience. I ended up working for three years in one of the smallest and most beautiful countries in the world: on the island of Niue in the South Pacific.  I managed the 35 acre government agricultural research farm. The main crops I dealt with were vanilla, passion fruit, limes, vegetables and also plantation forestry. I enjoyed learning a new language and culture and working with the easy-going, hard-working farmers there.

My life took another major change when I met a hard-working Niuean farm girl who had already been in 9 countries and had a passion to use her skills to bless people around the world.  It was a "match made in heaven."

We were married and quickly made plans to go to Kazakhstan to work with fruit farmers there. However we first needed to gain more experience with deciduous fruit trees as my background to that point was citrus and tropical agriculture.  We ended up working two seasons in Yakima, Washington where some of the best apples, pears, peaches, plums and cherries in the world are grown.

We were able then to more confidently address the issues that the farmers of Kazakhstan were facing after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

What is it like to raise a family in Kazakhstan?

It has mainly been a blessing. I think our three children (soon to be 14, 12, and 9) have been able to see many things that they would not have been able to see if they were raised in the US.  My wife has been awesome in helping us survive in conditions that were less than comfortable. We often did not have regular water when the kids were young and electricity would often go out. For the first eight years (we've lived now in Kazakhstan almost 16 years) we had no internet unless we drove two hours to the big city.  So we were forced (in a good way) to bond with our local community, which is a farming village of about 3500 people. Now for the past seven years we've lived in a small city with regular water, electricity and internet!

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week where Patrick will describe his current project and ways others can get involved!