Malaw and Moz update

Here is an update from Dave from his recent trip:

I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Malawi and Mozambique, a 2 week trip.

Let me give you an update on both countries :

MALAWI first :

At Hilltop all is going along fine.  Foster and Emily are well, although Foster is growing older (getting very white on top like some of us) :)  Eric is doing so much better which is wonderful.  Evance (Foster’s son) is also getting stronger.  Henry and Felix are well, as is George, Dayton and Feston.  Enoch is busy writing exams to complete his schooling and thinks he is doing well in the finals :)  Chikondi starts her Business Management course next month, so she is very excited !

The piggery is doing well.  We currently have 25 females for breeding and 2 boars. We have 21 piglets and over 20 pigs that we should be able to sell in the next few months.

Maize Harvests were very small this year due to the floods and drought thereafter. Most folk harvested about a third of what they had originally expected.  Our > 50 partners only contributed 32 bags of maize to Hilltop this season which shows you how little some folk harvested (we normally get at least 100 bags).  Emily, our top farmer, who got 320 bags last year only managed 95 bags this season.  Most of the folk got between 4 and 20 bags.  Shame, this is a disaster for our friends.  Country wide harvests have been even worse and BIG trouble looms later this year in Malawi as food runs out.  We have stockpiled some maize to sell later (to fund our wages) and to assist down in the valley.

I encountered buckets of honey in the stores on my arrival :)  This was wonderful to see and Foster was very proud of the whole process.  We have 70 - 80 liters of really tasty honey (i loved eating the combs) and Foster will be bottling it for sale at local markets over the next few weeks.  He has made a Hilltop label too :)

We enjoyed only one gathering with the Hilltop simple church due to our schedule and it was a really good meeting at which Noel taught.  Lots of joy there !

The house is looking nice too.  The kitchen area / ladies loo wall damp seems to be solved and the area has been re painted and looks great, as does the ladies room and bathroom, and windows etc.  All looking smart and clean :)  We have 4 very nice suitcase stands now for visitors and the cupboards and displays are looking nice too.

Down in the valley at the conference we encountered a packed out hall and wonderful representation of leaders from the 3 districts involved.  The Mozambican exec appointed district leaders in April and things appear to be coming together nicely. According to reports I received there were 69 churches represented at the conference, which means that some new churches have been established and some churches that had left over the last few years have returned as well.  With valley Frank being so sick the last few years things had started to unravel with some divisions and power struggles but there are good signs that unity has returned.  Noel taught from the book of Colossians and his input was very well received.  The folk left encouraged and keen to implement what was taught.  They also took 80 Bibles back to the churches and 100 copies of the conference notes in booklet form, to enable this knowledge to reach far and wide within the churches.  Adult literacy materials were also distributed at the end of the conference.  These mini schools have really taken off with 18 literacy schools now registered with Foster and we have 41 volunteer teachers handling the scores of students.  We are expecting more adult literacy schools to be established as one of the districts has not yet launched its efforts in this area.  

I was able to meet with some of the Moringa garden co-ordinators and Foster is continuing to encourage as many folk as possible to establish Moringa gardens in as many centres as possible.  This is an ongoing story.  I received reports with further info of the destruction and loss of life caused by the floods.  Thyolo and Chikwawa districts now have 234 orphans within their churches. There are reports of flood damage and/or destruction of 66 church buildings.  Come the end of year and early 2016 there will be great hunger and challenges in the valley.

MOZAMBIQUE :

Noel and I spent a week in Mozambique at the Bible school (23 students) and visiting several districts with leadership to encourage the churches.  Unfortunately the planned annual conference in Quelimane had to be cancelled due to no water supply from the municipality (unable to host hundreds of people from afar without water).  It was this conference time that we used to visit the districts.

Both Noel and I taught in the Bible school and we had a wonderful time with the students.  Noel did the mornings and I did most afternoons.  The students brought all their questions (re the Bible and the ministry) for Noel to answer and I dealt with practical poverty and planning issues in the afternoons, breaking the students into competing groups for exercises and application of knowledge.  We had a lot of fun and good learning.  

