You already know that maize and tomato are 2 of the core ingredients of the majority of Zambian and sub-saharan African meals. But we also have to add cabbage to that list. It is full of nutrients and keeps the belly full for a long time.
Of course our villagers and PAF members in Chinkonono are growing cabbage for their own use. But our member Raphael is doing it big style. He has a huge cabbage garden and is growing it for his family’s consumption and for sale.
But Raphael doesn’t only grow cabbage. In his garden you will also find onion, egg plant and tomato.
We say: well done! But take a look!
Proud farmer 🙂
Hard work pays off
Raphael harvesting
now that is one big cabbage
On a side note…Lloyd is also trying other good foods 😉
Since we moved our PAF garden closer to PAF Center it is much easier to grow veggies. People work hard to make sure they supply their families and the village with veggies. This season we focus on tomatoes. Besides cabbage tomatoes are among the most important and popular ibgredients in Zambian cuisine. So it only makes sense to grow a larger quantity of them at our PAF garden.
Unfortunately it doesn’t come that easy. With dry season around it is very difficult to water the plants. Mostly women have to carry buckets and buckets and buckets from the river or a well to water the plants. Not even mentioning the actual gardening work. You get the picture…
But just a few days ago all the work started to pay off and the first harvest could be brought in. What a joy 🙂
Of course we have to face the fact we cannot conserve tonatoes properly. But we are trying new methods to keep them longer. One of them is to keep ashes from cooking and put the fresh tomatoes in a box with cold ashes and store them away in a dry and cool place. Let’s hope it works out!
You guys all know what it is like: you just feel an itch and wanna go buy some stuff or go window shopping.
All that is impossible in Chinkonono. You eat what you grow, you wear what you sew or can get on rare occasions in town. The next shop is about 6km walking distance away. And you know…the items you buy will have to be carried back home again.
So PAF decided to re-use the sewing room and make it a shop.
Wesley nd the rest of the members kickstarted this whole project. Shelves have now been carpented and will be set up in the next few days.
Once the shop is all set up our members will sell tomatoes and veggies, bread and maybe cake, the clothes and bags we sew. Step by step we will try to widen the range of products. But to do so we need to find out what people are interested in.
Hopefully the shop will attract and draw more people towrds PAF Center. But it certainly will save our villagers lots of time and effort.
Of course using the sewing room is only a temporary solution until we manage to construct another building amd move the library there to seperate it from the buzzing business 😉
Time flies, folks. Bruni is already back from her 10-days trip to Chinkonono. We are currently working on another slideshow for you guys to see what happened and also some other cool surprises.
But what we can do for now to make the wait worthwhile we want to show you a little tour around PAF Center. Bruni will guide you around and talk about it. It is in German language, but we added the English subtitles for you guys.
Hope you enjoy and are as proud as we are about what happened there in the past years and how far we have already come.
You know people say that education is the key and reading educates. Well…it is true. So one of our main objectives at PAF is to educate our villagers, both kids and adults. Building a library was one of our top priorities. By now it is open everyday and as you can imagine people come and read all the time.
our book shelve
I guess we need more novels 😉
Even adults sit down to read and learn new things 🙂
fixing some educational posters in the kids reading corner
new chairs for the adults 🙂
As by today we have 260 books in stock, most for kids and teenagers but also some for adults. Topics range from science to novels and kids stories. We are trying to offer books in English and Chitonga.
Most are educational books with topics on agriculture, geography, science, literature, religion and health. But of course fictional books are not missing in our library. People can read novels like Harry Potter or Robert Ludrum in English. But also Tonga books like Tuli Bayuni (We are Birds).
The library is open to everyone in Chinkonono and the surrounding villages. People can come and read books inside or sit outside and enjoy the sun while diving into another world. Insides we have 2 kids reading tables along with 8 kids chairs and also 1 adult reading table with 2 adult chairs. I know…it sounds very small. And you are right, it is. But for now that is the best we can do. And lets be honest…the books is what matters most. And also people can of course borrow books for 2 days and read them at home.
But what am I telling you here? Let Lloyd take you on a little tour through our small library:
And yes…just like in any proper library, we do have a new librarian. Obert Milandu is taking care of the library and is giving out books and making sure they are all being returned.
Hey, if you want to come by and read a book…our opening ours are:
Week Days: 14:00hrs to 17:30hrs
Weekends: 08:00hrs to 17:30hrs
Thanks to all those kind donations, especially from Australia, our kids and adults are now in tune with the rest of the world. And I mean…who of us can say he never got lost in the magical world of Harry, Hermionie and Ron? We are so glad that Chinkonono people now can too. This library is making such a big difference and impact on people’s lives.
Since lots of adults in the villages don’t know how to read and speak English we are working hard to get Chitonga books. But we also still plan to set up English courses for adults.
I know…good read so far and you are waiting for the catch. And I don’t want to disappoint you here 😉 As you can imagine, books are not easy to come by in the Zambian bush. So we kindly ask for your help. If you have any spare books and want to send them to us to stock up our library, please feel free to do so. Since we plan to expand the library there is still space in the shelves to fill. Asking for money is always something that feels bad, but of course you can also donate and we will buy books for PAF library.
Postal addresse:
Planting A Future
P.O. Box 620288
Kalomo
ZAMBIA
Let’s work hand in hand to help our Chinkonono people to get access to literature and books. Thank you guys so much for taking the time to read this and maybe considering a book donation 🙂
It is again the end of year and everyone and most people are feasting and partying. Chinkonono village was not left behind again. Our PAF member Bruni from Germany made sure the PAF crew celebrated. So Bruni donated money for the event.
