Progressive progress

More changes! So, the job is an indefinite no-go and the project will go full-boar, full-time! We have decided to change our timeline to what was more like what we began with.

The extent of the project will go through June until July and we have set our hopes on our educational front to go door-to-door with our information and kind intentions for better farming and health practices in-house.

We will be working on water collection projects for subsistence farming and the future of the area. After collecting some information on the area with the locals, I have found that it will be relatively cheap ($65-70) to build a small "paço", or water-collection well per family. This one-time investment will allow farmers to use their water to farm in their dry land where water is very difficult to come by. Currently all water sources must be traveled to, often more than one mile, to collect water and it is scarce during the hot summer time, where lots of wells have been reported to run dry.

There is no preparation for the dry season and the plants that had been planted to be watered. The people in the area simply let the plants grow and hope they get sufficient rainfall to water their crops. The problem is, it is not raining enough to see the plants survive, and their return on initial investment collapses completely.

This is where we can come in. We can organize these planting structures and collect water to plan for the dry season and organize crops to see a better yield. :)

Now, it seems we have lost a fair amount of our cucumber crop. Because of my poor farming (rather, my lack of knowledge of cucumber worms), a fair amount of our crop has gone to beetle larvae that wants to eat our corn and okra as well. The growing process is so futile for such plants and we're learning about how to plan for the future of these problems. You can never predict pests when you don't know how things will grow. (What a fantastic life picture!)

We will continue to progress and see what comes. We can now figure how to plan for the future of the area to start with a foundation of a healthy food source and small source of income for those who participate in our program.

Project Rx is full-boar once again! Though the timeline stays short, the work remains the same and we can do what we can in the time being.

Thank you for your prayers and continued support. It's making an incredible difference. :)

O Proyecto Continua. The Project Continues. :)

Project Rx will be continuing with the church community, with the garden and with farming education throughout the village of Machava. After much deliberation with the church leadership, we decided it is best to proceed as planned. The major change, however, is that the Project will not be a full time endeavor.

We found that the planning and implementation of the project is highly dependent upon the time frames of the local people and the local church leadership and they are currently spread too thin to help out with the Project goals on a daily basis. We have decided to make it a part-time course and extend the length of the project in order to be able to achieve our goals.

In order to extend the length of the project, I am in the midst of pursuing a job opportunity offered to me before I left to Cape Town. We have decided I can work throughout the week, take certain days off early to teach and work in the garden, work the Saturdays they have available and reconvene with everyone on Sundays. :) This schedule is much more appropriate for the goals of education and farming, to allow independence of the local people to implement farming practices.

As for the health education goals of Project Rx, we are focusing on the production of a health education manual for teachers and students. I will be designing the materials under a timetable that we will have a better idea of once I do or do not have a job. The implementation of the health courses as originally intended have been deemed inconsistent with the education and interest level of the local people. We have decided we need more time to think about our education materials in order to create courses that children and adults will learn from.

For everyone presently working for the church, it is best that we set a more regular schedule in order to see that everyone is working collectively to accomplish all of our respective goals. We are presently quite content with the way things are going now, given that we had time to reflect on what our goals are and come to a better conclusion about how we can proceed. :)

God is doing such great things! I'm so confident in where things are going. An air of lightness is upon us. We are all continuing in the direction we are all in agreement with. =) Praise be.

Your prayers and thoughts have been everything. Thank you for your dedication. It does not go unappreciated--in fact, it's our backbone.

I've been promised my computer back by mid-January! Finally! I promise to have pictures by then. Promise, promise, promise.