Lesotho is calling... And so Stephan and I (Christiane) took part in a gardening course, 
To get a little deeper into the matter "self-catering. The course was held by a former soldier who had found himself in his service during his period of self-belief in Jesus. We were actually prepared for the fact that after a short introduction, we would go out into the garden and then only work. But it came out quite differently.
We sat firstonce 3 hours with a group of veterans, from former freedom Fighters of the ANCs of Mamelodie together in a room and listened to what Stephen, the former soldier, had to tell us. And he had a lot to say. But not "just" on the subject of gardening. No, he began by asking the participants to forgive what he had done wrong on behalf of his Arpartheits government against them and the black population in the past. Then, which was very impressive, he washed a man's feet. As a sign of repentance and as a request for forgiveness.
And then after a prayer the program started. But not with gardening;-)
The main aim was to persuade the participants to rethink and to show them that they themselves would have to come up with the "Popi" in order to be able to change something in their lives and their surroundings. Just sitting around and whining about the government wouldn't help. And so he took the people with empathy, joy and a positive enthusiasm along the way. He still threw ideas and numbers around to show them that there was potential anywhere in their environment to start their own small business and they would now be in turn and only have to tackle it.
It was really impressive how he managed to move people to rethink and thus motivated them to come out of the "slippers". He enthusiastically inspired her and pulled her out of her old thoughts: "Only the others would be responsible for their own difficult and poverty-driven situation." In this way, he helped the participants to find the answer to the questions asked. It was almost a question and answer game where we were all dragged in. It was really strong and also fun to see him as a group.
So we only went to gardening after this "motivational session" and short introduction to the field to practise the "simplified" gardening.
It was built in such a way that everyone, handy and Kunz, could get started without any previous knowledge. Without an expensive starterset, or the like. The only thing you would need was: some reason (60x60cm per bottle) to grow, one to two old plastic bottles, a nail, (or something similar to lace),... and off we went.
An irrigation system was built from the bottle by placing three holes in all directions (all four sides of the bottle) and then burying them in a hole that had previously been lifted (but the lid had to look a little bit above). Then the seeds were sown around the bottles with two hand widths. Filling the bottle (2x daily) then irrigates the seed without the water evaporating in the hot sun. That's all there is to it.
Soooo simple. Precisely for the reason that everyone can do this here and thus can eat healthily and self-sustain.
This inspired us so that we wanted to try the same, the next day, at home in our own garden. The children had helped with such a great joy that we could well imagine taking this as a project with us to Lesotho. There we want to teach the preschool classes and their teachers. For as it is called so beautiful: early practises. And that's exactly what can be on site. If the youngest can successfully provide for their own food (in and for school). and combined with the hope that parents will try it out for themselves at home.
The hope is there and so we look positively into the future and put this project to our Heavenly Father and trust him that he will guide us as we can make it palatable to the people of Lesotho.
Be greeted
Your Christiane and family
