We were on our way to the capital, and had expected to visit friends in a little town near one of the big refugee camps. These friends had fled CAR last year, and have kept together through many hardships. These are the members of the ag co-ops that were started up years ago with the direction and help of Bernard B, an energetic farmer, tailor, elder in the church and just a plain old in your face I want to help you kind of guy. He has encouraged his village to work together, Fulani and non-Fulani, which was extremely rare a few years back and is practically unheard of in these conflicted times in CAR. The ladies’ co-op had prepared food for us, each donating a coin, veritably like “the widow’s mite” to receive us well. They had waited all day, due to an miscommunication, and we arrived even later than we expected because of lots of unforeseen circumstances. We did get a chance to visit, Sheryl and I with the women:
and Roy, Tom, and Paul with the men. Roy brought along tools and seed; corn, peanuts and beans for them to plant, courtesy of a refugee aid/nutrition relief program.
We are thrilled to see these friends work together and be excited about growing food for their families.
