The days here in Canada are starting to shorten and the leaves on the trees are into their final act, all dressed in their finest colors. Fall is upon us. It is time for me to fly south.
In a few days I will depart; flying to Frankfurt, than Addis Abba, a short stop in Harare, Zimbabwe and finally Lusaka. When I do finally arrive in Lusaka the body is truly confused. The pills I must take daily for my Immune system will now be taken at four in the afternoon instead of seven in the morning. One of these pills must be kept refrigerated; that is truly a challenge. They have a tendency to melt together especially this time of the year; the hot, dry season of southern Africa.
I have penciled in ninety days of activities into sixty short days of time on the ground. You can grade me on my performance after my next newsletter when I have arrived back in Canada in December. Starting just outside of Lusaka at our Kamalamba Demonstration Forest and Tree Nursery where a plantation of Leucaena will be started to provide firewood and charcoal to be sold in Lusaka, just down the road. It will be based on a four year rotation with a charcoal kiln built on site. Than it is off to Livingstone where at Mukuni Village the Mukasiamachoka Moringa Orchard will get its new water system and hopefully much more. Here powder will be produced from the Moringa leaves to be used as a food supplement for school lunch programs and HIV/AIDS patients. Another short stop in Lusaka and than I head east to Petauke and my stay in Mukuni Village with Felix and his family. Here is where we organize our seed collection and distribution for most of Zambia. And at the same time visit as many communities in the area as we can to inspect their reforestation efforts. A drink of water from the newly dug well at Chisoyo Community School is in order and than on to Nkhola Community School to check on the progress of the new school that we are desperately seeking funding for. The new well is in at the site and it looks like latrines are the next thing on the agenda. As you may recall we are helping the community relocate from “no mans land” between Mozambique and Zambia. From Mumbi Village I cross the border into Mozambique to visit the Kapasseni Project and Kuwangisana at Sena on the Zambezi River just a short distance from the Indian Ocean. Here I have helped with their community development in past years and this year the project is to expand their forestry program into sustainability. Back to Zambia and off to visit Fred our facilitator at the Mibulumo Community Forest outside Kasama in Northern Province. Delivering seeds and visiting our various projects along the way. The list goes on and on.
How can I do all this you may ask? Well I could not do it all if I never had committed Africans volunteering their time to help facilitate all these programs. Yes, they do get some compensation for their efforts but very little. Our field workers are paid monthly to tend nurseries and plant out seedlings etc. and are doing a great job. Our program works! At African Community Project we have hard working people on the ground and they are motivated to do their share, fighting the environmental change that is facing us all. Our only restraint is the lack of funding to maintain our programs.
Check the African Community Project page on facebook for reports from the field during this trip.
