June 6, 2010

NEW PROGRAM IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION: 6-6-2010


This has been a busy week and a half. We had two short-term specialist couples fly in from the U.S. In the picture, Elder and Sister Cullimore (left) came to S.E. Africa to present a new program the Church has initiated in agricultural production. The second couple from the left, Elder and Sister Dow, have been called as wheelchair specialists in S.E. Africa. The third couple from the left, President and Sister Taylor, are the Mission President and his wife.
E/S Cullimore served an 18-month humanitarian mission in Burma/Kuala Lumpur several years ago. Shortly after they returned home they were called to serve for 2 years as short-term specialists (STS) in wheelchairs. Shortly after that commitment ended they were called to serve for another 2 years as STS in water projects AND wheelchairs. Now, on their third 2-year STS mission they are able to give advice and troubleshoot in wheelchairs, water AND agriculture.
E/S Dow served a 2-year humanitarian mission to Mozambique. After they returned to the US, they were asked to come back to Africa for short periods of time to fill different assignments, and have recently been called as short-term wheelchair specialists for the Africa Southeast Area.
Short-term specialists are dedicated and willing couples who are trained, tested and qualified in Salt Lake City to advise humanitarian couples in specific areas. Their trips are usually 1-4 weeks at a time. They travel about once every 6 weeks. Just recently the Church policy has changed so that the trips are completely paid for by the Church. Before this, couples were asked to pay $100/day, so the time and financial commitments were considerable. The Church policy was changed because many couples could not afford to accept these assignments in our declining economy.
We have had 3 short-term specialists visit us and have learned much from each one. Each STS couple has a different style and level of expertise. The most recent 4-week tour of E/S Dow and Cullimore has taken them to South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Kenya.
There has been a drought in Kenya for several years (this year has had much rain, however). LDS Charities (our calling) has been putting in wells to bring clean water to the people, but the need is great and our funds cannot possibly bring water to everyone. Dry farming is difficult, jobs are scarce, and many members must rely on Church welfare. The Church leaders feel that it is critical for the people to gain a sense of self-worth through becoming self-reliant and paying tithing. They reasoned that perhaps past projects have failed because they were imposed from the top down. For example, a wonderful senior missionary couple who were farmers from Idaho taught the people in Chyulu, Kenya, to can and dry food. They taught square-foot gardening on home plots. Gardens were even planted on Church property. They started a chicken project with chickens provided to 100 families. However, since the couple left at the end of March, the gardens lie mostly fallow and the money will be gone soon from the chicken project. The Kenyan people are wonderful, but they have little experience in managing money and projects.
The new food initiative program, introduced by the Cullimores, is to put the responsibility for success on the local people. The projects will be chosen by individual families and monitored by local priesthood leaders. In order to be funded, the projects will have to be well thought out, affordable, and sustainable. The local leaders are very excited about the new ideas. I hope we will have some good projects submitted within the next few months that will meet with more long-term success than past projects.

This is a picture taken at the meeting where Elder Cullimore explained the agricultural initiative to Stake President Jastus Suchi (seated next to me)and District President Daniel Mule Kituku (seated next to Pres. Suchi). Pres. Suchi is the Country Director for Reach the Children, a non-governmental organization that raises money to do many wonderful projects to help the African people. LDS Charities has helped fund one of their programs enabling Pres. Suchi to teach 60 school administrators, teachers and parents in different parts of Kenya about the prevention of HIV/AIDS. The teachers who are trained in this program volunteer to teach the program in their classes to the primary-aged children an hour each week.
President Suchi is a gifted teacher and dynamic leader. He grasped the agricultural initiative immediately, and we are hopeful that he will be able to generate some sustainable programs that will help the people to become self-supporting. District Pres. Kituku is one of LDS Charity’s monitors who teaches health and sanitation to the communities where we install water projects. He lives in Chyulu, the area where the Church started. The area is very dry, and we have done many water projects in Chylulu.

