The Longest Day

We started out early in the morning to pick up Beyan, the Director for Childcare Foundation, so he could take us to visit his rice farm. The rice grown on the farm provides food for the children at the orphanage, and October is rice harvesting season. Away we went in our taxi! After about 3 hours on a paved road filled with potholes, we turned onto a long dirt road. Little did I know we had another hour to go. At this point I started to question whether we should have come. The taxi we chartered for the day was not able to make the final leg of this journey as the road was badly eroded, so we walked the rest of the way to the village. I really thought we were almost there until we found out we still had a long walk ahead of us to the farm. All in all it took us about 5 hours to reach the rice farm but it was well worth the trip.

Andrew and I were greeted by a small group of hard-working farmers who gave us a tour and took time to teach us how to harvest rice. In addition, they cooked us a meal completely made from food on the farm. We had country rice (which was excellent), with a sauce made from red palm oil and palava sauce (a type of green leaf vegetable), and squirrel which they had trapped that morning. We ate out of a large community bowl, exactly what you would imagine when you think of Africa! Here we were in the middle of nowhere enjoying this exotic meal with a group of new-found friends. We followed the meal with a handful of freshly picked juicy oranges to give us that extra boost for the long trek home.

I honestly don't think I would have gone if I had known it would take the entire day - 10 hours of driving and over 2 hours of hiking in tempatures reaching almost 100 degrees with swamp-like humidity - but it was an invaluable experience. It reminded me how easy we have it, and just how hard-working the Liberian people are! On the trail back to the taxi I realized that each bag of rice harvested must be carried out on the same trail. Our friends must walk an hour on a muddy path carrying over 100 pounds of rice on their heads, only to return to the farm for another load. Then all that rice has to be transported several hours to the orphanage. That's commitment.

A Farm in Virginia

Early in the 1800s, freed slaves from the US were given the opportunity to return to Africa, the home of their ancestors. Most of those freed slaves were transported to Liberia where they built their own homes and started farms or plantations. Often they named the new area after the place they lived in the States. In Liberia, you can find names like Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Virginia. Last week I visited a farm in Virginia owned by a church who sponsors an orphanage called Victorious Faith.

When orphanages are located in the city of Monrovia they often do not have space for a farm, so they purchase land elsewhere and transport the produce into the city to either eat or sell in the market. This plot of land provides food for the children of Victorious Faith and is run single-handedly by a young man named Moses. So far they have grown cassava, cabbage, sweet potatoes, peppers (see photo), and bitterball. But he is fighting an uphill battle.

The difficulty for Moses is that he must walk a long way to find water in a nearby swamp so he can water the garden. His farm is in need of a well or during the upcoming dry season the crops will not survive. As well, during the night thieves often come to steal the crops because Moses lives a mile or two away. He would like to move to the farm to watch over it and protect the land but he is in need of a small house. Even when his crops succeed, they are sometimes destroyed by caterpillars, grasshoppers, and other insects. The produce that is grown on the farm will help feed the children at Victoria's Faith, and we would like to assist Moses in his efforts to provide for those children. If you would like to contribute to the the various Agriculture projects that ORR is involved with, please indicate that your donation is for Capacity Building. Thank you for helping to feed the children!