Introducing Jack fruit!

      The interdiction of Jack fruit has been very successful in Central African Republic. It is both a fast growing tree, and produces a lot of fruit. Since everyone loves to eat the fruit, and they grow just about anywhere they are planted, it is common to see jack fruit trees in villages and peoples gardens in and around Gamboula. Roy has been working for year to promote many varieties of jack fruit, and while I was there I was able to help with this.  

              I filmed this little clip talking about jack fruit in CAR while I was there, but did not have fast enough internet to upload it. Now that I am back in the States, I have been able to do that. 

             One day I harvested 16 fruit from the tree out side my house! Lucky for me I was able to find a few friends to help me eat them.  

    

A New Chapter in His Story

            Over the past few weeks I have been praying through the Psalms. During this time, God has been teaching about and showing me his unfailing and ever present love. In times of trouble, heartache, when I had a hard time seeing him, or when I felt attacked by life, he was always there. I have been in the United States only a few days now, and am still processing being back and all I have been through in the last 20 months. One thing I have been able to see very clearly though is that God never left me, and was with me every step of the way.
           My last week in Africa, I made a quick trip back to Gamboula from where I was in Cameroon. It was incredibly hard, but I am very grateful it worked out. I had a total of three days to hand over my responsibilities, give crash courses in a number of subjects, including beekeeping, pack up my house, and say goodbyes. Although time was short, and it was very hard to leave that way, God gave me an overwhelming sense of peace about it, and provided the closure I needed. Thanks to everyone who prayed me through that time.
            In one week, I will be headed to Fort Myers, Florida, where I hope to spend a few months. I will be taking this time to re-focus, and seek the direction where God wants me next. I have had many unique experiences in CAR and Cameroon. I know God gave them to me for a reason, and I want to figure out how to use them in the future.
            Thanks to everyone who joined me in this journey and made it possible.

Saying goodbye to Gamboula.

      This past weekend, I was able to make one last trip back to Gamboula. I spent a total of 3 days there packing a few personal things, handing over my responsibilities and saying goodbye to the farm and friends. It was way too short a time, but I am very thankful for it. 

       One of the things I had to do was hand over all my responsibilities. I gave crash courses in internet upkeep, Rabbit raising, Bee keeping, and how to use computers. Since I had not been expecting to hand things over for another few months, I had not really trained people in everything yet.

         I spent an entire morning with Jeremy and Richard, working with the rabbit herd - giving medicine, learning about managing, and talking about foods. One of the does gave birth that morning, bringing the number of rabbits up to 21. 

        Monday afternoon was with Alexander and Placid. There were a bunch of specific tasks they had never seen before and that we needed to do anyways, so we had some good hands-on experience. The three weeks that I was away this time, 2 new swarms moved in to some empty hives I had set out. There are now a total of 9 hives with bees! 

I was at Gamboula over a Sunday and was able to attend one last service before I left. 

Maylay apples are one of the juiciest, sweetest fruit in Eden. I hit the season just right and was able to get one last taste..

Dingos are large crickets that have a really distinct sound.  There are not that many in our part of CAR because the soil is so hard. One night I heard the sound a long ways off and was able to track it down. This is my favorite insect to eat, but only comes out for a few weeks during the year. 

My last evening I was able to take time to run around the farm, and see all the fields one last time.  

Our multipurpose building. Because of rain, and other things, I was unable to attend morning chapel in this building with all the staff and workers. 

There are still mounds of beans coming off the farm for the seed distribution project. 

My house out at the farm.

The cocoa trees are loaded this year. Last year there were only a few fruit here and there, but this year the 4 year-old trees are yielding a lot. 

The chicken house

Fish ponds

The Cola nut trees have fruit on them too. This a a big cash crop in the area. 

With all the rain, the cover crops have taken off all over the farm. 

The director saw a strange fruit in the forest he wanted to show me. I was able to climb the tree to get it, and it turned out to be a wild cola.  

The cola fruit 

The weather map from one of the days. There was a lot of rain before and while I was at Gamboula. As a result I was not able to take my motorcycle out for one last spin. 

On our way back from CAR, our four-wheel drive land cruiser got bogged down in the mud. With the help of some young guys who showed up after we had been digging for a while, we were able to get free. 

