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November 2011 Update: Saying Goodbye to the Buyungule Pygmies
With only two days left before they were scheduled to leave, Xavier and Melanie still had a lot of work to do in the Buyungule Pygmy village. Time was a factor, so they wanted to make sure the Pygmies had what they would need to sustain themselves in their dangerous environment.
The couple decided to spend their final days teaching three basic, but essential projects: basic solar ovens, with which they could cook food, making it safe to eat; a sand-gravel water filter, to clean the 20,000 litres of water from the pond, making it safe for washing; and a solar disinfection system, to make the water from the 1,000-litre tank safe to drink.
In an area where resources are scarce, a solar oven can save lives. Collecting firewood requires villagers to walk long distances through rough, dangerous terrain, and the smoke it produces when burned can be harmful to their eyes and lungs. A solar oven, on the other hand, is completely safe and requires no resources except for the materials used in construction ? simple models can be made using only cardboard, aluminum foil, black spray paint, a piece of plastic or glass and adhesive tape. Once assembled and placed in direct sunlight, the oven can cook a meal in only 30 minutes.
Xavier and Melanie showed the villagers how to build the ovens and together they constructed 10 of them.
They then demonstrated how to build a simple sand-gravel-charcoal water filter to make the pond water suitable for use in washing. It consisted of two plastic buckets, one placed atop the other. One bucket had holes punched in the bottom and was lined with layers of sand, gravel and charcoal. A sheet of cloth covered the top. When water was poured inside, the silt and residue would trickle down through the layers and out the holes into the second bucket, cleaner and free of silt.
While filtering the water would make it cleaner, it wouldn?t make it safe to drink. Contaminated drinking water is a serious problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Bacteria and parasites lurking in infected water can make people seriously ill ? or even kill them.
Xavier and Melanie demonstrated how plastic bottles coated in black paint could be used to purify water. The paint, absorbing the sunlight, would heat up the water inside the bottle. After about six hours, the water would reach temperatures as high at 65 degrees Celsius ? hot enough to kill most pathogens, resulting in water safe to drink.
After sharing these three techniques to the villagers, it was finally time for Xavier and Melanie to leave the village. The last few weeks had flown by, but together they accomplished a lot. Thousands of vegetables were planted, a new rainwater collection system was installed, and villagers now had access to potable water. While life in the Congo would still be treacherous and difficult, the Pygmies were now equipped with tools that would help them live sustainably.
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November 2011 Update: Return from Ethiopia
On November 8, Chizungu, the village chief, informed Xavier and Melanie of Green Beat that his wife had malaria. Treating this disease is fairly simple ? drugs can cure it in less than a week. But for a Pygmy, with no money or resources with which to pay for it, this treatment is out of reach. Xavier and Melanie took them to the nearest hospital and gave them enough money to pay for the treatment.
Xavier and Melanie spent the next day with a dozen Buyungule Pygmy men, including Chizungu, building the raised beds that had been planned out a few days earlier. Xavier showed the villagers how to plant the seedlings using the methods he and Melanie were taught in Ethiopia. He explained the benefits of planting the seedlings close together and demonstrated the benefits of intercropping ? planting different types of seedlings together to make the most out of the limited space they had.
After one day, Xavier, Melanie and the villagers had planted 2,800 carrots, 2,700 onions, 500 cabbages and 280 tomatoes across the several raised beds. They also scattered bean seedlings to fix nitrogen in the soil and marigolds to repel pests.
Spending the morning of November 11 in Bukavu, Xavier and Melanie purchased materials for a second rainwater capture system for the village. They bought a 1,000-litre plastic tank and hired a plumber to add a faucet at the bottom and drill a hole at the top.
When they returned, Dominique of Strong Roots Congo and Jeph, the local agrologist, took them to the site of their next field, located right next to the village. Chizungu asked a number of villagers to clear the weeds and grass so they could begin planting the field. They did so, and finished in a few hours, leaving the plant debris so it could fertilize the soil. A team of men joined Xavier and Melanie and spent a few hours planting, until the entire field was full.
