Monday, January 3, 2011

A Trip to TIFIE

Peek a boo!
We are on our way to the Tifie Farm. Boys play soccer anywhere they can! It was a very rainy day!
Just a little mud, rain, and a chicken in the middle of the road.
(pic below) "Mom, what's for dinner??"
Tifie is a non-profit organization, Tifie Humanitarian (www.tifie.org)Inspiring website!
Robert Workman of "Roberts Crafts" is the CEO of this wonderful organization.
Ben and I, Sister Headlee and Pascal went out to the Tifie Farm here in DRCongo. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive to get out there. It was absolutely beautiful and amazing. The African terrain was unbelievable.
The Tifie Farm is helping people to work, learn how to farm, and learn business skills. They receive pay, but put 10 percent back into the farm. They also make some wonderful portable energy, solar panels, and solar batteries to help the people to have cheap electricity.
Here are some pictures of our adventure:
This is the food they eat daily in the DRCongo, it is the Casava root. It looks kind of like a sweet potato. They peel it, shred it and soak it for 48 hours in water then they put it out and dry it in the sun and grind it into a flour like texture and they make foo, foo(I don't know how to spell foo foo) out of it. They grind up the leaves of the Casava plant and cook it till it turns into a lovely green liquid substance and pour it over or dip the foo, foo in it. There is about 0% nutritional value, but this is what they eat. It fills you up. The Casava plant will grow anywhere here. All you need is a Casava stick and put it into the ground and it will grow.
This tiled in bath tub thing is for the Casava to soak in. That water well in the background does not work. They haul the water from the lake a few miles away.
This nice lady is grinding the Casava leaves.
Momma's little helper!
All the men headed out to the fields to work.
This machine intrigued Ben. It's like a big rototiller with lots of attachments that can go on it. I wouldn't be surprised if GWR all of a sudden had one of these things in the yard... just because.
This is Pascal, he works in the mission office with us. He drove us out to the Farm. This is where Ben and Pascal will have all the YM from Kinshasa come for their Duty To God Camp!!! They will have a week with the 12-13, and week with the 14-15 and a week with the 16-18 in June. Ben and Pascal are working really hard to make this a wonderful experience for the YM of the DRCongo!
Ben found a few Chinese tractors. I don't think he will be buying any of these. Kabota and John Deere have Ben's heart!!!
Another one of those crazy contraptions!! If it runs.....they use it!!!
A little water puddle doesn't stop you from getting where you want to go! These were the first bikes Ben and I have seen. They are also all Chinese bikes. This area must have received a bunch because there were many bikes out here. Elder Hatch and I got homesick for our tandem!
These are some school desks for the children.



We are in our P-day clothes!

Everything in the Congo that drives on the road is full & overloaded way beyond capacity!!!! ,There is no need to close the doors either, that way you can fit more in and then just hang on!!

4 comments:

Matthew Hatch said...

Wow, those are beautiful pictures! I love you guys, keep up the hard work. G-ma read me a letter that Sis. Headlee sent her, sounds like you guys are where the Lord wants you to be at the right time. All sacrifices are blessings when you are doing the Lord's work.

echo said...

i kinda love all the pics of the crazy vehicles and the fact that people are all over it like ants on a sucker.

Bluebird & Company said...

I love the school desks!
And that farm looks really neat.
Have you tried cooking the root another way?....just for fun? I wonder if it would taste good cooked like yams. Only, I bet you'd need brown sugar and butter....something they probably don't have.

Anonymous said...

I just wrote a long comment but it got deleted. :( So never mind.