Noel also preached at the 3 church meetings at Quelimane, Nicoadala and Namacurra.  Folk came from far and wide (outlying churches sent through some representation too) and we had good meetings and joyful times together.  At Namacurra we were fortunate enough to be part of a baby dedication too :)  Noel worked tirelessly teaching the folk at the different venues and he was very well received.  Noel is held in such high regard in both Malawi and Mozambique !

When in Mozambique I was able to have several planning and report sessions with the exec and much was achieved during these times.

Conclusion :

This mid-year trip went off really well.  I was encouraged by the progress in the churches, in the literacy schools, in the Moringa gardens and at Hilltop.  I am concerned with some of the challenges we face in the valley with the orphans.

Dave

Update from Dave on Malawi March trip

The trip to Malawi was a very good one and very successful with many challenges too.  I will start by giving you an update on the Shire valley.  Pastor Luciano and another teacher from Mozambique joined us for a few days (Friday - Tuesday) to assist with training of church leaders in a small town called Nchalo.  These leaders came from 4 different districts and represented 30 churches.  We had a good time teaching > 100 leaders and the small building was packed with folk standing outside the building around the doors and windows to catch what was being taught.  We taught mostly on the Christian Family and home and also on leadership in the church.  The teachings were well received and there was much interest in adjusting cultural norms to reflect their Christian beliefs (e.g. lifting the status of women).  We also distributed 1 box of Bibles to happy recipients who had not yet received Bibles in their area. The area has been devastated by flooding this year and the spirits of those present were lifted by some lovely singing from small groups - i did make a video or 2.

Up at Hilltop Farm the situation after the rains is more normal.  We had very heavy rains too which have affected the crops and we will have small to moderate harvests this year.  But, at least we will harvest :)  We had some damage to our sheds and some wash aways but repairs are going well.  Overall life is close to normal again and the farm is very green, it feels a little overgrown as folk have battled to cope with the water, the weeds and grasses all growing so quickly.  Our improved gutter system on the house coped extremely well with the water deluge and we are satisfied that we have triumphed in that area !  We thank God for sparing Hilltop and all our people during the crisis.

Our self sustainability objectives are going well.  The piggery is going along nicely, despite having to fire our piggery manager for theft of the pig growers mash, which he was selling to neighbouring villagers.  We sold 22 pigs recently and this will inject cash into our operations and allow salaries and wages to be paid.  We currently have 50 pigs in the piggery.  We also have a good stock of maize on hand to sell as needed to cover our costs and development.  So far, so good :)

A doctor from the UK visited us for a week.  He came to train our people on how to limit the spread of HIV and AIDs and how to maximise the health benefits of medicinal plants freely available in Malawi.  We had 50-60 folk present and they were inspired by Dr. Chad.  We had classes and practical demonstrations on the farm where we looked at how to use what was growing to treat diseases and boost the immune system.  e.g. we looked at Moringa leaves which have protein, calcium and high levels of vitamins A,B, and C.  We also learnt how to make tea from the Artemesia leaves to treat malaria.  The trainees left Hilltop motivated and with cuttings and seeds to begin their own medicinal gardens.  We will be expanding our own medicinal gardens at Hilltop to improve our demo capabilities and to provide the seeds and cuttings for more people.  We learnt afterwards that about 2 thirds of the folk on training were HIV positive.

We also met with other missionaries who have experience cultivating plantations of Moringa on a larger scale and we visited a farm where Moringa is cultivated on a large scale, harvested, dried in a solar drier, stored, milled and packed for use in the future.  We are planning to help our friends in the valley to cultivate Moringa at each centre where there is orphan care (about 10 centres now).  This “miracle tree” can make a huge difference to the health, nutrition and wellbeing of the orphans and other kids.  If this cultivation is successful we will expand the project and add Aloe Vera, Neem, Artemesia, Lemon grass and other plants.



At Hilltop we have also installed a new hot water system to make sure we get hot water when needed, especially for our guests.  We have moved from high tech German water heaters to low tech African systems that use fire to make hot water :)  The high tech systems did not cope with our erratic power supply and our guests and so we have gone simple to ensure hot water supply !  We have also added a new cupboard and 2 suitcase stands with 2 more stands on order to improve our capacity to house guests at Hilltop.

