More Provision

Technical difficulties with posting pictures. These go with the Provision text.

These ladies are returning home after a day working at Grace Farm. The lady on the left is the oldest woman I saw on the farm. Her face was filled with charater and personality. I asked her if I could take her picture and she waved me off with, "maybe later". A couple of days later she sent a message that she wanted her grandchild to have a ball like I had given the Grace Farm orphans. I complied thinking that would get me access to capturing her intriquing image close up with my camera, but it wasn't to be. When I delievered the ball she was not home. I wish you could see her up close.

Sheep in Malawi have tails. They are thick and plump with fat and hang about 7 inches long. One of the missionaries heard me exclaiming about how sheep in America don't have tails and he told me that we cut them off--I don't know whether he was kidding me or not. He said that if the tail is cut off the fat is more evenly distributed on the sheep's body. In Africa that fatty tail is a delicacy and they leave them intact until the end of the sheep's life. I touched one. It was indeed soft, fatty and boneless. The sheep wasn't impressed by my investigative fingers and ran away.

Here the goats and sheep drink upstream of the area where I learned to wash clothes with Mama Evelyn. And further upstream...hmmm.
This is the market at the Malawi/Mozambique border only a few miles from Grace Farm. Sellers set up every Thursday. You can purchase everything from dried fish and fresh vegetables to electronics to Faded Glory brand used clothing. When clothing donations are made to Africans one of the things that happens to them is they are put in giant bundles and auctioned off to middle men. Those middle men bring them to markets such as this one and sell individual items for the equivalent of $.20 to $10 depending on what the seller thinks the interested party can/will spend. Bronwyn is able to have an extensive and stylish wardrobe because of her bargain shopping at the market. I purchased two skirts for about $1.25 each.

Will post more market pictures soon. I loved the market place. Teeming with life, haggling, conversation, there was plenty for all--unfortunately most of the shoppers could purchase little. I went with Bronwyn, Carolyn (Peace Core college student) and Naomi (neighbor missionary). The sellers were pleased to have four white women combing through their wares. It is assumed that white people in Malawi have money--and when you look at it in comparison to what the nationals have--we do have a great deal.

Provision

Grace Farm keeps a large garden, complete with banana trees. It provides fresh fruits and vegitables for the missionaries and the children. There is a young man employed to work it daily. He is pictured with a watering can in the background of this photo.

Here is a well from which he draws water for the plants. Zoe I and often went to watch for frogs here. A separate, deep (safe) well exists for human consumption on the farm. I drank from it after it was filtered in the Eden's kitchen.

The milk we used in our trice daily hot tea came from one of the two Grace Farm milk cows. Bubba Simon boiled (pastuerization?) our alotted portion each morning when it was brought fresh to the door by a farm employee.

Cows, sheep, goats and chickens also provide fresh meat and eggs as well as income for the farm. I failed to photograph the cows and chickens but here the goats and sheep who were herded together by possibly the oldest man I saw on the farm. Life expectancy is short in Malawi. The sheepherder is probably around 50 years old.

These ladies are employees of Grace Farm and are seen heading home after a days work. They have the most remarkable sense of balance. The pictures do not lie.