The Tree Nursery is Growing. By Cory

Mango and avocado seedlings

Finding seeds to expand the nursery is a challenge when there are only a few varieties of mature fruit trees around.

Fortunately there are mangos and a good avocado tree for seedlings to grow as rootstocks for grafting.

It was so dry this year that almost all of the mango seeds which fell under the trees did not grow and the ones I gathered at the end of the season to plant were too dry already to grow.

Jonathan, a 3rd year student, had a few days off from his between-term ministry assignment. We dug up some year-old seedlings and the few younger ones we could find. At the end of the search on the Bible School campus we found a narrow pit where more than 100 mango seeds had been dumped and germinated.

He also filled many nursery bags nearly full of soil to be ready for avocado pits when the Jembo avocado tree is harvested.

Please pray for Jonathan's wife's health as she has not felt well for a while.

This morning I visited a nearby farm.

The owner sells us milk, is planting some fruit trees, and invited me to visit and see the farm.

Cabbage

He has a variety of livestock, a few mature and productive orange, Mexican apple (white sapote), paw paw (papaya), guava and mango trees, and fields.

A small garden is watered from a seasonal stream which forms a small seasonal pond.

The current fruit we are enjoying from our yard is guava. The picture is from an extra large fruit that I covered with a bag to allow full ripening and size without the birds eating it. 

Most of the guavas are enjoyed by Fritz's friends and a few days ago I saw a young chicken on the top of the tree eating.

They all get eaten!

Well Update...

Campus remains pretty quiet with the Bible students gone for break and ministry assignments. 

We traveled to Choma on Easter weekend and enjoyed learning about and having a late Seder, Passover meal at our friend's the Howells' home.

They allowed us to stay in their guest suite for the night and we joined them and the Poetice folks for a wonderful Easter Sunday service.

Fritz enjoyed hanging out with their children and we enjoyed the fellowship.

Fritz is also playing soccer most afternoons with some boy's his age and learning a lot. 

Sunflowers are very drought tolerant. It was already
too dry for most of this small field to germinate.

Back home we've focused on school; sending out a newsletter; working on some house projects; planning a couple trips, and preparing for Anna's visit next month between her finals and starting her summer position.

We look forward with excitement to showing her some of Zambia and having a couple weeks with her!

This also means that Cory is doing some on-line shopping with the items heading to California so that Anna can bring in a few things we cannot find here.

The power shedding remains interesting with the 'pattern' somedays being at random times or not fitting the expected 8 hour time frame from the detailed, pages long schedule.

Someone asked on a local WhatsApp group when the power would be off that day and a response was "Not even [the electric company] knows"

We received a few sprinkles of rain the last couple days and know that areas around us are getting rain but we still need much more.

[Between the time I wrote this and posting...we had a large thunderstorm with heavy rain and some hail but minimal plant damage. Our rain guage only reads 1/2 inch but nearby trees probably filtered out some due to the strong winds. Praising the Lord!] 

We are enjoying the clouds as we know we will be heading into a time without clouds for several months of the dry season. 

The weather continues to slowly get cooler as fall advances but significantly above normal. 

The first of April we reset our thermometer so the range the last 9 days is between: 87.6-77.2˚F.

Cory talked to the leadership about the commercial size well that the government had said they would provide only to receive the disappointing news that the money was spent on road equipment.

So the current plan is to look into having someone come out to clean the wells and see if we can get the one that is working now improved and get both the others on the Bible campus into a working state.

If you did not receive our newsletter by email last week and would like to be added to our update list please let us know.

Lake Kariba Trip: Day Two

Following a big tasty breakfast we headed out again at 7:30 a.m.

Prices are great off the beaten path with the current strong dollar: 2 rooms, supper and breakfast for the 4 of us at under $35 total.

Because of the state of the 'good' roads we already traveled we did not venture on the 'very bad' road which would have taken us directly south-west to the second point on the lake that Pastor Benson wished for us to visit.

So we back-tracked past Pemba, where we started on the paved road, went further south-west until the town of Batoka and then turned south again. 

After dropping in elevation and nearing the lake we saw huge fields being irrigated from center pivots and a very large cattle operation owned by ZamBeef. 

We were told that at one point President Jimmy Carter visited.

We stopped in at a small Wesleyan church where much to Cory's happiness there was a fruiting baobab tree of a rare "sweet" type (actually just not as sour and more pulp on the seeds) and a huge fallen common type - 'This is like seeing an elephant for me!!'

The tree had not dropped any fruit which resulted in an amusing time of watching Pastor and others fling big sticks to knock down the fruit.

The pastor reported the church, ministry, and area is 'very promising!' 

We once again headed to the lake.

The resort where we planned to eat lunch only contained a couple staff and no food.

