I spy, with my little eye... hope that will provide for generations of people to come!
Look carefully. Look very carefully. Do you see it?
Right now it doesn’t look like much except a barren field, but at each wooden stake in this field is planted a cashew sapling. In 3-5 years, this sapling will start producing cashews. These cashews will provide income for the family that owns and farms this plot of land for 25 years to come!
Let’s play again.
I spy, with my little eye…
DINNER!
This one was easier to find. This plant is a nutritious meal when served over rice. It is called ortalissa, but the local people call it matsavu. Its leaves and squash will provide many good meals for a family. In the midst of the cashew trees provided to the 300 families in our community farm in Muchenguentava are planted intercrops. Seeds such as beans, peanuts, and pineapple were provided so the families can grow food to eat now while they wait for their cashew trees to produce income.
Sarah Mugabe is the head of one of these families. I had the privilege of meeting Sarah on my most recent trip to our Sunshine Villages Project in Muchenguentava. Sarah and her nephew have begun planting the 470 cashew saplings that they will receive as part of this project on their 2 hectare plot of land. Sarah comes twice each week to water the saplings and tend the land so that it doesn’t get unruly and overgrown.
When we arrived out on the 600 hectare Project Sunshine community farm, it was quiet and desolate. It looked like everyone had gone home for the day. But then I turned around and there right behind me stood this sweet woman. Her toothless grin melted my heart. She was so little; if she were to stand on her tippy tippy toes, she would only reach the height of my shoulders at best. She had been tending her saplings but stopped to come greet us.
Again and again, I am humbled by the happiness and fortitude of the Mozambican people. While the rest of the world looks on them as poor and suffering, they are anything but this. They are content with what they have. They take joy in the simplest of things; the things that we take for granted. They are willing to work harder than any of us Westerners ever would work, and they will go to lengths we would never even consider. Sarah, for example, walks five kilometers to get to her family plot on the community farm. I daresay most of the people reading this blog would do that. She then works under the hot African sun planting, watering, and tending to the trees. When her work is complete, she walks another five kilometers back down the deep sand road to her home. Why does she do this? Because she receives hope for the future of her family and dignity in working for it.
I absolutely adore the elderly Mozambicans. I truly want to just bring them all home to live with me. So, any chance I get to sit and chat with one of these dear people, I do just that! I always begin by asking them how old they are. Very few are able to answer this question. Birthdays are not celebrated here like in other parts of the world, so they often lose track. She was able to remember that she was born in 1945. I did the math and was shocked to calculate that she is 78 years old. She looked healthy and strong and much younger than this. When we asked to take a photo of her, she immediately put her hoe to the ground and took a pose like she was working. There is no doubt she is proud of her work. When asked what her secret to old age is, she responded, “To love God.”
Sarah was born, raised, and has lived her whole life in Muchenguentava. She has raised four children who have all gone off to pursue their own lives. Her husband has died, leaving her a widow. She said that at one time she did have work, but now she has nothing and no money. She knows the value of her plot of land and the trees she has planted there. Those trees will provide a nice life for her. This is why she happily tends to them, despite the effort in doing so. She promised us that she would work very hard to care for her trees and help them become fruitful. We asked her what she would do with her money once the trees mature and she can harvest and sell their cashews. She said that she wants to add on more rooms to her house. Don shared with her that his hope is that she will be able to add 10 bedrooms onto her house! She lit up with the biggest of smiles and giggled.
It is people like Sarah for whom the Sunshine Villages Project was created. This has been my husband’s dream for over a decade. It is everything he has worked and strived for. It has been my privilege to walk alongside him and to see the joy in his face and the tears in his eyes as he sees his dream for the poor farming families of Mozambique becoming a reality. He is not doing this for himself. He will gain no material rewards from this project. He is doing it for Sarah and hundreds more families like hers. For the both of us, this is a far greater reward than riches.
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