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“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” –Mark Jenkins

Monday 20 March 2017

18 weeks to go - that's a surprise!

Wall art at Linda Farm
Crikey that's come around quick. In exactly 128 days Tracey and I will be back on that night flight to Johannesburg to make the transfer into Zambia and back to the place we both fell in love with last summer.... the run-down, charming, basic and incredibly friendly town of Livingstone.
This summer we go for a week longer and have arranged to work on the Linda Farm project that inspired us so much in just the hour we spent there.
Linda Farm occupies a piece of land that the government allocated some years ago to provide somewhere for disabled people to grow their crops. The site is now home to 14 families (of about 6 people each) who live as a self-sufficient community raising animals and crops and providing a place for local young adults to learn about becoming self-sufficient themselves by growing their own crops and taking them to market to sell.
So in preparation for the trip, we are collecting old (but working) smart phones this year to help the teenagers to get their businesses started. We also plan to share the skill of turning old clothes and carrier bags into floor mats and strong shopping bags through the simple art of "boodling". Which is basically crocheting on a large wooden hook with stretchy yarn (or in our case old T-shirts).
We are excited to see how far they have come in the last year with their objectives - the pigs were arriving the week we visited and the water pump was being repaired and was to be turned on that afternoon. We were so gutted that we only visited them on the day we were leaving, but hey that's life.... we are going back and get to spend weeks with them rather than minutes! Very excited, very keen and slightly worried that 18 weeks means we should really get cracking collecting what we need and preparing the teaching materials with easy to follow diagrams that are language and age independent (as well as teach Tracey to use her new Nikon!). Many people have asked about donations this year which is incredibly kind. So if anyone would like to donate any of the supplies we plan to take with us, we have created an Amazon wishlist of some useful items which you can use to order and have delivered to us. Thank you for your support once again.


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