Being prepared we assembled our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and then wandered down to the lake watching for crocodiles and hippo. 

Sadly we saw neither, just a blue-tailed skink.

We took a new way back to the main road, on the back side of the big farms.

A bit of shopping on the way back for drinks and snacks.

We pulled into home at the Bible School at 7:30 p.m. thankful that the lights and power were on.

Two days of full travel.

the Baobab doesn't have much root, but is tough,
long fallen but still alive 

Lake Kariba Trip: Day One

 
Monday, March 25 we headed out with Pastor Benson at 6:30 a.m. to visit Lake Kariba. [standing next to Cory]

We let him plan the trip, as he grew up in the areas we planned to visit.

Right out the gate of the Bible school we found a student waiting for a ride to the paved road, saving him a 12 mile walk, and we picked up two more a bit further down the road.

One student, Austin, had started with us and we would drop him off at the Chabbobboma Mission Station. [left in the photo, blue shirt]

A bit of shopping on the way delayed us a bit and the roads kept getting more challenging.

Pastor pointed out points of interest along the way, and we came across Pastor Mano walking between his house and a small shop he is running to support his family. 

We knew him from when he was a third year Bible student. [Middle, red shirt]

It was good to cut down his long walk, catch up with him, and pray over his business.

We continued down the road to the Chabbonbboma Mission, after buying some line, fish hooks, and worms, giving a few other fellows a short ride.

At the Mission Cory was shown the girl's dorms and asked about what trees would be best for a wind break to prevent the roof from blowing off, again.

While waiting for our fishing poles and lunch to be prepared, I visited the Rural Health clinic and the accountant gave me a brief tour.

I wrote down some questions and passed them along to the district overseer to help us learn more.

The high school boasts over 300 students and there is also an elementary school.

After a great lunch of corn meal, chicken [we brought with us], vegetables we said our good-byes and headed to the lake, accompanied by the overseer.

Stopped by the police station to pick up life preservers and then on to the lake.

We learned a lot about farming fish in cages from our boat operator. Over 15,000 in one cage that measured about 25x25x25 feet. They were overcrowded and needed to be split up.

A short boat ride took us from the small bay to the big lake, after which we returned to see the feeding of the fish in a cage and to feed worms to some of the fish outside.

No luck there so moved closer to shore where a handful of tiny fish, no bigger than 3 inches were pulled in amid much laughter and joking.

We did get to watch the birds and saw a crocodile sunning on the bank as we were leaving.

Dropping the overseer back at his home we back tracked a bit to where we had made arrangements at a small 5-room hotel for supper and bed.

The area being warmer and about 1,500' elevation supports the growth of large baobab trees. 

A Jembo student garden with no yield

Cory will be having class Tuesday with the Bible students, his last one of this term as they have finals next week before and then a month off.

Corn, peanut and sunflower

Last week he didn't have his Tuesday class as the country celebrated International Youth Day, so he's already prepared his lesson on pest control and herbicides. 

We generally attend student led chapel on Tuesday and Friday mornings however Friday, March 15 was International Women's Day-also a holiday so chapel was not held for 2 in a row. 

We're working on some travel plans for a trip in April, 'Fall Break' for Fritz and a chance to see some more of Zambia and hopefully visit a church or two. 

Cory worked hard on putting together a video update for a couple churches while Fritz and I worked on our studies. 

The 'power shedding' times started last week Sunday night. 

Early planted corn with small yield. Some of the
new hybrids are very tough.

The 24 hours in a day are divided into 3 different time zones: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.; 2 p.m. -10 p.m.; and then 10 p.m.-6 a.m.

Theoretically you can go on-line to find out for your area what times each week that your power will be turned off..and it should be the same time daily for the week.

Well the first week the power was off for 8 hours-a different time each day. 

Then we got a bit of rain and the hours dropped to only 5 off and has been rather random.

Not just fruit trees that get cut by the termites.

Our adjustment is making good progress: remembering to fill the drinking water containers and buckets when the water pump is working; charging all electronics: phones, batteries, computers, Kindles, router, and more; making sure not to open the refrigerator much when power is off; and trying to remember not to leave lights on before going to bed to avoid a bright random wake up [this one is the hardest]

The discussion of maybe getting solar power for the Bible college is on-going even as we continue to pray for more rain.

For an average year there would only be about 2" of rain left for the rest of the rainy season, then dry until November.

While it is too late for much benefit to the field crops like corn, sunflower and beans, the gardens can still benefit; as can the grazing pastures for the livestock; and the water levels of the wells. 

We have had just a little more than 1" of rain since we arrived two months ago.

There is a Global Partners project fund that provides the students with a small stipend each semester to help with living expenses, which look much higher this year. https://wesleyan.my.site.com/donorportal/s/fund/a1s3t000005PE4GAAW/pwbc-scholarships