Basics:
~ calles Lubombo Valley Farm, through One Heart Africa
~ run by a 22 year old couple named Jesse and Macará (the people who started the farm are on sabbatical, so they are filling in as they want to start their own farm in another country in the future)
~went with a another team of 6 girls plus our team leader, Sarah (13 of us in total)
Living Situation:
~ Team Joy (my team) tented, the other team (Team JR. Floss) slept on beds inside
~ There was a living room with a couch (it felt so homey!)
~ We had electricity and power!! (We don’t have that back at the compound where we live)
~ There was great water pressure (still cold water) but so much better water pressure than the compound
Food:
~ We made our own breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast
~ One of the workers made our lunch (typically rice and then a sauce with fish)
~ I ate a chicken that I killed
~ We had an oven! so Madeline made Mac and cheese and brownies!!
~ Jesse and Macará got us a special treat of ice!!!!! It was so good! Definitely have missed that a lot
~ We ate tons of veggies off of the farm that we harvested ourselves. (Green peppers, eggplant, beets, and lettuce)
Farming:
~ sustainable farm that was started to help the community (give people jobs, donate to children, give people good healthy food
~ everything is done by hand (planting, watering, pruning, weeding, and harvesting)
~ have 6 goats, two dogs, two geese, and tons of chickens
~ have aquaponics
~ get water from a boar hole during droughts
~ Compost!
~ cut grass by hand
Daily Schedule
~ super lenient and all over because of African time
~ started work around 7:30/8
~ break from 10-10:30/11
~ lunch from 1-2/2:30
~ end work at 4
~ asleep by like 7:30 since the sun was so exhausting
Community:
~ we had a game night and movie night with Jesse and Macará! It felt so much like home!
~ loves getting to know the girls in JR. Floss more (they are on my squad and I have lived with them at the compound the past month, but I never really got close with any of them)
~ so fun getting to know the workers and having real life conversations with them, and just sharing Jesus with them
~ absolutely loved encouraging and praying over Jesse and Macará
What I Learned:
~ farmer tans are a real thing
~ I need to work on my patience and stop being so task oriented. I need to start enjoying the journey that it takes to get to the destination.
~ African time is REAL!
~ African sun is a whole lot stronger than in America
~ ministry is life and life is ministry
