2nd Trip ~ Episode 10: A Day on the Farm

                                                                                                                       Sept 2013- Jan. 2014

    The village Farmland is in the bush, 5 or 6 miles from the village of Borongole. In the last several months it has become my favorite place in the world! After bumping along a rough African bush road (if you are driving), you come to a ford crossing a small stream and are welcomed by a sign to Beth Israel Farmland. Continuing on, a small field of sorghum with interspersed banana trees appears on the right. Fairly soon, the water tower to the Solar powered Well comes to view and the smell of Orange blossoms and Mango trees greets you. This is Arko (Madi word for farmland or Garden)! Since, the work on the block making was very time consuming, I didn't have any opportunities to visit this beautiful place until the first week of this new year.

   On that day I accompanied my good friend Deziga, the tractor driver, and his wife Annette for a day out in the field.  That morning, striking white clouds were displayed on a vividly blue sky, as the faithful tractor rolled out of the village and drove 5 miles towards the Garden. God blessed us with a beautiful day and the weather was truly perfect. 
    The first crop of the day was bean pods harvested from a wild edible green, called Asobi. We hand picked these and collected them in a sack. These little beans are made into a sauce that looks like split pea soup and is quite delicious. While Deziga and I dug up Cassava, Annette was cooking our lunch right there in the bush over a small fire. The resourcefulness of these people often astounds me. Using cooking oil, salt, an onion, a tomato, and some pasta she made a sauce which was poured over rice. Though not necessarily healthy, it was tasty and filling, especially after hand-excavating the starchy tubers of the cassava plant. Three of us shared a lunch using the African fork, our hands.
    The next crop was a smaller variety of Sorghum called Sorenna, a main ingredient in a few South Sudanese breads. This plant grows only four feet tall while normal Sorghum can reach 12 feet! It took two hours for our trio to cut the tops of 
the stocks and fill the large bag with the laden seed heads. Before heading home small acreage was plowed up and a snack of cooked Cassava was had.
  
   It is true that we spent quite a few hours in the hot African sun and did some hard physical labor which can tire you out. We also needed to jump the tractor 3 times with a battery brought for that purpose. Some people might think this to be a hard and taxing day. 
   I found it to be one of the most relaxing days ever and enjoyed some great conversation as we all worked together. This lifestyle is simple and the majority of the food comes directly from the soil. An agrarian society might be considered backward in this fast moving and technologically advanced, 21st century America, but I am not so sure that is true. The hectic days and worry over our many possessions seems to cause a multitude of health problems here, even though we have access to every medicine possible.
   It is true that South Sudan could really use many helpful technologies that would improve medical care, sanitation, etc. However, it seems to me that a simple life of growing and raising your own food is the way God intended it to be and something we can move towards. 
      "And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so."   Genesis 1:29-30

   I find God's balance in the words found in Proverbs 30:7:
     "Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God."

     The crops I described above were the last crops to be harvested as the dry season was setting in. The reason they were the last, is that though there is a water source, we have as yet no drip irrigation to enable cultivation in a season that doesn't receive a drop of rain. Many people in South Sudan find themselves at a shortage of food because many of the staple vegetables, starches, and legumes are unable to survive in the parched soil.
    One of the goals in this coming trip is to install a drip irrigation system in our farm. I will be directly involved in this project and our desire is to give these families the ability to feed themselves and also provide a source of income all year round. We are now raising funds to bring a complete drip irrigation system with us, which I will be helping to install once I get on the ground. 
      Please be praying for:
     ~The Drip Irrigation project, that we would be able to bring all that is needed over and have the wisdom, knowledge, and ability to install it properly.
     ~The people in our village and surrounding community will struggle this dry season, as an extended rainy season inundated our fields and caused staple crops like Cassava and Peanuts(groundnuts) to take a big hit. 2/3 of the cassava was rotted by excess rain! This means that some of these foods may need to be purchased from Uganda. I know that God will provide for all their needs according to His riches and glory.