Photos from the week 5/25/2014

There are now many organizations distributing seed to farmers who have lost everything in the east of the country. No one is doing this in the west of the country except CEFA. 

Here is one of our fields that is planted in cola nuts. The ground cover is perennial peanut. It has smothered out all the weeds, and fixes nitrogen for the trees.  None of the original trees where cut out of the field, so there is a mix of wild trees in there too. Looks kind of like a park.  

This multiplication field was finally ready to harvest cuttings from. This is an improved variety of manioc from Uganda. The stems were cut into sections, and the cuttings were taken and distributed the villages we work with. This manioc grows faster, produces at least 3 times more than local types, and is disease resistant. 

There are countless fields around the farm planted in beans and peanuts. This is one with a peanut that produces higher yields. When they are harvested, the seed will be distributed to people in villages as well. 

Since it is swarm season, I put together a few small hives this week, in hopes that they would get moved in to. 

A hungry medium size spider looks longingly at a huge moth.

This is some kind of tree viper that got in the way of one of the guy’s machetes.

In Cameroon With The Baka

             

The leaf shelters that many of the Baka live in. 

                Danforths and I are back at Somongue, Central African Republic! During our time away a contingent of African Union forces (MISKA) where stationed at Gamboula. Those who were causing most of the trouble around here have since settled down a little.

Mama Lendo, the grandmother at the camp. 

Somewhere around 70, she is still a very active

 and fun member of camp. 

                When I left, I was unsure how long I would have to be away from CAR, and did not feel like sitting in Yaoundé. So I joined a few missionaries with World Team, who share a small forest clearing with a group of Baka Pygmies in Eastern Cameroon. 

               A former ECHO intern has been working there for a few years trying to introduce the Baka to agriculture. There was a fruit tree orchard, new rabbit project, and new bee keeping project. So it is a lot of the stuff I have been working with at Somongue, just on a smaller scale.

                It was a very eye opening experience for me living and observing this hunter gatherer culture I have always heard about. Children start hunting and collecting fruit and other things from almost the time they start walking. Anything is fair game, because if you don’t get it someone else will. In many cases, it did not matter if the fruit was green, and the Baka are excellent climbers, so the orchard was pretty much stripped bare, and explaining ownership, or fruit maturity just does not make much sense. 

 Nathan (Left) working a hive with Nestor (Right)

 Nathan, one of the missionaries there has recently become very excited about raising bees. He had 3 hives, and we harvested his first honey while I was there! The Baka are not afraid of bees, and have a real sweet tooth, so they were very interested in seeing this project. They came right up to the hive and looked in while we were working. One of the men has his own hive, and had his first harvest too.

Two bee keepers from another city in Cameroon working with Nestor 

on another day. All the curious onlookers are his friends and family.

Even his kids did not seem too afraid of the bees 

           There was also a young Baka church emerging that was really interesting to see. I have been reading about the early church, and saw a lot of similarities. There is no bible in the Baka language, but there are likano’s. Bible stories, or epics, that are recited at gatherings. Leadership roles, how to worship, and having meetings are still things that are being figured out. They have the singing and drumming part down though.

The Baka church.

                It was very nice having a change of pace.  Being gone for so long during rainy season was rough though. The grass and weeds are about 3 feet taller, a few of the animals and fowl have died, and there is a lot of catch up to be done. It is fun to see how much everything has grown and changed though.  

First honey harvest!

       Last year while walking through The Garden of Eden, I happened to see and film a swarm of bees move in to one of my empty hives. The video is in a post titled A home for a Swarm and is a post from August. Yesterday, Alexander and I harvested honey from those bees. It was our first harvest and the end result was 25 pounds of honey! Not bad for a first harvest.

        It is always fun and exciting to harvest, and the bees where not as aggressive as the ones in Congo. I was testing out a new bee suit design made from local materials, and by a local tailor. I came away with multiple stings on my body and face. I think the suit needs some modifications before it goes in to combat again.

        There are still some kinks to work out, and problems to solve, but I hope this harvest shows that beekeeping is possible and worth it. Last week I had another swarm move in to another empty hive. 

We use the Kenya Top bar hive here. A few months ago Alexander and I moved the bees from the small hive they moved in to, in to a larger full size hive. 

I worked one end of the hive so Alexander could see how it is done. The kind of hives we have often have honey at both ends and larva in the middle. It was really fun pulling out all that honey with the sun shining on and threw it. 

Alexander worked the other end, and did a great job.  

Alexander and I squeezing the honey out of the honey comb and threw a cloth.  

Small plastic coke bottles are quite common around here. I have been collecting them for just this occasion. 

The label still needs some work, but as of right now it is Anzere ahon, Mafuta ti awotoro. Mafuta ti awotoro is honey in the Sango language. Anzere ahon is hard to translate exactly, but is something like 'better than anything else'. The phrase is used quite a bit in Sango. Below that is a reference to Psalm 119:103, which says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” NIV.