Foster heads down to the valley soon to do a thorough assessment of the orphan situation and this will be followed in May by the first delivery of adult literacy materials for 2015 to the 7 existing  schools and 6 new schools that have formed.

Thanks for your role in this team - we do appreciate you greatly !!!

Love and best wishes

March Malawi Trip 2015

I spent a week with Dave in Malawi. We spent a few days at the farm in Chigumula where we connected with various people and did a day of education around HIV and Medicinal Plants. We travelled to Mangochi where there is a Moringa and Aloe plantation that we would like to replicate in the Shire Valley to help the people and the orphans there.

The harvest this year is probably going to be quite small due to the effects of the flooding. We hope to be able to support people through another difficult year.

I have reflected on my time in Malawi in another blog and I share this here:

Malawi 2015

Posted on March 17, 2015by chadjudy

I think it was Teresa of Avila that said, “it is heaven all the way to heaven and it is hell all the way to hell.” 

And it was the last Pope that said that he can’t understand why people still think that heaven and hell are actual places. He said that these are states of consciousness. 

My recent trip to Malawi was another heart opening and mind bending time. People in the shackles of poverty and clinging to the hope of a better life that ‘modern colonialism’ has to offer. 

Despite the poverty there are those few who have found a ‘source’ outside that of the economic system that gives life and an awareness of their ‘sacredness’ in the great chain of Being. They have discovered the love and grace of a God that is so much bigger than anyone or any institution has created. It is heaven all the way to heaven. 

There is so much need everywhere you look. I was overwhelmed at times; however I had a sense of peace about ‘using whatever I had in my hands (and heart) for this person in front of me at this time’.

While I was in Malawi, I had some interesting discussions about the difference between stewardship and ownership. When we get confused and begin to take ‘ownership’ of things, we tend to want to protect and preserve it for our own good. Our world becomes smaller and we tend to hold onto things tightly (this produces a lot of stress due to the fear of losing what we have). Letting go and living ‘loosely’ frees us to live in a much bigger world and experience the abundance of life and love. 

I did not really know what to expect going to Malawi. I had long wanted to see the farm at Chugamula (PDFA, our registered charity, has rented this for 4 years now and the floods hit it hard) and I wanted to see all the people I knew there. I questioned my own motives and decided to sit with the question, ‘why am I going?’. Once there, I settled into being touched and touching the lives of the people ‘here and now’. Someone once said of being a GP, that we are guests in the lives of our patients where they invite us into the dark and tender places. I have always treasured this; however I felt this to be true with the people I came into contact with in Malawi, from the people at the farm in Chigumula (Foster and his family), to John (the coffee businessman), to the group of 50 that I shared knowledge about HIV and medicinal plants, to Madalitso (“Blessings”) the caretaker of the place we stayed at in Zomba. Seeing with different eyes into the soul of each person broke me open … Open to see an ‘enchanted world’ of sacred souls.

I return to England, once again having received more than I gave, being touched at my core more than I touched, knowing that God (who is more than any idea I have of him) is drawing people constantly to a growing and unfolding awareness of his love and grace … Heaven all the way to Heaven.

Many affected by flooding in Mozambique and Malawi

The recent flooding in Mozambique and Malawi has affected many people.

The most recent update on the BBC, "More than 170 people have been killed and 200,000 displaced by torrential rain and flooding in Malawi. Large areas in the south are underwater and homes, crops and livestock have been washed away."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30874965

PDFA is organizing emergency aid for our friends who have been affected. This includes Mozambique where 50 families have lost homes and 326 families are in need of food. The farm in Malawi has also been affected.     

