Milcah Auma is seated under her self-made shed, her work place.
I watch as she fills tubes with soil, I admire her strength- that encourages me to ask her a few questions.
Having been widowed in 2007, Auma was left with the task of taking care of her two children, who are currently in Form Two and Class Seven. Her in-laws promised to support her after the demise of her husband but have since abandoned her, she says.
She narrates how she started work at her two-months old tree nursery in Maseno, Kisumu County.
"Selling maize on the streets gave me the experience to work," she says.
"Maize is however a seasonal product which means during some times of the year, I was forced to stay without work nor money," she narrates.
Later, Auma says, she quit the maize-selling job and sought employment from a certain lady who owned a large tree nursery in Kisumu.
There, she would prepare tubes by filling them with soil, watering them and finally planting the seedlings.
"This worked for me till the day my employer insulted me for coming late from my lunch break, I didn't report the following day and that was it," she says.
It is then that she decided to go back to her home in Maseno, having acquired enough knowledge to run a tree nursery and started one.
For the two months she has been in the business, she says: "things are not that bad" as she cannot go back home empty handed.
She says she makes at least two hundred shillings daily since the business is still young.
However, she is looking forward to expanding it.
Auma says she prepares up to 500 tubes for planting seedlings on a single day.
Each seedling goes at Sh5 to Sh50, depending on the height and the type.
She goes ahead to say that she is encouraged by friends in the business who tell her on what to expect in the coming times.
She says that one friend encouraged her by his story of selling seedlings worth Sh75,000 one morning.
However, the main challenge to her is inadequate supply of water.
She has to get water from far and sometimes, she has to hire someone to do it for her at an agreed rate of between Sh50-100.
She encourages young people to stop waiting for white collar jobs but instead put their hands on anything that can bring in money.
"You must sacrifice your time as nothing comes on a silver platter," she says, adding that the current world is so competitive and there is no time for 'sleeping'.
She says that everything one does pays, as she remembers how her male colleague had opened an electronics shop in Luanda Market and is flourishing.
I get out of her work place more that two hours later feeling encouraged.
That is really, the strength of a woman!