Liberia Farmer Visits

 By Sara:

While Anthony and Jonny taught HWHIA in Liberia last year, I had the exciting opportunity to come along with them and then go around visiting various groups of farmers both to learn and to teach, plus spending time with some old friends.

First of all, there are some fascinating similarities and differences between Uganda and Liberia.  Liberia is a little farther north of the Equator, but more or less directly east of Uganda, on the other side of the African continent.  Since it is on the ocean, there were lots of coconut trees (and fresh coconuts being sold by the side of the road as street food), not something you usually see in Uganda.  But otherwise, lots of similar vegetation and crops which I recognized, like cassava, sweet potatoes, taro, plantains, rice, and the same species of "local"greens.

Cassava and bananas:

 

 

Rice and taro:

 

 

 Coconuts:

I enjoyed learning from the farmers I visited and also got to share with them from my work in Uganda.  I taught several groups The Earth is the Lord's Bible studies and then we compared farming in Uganda with farming in Liberia.  Depending on the interest of the groups, I then taught on topics like caring for the soil, the benefits of eating moringa (and how to cook it), and integrated pest management.

I got to visit with a group of people from the Christian Reformed Church of Liberia who loved The Earth is the Lord's Bible studies.  They were amazingly quick in understanding how to do the Bible studies and made excellent SMART action plans.  Some of them plan to use the Bible study method for Sunday school or for doing Bible studies with their children. 

They appreciated learning how to eat moringa leaves - moringa grows there, but most people don't know it can be eaten as food.  There is also leucaena and mucuna, both of which are useful for feeding animals, something most of the farmers did not know.

The population density in Liberia is lower than in Uganda, so many small farmers have 100-200 acres!  Which might sound small to an American farmer, but would be unbelievably huge for a family farm in Uganda.

Liberian farmers were shocked that most Ugandans don't eat sweet potato leaves or cassava leaves, which, according to them, are SO GOOD!  And they felt bad for Ugandans who only eat rice for special occasions, rather than every day like Liberians do, since it is their staple food.  Liberia also has a lot of palm oil trees (they grow naturally in many areas), so everyone cooks with palm oil.  They thought Ugandans are really missing out on tasty food by not having fresh palm oil for cooking.  Here are some sweet potato leaves on their way to a market:

After I visited one of the groups of farmers hosted by Joseph, his wife Musulyn taught me how to cook cassava leaves.  I agree with everyone that they are very tasty.  Though we used way fewer hot peppers than Musulyn usually cooks with, for my sake.  I was thankful because it was plenty spicy for me the way we cooked it together!

Joseph took me to visit an amazing farmer, named Ma Sue, almost near the border to Sierra Leone.  I have to say, I thought there were bad roads in Uganda, but they don't really compare with the roads in Liberia.  And I didn't experience the worst ones...  

Ma Sue is an amazing lady.  She grew up as a Muslim, but converted to Christianity.  She had 10 children, but all of them died, so she decided to dedicate her life to caring for orphans.  She has over 300 acres of family land, more than she can even farm, but there was lots of rice, palm oil trees, plantain, sweet potatoes, cassava, cocoa, vegetables, and fruits.  All of that food she grows is used to feed the orphans and needy children she cares for. 

During the rainy season, everything is (even more) flooded, so there are these walkways through the fields for people to get around on:

Ma Sue is the lady next to me in the blue blouse:

It rains WAY more in Liberia than in Soroti.  They told us it was the dry season there, yet it rained every day we were in the country...more rain than we get per day during the rainy season in Soroti.  This does create a challenge where it is difficult to dry and store crops for later, but it doesn't matter too much for them in terms of food security since people can grow things most of the time, even during the dry season.  In fact, some people said it is easier to grow food in the dry season since rain can be too much for many crops to handle in lowland areas. 

Not only did I get to visit with farmers, though, I also got to visit a school started by Boimah, someone Anthony and went to Calvin Seminary with 15 years ago!  It was great to reunite with him and see the good things he and his wife have been doing since he graduated.  They started this private Christian school which is affordable to pretty much everyone in the community.  Even though they can't pay the teachers much, the teachers are dedicated and appreciate that they are always paid on time.

 On Sunday, we also were able to go to his church and hear him preach.
 

Finally, we reunited with our friend Job, who was an intern at the World Hunger Relief farm in Waco, TX with me in 2013.   

Job is a biology teacher, but also teaches his students about agriculture.  He is passionate about encouraging youth to appreciate farming as the most honorable profession, so he is in the process of starting an organization to train young people on farming.  He is about to retire from teaching, so that is what he plans to do during retirement.  

Here's a good memory with Job at his first experience of American football back in 2013: