It’s Saturday and we look back on the week. We have had meetings, have the motorbike into the shop again but most interesting and vital to this project is the Food for Work aspect. It is good to feed people but the real necessity is for people to have food security. The villagers have decided to work as beneficiaries on community gardens. This hopefully can provide a means of saving food for more difficult times in the near future. This aspect for planning the future is a most difficult and foreign concept in a culture where most people can only think of the immediate day and its needs.
A plan for storage, maintenance, security and governance needs to be established. Most villagers have some extra produce after the harvest, sell it but four months later probably have no money to buy the produce back usually at a much higher price. So a good plan, understood and accepted by the communities is the objective.
On Wednesday we left to view some the acreage donated by the village headmen and see the beginnings of the hard work done by the beneficiaries. The day was rainy, of the drizzle kind but welcomed by the farmers. With us we had the two young men who were hired to supervise the workers and keep track of the time and the work done. What a job! All travel by them is done by bicycle. We drove off the main road, on to the dirt roads for twenty-five kilometers before we were near enough to get out and walk a kilometer or two to reach one of the gardens. BTW over one hundred gardens were being planted!
A plan for storage, maintenance, security and governance needs to be established. Most villagers have some extra produce after the harvest, sell it but four months later probably have no money to buy the produce back usually at a much higher price. So a good plan, understood and accepted by the communities is the objective.
On Wednesday we left to view some the acreage donated by the village headmen and see the beginnings of the hard work done by the beneficiaries. The day was rainy, of the drizzle kind but welcomed by the farmers. With us we had the two young men who were hired to supervise the workers and keep track of the time and the work done. What a job! All travel by them is done by bicycle. We drove off the main road, on to the dirt roads for twenty-five kilometers before we were near enough to get out and walk a kilometer or two to reach one of the gardens. BTW over one hundred gardens were being planted!
An acre holds 70 ridges by 70 meters. That is a lot of digging and hoeing to prepare for the maize, soya, groundnuts, sweet potatoes or cassava! The villagers were so proud to show us and we usually had a huge following as we walked one behind the other on the path to the gardens. The maize was already germinating after having been planted just two weeks ago.
The mangoes were so ripe and looked lovely on the trees. A young boy showed me how he peeled them. Just use your teeth! We received a gift of a shirtful of delicious mangoes. I may have mentioned it before but a farmer who has no mango tree on his acre suffers greatly when the hunger months arrive. If nothing else mangoes, is food!
In the weeks to come we will be replicating these walks into the gardens many more times with each village proudly demonstrating their hard work and effort. We always celebrate their work with them. Pray for good rains at the right time and a good spirit of community to continue.
1 comment:
Thanks for the update Mom! I'm sure the workers are so proud to show you their hard work. Sounds like a long way to go though, huh?
Look forward to hearing from you soon!
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