Mozambique Report for 2014 by Dave Toms

I have been very pleased with the progress and maturation of the leadership of the churches in Mozambique during 2014. Things have come a long way since the early days when we first started planting churches in the northern part of the country. Years and years of discipling, of training and teaching through seminars and Bible school sessions, of conferences and mentoring has paid off handsomely and the church group is now quite steady and strong with some quality leaders. 2Tim3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” We have attempted to use the Scriptures as our sole guide to shape the souls of men and God has proved faithful in saving and changing many lives over the years. We thank donors for providing us with the necessary Bibles throughout this lengthy time that enabled us to train so many leaders and the bicycles too that have carried our leaders over the width and breadth of 7 provinces, from the cities to the most rural bush areas. We have reached many people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is really Good News and this message has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people and led to the planting and establishment of over 200 churches in Mozambique. I was especially happy and proud to see the Mozambican leadership take on the responsibility for caring for and giving leadership to a number of churches in Malawi this year. I actually encouraged them not to take on this additional responsibility, for I felt they did not have the resources to cope with this extra responsibility. But, they were determined to help Malawi and went ahead by faith (which made me proud). Like Paul the apostle they have that desire to see fruit for God in other nations as well. I am doing my best to back them in Malawi and am visiting these new churches and areas whenever I am in Malawi. May God give us success in this greater responsibility. 2014 has been a very good and busy year for us. I will give you a summary of some of the activities undertaken to paint a general picture for you. We initiated a 60 day Bible school “Intensive” this year, in which 30 students spent the whole month of May and September at Bible school in Quelimane. I was privileged enough to be part of the first school in May and was delighted with the course attendees and the program. The vision is to complete the international training course over 3 years. The course material is excellent and we are teaching the course ourselves (senior executive members) with one or two outside teachers to add experience and flavour. We will definitely be continuing with this 60 day intensive in 2015. We also held 28 district conferences over the course of the year. In Cabo Delgado province we held district conferences in 4 different districts. In Niassa province we held 4 district conferences. In In Nampula province in 4 districts. In Zambezia province in 6 districts. In Sofala province in 5 districts. In Manica province in 3 districts. In Tete province in 2 districts. These district conferences are where the rubber meets the road and enables us to reach to every local church leadership and many of their members with teaching, inspiration, encouragement and correction. These district conferences are key to our long term development. The national leader was totally committed, as was the entire executive to being present at these many district conferences to guide the development of the many churches. e.g. the national leader Luciano made 21 extended visitation trips during the year and also 2 trips to Malawi to assist in the development in Malawi as well. During the year 5 provincial conferences were also undertaken that included youth conferences, women’s conferences and general conferences. During 2014, thanks to your generosity of a donor, we were able to assist over 1500 families with rice that we bought. About 14 tons of rice was purchased, transported and delivered directly to these families over a very wide area who had suffered terribly during the floods of 2014. There was much gratitude, encouragement and thanks to God for this response that you enabled. In a similar vein we were able to replace the roof sheets of our pastor’s house (Pastor Carlito) in Morrumbala when flooding destroyed his home - this brought great relief to the family that were exposed to the elements and like wise this act of generosity was of great inspiration and encouragement to many. In total during 2014 we purchased and distributed 563 Bibles and 78 bicycles throughout Mozambique and we still have funds available to keep us going for the first part of 2015, as is our custom. As always the joy when receiving these investments of yours is amazing to behold :) These Bibles and bicycles have had such an impact and have been such an enabling force in the hands of God to build His Kingdom in Mozambique.

Malawi Report for 2014 by Dave Toms

HILLTOP FARM :

This year has been a year to remember, with progress on all fronts.  The main day to day focus is on food production as we have over 50 hectares of land.  This year our 50-60 partners on the farm had good harvests, for which we thank God.  Our de-cobber at the milling shed did a great job helping all our partners remove the pips from the corn (maize) cobs and then bag it.(for a small fee paid in maize).  This de-cobbing used to be done by hand and took months of evenings rubbing fingers raw.  The PDFA land (about 5 hectares of the total) also produced well and so we are in a good position at Hilltop with stores well stocked with maize, beans and Soya.  Most of our partners returned again in September to prepare the land once again for the 2015 season - I am glad to report that the rains have started well this December 2014 (although a little late) and germination has gone well throughout the farm - so expectations are high for 2015 :)  The compost manure project was also successful this year with mountains of waste organic material being turned into high quality compost manure, which has been placed into our planting stations to improve the soils and boost the growth of our crops in 2015.