Eventually, a delivery truck arrived with the water tank, sheet metal, and soccer balls for the children. The sheet metal would be made into rain-collecting gutters for the church roof and an office for Chizungu.
The next morning, Xavier and the village men started installing the new gutters on the church roof, while the children played soccer. Melanie and a group of 30 villagers prepared another set of beds to plant in. By the end of the day, the rainwater capture system was almost fully installed, and 12 new raised beds were built.
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October 2011 Update: Green Beat Returns to Bukavu
After completing their two-week permaculture design course in Ethiopia, Xavier and Melanie returned to the Bukavu on November 3. With this new insight, they would be able to help plan out a productive and sustainable farm with the Buyungule Pygmies.
Upon their return, they noticed seedlings had begun to sprout in the nursery. Each planter box was packed with hundreds of tiny sprouts. So many had blossomed, in fact, that they could fill the entire 160-square-metre field the villagers had built the first week Melanie and Xavier were there. With much of the plants ready for transplant, the next task would then be to prepare the raised beds as quickly as possible.
Two weeks ago, the pond next to the church was empty. Today, it was filled with water. The Buyungule Pygmy women, who only a few days earlier had to travel for miles up a treacherous mountain road to get water, now had access to it at their doorstep.
A few days later, on November 5, Congolese president Jospeh Kabilia visited the village, the Buyungule Pygmies celebrating his arrival at the airport. Xavier and Melanie set up a grid made from wooden stakes and line to plan out the raised beds. They worked with Jeph, a local agrologist (someone who specialized in the science of utilizing plants for food, fuel, feed, and fibre) who used his expertise to help map out an ideal pattern.
The couple spent the next day visiting nearby Kahuzi-Biega National Park, where the Buyungule Pygmies lived for centuries before it was established. Creating the park was necessary to protect the fragile ecosystem and the endangered Eastern Lowland gorillas that roamed the area. A consequence of that decision was that the Pygmies were forcibly evicted from their home without being relocated or given any compensation. Since then, they had struggled with poverty and social marginalization.
Exploring the forest, the couple saw a large gorilla family. There were 36 of them in total ? 1 silverback, 20 females and 15 infants ? the largest of the two families visitors could observe. In total, there were only 139 gorillas known to live in the park. Their numbers were decimated after years of war, but were gradually recovering thanks to the efforts of park wardens.
Gorillas were everywhere, moving around in the bush, rumbling and stomping, making noises and pounding their chests all around Xavier and Melanie, only a few metres away. Up in the canopy, trees swayed as the enormous primates, perched on their branches, fed on leaves.
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October 2011 Update: Green Beat Meets the Buyungule Pygmies
On the morning of October 11, Dominique drove Xavier and Melanie of Green Beat down the long and winding dirt road along Lake Kivu?s shore, toward the Buyungule Pygmy community. After about an hour, the trio arrived at the large tea plantation that bordered the Buyungule Pygmy village. They exited the vehicle and were soon greeted by members of the community.
Leading the contingent was Chizungu, the village chief. Green Beat had met Chizungu the previous day at a conference in Bukavu. Alongside the leader was Ciprian, his adviser ? the only man in the entire community able to read and write.
Xavier and Melanie had a meeting with the tribe?s committee, which consisted of Chizungu and a number of men and women who governed the village with him. They took turns expressing their hopes for the project and their community's specific needs.
The group decided that preliminary work on the land would begin the very next day. They made a list of fast-growing crops that could be harvested quickly for the project?s first phase. The committee then showed Xavier and Melanie the plot of land that would soon become the first set of raised beds.
The next day, Xavier and Melanie returned to the village to begin what would hopefully become a success, sustainable permaculture project. The field had already been cleared earlier that morning by a team of villagers.
The first task was building compost beds. Unlike chemical fertilizers, compost beds have no dangerous chemicals, cost almost nothing and are completely sustainable ? they could be replenished indefinitely with household waste. They would also retain more water, reducing the need for irrigation ? especially beneficial because the nearest stream was several miles away, up a mountain.
