Of Plants and Poultry

I have now worked as an ECHO intern for a full week and change, and think I now have a better idea of what my life will look like for the next 55 weeks. I wanted to update y'all on a couple of things...

What does ECHO do?

ECHO does a lot of things, but perhaps the most important role we fill is one of networking. Missionaries and development workers in the field can become part of the ECHO network. Members of the network receive the periodic ECHO Development Notes which give practical advice on subsistence level farming techniques, and also have access to ECHO's tech request program. Basically, missionaries in the field send their questions and problems to ECHO staff/interns, who troubleshoot solutions. E.g. the corn crop is not producing, but there's no sign of obvious pests.

Interns and staff responding to tech requests have a number of resources at their disposal. In addition to the constant experimentation that happens on the ECHO farm, we have an extensive research library full of obscure and hard-to-find texts and files. After a few hours of dedicated research, a detailed response is sent to the missionary giving possible solutions to their problem.

In addition to providing information, ECHO also provides seeds to missionaries in the field in order to facilitate crop experimentation. Our seedbank is constantly being expanded, and is refreshed by the many varieties of edible crops grown on the farm.

ECHO does a lot more than this, but networking is a key part of their work.

What have I been doing?

This week I took over a couple of new responsibilities, in addition to continuing my orientation. Heidi (the intern whose Monsoon garden I will eventually take over) is on vacation for the week, so I am in charge of caring for the chickens and chicks in her absence. We are currently trying to wean them away from commercial feed and towards forage, which is a better option for poor farmers with limited funds. This means I cut branches from trees such as Moringa, Lucaena, and other nutrient-rich varieties and hang them in their pen. I also gather eggs, clean the coop, and all the other things you'd expect with chicken-care. I'm currently researching effective ways of upping their protein-intake, as they are not laying as much as they should.

I have also taken over the responsibility for watering one of the nursery areas, which has been a more challenging job. I am not yet an expert in judging which plants need water and how much (bamboo is thirsty, papaya doesn't like much water.). I'm hoping that repetition and practice will allow me to attune better to the needs of the individual species.

This post is getting long, so...

Plant Spotlight: Moringa

The Moringa tree is one of the plants that we highly promote here at ECHO. Moringa is an incredibly hardy tree (assuming you're in the tropics; it doesn't freeze well). It grows back from heavy pruning, and so can be maintained at head height, although it will grow into quite a large tree if left alone. It is perennial, drought resistant, and quite tasty with a slight horse-radishy flavor.

The primary value of Moringa is its nutrient content. Every part of the tree is edible, and the leaves are often dried and then grinded to a powder. One teaspoon of Moringa powder has more beta caroteen than a carrot, more protein than a glass of milk, and is also chock full of fiber and several important amino acids. Moringa powder added to a staple crop diet (e.g. yams) has been shown to significantly increase health indicators. It is often effective when given to infants in the breast feeding stage, as it can contibute necessary nutrients not provided by malnourished mothers. In combination with other nutrient-rich plants such as amaranth, Moringa has been shown effective in slowing the progress of AIDS - comparable to medication!

Moringa has numerous other uses too: it makes a great animal fodder. Moringa seeds, crushed, act as a water purifying agent when stirred in polluted water. The list could go on, but this post is too long already.

Final Thoughts

I will try to update more regularly with shorter posts. I will also continue to tell you more about important plants and crops, if you are interested.

Please feel free to post comments or email me with any questions you have; I love to talk about this stuff.

Quotables

"A church full of life and love, working for the good of the community in which God has placed it, is the proper end of mission. Transformational development that does not work toward such an end is neither sustainable nor Christian"
-Bryant Myers, Walking with the Poor

Tomorrow is my first official day at ECHO! Here is an overview of what I'll be doing for the next several months...

During the month of October I will be primarily completing orientation tasks. In the mornings I'll alternate working with five of the six interns in their various garden plots: the Tropical Lowlands, the Rainforest, the Urban Rooftop, the Tropical Highlands, and the Semi-Arid garden. The only garden I will not work with is the Monsoon garden, which I will eventually inherit the maintenance of.

In November I begin shadowing Heidi, who is the current intern over the Monsoon garden. For the entire month I'll be learning the garden by working alongside Heidi, so that at the end of the month I can take over the maintenance and planning of the area. This also includes caring for the chickens and the Moringa trees.

From December on I will work a more constant schedule: work in the Monsoon garden and plant nursery, trainings and seminars on Mondays and Wednesdays respectively, large project farm work on Thursdays, and other tasks including leading tours of the farm and working in the bookshop. Next August I'll begin training my own replacement.

We work 6 days per work: 7:30 - 5:00 (although often later) on Monday through Friday, and then Saturday mornings. I recognize that it will be difficult work and long days, but right now I can't wait to start.

During these few days before the internship I have been hospitably welcomed by a lot of people. The Johns and Valkenburg families have both welcomed me into their homes and fed me, and their warmth has definitely eased the transition to life in Fort Myers. I have also enjoyed getting to know the rest of the staff here at ECHO. The girls living in the India house had the guys (Asia house) to dinner one night, which was incredible (even though they fed us caterpillers. No lie.).

Anyway, thanks for bearing with my long post. If you have any questions or just want to say hello, I'd love to get emails from some of y'all!

Early ECHO Pictures

I will update more thoroughly later and post some pictures here with explanations, but for now I encourage you to click the link "My Photo Album" on the right side of the webpage >>>>>

The pictures currently up are only what I could take in about an hour of wandering the farm, so they're not all of good quality. They should give you a better feel of the types of plants we're working with here!

First Impressions

I'm at Fort Myers, and today was my first day here at ECHO. I don't officially begin work until the 6th, so I've got one week to meet everybody and settle in.