It has been wonderful to see our partners lifting themselves out of poverty gradually and with much effort on their behalf !  God has given them an opportunity and they are embracing this journey out of poverty with both hands.  It is also good to see their faith in Jesus grow as they see the fruit of their trust in Him, both in growing resources and in the peace and harmony they are experiencing in their lives.

This year end PDFA has not cultivated any land at all (for 2015 harvest) and we have thus increased the land available to our partners.  Our plan is to use the maize stored and the piggery to fund our running costs at Hilltop in 2015.  We are very excited about this step and would like Hilltop to be fully sustainable in 2015 and hopefully forever going forward.  We are trusting God that we will be successful with this new phase and only time will tell.  Pray for us please.  We wish to model what we are teaching our people, which is to trust God, be sustainable and to put away the beggar bowl.  May God give us success !!

The piggery project is going well and we are hoping that 2015 will be a good year.  As long as disease does not affect us we should be fine.  We have about 25 porkers (40-60kg) to sell and this will give us income to pay wages and make some extensions.  We will add some new pig stalls in the 2nd shed in 2015 to give sufficient space for all our females to have their piglets safely and with sufficient space.  Our new boar (new bloodline) is growing nicely and we hope that he will do a good job for us in 2015.  We have much hope resting on the piggery and so would value your prayers in this area too, that God would protect us from disease or other calamities.

We have made good improvements on the farm too.  The 2nd shed got a decent floor this year and at the house we added new gutters around the whole house with downpipes and we also bought a double bed, 2 cupboards and 2 suitcase stands to make for more comfortable visits by our guests.  So, things are looking much nicer and are more comfortable too.

We continued with our simple churches around the farm and in the surrounding villages and it was good to visit many of them in 2014.  The times spent in these small groups is always special to me and to see the joy of the folks as the "lights come on" is always special to me.  The interaction during the simple church meetings is also excellent and very edifying for all involved.  I love these forms of meetings - they are my favourite !!

We continued to train in farming, savings clubs and micro business at the farm and in the surrounding villages.  We have 2 formal groups with over 20 folk that meet weekly plus other day to day less formal mobilising and training.  We encourage our leaders to disciple and shape people's lives every day and in every way, not just during training sessions.  

We limited our micro loans in 2014 to our leaders and staff around Hilltop farm and Blantyre city.  No loans were made in the valley during 2014.  Sadly, one of our loans to John Gulumasa to start a local bakery (made end of 2013) has gone unpaid - John passed away unexpectedly during 2014.  Adding to the grief was the fact that his wife had just had twins a month earlier - their first children.  Shame, this has been a disaster to their family and we are not pursuing the debt with the family - we have cancelled it.  

VALLEY PROGRESS :

2014 was also an exciting year down in the Shire valley.  It is one of the hottest places I go to so I do find travelling there rather challenging :)  Nevertheless it has been a rewarding year to be involved in the valley.  On the church front the request by some valley churches to link with the Mozambique leadership has been a positive step.  This has led to several visits by the Moz leaders plus additional trips from myself and our Malawi team to encourage and unify the individual churches and small groups of churches.  There is currently great enthusiasm amongst these churches and everyone is looking forward to 2015 and the additional visits, teachings and conferences that will occur to encourage the churches, develop the leaders and mobilise the people for God.  The valley conference in 2014 went well with Pastor Noel and proved to be a catalyst for the positive improvements.  We are now looking at about 25 churches working well together with much promise for 2015.  It is my prayer and hope that more churches will join the group in 2015 (some new ones and others that had got disillusioned and had left due to leadership issues).

Unfortunately Valley Frank, the leader of one group of churches, is still not well.  This despite our best efforts to get him better medical treatment.  Effectively he stopped leading his churches some time back and this lead to the disintegration and loss of many churches within his group.  Recent steps have turned things for the better, I believe :)  Sadly, I expect Frank to pass away in 2015.  I hope I am wrong and that God restores his health but so far things are not promising.  Please pray for Frank.