The village would build two types of compost beds. The first was made from banana and eucalyptus leaves, and dry sticks. The second was made from food scraps and dung from local animals. The two would be mixed in different proportions, depending on the crop being planted. The leaves and sticks were excellent at holding water for long periods, while the kitchen scraps and dung provided nutrients.
The second task was building seedling flats to contain germinating plants so that they can be tended to before transplanting them to the field.
The third task was modifying the roof of the village church to capture rain. This would keep the community from having to repeatedly make the dangerous trek up the mountain to get the water needed to keep the compost piles moist.
On Friday, the last day before Xavier and Melanie left for their two-week permaculture training in Ethiopia, they worked with the villagers to wrap up the projects they had started. The women teamed up with Melanie to plant the seedlings in the newly built nursery, while the men finished the rainwater capture system with Xavier.
The men dug a trench leading from the church to a 16-square metre hole a few feet away. They lined the hole with a tarp so that the water wouldn?t soak into the ground and weighed it down with rocks. As the rainwater collected on the church roof, it would run through fill, becoming a pond.
By the end of the day, the first seeds were planted, the rainwater capture system was finish and the compost piles were beginning to decompose. Things were looking good.
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October 2011 Update: Green Beat Arrives in the DRC
Xavier Fux and Melanie Hogan, otherwise known as Green Beat, have a passion for protecting the environment. This dedication led them to spend five weeks living in rural central Africa, far from their home in Mexico. There, they would contribute to the Zerofootprint Foundation?s Pygmy Farming Project.
In an effort to teach the Buyungule Pygmy community of South Kivu sustainable farming techniques, Xavier and Melanie would live for a month teaching this community all they knew about permaculture.
Permaculture is an agricultural method where fields are planted with multiple crops, emulating the symbiotic relationships found in nature. This contrasts with traditional agriculture, where huge fields contain only a single crop.
Permaculture is a more sustainable way to farm because of the cooperation between the various plant species. One might excel at fixing nitrogen in the soil, reducing the need for expensive and resource-intensive fertilizer; another might be able to store vast quantities of water, making extensive irrigation unnecessary. Not only can this make a healthy and bountiful harvest easier, but also it also virtually eliminates farm waste and makes the farm completely self-sustainable.
On October 9, Xavier and Melanie landed in Rwanda, where they were greeted by Dominique Bikaba, our on-the-ground contact at Strong Roots Congo. He would escort them across the border.
Bukavu, with a population of about 250,000, is the capital of the Congolese province of South Kivu. It serves as the urban hub for the area and is home to the Swedish Mission ? Xavier and Melanie?s home for the next month.
With only a few days before they were scheduled to travel to work with the Buyungule Pygmy community, they started to plan out their time. They had to make the most of the first week, as they would be leaving for a two-week permaculture course in Ethiopia before returning to South Kivu afterward.
Xavier, with his experience in green design, came up with ideas for simple but permanent sustainable farming. It would work, but there was one key problem ? while leasing the land for the pygmies had bought them some time, only purchasing the land outright was a permanent solution. While Green Beat had raised the necessary funds, securing the land purchase could take months.
In the meantime, they had lots to teach the Buyungule Pygmy community. It will certainly be an eventful month.
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Women & the Environment in the Congo Fundraising Event
THANKS FOR JOINING US TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
On May 10, 2010, the Zerofootprint Foundation brought Lisa Shannon, founder of Run for Congo Women and author of A Thousand Sisters, to Toronto as part of her larger U.S. book tour. Lisa's book chronicles her journey of helping women in the DRC, widely called the worst place on earth to be a woman.
The evening began with a cocktail reception at Panorama restaurant, followed by an inspirational presentation and refreshments at the Indigo story at Bay and Bloor.
Looking for information about our Event Speakers?
Thank you to our event speakers,
Dominique Bikaba of
Strong Roots Congo and
Lisa Shannon, author of
A Thousand Sisters. Inspired by
Lisa Shannon? Visit the
A Thousand Sisters website to learn more about her book and to purchase a copy!
Thank You to our Event Sponsors:
Supporters:
Gathering materials to build a compost.
