Inevitable Change?

Sometimes we forget this country has just come out of a decade-long civil war. The people are so peaceful and sharing. Some, however, have come to depend on foreign NGOs and it is now the responsibility of the church and other civil society organisations to help to change this attitude. The task is to teach a sense of independence, to realise they can stand on their own and enjoy the benefits of this beautiful country.

The Church, through its development office, is working with a number of villages and farming communities to create and implement long-term plans with the goal of sustainable development. They recently gave rice milling machines and other equipments to the farmers. This will enable them to add value to their produce and give them the opportunity to increase their potential yield – and thus their income.

We are happy to report an update on our own farm project. Although we are in the height of the rainy season, this is the best time for managing the farms. We have been having thunderstorms (with some very scary lightning episodes!!) which have caused serious damage to some houses in the surrounding villages. The hospital has started harvesting the groundnuts planted earlier during the year. Already the first plot has yielded nearly 10 bags, which is likely to decrease when the nuts are fully dried. The workers have started harvesting the second plot, so hopefully the final yield should be about 15 bags. We are hoping all will be pleased with the efforts.

The irony of this time of year is despite the heavy rains it is also the time when food is scarce. People may only have one square meal per day. The belief that - one hasn’t had a proper meal if they haven’t eaten rice- is proving to be a big challenge. The favourite brand of rice is most often imported and therefore more expensive – a classic problem. The government has of late mounted a publicity campaign to educate the population on diversifying their diet. The local cassava is (in M’s opinion) the best in the West African region. Maybe they will ‘discover’ this.

As a family we are about to complete a year’s service and would begin to review our activities. We can see some obvious changes but there are still many challenges that seem to be insurmountable and we are heartened by the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho. It took 7 days of marching around the walls before they eventually came down. We are confident that probably we have only just started ‘day 1’. We live in hope that the ‘walls’ we face would eventually come down and have started thanking God for the change that is inevitable.