Last week on our day off, Ali and I went with Karl to visit the Agriculture site we are helping with. Karl is an Aussie friend of ours who is in charge of the construction projects the ship does. We drove 1.5 hours out to the site. I could sit in a car for days here and never get sick of it....you just never know what you are going to see. The last 30 minutes was on a pretty pot-holed road and I felt like I had shaken baby syndrom by the time we got there....and that is even riding in a landrover.:) The whole time we were in the car we were on a mission to see how many random zemidjan pictures we could get. Zemi's are motorbikes that everyone has or uses to get around here...you rarely see a car taxi. On any given road trip you always see these bikes carrying the most unusual things...for example full size refrigerators with a microwave on that. That is a whole new blog though so stay tuned.
So Mercy Ships helps out communities in many different areas. This project is using our construction skills and agriculture skills. We are working with another Christian based organization called Bethesda for this ag program. We just finished training a class of 30-40 Africans about agriculture in Africa...planting, fertilizing, etc. We also trained some teachers as well, so when the ship leaves they can carry on this class. We are currently building dorms to house 40 students and 3 teachers as well as a classroom in the building. It was quite fun heading out into the country and seeing the men hard at work...I can't get over how hard manual labor is in Africa....no cement trucks here and the guys make their own bricks, etc. Karl showed us where the training field is...each student has their own little plot where they practice planting and yielding a crop. They planted the corn 2 weeks ago and already haver a large sprout. It is good for the fatalistic nature of many Africans to be able to see results and fruit of their labor so quickly.
So Mercy Ships helps out communities in many different areas. This project is using our construction skills and agriculture skills. We are working with another Christian based organization called Bethesda for this ag program. We just finished training a class of 30-40 Africans about agriculture in Africa...planting, fertilizing, etc. We also trained some teachers as well, so when the ship leaves they can carry on this class. We are currently building dorms to house 40 students and 3 teachers as well as a classroom in the building. It was quite fun heading out into the country and seeing the men hard at work...I can't get over how hard manual labor is in Africa....no cement trucks here and the guys make their own bricks, etc. Karl showed us where the training field is...each student has their own little plot where they practice planting and yielding a crop. They planted the corn 2 weeks ago and already haver a large sprout. It is good for the fatalistic nature of many Africans to be able to see results and fruit of their labor so quickly.
It is cool to see a part of what the ship does that is not as publicized, yet will leave a lasting contribution to Benin. Although, I did enjoy the old man on a motor bike driving by with a shirt that said, "stop picturing me naked." lol....my guess is he he doesnt speak english or know what that means...but then again, who knows;)
1 comment:
That's awesome! I take you took some motion sickness pills. :) Reminds me of those off roads in the DR.
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