Thursday,
June 6, 2013
Today’s
journey took us to the bee people.
Another
micro business is, bravely, raising African honey bees.....yes, the same
African bees that escaped a lab in Brazil and slowly made their way, Jaws like,
up the Americas into California.
The
only problem these folks have is that while they have 7 hives producing honey
for 2 years, they don’t have the protective gear needed to harvest the
honey.....they know this because they tried to harvest it au natural and were
quickly reminded why these are African bees.
Ouch.
$100
buys the needed equipment......
But,
they may not need the cash – they just may need to figure out a way to better
run their 6 other projects, that range from banana growing to cow raising (as
in 1 cow) to chicken and kale raising to a small nursery with 7000 tree and
flowering plant seedlings.
Tomorrow
they will tell us what projects they may abandon and which they will focus on.
I’m
betting on selling the cow to raise the money to buy the bee uniform, put on the uniform and collect the honey, sell the
honey and buy more chickens....
Who knew
business could be so much fun?
BTW,
did you know that honey is medicinal here – they say it’s got natural
antibiotics....who knew?!
Wednesday,
June 5, 2013
Okay,
$200 bucks gets me a months’ worth of gas or maybe a fancy dinner out with the
loverly wife or even a few days worth of wine (okay, I can stretch it to a
couple weeks....)....AND.... $200
can get 20 co-op folks (who look after 200 dependents) an acre of land, an acre
of watermelon seed, fertilizer, pesticide, and a return of $1800 per crop.
Today
was a day of humbling priorities as we had our third and last day (for me, not
for community organizer Joyce or ICODEI) with these fine folks who also told us
their individual stories.
The
average family size seems to be about 5 children, with deaths among children
not uncommon.....But each family group almost to a person also takes on 10-20
other relatives, neighbors, orphans and widows with help for shelter, daily
food and medical needs.
Listening
to folks who may earn only dollars a week explain, one after the other, the
care they give to loved ones and strangers makes me stop in my tracks and
marvel....
We
got a tremendous demonstration of the skill at farming this group has, with
tomato plants yielding 150 tomatoes per plant (the lead man counted off buds
and fruit on video to prove it!), and they proudly pointed out their various
fertilizers, pesticides and US AID Manual on farming, not to mention the school
kids who come by and are taught the basic of farming by this intrepid co-op.
The
other day we learned that pesky moles were eating the plants (they attack from
the root -- under ground (hence the name mole, duh!) -- thus one mole lunch =
150 lost tomatoes. Okay, if you’re squeamish or against capital punishment, skip
a few lines, but for you hardy folks, I’ll whisper it.....we got some mole arsenic yesterday and this morning, voilá, one
dead as a doornail mole!
We
finished the morning with each person giving something of their encounters with
God.
If
you were a stone, you’d weep as one after the other spoke of tragedies (a dead
wife, a husband who went insane, dead children, severely disabled children)
that they encountered, only to find in faith a way through; even a way through
with something like a smile; with something like joy,,,,
These
last three days, faithful reader, were journeys into the kingdom of God.
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