The final product! Each one of these bottles sells for about 1000 Central African Franks, or $2 in the market. I don't think any of these will make it to market though. : )

     I have to leave CAR for a while since all the missionaries here at Gamboula have left or are leaving tomorrow. I hope to be able to return with Danfroths, but until then, I will be finding things to do in Cameroon.

Easter music at Gamboula

       This mornings Easter service was only Three and a half hours long, and was closed out with a nice cool rain. There was lots of music and dancing, and even though I was in the back of the church, I captured some if it on my phone. Here is a shot video with some of the music.

Photos from the week 4/13/2014

This big fellow was outside under the porch light one night.

There are so many mangoes this year that large branches are braking under their weight.

When work requires it I get to drive this jeep around. It has real personality and is 

fun to drive most of the time.

 This Tuesday I met a guy named Ron from South Africa. He is taking two and a half years and going through a bit of every African country on mainland Africa, and parts of Europe! Starting in Cape Town 10 months ago, he hopes to end up in London in September of 2015. Oh, and he is doing it all on his bike! 

                Gamboula was to be his first stop in CAR, so I rode my bike down to the border, helped him get across, and rode with him to Gamboula. It was more of a rest day for him since he was only coming about 15 Kilometers, so I showed him the sights of Gamboula. Wednesday morning he was going to head further into CAR and out the southern border. After gathering reports about the last day and night, we deemed it unsafe to travel any further East or south, and planed a new route.

                I rode with him for about an hour to a nearby river, before saying goodbye and returning to Gamboula. It was fun to be just a very small part of this much bigger adventure.  

                Ron’s Blog is fatkidonabike.com if anyone wants to follow his progress across Africa.

  

Photos from the week 4/6/2014

This week was the first time since arriving in Central African
Republic I have been able to leave Gamboula to visit another village.
Bapo is a few kilometers from here, and has a farming cooperative.
After seeing their fields of improved varieties of manioc, fish ponds
and fruit trees, we saw a harvest of tomatoes, and beans.
One of the healthy looking kids there had spent months in the nutrition center
with malnutrition. His family's diet now includes vegetables, beans,
and fruits!

There are a lot of flowers blooming these days. Pajama lilies are
quite common in the grass land, and always fun to see.

Another find was a small dark purple stinky flower in the Arum family.

We have not seen the big eatable flying termites this rainy season
yet, but the small ones have come out in force.

Pygmies, Big Ideas, and Lots of Seed.

      As usual, there is more happening here than I have space to write about. The rains have started again after the dry season, which means everyone in Gamboula is doing a lot of planting. Here at Somongue, we are also rushing around preparing gardens, planting more experiments, and getting even more fruit trees out of the nursery, and into the ground.

I have new wheels!

      After waiting a few months for a way to transport my motorcycle
from Yaoundé, Cameroon, it is finally here. My first lesson was
helping assemble it, since it came in pieces in a big box. Jackson,
one of our handymen here at Somongue, has experience building them, so
we spent a day putting mine together. It did not come with
instructions, so I'm glad he had done it before. Amazingly, when it
was all done, there were only a few screws left over. Hopefully not to
anything to important. The next step is getting it registered for this
country.




Long seminar, short people.

        Last month we had a one week long seminar for the Bayaka
pigmies. These people live in small settlements on the border with the
Republic of the Congo. Normally they would live off the forest, going
where ever they could hunt and gather. In recent years, however,
pressure from national parks and logging companies have forced them to
settle down. As a result they have to learn how to farm. We had a fun
week full of hands on and class room learning about a variety of
topics. I got to do my first seminar on beekeeping with them, which
perked everybody's interest. The Bayaka are known for their sweet
tooth, and will go to extremes to get honey.


New staff position.

      Since Somongue is so big, and always has a lot happening at once, this year we are creating a farm manager position. Our farm manager will circulate answering questions, make sure people are doing what they are supposed to be doing, then report back to the staff. I tried to do this, but it was just too much when there were other jobs I needed to do. Alexander, the one I am training to do bee keeping, was chosen for this job, because of his great personality, work ethic, and people skills. He has been on the job about three weeks now, and is doing a spectacular job. Since he is out at Somongue every day now, I am able to interact and spend more time with him, which is nice.

Long term aid

      In the last few months, CAR has seen what many international groups
are calling Ethnic cleansing. Up to 20% of the country has been forced
to flee or been killed. Much of the remaining population has lost
everything. In addition to loosing belongings, most people have eaten
or lost the seed they had to plant this year. Since most of the people
in CAR live off of what they can plant, it is crucial that they get
new seed. Roy has been working very hard to find funding for a new and
exciting project. First, local farmers will be provided with our
highest yielding, and fastest growing varieties of peanuts, beans and
manioc to plant. At harvest time, the seed from these plants will be
purchased back, and distributed for planting during the second growing
season.