Made it in the paper

http://www.hutchnews.com/Faith/seeds2009-07-17T21-35-05

Follow the link to see what I got up to Hutchinson, Kansas. I am currently in Bryan, Ohio and will be here all week. I will try and post an up-date soon.

Goodbye Kansas

I didn't see Dorothy, Toto or the Wicked Witch of the West (thank goodness) but I did see lots of corn and soybeans and met some wonderful people doing good work for those they have never met.

I am in the Wichita airport on my way to Michigan via Minneapolis. The road trip of the year continues on.

Missouri gold mine

One of the highlights of my time in Missouri was visiting the farm of an eclectic farm/artist couple who live in one of the most unique and delightful homes I have visited in a while. When farm meets artist it is a beautiful combination. The other thing of beauty on this farm was the discovery of a gold mine of Golden Chanterelle mushrooms. There were hundreds growing up under the oaks in the forest and we picked 6 pounds in no time. Chanterelle mushrooms sell for $20 a pound so it is like sitting on gold. We picked until we felt greedy and boxed them up for the farmers market. We also fried some up, mid-west style, and boy were they delicious. I could have eaten twice as many as I did but it is probably better that I didn’t. While I know that everything tastes better fried, these golden beauties would be a treat no matter how they were cooked. I wish my new friends all success in finding a market for their gold!

On the road

UCC group in Boonsville

It has been one long road trip since I arrived in the US. Many of you know that I am generally not a fan of road trips but I am enjoying all the interesting people I have been meeting along the way. In Indiana I spent a few days with Amish farmers learning about productive, commercial farming with animal power. Many of my stereo-types surrounding the Amish were broken down and I was inspired by their commitment to family and community. I understand that likely no two Amish groups are alike so I hate to post generalizations about all Amish communities based on the one that I experienced. However, the one thing I can say is that it appears that all decisions made in Amish communities are always with the good of the family in mind. The reason I was given for the use of horse traction, besides the decrease in dependence on fossil fuels and their love for horses, is that animal traction depends on the family and the community. It promotes family. This appears to be the first priority of the Amish. That being said, the families we visited are using very modern agricultural techniques, spraying fertilizer and applying the latest insecticides with horse drawn modern sprayers. We saw several Amish driving cars out of the necessity of business and for family vacations. One family we spoke with had flown to Oregon, rented a motor home and driven clear up to Alaska. This did not fit my view of the Amish. Of importance for Gamboula and what I really wished Benoit could have seen was the ingenuity of the Amish. They have modified large equipment for use in horse drawn farming. This ingenuity is inspiring and could be of real benefit to small farmers in CAR, helping them imagine the possibilities for locally devised farm equipment.

Leaving Indiana I flew into Kansas City (KC) and was met by my wonderful hostess Laura. We drove into Missouri and landed in a small town two hours from KC. I had two wonderful speaking engagements, one on Wednesday night and one on Thursday. Both were churches involved in FRB growing projects and it was great to have the opportunity to extend the thanks of small farmers in CAR to farmers and churches in the US who raised funds through farming to support projects like the Gamboula Agroforestry Centre. What I thought would be a 25 minute presentation turned into more than an hour because of the interest and questions from the audience. The questions people asked were fascinating and I am constantly reminded how spoiled I am to be working in such different parts of the world. Part of the fun of traveling like this is being able to help people in mid-west America see the people of CAR as fellow brothers and sisters rather than foreign people in a strange land. Our struggles across the globe are all the same, we all want peace, to live with dignity, to provide for our families and to enjoy the freedom of choice. When we see each other as the same, rather than the other, we can begin to imagine a world better than the one we live in now.

Wheat harvest with animal traction

Fulani refugee article

Read the following article for more insight into the Fulani (Mbororo) and the reason for the influx of Fulani children in the Gamboula nutrition centre.

Influx of refugees creates silent emergency in eastern Cameroon

DHAHONG, Cameroon, 6 July 2009 – On the surface, the refugee situation in eastern Cameroon looks like a success, but it is also one of immense chaos. Since 2002, over 60,000 refugees from the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) have been integrated into host communities here.

Quick Update

A month has past since my last post and for this I apologize. I was completely without Internet access following my stay in Bangui. So here is the quick and dirty version of all that happened since then.
-On leaving Bangui I took my dear 'daughter' Anne back to Gamboula as she was becoming very malnourished living with her aunt in Bangui. I am happy to say she is doing much better now that she is back in Gamboula. I was a 24-hour mother and well....no plans for our own kids yet, though Anne is a delightful little girl.

-Darren arrived in early June along with new computers and programs for Gamboula and the hospital. He was immediately put to work and everyone was so happy to see him after a two and a half year absence.

-I finished up my research and am so pleased with the way the nutrition program has been running and the direction that the staff want to take it in the future. In terms of numbers, more than 150 women have been trained and have received machetes through the program in the last three years. Thank-you to all who have helped make this a reality. New for the project this year will be a follow-up program with women in the area to help continue with lessons in the garden and to re-enforce what they learned while at the hospital.

-Darren and I went to visit family in Berberati and stayed with our oldest brother at the diamond company where he works. We learned all about the process of diamond extraction and met Claudine, their pet chimpanzee. She was lovely and am definitely going to avoid eating monkey after that. Just looking at her finger nails and eyes...
-On the 29th of June Darren and I parted ways in Yaounde after a day long drive from Gamboula with our new Swedish friends. We met a wonderful couple in Gamboula, a doctor and teacher, who are helping at the hospital for two years. We all have similar questions about missions, development, mission stations, etc., so we had a great time with them and we look forward to visiting them in Sweden some time in the future.

-Darren flew back to Victoria where he jumped back into work. I flew to Chicago where I met up with Bev, the international director for overseas programs with the Foods Resource Bank (FRB). I was intended to travel with FRB this summer as a translator for Ben, from Gamboula, but he was denied his visa. As were two of the other four invited guests. In light of this FRB invited me to travel in Benoit's place so here I am in Odon, Indiana.

I am traveling to an Amish farm today where I will be spending the day learning about vegetable production and staying the night in an Amish home. I will be traveling to Kansas tomorrow and will eventually make it to Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Florida. I am speaking about the past and future programs in Gamboula, learning about FRB and breaking down all my stereo-types of the mid-west. I will try and blog as I go now that I have everyone a little more caught up.