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.