Agriculture Program

I am not the ‘go with the crowd’ charitable person. Not that I am a particularly defiant person but I don’t tend to like to do what I ‘should’ do, so I tend to go kicking and screaming to any of the off ship programs. Of course, I have various good reasons. Making relationships in one day with someone (especially children from orphanages) then only coming sporadically because my schedule doesn’t allow any different, seems almost cruel, and not worth it. Unless I can see a good reason for being somewhere, or feel I make a difference, I don’t see the point. The question comes up if I would do even more evil by going. For example, orphans need constant love, so going to an orphanage, and one of the children get attached (thankfully the orphans seem to have learned and psychologically extract themselves from large groups when they come) then never coming back or only coming back sometimes, only to leave for good in a few months seems cruel. Anyways those are my reasons for not going to our off ships charities often.

The credit for this photo goes to someone other than me.



One of my friends goes to the Agriculture sight almost every week. The Agriculture program is run by Congolese man by the name of Jean-Claude who does an excellent job of teaching about twelve people for three months how to farm and how to teach others to farm. Anyways, my friend wanted me to go with me, and I needed to get off the ship so yesterday I went. At least, I thought, it would be more about the labor than friendship building. Well I was wrong, but it was quite a good experience.
By now the twelve or thirteen people there have been there for two months so they have gotten it down pretty well. They were teaching us (not an incredibly hard thing in my case since I am a city girl I have to admit). Very patiently, a young Sierra-Leonean man and his wife (who had a cute little baby on her back by the name of Anna) showed Penny and I how to plant the seed. They even told us why we did it in that specific way.
Later, after a long lunch break Penny and I went to the other side where a group of men and a woman were fixing plant huts for the saplings (or whatever you call it). They taught us (sometimes patiently and sometimes not so much) how to make very natural rope out of banana palm leaves and tree bark. I am proud to say, I can now do both.
They were very friendly. I felt like I got to know them, which I need to do in another culture. How else can I understand a culture otherwise? Thankfully, they treated me like the friend of Penny and so kept me from feeling as if I have to go back every week, as I don’t think I’d be any use there.
I learned that we have so much to learn from the Africans. They are naturalists by nature. Everything they did at that sight they did without using chemicals and did it with an ease of people who felt that it was how it should be. They understood the need for it better than my American compatriots could. It might be partially because it saves money in Africa, it would not save money in America. Still… I learned. I love learning.
I was probably mostly in the way, I didn’t know what I was doing, and I was a complete foreigner and a complete idiot at times, but I’m glad I went. I like it when for once an African is lording knowledge over me instead of a westerner teaching an African.

A Good Day then a Bad Day

After ten days of working at reception, I finally got a day off on Saturday, and went to the beach with my good friend, Becca. This was also a bittersweet day since Leah, another good friend, had gone home. Nearing the end of our time at the beach on Saturday, we went for a walk then met up with one of the people Becca had met before when she was scouting beaches (she was making up the intertainment book for the Africa Mercy). In both Togo and Benin, the people I interacted with, especially potential patients, did not speak good English. It is so much harder to click with someone you do not speak the same language as, then with those you can understand. I did not understand this fully until I met this man. He spoke fluent English. My brain instantly clicked him as being my equal. I hate to say it, but sometimes I find that hard to do. Now, he did not want to become a patient, but his father was going blind. The hope on his face was absolutely beautiful when we told him his father might get treatment and see again. It instantly brought to life the hope people gain when they even hear the name of "Africa Mercy". See, they aren't just thinking rich people, white people, westerners, a nice facility. We are their only hope of ever walking, seeing, or being normal again. Most African countries have minimal health services and even smaller surgery ability. When they do, there is no insurance affordable enough for more than half the people. Sometimes it is easier to remember them as a statistic, but the hope I saw in that young man's eyes, when he heard there was a possibility that his father, a man he loved, could see again, then that statistic fell away, and I saw a human being clinging onto something. That is so powerful. Hope can be dangerous.
Today Mercy Ships had screening day. It is when thousands of people come to a large stadium or building to be looked at and get the yay and nay on getting a life changing opperation. This is a lot like getting in line for that Peter and John miracle in the Bible with the lame guy. Same desperation.
I'm not sure what, so I am not going to speculate, but something went wrong. Quite a bunch of people got into the gaits before they were supposed to and a lot of other things escalated to created panic, panic born of desperation made worse by hope. Something I almost feel bad about, is I am thankful no Mercy Shipers got hurt.
Amongst the Africans who were in the midst of the chaos there were injuries and one death - an African man who only wished to be looked at and maybe cured. Hope had spured him. I have no idea who this man was. I do not know his family. I have never see his face, but I pray that his family will be ok and that the comfort of God will flow over them.
This makes what we are doing so much more real. This is why I'm here. To help those doctors and nurses who are essentually being Peter and John. Peter and John did not give money. They did not tell the begger he needed to follow Jesus first. They just layed their hands on the man and he was healed.
Who are we? We are just tools God uses, and Satan hates that. Satan hates healing, joy, and hope. Hope is a powerful thing.
So please pray for us on board the Africa Mercy as we process everything that has gone on today. It is a tragedy that Satan used what we ment for good. Still, God is powerful and will use this tragedy for good. Thank you God.

God bless you all.
Heather