It Takes Two for Success

Submitted by Marlin Rice, Z8 Agricultural Director (HCC), Dec. 20th, 2009

The spring rains begin to fall in November confirming that it was time to begin planting crops in Zambia. I returned to Serenje on November 14 after driving the 255 miles from Lusaka with Festus Kalunga - the son of Pastor Navice and Kettie. Festus is a delightful young man with an infectious smile and it was a blessing to have a traveling companion who spoke Bemba. We found some giant mushrooms along the roadside and he was excited to give them to his sister to cook.

November had brought considerable rainfall and the countryside was lush and green; it was just beautiful.

The rains also brought out the chameleons and we saw many crossing the road in their slow, stilted, hesitating walk.

The gardens at the Hope Center also benefited from the rains. Joshua and Shadrach had planted rows and rows of tomatoes, onions, rape, patches of pumpkin vines, and two large plots of maize, which would be roasted for the children when the ears were ready. The garden was lush, and with the coming of the rains, Joshua would no longer need to carry buckets of water to irrigate the garden.

But the rains also encouraged the weeds. Weeding the gardens and fields is a very difficult and time-consuming task with the traditional hoe. I brought three wheel hoes with me to the Hope Center—graciously provided by Gary Clem. Navice and Joshua quickly learned how the wheel hoes would increase their efficiency in weeding the gardens. Shadrach soon abandoned his traditional hoe after he observed that weeding a row of onions required only one minute with a wheel hoe, but 15 minutes with his traditional hoe! By the end of the week, most of the weeds in the garden had fallen victim to Shadrach and the wheel hoe.

A major objective of my trip was to work along side Navice, Freddie, and Joshua in the planning and planting of the crops. We were blessed with an additional 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) to plant our crops this year. Navice and I bought the maize seed in Serenje at a store called Chinchi Wababili, which means “it takes two for success.” This became our motto for the week and Navice and I would use it to remind each other when we encountered an unexpected challenge.

To plant the maize, Navice and Joshua had the new ground plowed with a tractor to break up the clumps of elephant grass, then they coordinated a crew of 11 men with traditional hoes to level the ground, remove the clumps of grass, stretch a 490-foot rope across the field to mark straight rows, dig small divots along the rope for the seed, drop the seed one at a time into the hole, and then cover the seed with soil. Having grown up planting maize by this method, Joshua was experienced and extremely fast. I told him he was a machine, which brought a big smile to his face! The entire maize-planting process was a very labor-intensive process, but in between the rains, which fell almost daily, we planted 7.4 acres of maize in five days—all with hoes and by hand!