Just look at how happy our PAF kids Orsborn, Allan, Ryton, Cyford, Ruth and Told are!
It was supposed to be a PAF family get together, but when the village got wind of it they, too, invited themselves. I mean, who wouldn’t if there is food involved? 😉
This was quite a challenge to adapt to: from planning for 40 people to 160 now. But as it is with PAF, no one was turned away and miraculasly everyone had his fill of food, drink, laughter, joy and music.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2018!
But as you all know, a party does not prepare itself or little elves come and do it. So of course our members had a lot of work to do before the feasting.
First of all we had to decide where the food should be served and we were lucky enough that we could use the building that our dear friends Repairer of the Breach built near to PAF Center, the Brain Shapers Learning Center Zambia. Thank you so much, guys!!
Well…some decoration had to be organized. Funnily enough the men took care of that part. Lloyd, Patrick, Effeso and Phillip sat down and used what they had in their gardens to make the room look nicely. We are talking about banana leaves which were being cut into a “Merry Xmas” lettering by Lloyd. Just take some white paper and glue….tadaaaa 😉 Now add some of thosepoor man roses, the bagavarias. The deep purple reddish hues will lighten the Christmas mood. Doesn’t look too bad, does it?
Lloyd and the guys are cutting banana leaves for decor
Coming out nicely
Just adding some flowers and it is done 🙂
Now the major thing everybody was looking forward to: FOOD 😉
Our PAF ladies spent hours and hours cooking in our community kitchen at PAF Center. Rice had to be cooked, nsima had to be stirred and stirred and stirred. And if any of you ever tried cooking nsima, you will know what hard work that is. Also some goat stew and chicken were prepared, scones baked and drinks served.
Just imagine you would have to cook for 160 people, who initially were supposed to be only 40 😉
Pretty steamy in there 😉
Our PAF ladies doing some culinary magic in our Community kitchen at PAF Center
Stirring and stirring
Well…a bit more rice
Ladies, good job!! You guys rock! A big twalumba to Jane, Rosa, Venulli, Bina Bra, Bina Fortune and the rest of our PAF heroines 🙂
Before food was being served Patrick showed us his geeky dance to pass some time while the ladies were cooking.
Meanwhile…preperations went on, heavy loads to carry 😉
Looks quite heavy…come on guys, it’s just some rice 😉
Just enjoy our PAF ladies and some kids marching in to the sounds of “My African Dream” 🙂
And then…then…the waiting had an end and finally food was served. Everyone was in such a good mood.
But even serving the food turned out to be hard work…just look at those plates! Incredible! Also make sure you check out our “Christmas Tree” Zambian style 😉 Since we lack a real one, we put some Elephant Flower…you know: attitude is everything 😉
Serving some decent portions
Hungry?
First plates are ready
Our “Christmas Tree” is watching over the dinner 😉
Now we are bringing on some meat
And then the feasting began. Everyone enjoyed a day full of laughter and fun…and a full belly.
Village kids digging in 🙂
Well deserved, ladies! Enjoy your meal!
The gentlemen sat down inside, in style 😉
In summary what was meant to be a PAF get together ended up as a village party and left everyone happy and satisfied. It was so lively and colourful that it was a Christmas to remember.
Thank you, Bruni! Twalumba! ❤
PAF is wishing everyone a Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
Go, 2018!
Thank you and Twalumba to all our members, donors, supporters, friends and crew! Without all you guys PAF would not be happening!
Three years ago Chinkonono had no real center at all. Things and places throughout the village were widely spread and people would only gather at houses to do business. Chinkonono had to rely on other villages and town (Kalomo) for its daily needs. People had to go to Nguba to mill their maize and buy groceries such as salt, sugar and soap. They had to go to town to get their clothes mended and buy fruit tree seedlings.
This drastically changed and is no longer the state of affairs as Planting A Future has shaken things up. We have created a village center where people can access their groceries on PAF market place, mill their maize for little money with our own hammer mill or get their fruit tree seedlings.
Also we now provide instructions on agriculture skills, such as horticulture and gardening. Quite a number of people from Chinkonono and surrounding villages visit PAF Center.
Of course you can imagine that this was impacting the environment negatively and it had prompted PAF management to improve sanitation by constructing toilets, which will be used by both, PAF personell and clients.
So we have been working hard on constructing a building for the toilets, making bricks and plastering.
Plastering the new toilet building
This will look great
Things have to be done properly
Work in progress
Of course we wanted to make sure no it looks nice as well, so we had our carpenters make some beautiful wooden doors for us. Check that:
Working on the wood for the doors
Special Zambian way to check the doors 😉 😀
To be precises, we are talking about 2 semi-waterborne latrines with nice porcelain toilet bowl. PAF members will make sure the toilets will be kept maintained and cleaned at all times.
Wesley in Kalomo, toilet shopping 😉
As it always is when guys work hard…they needed some heavy lunch. Now guess what was on the menu! You know it? Nsima sourmilk porridge 😉
Hard work needs some good lunch 😉
As for now we are only left with finishing the interior and the installing the porceain toilet bowls. The mere existance of those toilets is good news to all visitors and PAF members as no one will seek the sanctuary of an hidden spot with sky view to answer the call of nature 😉 And I mean…look it the toilets! Don’t they look awesome? Who wouldn’t wanna go use them? 😉
Our PAF Center toilets
Thanks to all who donated funds and labour towards this very important project!!! 🙂