So far, I couldn't be more excited to begin. I took a tour of the farm today, including the Monsoon garden which I will eventually manage. I've already seen and learned a number of cool things...

• I learned how to keep elephants out of a garden (fences, clearly, are ineffectual)
• I saw a contraption that converts barrels of dung into methane gas, which fills an innertube and then fuels a stove.
• Saw and tasted the Moringa trees. Very, very cool. I'll have to dedicate a post to them sometime.

Anyway, there's a ton more I could write about but it will have to wait. I've been meeting my fellow interns, and they all seem very cool, and very knowledgeable about subsistence farming.

I haven''t been able to take pictures yet because it's raining, but I promise they are forthcoming!

Setting Out by Wendell Berry
Even love must pass through loneliness,
the husbandman become again
the Long Hunter, and set out
not to the familiar woods of home
but to the forest of the night,
the true wilderness, where renewal
is found, the lay of the ground
a premonition of the unknown.
Blowing leaf and flying wren
lead him on. He can no longer be at home,
he cannot return, unless he begin
the circle that first will carry him away.

I recognize, of course, that Berry's poem is about a far more final "setting out" than my trip to Florida. Nonetheless, I think it's a beautiful picture of leaving home. This is my final week in Marietta before leaving for Fort Myers. I am scheduled to move in to ECHO on the 29th, so I'm quickly running out of time to tie up all my loose ends here: cleaning, voting, friends, odd-jobs around the house that remain unfinished... and packing, at some point!

I'll confess to being a little nervous about starting life in Florida. I recently spoke with one of the other interns, and discovered that he has both an undergraduate and Masters degree in Agriculture, whereas I have no previous exposure to agriculture at all. I'm trusting that the staff didn't make a mistake when they accepted my application; and I know that God is in control of these next couple years of my life.

Needless to say, my digital camera and my laptop will be making the pilgrimage to Florida with me, so I'll try to get pictures and thoughts up soon after I arrive.

Once again I have failed to update for a long time. Heather and I have been home for a couple of weeks now, and if you want to know more about our trip across Europe you can go to her blog here. Although I think even it is only updated to cover half the trip so far. I'll post some pictures to give you a general idea...

Now that I'm home I'm more or less biding my time until the ECHO internship in Fort Myers, FL begins in October. My knowledge of farming is limited to reading Wendell Berry short stories and having a killer farmer's tan. So I should have a lot to learn when I reach Florida. I can't wait to start.

During the trip and since returning I have had a lot of opportunity to read, which has been a nice change from the busy schedule of the school year. Purely out of spite, I'm going to inflict last month's reading list on my readers...

- Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco - I found this book really enjoyable, though I hardly think Eco considers himself a friend of the church.

- The Road, Cormac McCarthy - I read this book at Jeff Pipe's suggestion, and it was haunting, if a bit (intentionally) sparse. It's by the same guy who did No Country for Old Men, so don't expect a terribly bubbly story.

- All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy - I actually enjoyed this more than The Road, and can't wait to read the other two related novels.

- Peace Like a River, Leif Enger - An author/blogger I've been reading picked this book as one of his favorites, and it very well may be one of mine now as well. Couldn't put it down.

- Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy - Potentially the least depressing Hardy book I've ever read. I liked it.

- Two Ears of Corn, Roland Bunch - This is not a novel, but I'm reading it in preparation for my ECHO internship. It's about general good practice for doing agricultural work, including things like introducing appropriate technologies. Crucial if you're interested in Ag. Dev. Otherwise skip it.

- Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien - Hardly my first time.

- Two Crichton novels - State of Fear and Congo. Good quick reads.

- King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard - I had never read any Haggard before, but both Mr. Narayan and Heather (who read him at Oxford) recommended him. This one is a great adventure story, and a fun read. You do have to deal with the unthinking racism of Haggard's time (England was still an empire).

- She, H. Rider Haggard - Still reading this one, but so far I like it more than King Solomon's Mines.

I'm probably forgetting a couple. Anyone read anything recently they recommend?

La Ville-lumiere

Tomorrow is our last full day in Paris, after which Heather and I part ways with my parents and grab a train to Strasbourg. Heather hasn't been home since March, and I think she's more or less ready to see the States again. Still, I think this should be a good trip.

Some highlights from Paris... we saw Victor Hugo's house, the Pantheon (which contains among other things Foucault's pendulum and the aforementioned author's remains), Saint-Sulpice, the Eiffel Tower (of course), and Saint Chapelle. We viewed a large amount of impressionist and realist art at the Musee d'Orsay, and today we spent a few hours at the Louvre (where I could have spent a week). We also saw the Opera Garnier, which is the opera house that inspired Leroux to write the Phantom of the Opera (the French book, not the musical). It has subterranean water and everything. Tomorrow we're catching an early train to Versailles.

The pinnacle of the trip for me, however, was our visit to Notre Dame Cathedral. The cathedral itself was spectacular, and not just because of its associations with Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. After touring the inside of the sanctuary we climbed the tall spiral staircase up to the first landing at the base of the two towers, right near the entry to the belfry where the fictional Quasimodo made his home.

There is a belfry at the base of each of the two towers of Notre Dame, one containing a full complement of cathedral bells and the other a single, gargantuan bell. While wandering around the top of the cathedral, amidst the gargoyles and chimeras, the bells began to sound. The clamor was enormous, almost to the point of being painful; the vibrations could be felt across the entire stone edifice. They sounded for a good fifteen minutes, and those fifteen minutes overlooking Paris and listening to the bells of Notre Dame were the best fifteen minutes of this trip.

In my opinion.