Agriculture Projects

As I began to explain in yesterday's post, TCRS sponsors agricultural development projcets through the generous support of some of our donors. These projects are designed to teach animal husbandary and plan cultivation skills. Pictured below are images of the farming/gardening "classroom" and a tree nursery at Kanembwa Camp.

This is a photograph of the tree nursery. No need for greenhouse glass to grow seedlings here!

This is a picture of a sugarcane field. (I'm learning how to eat/chew/suck on sugar cane; it's pretty tastey)

Here you can see onions (the larger field in the middle of the photo) and what they call Chinese spinach in the foreground.

The head of the field, garden, and tree cultivation operation walking through one of the demo plots.

Agriculture projects

TCRS has programs to improve the agricultural skills and knowledge of refugees. These programs are currently being scaled down and phased out due to orders by the TZ Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) that UNHCR and other NGO's are supposed to follow. Though the programs are being phased out, they are still functioning at this time.

The picture above is a shot of a Burundian man with one of his two holstein cows. The other adults are part of the agricultural staff that runs these programs.

I thought this boy was a cutie!

Kids who gathered around the muzungu with a camera ;-)

Another shot of the cows. The tag ID is for TCRS record keeping. All animals have been "loaned" to individuals by TCRS. To pay back the loan, refugees must give the first offspring of the animal to another refugee. Essentially they pack back the loan by "paying it forward."

First Day of School

There are 5 primary schools at Nduta. These photos were taken at Urafiki School, one of the two schools I saw on the opening day of the school year. This school was orderly, meaning that the vast majority of students were in a class being instructed by a teacher. The second school I saw was very chaotic! My estimate is that less than 10% of the students were in classes. They just ran around the school yard and swarmed whatever was of interest to them. (When I was there with my camera, I was the main point of interest...)

The photo above is of a standard 6 class, which is roughly equivelent to 7th or 8th grade in the U.S.

A student writing on the chalk board.

A standard 3 class. Though you may not be able to tell it from this photo, each classroom has a wide age range of students.

The same class waving good-bye to me as I left the room. Aren't they adoreable?!

More basket weavers

This lady is holding up the bottom of what will become a basket.

A finished basket.

Basket in progress...I still don't understand how they can carry things on their head with such apparent ease!

A group shot!

Basket Weavers

TCRS works to facilitate several income generating projects, one of which is basketweaving. (These projects are being scaled down in the camps to encourage repatriation. We're working to move their weaving and marketing networks to Burundi.) Women make the baskets while we act as a middle man, working to publicize their products, recieve orders, and ship the wares once they are complete. Pictured above is a group of women working on an order.

A woman starting a basket.

One of the children who was around the weaving workshop.

An older woman who stole my heart! Even during the chaos created by my impromptu photo shoot, she continued to work steadily.

Sights that are becoming familiar...

Almost anywhere I go, children cluster behind. They are excited to see the muzungu or "whitie" ;-) If I have my camera, they are even more excited because they all want their picture taken.

There have been several large fires over the last several weeks. I think that farmers are burning off the dead vegatation so that fresh shoots will grow for their livestock. The blazes scare me a bit, because I don't quite understand how people can controll them! In the foreground is a brick making operation.

A herd of cattle roaming on the side of the road.

A closer shot of a Tanzanian cow. Annie and Dad, this shot is especially for you two ;-)

A going away party...

Jesse Kamstra was the former Project Coordinator for TCRS Kibondo Refugee Project. He has left this office to become the Country Director for TCRS Burundi. Below are pictures from his going away party about two weeks ago.
A shot of friends giving their gifts to Jesse and his family. As a group came forward to present a gift, they made a line and danced the package to him; it was sort of like a conga line.

Burundian drummers playing at the party. They were great, dancing and drumming...though my friend said that he had seen better...haha!