Self Sufficiency

Given our reasons for wanting to be here, on a farm in rural France....essentially to one day become self sufficient......I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to help a community in Tanzania begin their journey in achieving just that - self sufficiency.

Our ‘one day’ may be in a few short years time after we’ve properly said goodbye to our home in Cayman or it may be a little further away than that but the plan is still there that we might one day literally live off the land as much as we can and be as close to wholly reliant upon ourselves (or rather our land!) as one can be in this day and age.

Many of you know that this past December I spent 3 weeks in Tanzania with my father.  He was invited to visit Tanzania, by a Pastor in a village about 900kms outside of Dar es Salaam.  It’s a long story as to how this Pastor came by my father’s name and perhaps a story for another blog but suffice it to say this little community made a big impression on me and on my father.  To the extent that since we’ve been back we’ve felt driven to do what we can to help in ways that may encourage those in Tanzania to be able to help themselves which brings me to the latest fundraising efforts of “sponsoring a bag of potatoes”.

Arthur, our friend in Mbeya, Tanzania, has been in negotiations with the local government in order to be granted the use of 40 acres of land outside of the town so that they may grow produce to feed themselves and also to sell to raise funds in order to keep the crops growing and the hopes are that one day soon they may also start some training for the women in the village in order that they might have greater opportunities outside of the home.

Yesterday morning, a fundraising e-mail went out, mainly to friends and family in the Cayman Islands, given that our charitable account is set up over there and so it’s very easy for people to make donations locally.  Within 24 hours of the e-mail going out, the response has been overwhelming.  We haven’t yet reached our goal (and of course weren’t expecting to reach it within 24 hours!) but we’re well on the way and it’s just brilliant to see the positive responses and incredible generosity from people from all walks of life.

I received an e-mail from a friend who wrote something so simple and yet so profound and I wanted to share it with you - he was writing to acknowledge the fundraising request and offer his support and he said, 

“I was taught that if your life isn’t making someone else’s better then you have no need to be here”

and I wanted to quote him on this blog not because it has anything to do with pretend farming but because it’s a statement we should all take away and mull over regardless of what we’re doing with our daily lives be it pretend farming or otherwise.  There are many like minded people who wouldn’t hesitate in agreeing with this statement and I am one of them and yet regardless, it made such an impression on me here and now which is why I wanted to share it with you in the hopes that you might also share it with others and perhaps we can all go away and wonder whose life we might make better today and tomorrow and the next day after that.....

Wishing you all a happy week ahead - more pretend farming stories to come later in the week and on that note, perhaps we will be given the opportunity to make some lives better by sharing the abundance of produce when it arrives - it would seem to be imminent!