This Month's Saga

I can hardly begin to write about all of the things that have happened to me this month.

Here's the list of mishaps (I've now accepted and can laugh at):

• Phone and (a lot) of money stolen from my purse whilst at a café.
  
• Car breaks down on the way to Johannesburg. I'm told that I purchased a lemon with a shelf life.*
  
• Pests eat our corn stalks and lots of our tomatoes.
  
• Camera stolen due to my leaving it in a conspicuous place.
  
• My visa expired by 4 days before I left the country and I was almost extradited, but had to pay a hefty fine instead.
• I underwent a minor surgery, removing a mysterious abscess from my arm. The tool of choice to chop me was a box-cutter. ha!
  

*HIGH POINT!: the couple that ran the garage I stumbled upon, gave me a ride to my place to stay while in Joburg.

Here is the list of amazingly incredible things that happened:

• I had a wonderful stay in Johannesburg to pick up Scott, despite the car troubles.
• Got to take a trip to Swaziland! We saw lots of zebra, wildebeest, hippos and such. It was amazing.
• With the help of Scott Keyes, we pulled out the remainder of the last crop and prepared for the garden for the next season of planting.
• While sick, our gardener took it upon himself to carve out completely new garden boxes to prepare for the new season. I thought we'd be a week behind and he made it all happen!
  
• I've seen how amazing people are when you are sick and at your lowest point. I've found such a refuge in friends since I've been here. I couldn't have gotten through all of this without them.
  
• I turned 23!

This time has encompassed so much time for reflection and opportunism to understand how to continue to go forward.

Amidst the questions and confusions, there is always hope!

Project Rx has been blessed with the promise of help from employees from Mozal, a local aluminum smelter, dedicated to local community partnership. A team of 7-10 employees will donate their time to the Project and we will be able to undergo the first digging for our in-house wells for Mozambicans to prepare their home gardens.

This has been one of the best prospects for us, having the human-power to go forward as planned!!


Short garden updates:
Our crop was gorgeous! The entire crop has sold and the money will go to new seeds, and money for the investment of a water-collection well.

We have entered a market within the community that has opened up a huge microfinance opportunity for our farmers. Our okra, melons and eggplant were especially popular within our village. They have increased the diversity of plants available for purchase and are now selling like hotcakes!

We actually in the midst of thinking up ways to keep robbers from taking our veggies while we're not there. What unique problems!

Today we planted carrots and lettuce. Our all-organic garden is flourishing and we can't wait to see what comes for this season. We learned so much from our last crop and are so excited to go forward. :)