Ng’ang’ange - 1st Visit

March 2, 2009
Village: Ng’ang’ange
Pastor: Simon Msula
Companion: Roseville Lutheran Church, Roseville
Elevation: ~1,800 meters
Attendees: 29

When we arrived at Ng’ang’ange we had tea with Pastor Simon Msula in his home. As we walked from the church to his home he rang the bell, a tire rim suspended from a scaffold, with an iron bar. I’m sure this was a warning to his parishioners that the guests had arrived. Over tea he told us some amazing stories about himself and what he used to do. After being an evangelist at a preaching point, he worked construction in Kenya, on the Dar to Zambia highway and on the hydroelectric dam. He said that he was driving a bulldozer at the dam project when it rolled over the side. They had to dig him out from under the dirt and the dozer. He said that was when he dedicated his life to being a pastor. He told of days when he had been a hard drinker, the homemade liquor, and fights in bars. He told how they would test the homemade alcohol to see if it was ethanol or methanol. They would dip their finger in the liquid and then light it, if it burned it was ethanol and if it didn’t it was methanol.

After tea we went to the church where he rang the bell for a second time, and people started to appear. There were 29 people in attendance at the meeting. After a greeting and an introduction Ibrahim went through the five handouts.
1. DIRA – Institute of Agriculture Village Plot Agreement
2. Plot Management
3. Chronological Plot Management of Crops Planted in December of 2009
4. Frequently Asked Questions
5. Record of Events

The meeting lasted an hour and fifteen minutes. The audience was attentive and asked questions. The pastor commented that; "he was extremely thankful that this program was coming to his village, because he sees that members of his congregation are not always able to grow enough food to feed their family, and he hopes that this program will teach them how to grow more food for themselves.” He was especially thankful to Roseville Lutheran Church for supporting the CVP at Ng’ang’ange.

By now it had stopped raining and we went out to collect soil samples. The site of the plot was an area just outside the church that was now growing in grass and brush. We told them that they should start preparing the plot soon so that they can kill the grass and brush and prepare the soil. The soil did have quite a bit of organic matter, so we will see if that makes any difference. We collected samples at two depths from three locations in the plot.

At Ng’ang’ange comments were:
· Pastor Simon Msula said: “He was thankful for the CVP Program, and thankful that his people won’t have a problem of no food. It is like getting a new morning.”
· One gentleman said: “he was thankful for the program, and felt they would learn a lot to help them get out of poverty. He hoped there would be no more hunger in his home.” He is currently farming three acres, but he has to buy food for his family because he can’t raise enough on his land. He is trying to buy more land to grow crops. He was surprised when told about the 15 bags per acre yield at Mgongo, and hoped that could be accomplished at his farm.
· When we talked about intercropping and our recommendation that they only grow one crop at a time, one villager described that he planted four seeds of corn, a couple seeds of beans and some pumpkin seeds all in the same hole. We explained why intercropping results in more competition and actually reduces yield. His response was: "maybe that was why he wasn't getting very good yields from his fields."
o An additional comment was that it is harder to weed when many crops are grown in the same field.
· An older woman said that people are still farming using the same old ways she learned as a child. She didn’t see success from the old ways. This program will help her to learn new ways to farm.
· When asked about the average yield of corn in the area, the parishioners said that it was two to three bags per acre. They were surprised to hear that Mgongo produced 15 bags of corn per acre.
· Questions were raised about fertilizer, that it could have detrimental effects. Ibrahim responded that just like medicine, if one took all the pills they received from a doctor at once they would likely get sick and could kill themselves. But if you took the medicine as prescribed one would get well. Fertilizer if wrongly applied can give bad results, but if properly applied will increase yields.
· Ibrahim asked a question would they rather be given a bag of corn or taught how to grow 10 bags of corn, they responded they would rather be taught. He then said would they rather be given a bag of corn or be taught to grow a bag of corn, and they responded that they would rather be taught. Better to train them than to give them corn. This reinforces their hunger to learn new and better ways to do things.

Photo link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21557421@N08/sets/72157615035494505/detail/