Jungle garden

In the morning we attended a Presentation ceremony for the mid wives association.  LDS charities financed gift bags of baby care products to be given to patients of the mid wives.  The couple we are replacing, Elder and Sister Demke, are at the left end of the table.

This was an unusual day having two honoring ceremonies in the same day. Usually they're only about one a month.

In the afternoon we traveled to a jungle Village  just on the outskirts of town to check on the progress of a Garden education project. Key hole garden projects enable villages to grow crops year-round even in the dry season. LDS charities paid for 5 demonstration gardens to be built around at various villages.

Demonstration Gardens are created and then donated usually to an elderly member of The Village. It is hoped that successful Gardens will be copied by members of the community.

Garden construction
The garden was constructed in a plateau area at the top of a long uphill Trail. All of the supplies including Hollow concrete blocks and bags of cement were hauled up on foot.

Village children
The Village had gathered for a ceremony which included honoring LDS Charities for donating the money for construction.

The Village was almost exactly what you would expect to see in a very poor and jungle type country. The road to it was not paved and very rough. Some of the houses had electricity but none of them had Plumbing. Many of the villagers did not have shoes. All of the villagers seem to be happy and we're very friendly. Only a few spoke English so the remarks had to be translated. We kept the ceremony short because a thunderstorm was forming that would make the downhill walk back to the car very difficult and might flood the riverbed we had to walk through before getting to the car.

Villagers gathered for ceremony.
The ceremony included remarks from the organizing agency as well as from various Village leaders. Sister Demke remarks on behalf of the LDS charities. After the remarks The Village presented Sister Demke, Cheryl and I with a ceremonial scarf.

Help from the tribe leader
The trail was a little difficult. On the way down the community leader assisted Cheryl. Notice he is not wearing any shoes even while walking on the Rocky Trail. Cheryl is wearing the scarf that we were presented with. It was very hot and humid.

Comments

  1. Looks like you and Elder Trapani will get a lot of exercise. Also looks like a lot of good works going on. Just sent you an email at your gmail address. Hope you still can access it or if you could send me one that will work. Love and keep up the good work.

    Jim and Sharon Anderson

    ReplyDelete

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