Last weekend I went with a few friends to Dolisie, a small town about 4 hours north of Pointe Noire. We took a local bus and the drive was absolutely beautiful. We drove through the rainforest up into the mountains where Dolisie is located. Funny thing, the bus cost $10, included a free drink AND it had air conditioning...for the first 30 minutes of the drive at least;) After that our driver turned off the air and said we couldn't use it if we wanted to have enough gas to get all the way to our destination. Of course!
We checked into a hotel and walked to the local market on Saturday. It was so nice to be out of the big city and in nature for a few days. The people were very friendly and excited to meet us. They weren't pushy, they didn't have an agenda, they were just happy to talk to us and share stories. It was so refreshing for a change. Life is pretty chaotic where I spend most of my days, so a change of scenery was appreciated. I found some cute shoes in the market and made a few new friends as well.
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| New friends in the market |
On Sunday we went to the Mercy Ships Agriculture site. Each time Mercy Ships arrives in a new country the food for life program sets up an Agriculture site to help families and communities learn practical food production skills which directly reduces malnutrition. They select a group of trainees and work with them for most of the outreach teaching them how to improve crop growth and income which bring better health to the farmer, his family and the community. It's sort of like school where topics such as crop and garden planning, seed sowing and saving, natural diseases, pest control and water conservation and irrigation practices are taught. Using local resources, participants learn to make homemade fertilizers such as compost, they prepare the lands, plant seeds, and harvest when it's time. At the end of the class the trainees "graduate" and are expected to go and share all of the information they've learned with their villages...and the agriculture site is handed over to the local community to continue production after the ship sails away. It was so cool to see all the hard work that's gone into the ag site this year. They've been growing lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, carrots, eggplant, and many other veggies. They also have rabbits there! Because rabbits reproduce so quickly, it's a good animal to breed and sell for meat. Kinda sad to think about around Easter and bunnies and new life...but it's a great source of income in a country where survival can be difficult.
All around a great weekend! It was refreshing to get away from the city for a few days and spend some time in nature and it also gave me time to reflect on the last several months of the outreach, how plastics went and start thinking about where I want to go from here. More on that coming soon :)
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| Agriculture site |
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