Graduate farewell party and a farm visit

 Monday evening we attended the farewell dinner for the graduating students.

The party consisted of singing, prayers, speeches [all 3 of us said a little something], a poem, and great food.

We first met the graduating 3rd years when we attended chapel during our first short one-week trip back in March of 2021.

Since then both Cory and Kris taught them for about 6 months during their second year and Cory was privileged to teach some agriculture for two terms in their third year. 

Fritz has befriended many and will be sad to see them leave, along with 3 teenage sons who he enjoyed playing football with this year.

It was noted that this class started their Bible School education with the world-wide Covid epidemic and are ending with a 100 year Zambian drought! 

Having been able to stay the course, focusing on their education, and persisting despite adversity, one of the speakers noted that they are going to change the world!

Saturday we plan to attend the graduation ceremony. 

Please pray for the graduates and families, the staff, and community members as many are suffering from chest colds. 

Bbombo Wesleyan Church

There will be a leadership meeting on Friday with many of the national and district leaders coming for graduation.

We've started cleaning as we will likely be hosting 5 pastors on Friday night.

Thankfully the food is already taken care of by others. 

Following graduation the remaining students will be heading out for ministry assignments until returning for a new academic year which is to start on Sept. 9th. 

Tuesday I (Cory) went with Rev. Benson to visit his farm along with one of the students. 

It is about 20 minutes past town, out in the bush, so about an hour away.

We stopped to see a small Wesleyan church, Bbombo, near the road close to the farm.

Lots of bush land on the way suffering from too
much grazing, charcoal production and drought.

My visit was to give some ideas on what potential the land has for fruit and other trees.

More than half the land is bush and about 7 acres is field.

It is flat and rather sandy but produces good corn, beans peanuts and sweet potatoes.

The corn field was within a week or two of giving some harvest but it was a more drought resistant variety than the other farmers grew and when the other fields failed, cattle were turned loose and the harvest was lost.

A good fence would probably be required to get fruit trees established.

Now I have some excellent mango varieties like Alphonso and Nam Doc Mai.

 And know a nursery in Lusaka that has about 10 other desirable varieties recently brought from India, I see an opportunity for the local farmers.

Most of the good mangos in the supermarkets are imported from South Africa.

Mango left, mulberry right.  The mango is blooming but might not survive the hungry cattle this year, also termites ate a patch of bark on the lower trunk.

The supermarkets try to prioritize local producers.

The business owners are mostly Indian or Pakastani and some are Chinese.

I'm sure many of them would pay a good price for fresh mango varieties that they know are the best varieties.

Mangos are sort of like citrus, there are all kinds with many different flavors - think lemon, key lime, grapefruit, orange, tangerine, kumquat.... I think mango is even much more diverse in flavor.

After visiting the farm we returned to our truck parked in the neighbors field.

They were having a village meeting of about 25 people in the yard and shared the 4 main problems they were discussing:

Termite damage to healthy live bark

 Water - the nearest hand-pump well recently went dry, so they  have to walk nearly two miles to get water to carry home.

 School and medical care are far away.

The crop failures are causing hunger and how to get help for food.

I gave a few ideas about trees and fruits. They had a well fenced garden area which was empty since water isn't available to irrigate. 

Fruits can be planted in a garden where they are safe from animals and fire.

They don't take much room when they are small and they start producing as they displace some of the vegetables.

Avocados are producing now here at Jembo when vegetables are lacking unless irrigated.

Some trees provide good animal forage.

We prayed and then were invited to a meal, the same as at the farewell dinner but guinea fowl in sauce instead of chicken with sauce, collard type greens and corn sheema (firm corn mush) but no rice.

Mango trees in bloom. They don't use much water and not many trees are more drought resistant.
3 more months until potential for some rain in October.

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