7 Men and a Garden (April 22, 2015)

Helping Hands Touching Hearts started this project with 7 men in Bennde Mutale in 2013.
They had chopped down trees and ripped out thorn bushes on 13 acres awarded them by their Headman. After several months of hard, back breaking labor, their land deal fell through and
they had to start all over again. Below, is Frank Guvani, chairperson and Nelson Baloyi,
treasurer of the 7 Men and A Garden Enterprise, clearing their new field.

Thomas brought his "African John Deere to plow the fields. These tenacious men brave the + 100 degree weather to grow a Garden. But there is one little problem. They had been at the Do Limpopo river's edge. Now they were over 1,400 meters from life giving water.

Through very good friends, HHTH was able to locate Johan on his wild game preserve where  they manufactured the 50 mm piping our guys needed. It is the African way. "One hand helps
the other hand. "

This is where the HHTH trailer becomes invaluable in delivering what the villagers would never be capable of doing. So... we drove our precious cargo over the mountains, through a double tunnel hoping the trailer would stay upright, down the "never ending road" back to Bennde Mutale. 

Nelson stands next to their newly  cleared land, post holes dug and poles set and barbed wire strung around about 10 acres of land that had  been in Nelson's family for many generations.
The smaller sticks are woven through barbed wire to keep out the mischievous little goats.

Thomas' donkeys made a good showing on their
plowing considering everything is done by
hand and most of the time, without adequate
equipment.

We took the piping to their garden so they
install the pipe to the water source. I

Next we needed to get the piping into their new
field and the 7 Men worked in unison like a well
functioning team. 

Big Boy on left and Sipho laid the pipe from the Mutale River across a field then dug a trench to lay the pipe under the road and over into their garden.  Notice the "crown of thorn" bushes in the foreground. 

Next the guys connected the drip lines to the piping so when they irrigated, water would go directly on each little plant thus conserve water.  This was all done in one day.  

We all gathered around Nelson's rondeval and he washed us each a beautiful glass, plunged a frozen bottle of ice in the bucket of water while they gobbled down spicy fish and bread. 

There are now little plants timidly bursting through the tough African soil. The 7 Men's hard labor is already paying off. They have planted a large portion of their garden in okra because it is a highly desired crop. They are in the process of planting mealie, tomatoes, Butternut squash, spinach cabbage and green beans. They will introduce many other crops. They will soon be feeding their families a variety of fine vegetables and selling veggies to local villages.

After such hard work we took Thomas and Big Boy to Thorhoyandou for a delightful ice cream. Since most villagers don't own a car, this is a big deal. Another interesting thing about this 7 Men project is that we made part of it a  micro loan which they will start paying  ack in June. This will allow us to help even more people.