My last glimps of Gamboula

                It is with much sadness that I inform you that the door for me working in the Central African Republic (CAR) has been closed. It has been a long hard week of waiting on the Lord for direction, but in the end the decision has been made for me to finish my term early and return to the United States. With more political problems in the country, my Danforth teammates gone, and the accumulated stress of living there, it is time to leave.
                I would greatly appreciate prayer the next few days, as I will be making a quick two day trip back to Gamboula to get a few personal belongings, and say goodbye. I will then be returning to California sometime in early November. My sister and grandparents live in southern California, and I will be able to spend a little time with them. Beyond that, I don’t yet know where I will be settling, or what I will be doing. A life verse for me has been Psalms 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight". I am trusting that God will direct and provide what I need when I need it. 

Where CAR lays on the HDI

                  The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index that "is a summary measure of average achievement in Key dimensions of Human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living." It basically measures people's ability to develop given their current conditions and standards of living. Countries with high HDI are places like the United States, Western Europe, and some Asian countries. Medium HDI are countries that are doing ok for themselves, but are not doing as well as high HDI ones. Low HDI countries are places where people are living close or in poverty, have poor health care, poor education, and poor life expectancy. Their living conditions do not promote development. 

Graph from http://hdr.undp.org

               Many countries are rising on this scale as they develop. Many countries in Africa are near the bottom, but are still rising. In the past 30 years CAR has ever so slowly been climbing. In 2013 when there was the coup the country began its plummet to last place on the HDI. Although the 2014 numbers are not in yet, 2014 has been a worse year for CAR then 2013. According to this graph Niger is at the bottom, with CAR close behind. I have no doubt that CAR is in last place now.
                The United Nations is working with the transitional government to stabilize the country, and help it begin its climb again. There are, however, multiple rebel movements that are hindering this work. Getting to even where it was before 2013 on the HDI will take many years. Keep praying for the country of CAR, for the fighting to stop, for the people that are there to be able to help, and for the country to begin to right itself.

Cameroon is feeling like home

                “Who comprehends the mind of the Lord, or gives him instruction as his councilor?” Isiah 40:13.

                During the past two weeks a lot has happened in Danforths and my life. From our prospective it is hard to understand why things have been happening the way they have. I have to keep reminding myself that God is in control and knows what he is doing. Threw this a major theme has been having enough faith to trust God, and not trying to figure everything out on my own.  

                Due to recent events in the CAR as well as our emotional, physical, and spiritual health, the Danforths and I have left The CAR for a time. Danforths have gone to South Africa for some R&R and I am in Yaoundé Cameroon. Our hope is to eventually return but that will not be for at least another five weeks. Since I only have a few more months before the end of my term, I am not sure what the future holds. Right now I am discussing my options with Reach Global staff. I will send out another update when I have more of a plan, but in the meantime, I would greatly apreeshate your prayers. 

Photos from the week 9/28/2014

We have been getting ton of rain. In the last week the fish ponds, streams and roads all flooded. The truck even got stuck right on the farm. 

I had to give the whole rabbit herd medicine for mites this week. The first step was to find their weights. Surprisingly they all cooperated when they had to be weighed.  

I believe this is a mature Goliath ant lion. The larva stage of some ant lions is the thing that makes inverted cones in the ground that trap ants. When they grow up they get wings.

These are variegated plantains. Both the leaves of the plant and the fruit have white stripes in them. 

Nonedible Ornamental Banana. 

Besides all the rain we have been getting, there are also tons of flowers around.

Roy has planted bunches of Heliconias around. These bright flowers attract a few kinds of shiny sun birds. 

These flowers are the first blooms on a bush I planted outside my house. The flowers have a really odd structure compared to other flowers, and have a really nice smell.  

Under my outside faucet I planted a bunch of colors of Balsam. They are all in full bloom this week. 

These little guys are a native wild Hibiscus. They are really small, and only bloom once a year. 

Photos from the week 9/14/2014

Our multipurpose building is done! We now have morning devotions in it, and have been working on landscaping around it. Here is a beautiful double rainbow behind it. 

The Garden of Eden has over three hundred different kinds of trees in it. Some of these trees have never fruited because of climate, age, or both. 16 years after Roy planted this tree, this is the first fruit from a type of Cola.  

The Graduation for the Gamboula nursing school was this weekend. 16 nurses graduated from their three year program. After receiving their diplomas all the pastors who had come for the graduation gathered around and prayed for them. 

Somongue now has two young Dwarf cows. This small breed only gets to be about waist high, but are resistant to a lot of the problems the bigger cows around here get. The hope is to train them to pull a plow. 

