Saturday was my best day yet! Work is so fulfilling when it is the work
your heart longs to do. Anyone who knows me from ECHO knows that I love to
give seminars, training days, talks at plant sales, etc. When you move to a
country where simple conversations are a challenge you are required to wait
until such a time as your language skills catch up with your heart.
Saturday everything finally came together for me.
While there have been agroforestry seminars given in Gamboula in the past
there is a strong tendency for only men to attend. I have been asking women
why this is since they all tell me that they want to learn about fruit
trees. The standard answers are that the three day seminars are too long,
they can't be absent from their gardens and their kids for that long, and
that they have kids to look after. This to me in understandable. So I have
been asked my a few ladies to give them a seminar on planting and caring for
fruit trees. This Saturday we all huddled under the shade of the nutrition
centre house and I taught a 3 hour seminar to 10 ladies. I have never felt
so alive here as that morning. I was nervous of my sango but it just kind
of came out. In cases where it came out not to clear Clarisse translated
into Gbaya (the local tribal language). After an hour and half of theory
and a discussion about nutrition and a compost demonstration we all walked
over to the garden of Eden for an official tour. We made our way out the
far end of Eden and into Paulien's family garden where 2 weeks previously we
had planted about 14 fruit trees. I showed them all how to plant a
jackfruit and then we looked at the advantages of mulching around fruit
trees. Since planting trees in Paulien's garden it hadn't rained but she
had been diligently watering the trees and had put compost around all of
them. I couldn't have asked for a better demonstration. When I lifted up
the compost the soil was nice and moist under it and only an inch away it
was bone dry and crusty. It was a striking example that I imagine won't
leave the women's minds. I was also able to dispel the myth that throwing
waste water on trees was bad for them! On the contrary, what a way to have
healthy trees--pour the bath and wash water on the trees. Sweep the goat
poo from around the yard around the trees rather than in a heap someplace
else. We finished just before the sun really beat down.
My agreement with the women was that I would give them each 16 trees to
start and I offered to go to their gardens with them to help them place the
trees in a good spot. They all looked over to Paulien and Clarisse when I
said that to see if they really heard what I said and to see if I really
could walk that far without dying. They both said, "yeah, she has already
been to our gardens a bunch of times." There is no better way to relate to
people than to be interested and involved in the things that shape and
define their lives. I also told them I wouldn't give them their trees until
they had prepared the holes before hand and, if they were planting them near
their house, they had to have cut sticks to make goat protection first. I
also told them to wait to plant until the day after we had rain. No one
demanded their trees right away, they were all quite agreeable. Wouldn't
you just know it that it rained the next day and 6:30 Monday morning I had a
lady at my door ready to plant her trees. She was so excited that I was
excited. I will be going to take pictures soon.
My next seminar will be in the church with a women's group that meets every
Thursday. They have anywhere from 50 -100 women show up--Yikes! The crazy
thing about all this is that we don't have any money for trees or pens and
notebooks. I am basically scraping it all together as people demand the
knowledge. Since we aren't able to be in Bayanga all the time with the
pygmies, I am engaging in ministry here as well. God however is big, and he
already knew that this was going to happen here so that means he has a plan
for it all. Very reassuring. I am the first female agronome here or that
Roy has ever heard of in these parts or in his work in Congo. In this
culture it is easier for women to be taught by a woman.
In other news, our well is finished and the village is starting to use it.
The water is quite clear and we have enough funds left over from the
official donation to build another one. There is a never a shortage in
demand for water, especially good clean drinking water.
To top off an already great Saturday, someone arrived from Berberati with
mail-yes, mail! Our dear friend Leanne mailed us three packages a month ago
and they arrived. A similar package mailed in February has yet to arrive
but that is Africa for you. We were completely overwhelmed when we opened
it up to find a 6 month supply of Kool-aid and Crystal Light. Her church,
which hardly knows us, sent us a stack of recipe cards on which individuals
in the church wrote encouraging notes and scripture. We are reading one a
day at lunch until we are through, and then we will start from the beginning
again. Talk about being blessed. At noon today we will hear the official
proclamation of who won the presidential elections 2 weeks ago. Continue to
pray for peace in the coming months. In church Sunday the pastor admonished
us saying that both candidates were Central Africans so no matter who wins
they are one of us, so we are not to go crazy and protest and lose the
peace. Hopefully everyone heard well.
If you have sent mail, be encouraged, it will get here and we will relay the
election results in the next e-mail. Darren by the way is doing well and is
starting to really bust out the Sango. He is keeping us organized
financially and is enjoying work in Eden. He filmed parts of my seminar
that we will be showing around when we get back.
Until next time, Ange
Please note that this address sends and receives e-mail via a satellite
phone connection. All e-mails over 25 kb will be returned to sender
unopened. Sorry for the inconvenience. For more updates on the Bosses,
please log onto http://thebosses.blogspot.com
