Recycled Manure

by Paul Vliem (Uganda)
Today we had the blessing of visiting a man named John in a village outside of Nairobi called Gathitika. John is an accountant by trade, with an interest both in business and preserving the environment. From his hillside home, he can look over the sweeping valley and mountains in the distance and see the deforestation that happens as the years go. As a way to combat this trend, and to invest in a little business, he has built a methane biogas generator, and it is for this reason that we came to meet.For the last couple months I have been working with my coworker, Dale Christy, on plans for a bio-gas generator to implement in Lira. A bio-gas generator harnesses methane gas that comes from manure and directs it for use in daily tasks, like cooking or lighting at night. Most of the community in Uganda, as well as in Kenya, still use charcoal and wood to do their cooking, resulting in a quickly depleting forest over the whole region. Bio-gas generators are one way of combating this trend. When I heard through Partners Worldwide (an affiliate of CRWRC), that there was a man working on one in Nairobi, using a loan from a Partners Worldwide organization, I was happy to go and check it out.
John is building a generator that should be able to supply his home as well as the surrounding 20 homes with enough gas for cooking each day. In return for the gas he will charge a small fee as part of this income-generating activity. The hope is that his neighbors will see the benefit of paying for this gas over the hours they spend each day looking for and gathering firewood. I was amazed at his initiative and creativity in bringing his interests together in a way that sustains his family, his community, and his environment.

This post is an excerpt from the blog of Paul and Joy Vliem, serving with CRWRC in Uganda. To read more, follow their stories at Word and Meditations.

Getting to Work in Honduras

by Matt DeKam (Honduras)

I've had a few different jobs in my life, and getting myself to work has taken several different forms over the years: Dirt bike, napping in the sleeper part of a semi, car rides of varying distances, and in Minneapolis, biking (even in the winter). But this past week I had one of the most interesting "commutes" to work I have ever had.

The Diaconia cars were already spoken for for the day, and David and I needed to get to the community of La Avispa. There are basically two ways to get to La Avispa; one is a bumpy ride in a pickup truck around the mountains, through a pass and backtracking through the next valley to the north (1.5 to 2 hour ride). The other option is a foot trail that follows the Olancho river up a steep canyon called El Boqueron (1.5 or 2 hour hike). We decided to hike up the canyon, much to my delight!

We crossed the river a few times and then ran across a fellow traveler. He is a young man and happens to be the pastor in training for the Baptist church in La Avispa.We followed the trail together, crossing the clear waters of the Río Olancho several times. It was incredibly beautiful! There were amazing lilies, huge cliffs, beautiful rock formations, tropical birds, and caves. I am told that the Honduran government is in the process of making this area a national park.As we continued up the path we passed by the famous "cave of the tiger", where a man and his wife have set up their homestead in a cave. We bought some really flavorful bananas from them and kept on hiking up to la Avispa.The reason for our trip to La Avispa was to meet with an agriculture group, train them on how to grow and use the Moringa tree, and check up on how their Moringa nursery is doing.

Moringa leaves are packed with vitamins and protein, and are good for humans and animals. We brought some leaves with us to make into a sort of stew with sausage and potatoes. It was really good.

At the home where they prepared the moringa stew for us someone had caught an armadillo and was planning on butchering it (they say the meat is pretty good). I did see armadillo meat, but I don't think any of it ended up in the stew!The moringa nursery was doing fairly well. We have had some trouble with seed germination (I think the seeds we bought are old) but around half of them had sprouted and produced nice seedlings.

After our meeting Roldan and Arturo showed up in one of the Diaconia vehicles. We helped them with their meeting which involved all of the community. They are working with the people to create a "plan for community transformation" which is a big document that contains all sorts of statistics about the community, history, levels of well being of the residents, and helps organize the felt needs of the community. Through this process the community decides together on their major priorities and how they will work together to make those things a reality (for example, we need running water, let's organize a water board and start raising money and making plans for a water system, etc.)After the meeting we left with Arturo and Roldan. In the end I think the foot path is the best way to get to La Avispa. It is nice that I was able to get to know the way, because Jorge, the president of the Olancho CR youth board, wants me to accompany a bunch of young people on a hike up to La Avispa. The plan is to put on a big youth-oriented worship service up there and then hike back down some Saturday in May. I'm looking forward to it!

This post is taken from the blog of Matt and Katie De Kam, serving with CRWRC in Honduras. To read more, follow their stories at Matt & Katie De Kam in Honduras.