Photos from the week 9/7/2014

      Since we don’t have banks, grocery stores, or hardware places, and we were running low in all the things you can find in them, Danforths and I had to go to Yaoundé, Cameroon, for supplies. Among other things, we got a replacement water pump for the one the lightning blew up.

There are two major camps for Central African refugees along the road to Yaoundé. This one stretches two kilometers!  

One day while planting trees at the international school in Yaoundé, I found a whip scorpion. Definitely one of the coolest bugs I have seen. 

During the week I was gone two swarms of bees moved in to some empty grass hives I had put in some trees. There is a plastic plate with a hole in the center, and the bees use that as the entrance. The rest is grass. 

It must be swarm season because this morning I found and captured another swarm. This makes three new hives in the last week! 

Hope for returning cooperatives

      It has been a little frustrating living in this country, Central African Republic (CAR), and not knowing what most of it looks like. Since it has been unsafe to travel the whole time I have been here, I have not been able to venture very far from Gamboula. This last month things have finally settled down enough that Roy and I felt it was okay to get out to see CEFA’s cooperatives. A few weeks ago we headed east to the town of Nasole, last week we went south to the village of Dede and this week we went north to Godowa. In each place we held a fruit tree seminar and brought trees from our nursery to the cooperatives.

      In the towns and villages to the east and south, life and landscape were normal for rural Central Africa. The trip north, however, was very different. A few months ago bands of Chadian rebels came and destroyed many villages, driving the inhabitants out to neighboring Cameroon. Since Gamboula is on a main road, and has a large population, it was not affected. But the drive (about 3 hours) from Gamboula north to Delopoko was on an over-grown and completely deserted road. Every house along the way had been abandoned and there were plants growing on and around them. Delapoko is a fairly large village where the local militias stood their ground and kept the town from being destroyed. It is here where refugees are returning. We met with 5 cooperatives in the church for a fruit tree seminar before heading out in to a freshly cleared field to plant an orchard of fruit trees. Seed for field crops, as well as tools, and food has been taken up there too. 

 

      Please continue to pray for the thousands of refugees in Cameroon and other countries, as well as those starting to return. Pray for peace and stability in the government as a new Prime Minister and cabinet has just been established. Next month UN peace keepers arrive and the French military force will leave, so pray that the transition will be smooth.

Photos from the week 8/17/2014

     Last week was the first time Roy and I have been able to get out and go do a seminar with some of our cooperatives. We went east last and this week we went south. 8 of our cooperatives meet up at a town called Dede for a seminar on fruit trees. Despite getting stuck in the mud, and it raining a bunch during the day, we had a great turn out (about 85) and a fun time.

The truck got stuck in the mud coming off the ferry. After about an hour we were able to free it.

A group shot after the practical part of the seminar where we planted fruit trees.

      This week we had lightning strike our generator house at Somongue. Thankfully the generator seems to be ok, so work can continue at the garage. The bad news is that despite grounding rods and breakers, it blew up our electrical and water systems including; large inverter, battery bank, and water pump. Roy and I spent a day rewiring our houses with a whole new 12 volt system that is specific to each house. At this point neither the farm nor our two houses have water. This is the latest in a series of electrical setbacks/frustrations we have had during the last year.  

One of the 6 exploded batteries. 

The same storm that brought the lighting that hit the farm also brought hail. A rare sight in these parts.  

Photos from the week 8/10/2014

One of my does gave birth to 9 babies! Today almost all of them have opened their eyes. 

Another army ant nest went up in flames this week. There are still scouting parties that are paying visits to Danforths and me, so there might still be another nest somewhere.

Before the flames discovered a chamber full of gas within the ant nest. 

One of the explosions when the fire made it to a chamber. 

Photos from the week 8/3/2014

This week Roy and I had our first opportunity to go do a seminar at a village. Three cooperatives came together to learn about fruit trees. 

After theory, we went out in the field and planted 19 different kinds of fruit trees in one of the cooperatives fields. 

       I found the army ant nest that has been sending waves of soldiers to invade Danforths’ and my house. Roy and I dug into the nest, poured gasoline into a few of the tunnels and lit them on fire. The gas must have gotten all the way into the main chamber, because there were a few nice explosions. I went back later in the day and dug into the center of their mound, and found a huge hole about a meter deep and wide.  

Roy pouring gas down one of the army ant holes. 

Four fires going, one at each major entrance. From time to time there would be an explosion and a big puff of fire would fly out of one or more of these holes. I was unable to get a photo of that though.

It looks like it is that time of year again. Mangosteens and Rambutans.