Fwd: Growing plants in the CAR

Growing plants in the CAR

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• Photos from the week 12/1/2013
• Photos from the week 11/24/2013
• Photos from the week 11/17/2013
• Photos from the week 11/10/2013

Photos from the week 12/1/2013

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 05:22 AM PST
Due to some technical troubles, I have not been able to update photos for a while. I have now posted photos from the last few weeks, and am now all caught up tho.


This house is going to be for the family that will be taking care of the new cattle at Somongue. We are starting a cattle project to try to find the best forage crops. It is also a way to reach out to the Fulani people.



This tiny jackfruit tree is loaded down with hundreds of pounds of fruit! I don't think I have seen one so loaded before.


All the construction we have been doing at Somongue is with local bricks. These bricks here, where made on the farm.  This kiln is made from of baked bricks.


The guys worked hard to get firewood, and kept a fire going day and night. After the fire the bricks are baked, and the kiln is taken down and the finished bricks ready to go.


The nursery in Gamboula moved out to Somongue this week. It is looking better and better every day.


Roy also moved all his orchids out to Somongue. He has many local and foreign varieties.


After 6 attempts, and disappointment working with poor clay, I have finally had my first successful firing. I found this clay down by the river here. It is not perfect, but for once the fire got hot enough, and there are no cracks in the finished product!



Photos from the week 11/24/2013

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 05:21 AM PST

The beginning and the ending of the rainy season often comes with big electrical storms.


A few months ago a swam moved in to one of the hives. This week Alex had his firs chance at opening up a hive all by him self to examine the work they have been doing. No honey yet, but they are close.


The fulani from up north some times come south, and bring donkeys and horses. They chriate quite the site for people who are not use to seeing people riding or using animals for caring stuff.


The masons pored two porches this week out side some of the new residences. Next week roofs go up!


Our turkey chicks are not chicks any more. We now have 7 breeding pears.


Maxim showing off the first fruits of the cola nut orcherd.

Photos from the week 11/17/2013

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 05:20 AM PST

Alexander, my friend and co worker at CEFA had a baby last week! This, his third, was born at the Gamboula hospital. Mom and baby are doing well.

The Kiln went up this week and a fire lit inside.

Taking down and staking the fired bricks.


The Fulani, unlike the Baya people that make up most of the population around here, respect and love their animals. Here a young herder is walking along with his hand on one of his animals.


 After a rain, mushrooms pop up from the forest floor. These are a great  find, and are snatched up and taken back home.
This week CEFA had its first hopefully annual massive chicken vaccination. 16 teems went north, South, and stayed in Gamboula to vaccinate almost 3000 chickens for the deadly new castles deseas. It often comes, and wipes out whole village's flocks in a matter of days.






I saw this bird while walking around the farm. Right now I don't have a good enough reference for African birds to identify it.



Fore our seminar this week we invited the 12 bible students, and their wives to attend a talk about why agriculture, or having a knowledge of it, is important to a pastors family.

The three youngest to attend this weeks seminar.


Photos from the week 11/10/2013

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 05:18 AM PST

Sitting in a hut with three children, waiting for the rain to stop. All of these children only spoke Gombe, so I had no way of communicating with them. The older sister took off into the bush when she saw me, but came back a short time later with her dad. Then she even built up enough courage to shake my hand.


This week a few of us took a trip down river to see the last herd of wild hippos left in our river system. After a boat ride, we finally found the small family of hippos next to the forest.


The bridge that washed away is back again! The boards had washed way down stream. The rains should not be strong anymore. We have secured the new wood with re-rod, and attached it to the bank.


A group of young men have been making bricks on the road to CEFA. This week they have begun building them in to a kiln to fire them.


A hen at the farm somehow managed to lay a clutch of eggs in the garage without anyone noticing. She is now sitting on them, observing all the work that goes on.


Another pretty butterfly in the forest.


I don't have a good bird book here, so I cant identify it, but I have been seeing this male bird in full breading plumage every day on my way to work.

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Roy & Aleta Danforth
Covenant missionaries to the Central African Republic
cell phones: Aleta 011 237 7529 5071 and Roy 011 236 7766 5079
email: roy-aleta.danforth@covchurch.org
for us personally:  http://blogs.covchurch.org/danforth/
for the ag project, CEFA: http://car-cefa.blogspot.com

CEFA Saturday tour plus teaching about vegetable gardening

This past CEFA Saturday was about veggie gardens and getting some of our women friends out there!

Patu with baby Adamu, Apiruwa, and Hazara

Hearing what CEFA is all about!

Saturday seminars

Two Saturdays each month Roy and the CEFA staff are connecting with the community, bringing different groups and individuals to the CEFA farm to help them to understand what CEFA is all about.  What is that that you said?  What IS CEFA all about?  It's about getting God's love and provision to the people.  It's about getting better food security into the villages.  It's about trying out new things to see what works here and what doesn't, teaching new things, helping people to understand new things, and praying that these new things will catch on!  From fish ponds to bean crops, from reforestation to composting, from poultry to fruit trees, you name it, CEFA is trying it or is willing to try it! 

 Last week was Roy's turn to teach, and in the weeks to come it will be Jean Bedel on composting and Nadege on veggie gardening.

Rain at last!

Right in the middle of what should be our rainy season we had about 5 weeks of dry weather.  Crazy, unusual, unexpected!  Seeds had been sowed, trees had been planted, all with the assurance that rainy season would continue.  Roy ended up having work crews water the bazillion trees and plants by hand.  Now, this week, it seems that the wind has shifted, and we have been getting rain, almost every day. The grass is green again, and we have hope for all the crops and orchards.

Making do with transportation

We are still in a bit of a state of limbo here, as even though our little corner is peaceful as can be, the country as a whole is not right yet.  We have started using the 2 CEFA trucks, the pick-up and the Dyna, which hauls bigger loads.

We are glad that we can use them now, as there has been an unusual drought period right smack in the middle of our rainy season.  We have gone weeks without rain now, so the pick-up hauls a big water tank around and the trees you see being transported are now having to be hand watered!

We still are using motorbikes to haul things and get around; here's Roy with his special crate that he piles high with plants, tools, whatever he needs that day, and Nadege with her motorbike piled high with manioc cuttings to plant.

Raising bees at Gamboula

Timothy Chapman is an expert bee raiser, and here he is in the garb to prove it.  The box he is holding has a swarm of bees in it.  He set up a mosquito net on his back porch, and crawled under it with the bees.  He opened the box and started gently brushing the bees out of their swarm, using a regular paintbrush, looking for the queen, who apparently is easy to distinguish from the riffraff by her big red abdomen.  He even has a special plastic clip designed to pick up the queen without hurting her - that's what he's holding up to show y'all.   It turned out, though, that this swarm was an "orphan" one, no queen amongst them!   He is constantly on the lookout for swarms of bees, with the hope of getting them into his hives so CEFA can raise bees and honey!

CEFA's fish ponds - from construction to harvest

Find a good, open place with a stream running through, do a lot of planning and digging, guard your ponds from thieves, and wait for harvest time!