During STS tours, sometimes there is a little time that can be dedicated to pleasure. The six of us squeezed into our 5 passenger truck and traveled the roads together. The lack of comfort in the truck limited any long trips, e.g. to visit farming sites in Chyulu, a 4.5 hour trip one way. But we did squeeze in (literally) a trip to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. The orphanage was founded by David Sheldrick in 1977. David Sheldrick was the first warden of Tsavo National Park (in the Chyulu area) when it was established in 1948. He did a pioneering study on the behavior of elephants and was the first person to hand-rear these animals.
Lost, orphaned or abandoned baby elephants are brought to the orphanage where they are cared for by patient and attentive keepers who are experts on hand-rearing baby elephants and duplicate a natural mother’s role of nurturing. The keepers give a name to each elephant and teach them how to suckle, bathe, and use their trunks and ears. The keepers are with elephants 24-hours a day, even waking for night-time bottle feedings every 3 hours. Baby elephants can become so attached to a keeper that he/she will become depressed when the keeper takes a much-deserved break. Consequently, keepers are rotated regularly to minimize the attachment to one person. It is endearing to watch the young elephants trot after their keepers, chasing each other, splashing in the waterhole and being fed from a giant milk bottle (pictured). As you can see, as elephants grow they learn to hold the bottle just as human babies do. Elephants are kept at the orphanage to the age of 2.5-3 years of age, at which time they have been weaned (from SMA formula) and are ready to be released into the wild in Tsavo National Park.
You can see the primary-aged school children on a field trip who are standing in the viewing area behind the keeper. The children are adorable. All wear uniforms. The day was hot, and we got sunburned. However Kenyans have a different tolerance for cold, and you can see that all the children are wearing sweaters. I think these children may have been from affluent families, as many of the girls had beautifully braided hair. Most young girls we have seen have shaved heads. The only way to tell the sex of children of this age is whether the child is wearing pants or a skirt. Most women and girls wear skirts. I think wearing pants is on the increase among young adult women. However when I go walking with John in the mornings I wear sweat clothes and feel a little out of place for someone of my age. (I am called Mama by many people because of my grey hair.)
Since the orphanage is set at the edge of the Nairobi National Park, wildlife occasionally wanders through the area. The second picture is of a wandering family of warthogs (think Pumba in the Lion King). “They are so ugly that they are cute,” as my mother would say. They grazed and drank at the watering hole. It never ceases to amaze me that the animals share the same spaces in the parks and don’t seem to feel much need to defend their territory (except for dominant males of some species defending their harems from challenging males of the same species…lions, gazelles, giraffes…)

We flew to Moshi, Tanzania with the second STS couple, Elder and Sister Dow, Moshi is a beautiful town near Mt. Kilimanjaro that is surrounded by green fields of corn and sunflowers (both grown for food and oil). We were able to visit 3 different organizations that work with disabled people with whom LDS Charities has contracts. TATCOT is a hospital- and university-based institution that educates students from all over Africa to fabricate wheelchairs, prosthetics and orthotics, to fit wheelchairs for individuals, and to train people to teach wheelchair users to use and maintain the chairs properly. Motivation has a 2-pronged mission: to teach trainers to work with wheelchair users, and to make a very high-quality wheelchair. KASI (Kilimanjaro Association for the Spinally Impaired) is an advocacy group for the spinally-impaired in Tanzania. It was an education for us to meet such dedicated people who do so much good for very little pay. It was also amazing to see Mt. Kilimanjaro both from the air and from the ground. The trip was hectic but very informative.
Since I have written long and attached many photos, I will leave the pictures of Mt. Kilimanjaro to John.
Today, Sunday, was a wonderful spiritually-refreshing day, once again. We had a purposeful fast, and attended the Church meeting where pure, simple and strong testamonies of Jesus Christ, prophets and the efficacy of scriptures were expressed. As part of the Sunday School assignment, I read the beautiful book of Ruth and the first chapter of Samuel. So little is written about women in the scriptures that I treasure such accounts that feature virtuous women making righteous decisions where the Lord shows great love and mercy. On a larger level, I felt that the story of Ruth was symbolic of the Israelite migration into Egypt, escape from bondage, and return to the worship of God in Jerusalem. Naomi and Ruth left the idols of Moab to return to Naomi’s people in Bethlehem (Bethlehem means House of Bread. Christ is of course the Bread of Life.) With the return to Bethlehem, marriage ensued for Ruth, and the birth of King David and later of Christ was begun. So much beautiful imagery. So much to be thankful for.
Love to all,
Grandma, Mom, Roz