Monday, June 18, 2012

Inkalata yafuma inewsletter ya NGO mu June


My June 2012 newsletter contribution about my beginnings working with The Simon Poultney Foundation:

Greetings!

For the past several weeks I’ve been getting to know our community and its people. I’ve been meeting beekeepers, farmers, schools, clubs, and cooperatives to understand what activities are already happening, their successes and challenges. Gordon and I have been fostering connections with organizations and companies who share our vision for empowering people in community. We’ve been sharing ideas and getting advice.

At Sungula School, we’ve started planning to use conservation farming on the school’s field. The teachers responsible for the Production Unit will work with lead conservation farmers to train the pupils and teachers. This is a great opportunity to teach this simple and effective technology to the younger generation and generate some income for the school from the crops. The school’s field failed for the past 2 years so we’re hoping to turn things around.

Conservation farming is also known as farming God’s way. With both the school and conservation farmers in the community, I will incorporate teaching on spiritual principals, like faithfulness with God’s gifts, with the technical training already taking place.

We are also considering options to empower our local beekeepers to improve honey production, quality and market access. Please pray with us that we would earnestly seek and do God’s will for our beekeepers. There is much opportunity in this area, so please pray that we would embark on programs that will truly have positive impact in their lives and in the community. Many a beehive has been given out in rural Zambia, only to end up as food for termites instead of an income generating home for bees.

And my favorite thing—trees! I’m excited to plant tree nurseries with Chilunga Community School and others in the area. Tree planting offers environmental education, beautification, reforestation, and future income generation. That beautiful new classroom block at Chilunga will hopefully be surrounded by lovely shade trees and nutritious fruit trees in a few years.

Next week I’ll be heading home to Missouri for my first visit in 2+ years. I’ll be away for about a month but then I’ll be back to Kakulu, hopefully refreshed and ready to roll.

Mushale no mutende,
Stay in peace and good health,
Blair

Friday, June 8, 2012

Nalilembe inkalata yanini


I wrote a small letter

Since I wrote this, thought I'd just post it. It's from The Simon Poultney Foundation newsletter, introducing me to the foundation's supporters. 

Hi Friends of SPF! 

I’d like to introduce myself as the newest member of the SPF Zambia team. I have been in Zambia since February 2010 serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and I’ll be here with SPF through May 2013. For Canadians (or fellow Americans) not familiar with Peace Corps, it is a program of the US government. Here’s the blurb tagged on the end of Peace Corps press releases:

 About the Peace Corps: Since President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps by executive order on March 1, 1961, more than 200,000 Americans have served in 139 host countries. Today, 9,095 volunteers are working with local communities in 75 host countries. Peace Corps volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years of age. Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment and the agency’s mission is to promote world peace and friendship and a better understanding between Americans and people of other countries. Visit www.peacecorps.gov for more information.

50 years after its creation, the Peace Corps mission and 3 goals remain the same:
1. Help the people of interested countries in meeting their needs for trained men and women
2. Help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served
3. Help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans
Peace Corps is not directly connected with university studies. I completed a B.S. in Plant Science, with emphasis in plant biology, in 2007 at the University of Missouri.

I finished my 27 months of Peace Corps service in April and am extending for a 3rd year, still as a Peace Corps Volunteer, but now working with the Simon Poultney Foundation.  For 2 years I lived in a rural village 20km from a paved road in a mud brick house with a grass thatched roof, without electricity or running water. My Peace Corps program is called LIFE—Linking Income, Food and the Environment. Some projects I worked on in my village were: fruit tree planting at the local school, organizing a field day to promote growing soybeans, linking rural subsistence farmers with soy seed and inputs, agroforestry with conservation farming, beekeeping with women’s groups, and leading a girls club to teach about HIV/AIDS and life skills.

I’ll be using my knowledge and experience working on agriculture and forestry projects in a rural Zambian community to help SPF and Chibwelelo Ward carry out their vision in those areas. We plan to help local beekeepers increase their production and income by equipping them with modern “top bar” hives to replace traditional tree bark hives, providing training where needed, and linking producers to reliable markets for their honey. We hope to organize an agricultural input loan program with conservation farmers so that they are able to plant their crops at the proper time to take full advantage the growing season and diversify the types of crops grown. We’ll be planting lots of trees: indigenous trees, trees for timber, and improved varieties of fruit trees whose yummy produce will be enjoyed by all, and can be sold to a company in Kabwe.

I’ll keep you posted on our progress! Please feel free to contact me.

Takuli ifipusho fimbi?

There are no more questions?


After 2 years and 3 months in Zambia, my favorite question I've been asked is still this one from May or June 2010:

From my host father and his friend Mr. Pauda,
"So this Bin Laden, he is American?"

Um, no.