Dear Friends,
While the Northern countries roast in high temperatures, Katete, as the coldest place in Zambia, feels like the Arctic, and it was just the time that Jens, a teacher at Berlin Humboldt Gymnasium, arrived to visit Tiko, his ‘home away from home‘ for the 15th time with colleagues Dagmar and Ruth for their 2nd and 1st visits.
Left to right: Emmanuel, a fried of Peter’s from Malawi, and seasoned travellers Ruth, Jens and Dagmar in Elke’s front office which has a heater so is a warmer place for breakfast than the verandah.
Father Christmas again they brought goodies for Tiko, which are also from the FRIENDS OF TIKO in Germany. The warm clothes are all the more welcome in this very cold season. Since the beginning of the covid crisis we have had very few visitors so it was refreshing to have 19 people to stay for a few days. They were disappointed when going to see a ghost dances at night because as there had been a death in the village there were no ceremonies. These dances are an important part of local custom, not special performances for visitors.
REY, A WELCOME VISITOR FROM THE USA
Since his first visit last year Rey has raised so much funding with DONORSEE and taught our video group so many skills that, like Jens, we put him into a special category of visitor.
The crew must agree since they spontaneously supplied a special cake to welcome him.
Tiko crowdfunding program: Preventing hunger and malnutrition
This project is well underway, and we have already raised $5426 of the $ 7357 we had budgeted for. The first seminar with health workers from 29 villages, has taken place and we are pleased that vegetable rings and compost heaps have been built. We are looking forward to the time when people will be able to produce vegetables for their own use and for sale. Tiko’s aim is also for the villagers to get clay stoves in which only very small pieces of wood can be burnt, which will cut down the monthly cost of firewood, and to start woodlots for Zambian firewood trees such as Branchiostegal, Julbernardia and Isoberlinia, which are very good wood fuel species. A number of women are very interested.
Some protected vegetable rings and compost heaps- have already been built.
With a strong fence to keep out chickens the crops are already flourishing in the vegetable ring.
A sheltered Berkeley compost heap.
A protected vegetable ring with a growing crop.
RELIABLE CHEAP ELECTRICITY?
The demand for and cost of electricity is always increasing, and there are frequent outages, so we are looking for a solution. In Germany Christoph has found a solar company AFRICAGREENTEC that wants to know what Tiko needs and wants. Neighbouring St Francis Hospital has already developed a sophisticated solar energy generating system, so we went to see it. Their solar panels are at ground level but for Tiko it will be safer to have panels on the roof of the Guernsey Great Hall out of the reach of thieves.
The solar panels at St Francis Hospital are on the ground.
A TRIP TO THE CHIEFS COURT
We went to invite the chief as a guest of honour for our AGM on August 26th and described our village project, which includes the start of woodlots by the villagers, which is also ordered by the Chiefs. He promised to come with 3 advisers of his, or at least a person in his place. Mind you, visits of the Chief tend to be a bit difficult as he may come up to four hours late.
The court meets under the tree and not inside his court building, because of the large number of people from three villages, some of them bringing a number of alleged witches before the court.
The Chief’s court under a tree. He is the only one sitting in a chair.
I was shocked, having had the very same experience some 25 years ago and believing that it was about the last time, something like that would happen. But traditional beliefs die hard, as you can see. No wonder I could not manage to teach new things easily
A chicken is a must when visiting a chief.
Tigris in the taxi with our chicken.
Dear Reader, dear friend of Tiko,
You can see that there is never a dull moment at Tiko and very little time to be afraid of the serious hunger time ahead. Petrol prices and food prices are sky high and our crew, most of whom are also farmers, had a very bad harvest, mainly due to climate change. Our hope of making money with black soldier fly maggots are on wait – these flies simply don’t like it any different from 27 degrees Celsius and would eat a lot of the now extremely expensive maize. Also one ingredient for the supplement ONENEPA, dark brown sugar, is no longer produced in Zambia, destroying our nutrition values. Life was not meant to be easy. But WE SHALL OVERCOME, with your help, yours ever with love – we know that your life is not easy these days either and are thinking of you,
Elke and the Crew
Tiko online!
Just in case you haven’t seen them, here are the links to our Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and even Linkedin.
And all information about visiting, volunteering and rooms on our website: Tikondane.org
– For donation information please have a look on ‘Support Tiko‘, Global Giving, our fundraising page at DonorSee or Tribuntu –