2014 has been a stellar year for the adult literacy schools !  Support for the schools has been excellent and we continually get requests to start more classes in new areas.  Virtually each new church that joins us has requested adult literacy classes for their members and for their community too.  We have about 10 areas now that have schools and we will add to that in 2015.  Feedback from the schools has been excellent and positive and it is a delight to me to encounter ladies in meetings who have Bibles and can read thanks to this wonderful project.

Our orphan care involvements have grown too in 2014.  I have been greatly encouraged by the efforts of very poor people to make the most of what they have and to give everything they have to care for the orphans in their communities.  I know from the Bible that this makes God very happy.  What has encouraged me most has been the fact that they have initiated these projects themselves without depending on us.  They have made these good initiatives for the right reasons and at great personal sacrifice.  I have been happy to see the 42+ orphans at valley Franks area (Rivunzu) still getting care despite Frank's illness - the committee has risen to the occasion well and has done a good job feeding and educating the little ones.  in addition to this I have visited another care centre at Nkhate (about 65 kids) and am aware of another orphan care project that my Hilltop manager has visited to confirm.  So, wonderful work is being done by these folk !  God has moved their hearts and they have responded with compassion and mercy, despite having very little to offer.  I like the way these projects operate.  No orphan centres are being built.  Rather, these children are being placed / kept within extended families and church families.  They are living in normalised family situations and the church buildings are used to provide day care, extra care, basic pre - school education and extra meals.  Our role has been in helping with additional education materials and toys, buckets and drums for water etc.  We also provided 80 bags of maize to the care centres at Rivunzu and Nkhate during 2014.  The 50 bags at Rivunzu were used to provide meals at the church day care centre whilst at Nkhate the 30 bags was divided and food was sent to the families who are feeding the orphans at night in their homes.  We will continue to help these centres and more during 2015 without creating dependency, resources permitting.

CONCLUSION :

There has been a lot of hard work put in at Hilltop and in the valley during 2014.  Results have been excellent and I am greatly encouraged by progress at the farm and in the valley.  I am very proud of our Malawi Team :)  2015 promises to be a year of greater maturity and significant development.  We look forward to what 2015 will bring.  THANK YOU for being partners with us in all that we do.  So many lives have been impacted positively through your sacrifices !  What you have done and your open hearts and generous spirits have inspired much.  You are greatly appreciated !!!

Ongoing Success at Hill Top Farm

In it's fourth year, Hill Top Farm continues to succeed in it's goal of sustainable development.

PDFA has partnered with about 50 families to farm this land. Currently, maize, beans, soya, chic peas, vegetables and pigs are being farmed. There are also 20 bee hives. The farm produces it's own compost.

Here are a few of the latest pictures (from the top: the Farm management team, the maize storage, the new piglets and a view of the farm from the main house):

Dave's update on Hill Top Farm and the Valley

Dave's update:

"I returned Saturday evening from 2.5 weeks in Malawi and what a good trip it was :)


We are busy resolving the orphans impending food crisis (Dec-Feb) with a gift received.  The kids will be ok with the rice harvested now until year end.
 
The adult literacy classes (mini schools) are flourishing with 8 on the go now in different areas !  It’s gone crazy and it was so satisfying to see women (and a few men too) reading aloud at meetings and even at the conference. 

Up in Blantyre we had some amazing children and youth times !  The visiting youth I had from the USA were brilliant.  The highlight for me was a Friday / Saturday youth event we hosted at the farm with about 60 youth. Made a HUGE fire in the ball room Friday night :)

The farm is going well.  Maize harvest is finally in, treated and counted.  We have a very good 269 bags in stores, which will help us greatly to achieving sustainability.  Beans and Soya currently being cleaned, treated and bagged.  Peas just harvested.  Sunflower still in the field.  First honey harvest in a while is being processed now – hopefully we will get about 30kg.  Organic compost project is flying along nicely.  Piglets x9 are growing nicely and their bigger cousins are mostly pregnant so many more piglets should be around soon."

