Tene

Last Monday (18/05/09) was a day full of interesting stories so here’s a quick update:

The orphanage received a huge gift Monday morning. A missionary family brought 350 Moringa trees to the orphanage that they’d grown from seed in their courtyard. We thought it might take our team a while to plant the trees (it was us four, their family of six and a couple of our staff) however, Adiara suggested we ask some of our school children to pitch in and was I ever amazed. Swarms of children flocked to the truck to unload trees: I’ve never seen trees fly into so many hands and then off to so many directions! We literally had to hold children back because they were so eager to help. Since our boys already had holes dug everyone split off into teams: the first watered the ground, second put in manouere, third filled the hole back in and the put the tree in and covered it. All 350 trees were planted in less than two hours! The Moringa trees will be a huge blessing to the orphanage. Sometimes they are called the “Miracle Tree” because the tree is so rich in vitamins. It has more potassium than bananas, more calcium than milk and more vitamin c than carrots. There is a whole list of other vitamins it contains iron and magnesium being only just a few.We will harvest the leaves of the trees, dry them and prepare a powder from it (the best way to get the most vitamins from the leaves) and add the powder to the children’s food. This past weekend we started including the Moringa Powder in the children’s meals. Although preparing a powder as we do is the best way to prepare the moringa leave you can prepare it various other ways. You can also eat every part of the tree including the seeds. The seeds can be used to purify water. Moringa powder can be used to treat malnuritrion, as well as help breastfeeding mothers ensure they are getting the nutrients they need to give their child what it needs. We watched a video Monday afternoon that showed some health clinics where they have been treating malnuritrion with powder made from the moringa leaves. I was amazed to see how much weight children would put on in just weeks of taking small amounts of the powder in their diets!I also saw a map of where the moringa trees grow contrasted to a map of where malnutrition occurs globally. Would you believe it the two maps were nearly identical?

It’s obvious God planned this tree to grow where the people who needed it the most would be able to get to it. (I recognise of course there remains a huge need to give these people access to the trees and to educate them on the benefits of using it in food preparation and how to prepare it. But it is there!)If you’re interested in more information on Moringa trees the website recommended to me was Echonet.org

Above: A newly planted miracle tree!
Below: This is a picture of a large Moringa. It was already growing in our courtyard and has depassed the size we would use for harvesting leaves. However it is perfect for cultivating seeds!

I was privileged to witness a rare spectacle here in Burkina Faso while tree planting! A perfectly circular ring appeared around the sun a little before noon. I was working outside near Jean and I asked him what it was. He explained it was in fact a rainbow.Jean and the kids told me they happen every so often, however it was Ruth’s first time seeing one and she’s been here nine years. So I felt privileged even if the kids say they aren’t that rare. It was beautiful. The children and staff seemed to hardly take notice of it. However we all stopped what we were doing and grouped near the house to marvel at the beauty of this world God has created.

I realise my pictures don’t quite capture the whole thing, so you’ll have to fill in the blanks for yourself. The inner ring is the sun, the next one was a really dark spot (almost shadow like), and then the outer ring was a magnificent bright light with hints of colour that I could tell were the colours of a rainbow.

Back in February when we had a team come in, we hired a local cuisinière to prepare some meal for us. Since then every time we are served riz sauce en patte d’arachide (rice with peanut sauce) Liz and I say “Oh this is good. But not as good as Samuel’s sauce!” So when we had a team coming monday we couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a cooking lesson with Samuel. He showed us how to prepare his “famous” riz sauce. It was fun cooking lesson. He told us stories about his time in Cote d’Ivoire in between asking us to check the sauce so as to make sure we saw it at every stage of it cooking. We are fortunate in that Samuel’s sauce only takes 45 minutes (for him) to prepare. Depending on the individual’s recipe it can take anywhere from 20 minutes to all afternoon! He made sure to suggest lots of other veggies we could put in that aren’t currently in season or that we didn’t have on hand. I was thankful for all his tips and look forward to trying my hand at the sauce sometime in the future.




Finished (and delicious) product!

Tene: Moore for Monday