A few pictures (from the top: the crops on the farm; Foster and his team; and the pigs)

Joy and Progress despite Challenges

Dave's update 

"This trip to Malawi was greatly encouraging.  The model farm (Hill Top) where we teach “Farming God’s Way” was a constant hive of activity during this trip.  We have almost 60 families that ‘share’ the land with us and many of them were harvesting their corn/maize at this time.  At harvest time the whole family is present to assist bring in the harvest and this is always an exciting time.  We were also helping folk de-cob their harvest at our “milling shed” and this was a pleasure to see (as we now have electricity again after an almost 5 month interruption due to vandalism).  Their joy at having their harvest de-cobbed in an hour or so as opposed to months of rubbing the grain off with the fingers was clear to see.  We ask for a small payment to cover the electricity and maintenance of the machinery. The harvests this year have been reasonable compared to last year as the rains were better.  

We have harvested our first planting of Soya beans and this is drying in one of our sheds.  The later Soya and the peas are still in the ground and are looking good.  A little more rain is required to bring them to conclusion.  I look forward to seeing this harvest in July.  The entire farm is under cultivation by someone and that is most encouraging to see.  Weeds are still proving to be a great challenge but we are hopeful that the next 2-3 years will see us victorious and weeds becoming less and less.  

Our 6 pigs are doing very well.  They look healthy and fat.  Hopefully we can start breeding in the next few months.  We have purchased another 9 piglets which should arrive soon.  We will separate the piglets from our pigs for 2-3 weeks just to make sure they are not diseased.  Disease has decimated most of the pigs in the area with very few remaining.  An orphanage near us, which had over 200 pigs, lost them all.  We are very grateful that we have survived thus far !  

We have started an organic compost manure project to produce our own compost manure.  All the superfluous organic material from the farm and surrounding area is gathered and heaped up.  We then build structured heaps using the organic material, with layers of chicken manure and lots of water.  The whole ‘square’ begins to heat up and rot.  The square is turned 8-9 times over a period of months until the organic material breaks down.  The heat also kills off the grass and weed seeds in the mix.  We plan to use the compost manure for our planting stations and we hope to sell some compost manure as well.  

We also initiated our own little earthworm farm, using our pig manure and organic material from the farm.  I brought in some earthworms from my home in Cape Town in an ice cream tub inside my suitcase and we have seeded them into their new home.  The worms did not appreciate being placed inside the aeroplane hold and did not look too happy when I looked at them after their trip.  Nevertheless, it looks as if some have survived the trip and they should start breeding soon :)  I would be happy if we can put all our pig manure through the worms to give us large volumes of earthworm castings.  With harvest season now upon us we should also be able to get much of our pig food from the shelling process at our mill. (cheap feed for our pigs) 

Down in the valley our friends had endured another flood.  It appears as if the river has determined to alter it’s course each rainy season to regularly flood the area in which our folk live.  What used to be a once in 10-15 year flood is becoming an annual event.  Once again the water lapped at Frank’s house and caused the loss of the rice and maize crops.  Both have been replanted and we are hopeful of a reasonable crop in the next few months.  To be sure farming is becoming a more difficult pastime and seasons seem to be more unpredictable.  Despite these challenges we estimate to have enough food for the 42 orphans until September / October but there will be some challenges in the hungry months over Christmas through to harvest time in March / April 2014.  The orphans looked well nourished and happy :) A visitor donated $500 to buy food now whilst it is cheap as prices will rise sharply come year end.  Frank is looking at relocating to higher ground closer to the main road.  He will move the orphans too.

Whilst in the valley we visited 2 adult literacy schools that we helped initiate.  The plan is to start another 2-3 classes in other areas in the valley this year to help the many folk, mostly women, who are illiterate.  We also have 2 schools running in the townships around Blantyre.  I was delighted to see some of the ladies, who were brave enough, reading off the blackboard.  What a moment :)  The smiles on their faces !!  

Back at the farm we are continuing to repair and restore the house and infrastructure. We installed a pressure pump on the house water supply to enable sufficient pressure to fill our solar geyser and to enable us to install an instant hot water supply to our recently installed shower in the “ladies room”.  We also built another 2 bunk beds and bought all the necessary mattresses and bedding to enable us to host us to 12 guests at a time.  We had 12 guests visit us from the USA and we just coped with the numbers.  They were a good team and were quite willing and able to cope with the different conditions to what they are normally used to.  Besides visiting and seeing all that we do this team also assisted us with training as we trained over 70 of our folk for a day at the farm.   Subjects covered included micro business, health and hygiene and even some basic engineering.

We continue to repair and upgrade our sheds and storage areas, repairing windows and doors, plastering and painting etc. Most buildings have had no maintenance for more than 20 years and so there is much to do.  We also need to increase our storage areas as production ramps up at the farm.  Security needs to be improved for our crop storage.  Poverty seems to be on the increase everywhere and so theft and crime is also on the increase.  The devaluation of the currency has increased suffering immeasurably. There are some quite violent armed gangs in the area who have caused much trouble, loss and personal injury to people, some of whom are our friends.  This has caused us to be on high alert and high prayer.  It is difficult to resist well armed gangs of 10-12 men when they have firearms and we do not.  Nevertheless we do our best and make our plans so as to best defend ourselves and our property.  The police are completely useless and most likely the source of the firearms so one cannot rely on them at all.

Despite all the issues we are not discouraged but, on the contrary, we are greatly encouraged at the progress that is being made."

Time to compost

Building a new compost manure pile with old organic material and chicken manure.
The heat generated kills off all old unwanted seeds present (like weed seeds) and leaves us with a good growing material.

The Decobber

Our decobber hard at work, decobbing for the folk who have cultivated land at our farm.  The harvest is reasonable this year.
Each farmer pays us 2 bags for the use of the land plus a small fee in cash or maize for the decobbing.

The farm becoming sustainable

Dave's update:

"I have just returned from Malawi.  Trip went well – farm is totally ready for the rains.  The guys have worked really hard again to be ready.

Maize mill is running and making some money – should pick up nicely after the next harvest.
Mushroom house is working well and sales are taking place almost daily.
Honey – we are down to 12 hives but do hope to harvest honey early in the new year.
Pigs – 35 died.  Foster suspects sabotage :(  We brought in our last 5 pigs now to try again.

I have sent you some pics of the latest.  We are fairly close to being sustainable now, in terms of our security and staff costs, and basic maintenance and electricity etc."

The pictures from the top: Black mamba on the farm; the maize mill in operation; planting maize 

Hill Top Farm's first crops

The farm has had some good rains and the crops are growing !!!


Beans ...

Soya ...

This is wonderful news and we're hopeful for a great harvest in a few weeks.

Malawi Farm

Finally managed to reach Foster at the farm yesterday - they have been experiencing very heavy rains and his phone fell into a pool of water in the fields (eish) - so he has not been able to chat for a few days :)

All the crops i.e. maize, beans, ground nuts, Soya have been planted and are doing well. Weeds are growing even faster than the crops and this is the major challenge at present - to be expected as this season we have turned bush / grass into farmland. Our township folk are struggling to contain the weeds as they cannot afford to hire extra labour. The "farm" 10 acres are more or less under control from weeds.

We have purchased a trailer to go with our small tractor. This will be delivered soon from a small-holder estate near Mulanje.

We are looking to get a backup generator and solar geyser soonest.

Looks like I will be in Malawi 21 March - 4 April.

Thanks for your interest, prayers and support

Chat soon

Dave

Hill Top Farm Shines

Great news today - Escom has put in the 3 phase meter and turned on the juice at Hill Top Farm.  We have lights at the the farm !  We can now get cracking on the water supply issues.
Other good news - Foster tells me he has located 2 complete wheels for our dear old tractor - rims, tyres and tubes.
The frenzied pace of work preparing the land for this rainy season continues unabated.  Chirobwe, Ndirande, Lunzu and the Chigumula village folk are all hard at work.  The land will be ready within weeks I am told.
Down in the valley the 4 secondary school orphans and the 21 primary school orphans all have new uniforms and are at school as planned, paid for by the bean harvest recently harvested by Frank and his team.

August 2011 - Farm visit from from the USA

During August a team from the USA visited Hill Top Farm and helped with getting the farm ready.

They also spent time teaching school children  ...

 ... and even got to play football with our Malawian friends.