Never Ending Food

On June 25th, 2011, Kristof completed a 12-day Permaculture Design Course (PDC) with Children of the Nations (COTN).  COTN is a faith-based international organization that works in seven countries assiting orphans and vulnerable children.  COTN Malawi has really made an effort to become more sustainable in their approaches and, as a result, hired Kristof to facilitate the 12-day PDC for ten of its staff and support people.  These people work in three different sites within Malawi.  The main office is located just outside of the capital city of Lilongwe and contains the admin unit, a secondary school, and lots of space for Permaculture and functional landscaping to take place.  The second area is a bit further up the road and is an orphan care centre with 35 children.  It has an extensive irrigation system that is already in place along with over 800 chickens!  (What valuable resources for Permaculture to take advantage of!)  The third area is close to the Zambian border and consists of a 300-acre woodland/farm that will be providing food and income for the entire project.  We are expecting great things to grow out of this PDC and for further positive changes to come from Children of the Nations.  We’ll try to keep you posted on thier progress!

If you have the time, check out this short video that was made by the United States Peace Corps to commemorate 50 years of service in Malawi, Africa.  It highlights the permaculture work of Never Ending Food.  Both Stacia and Kristof Nordin were Peace Corps Volunteers in Malawi from 1997-2000.  The video is posted on the United States embassy/Lilongwe Facebook page and can be see by clicking here.

There are three ethics that guide all Permaculture practices: Care for the earth, Care for people, and the sharing of resources.  Lately we, as a planet, don’t seem to be doing very well on any three fronts.  As our harmful practices have spun out of control we have begun to see a great deal of thinking that just doesn’t make any sense at all.  We just saw a documentary on ‘geological fracturing’ or “fracking” that describes that processes that are being used for the extraction of natural gas; a process that forces a devastating cocktail of chemicals deep into the earth’s crust to ‘fracture’ the earth and causes the natural gas to be released.  It is now being discovered that these chemicals are seeping into groundwater supplies causing contaminated drinking water sources, contaminated river systems, as well as human and animal illnesses.  Is this really surprising?  Who would ever imagine that we wouldn’t cause a great deal of contamination and devastation using a process such as this?  The amazing thing is, however, that the US government has exempted these companies and their dangerous practices from almost all of environmental regulations.  Now there is a multi-million dollar campaign to promote natural gas as the new “clean energy”.

Little Dolphin Illuminated Pictures for Baby

We also don’t seem to be caring much for each other as fellow human beings.   A quick look at today’s headlines reveals numerous wars being fought throughout the world, human rights abuses, election rigging, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and even a story about a kindergarten student in Housten, Texas who brought a gun to school and injured three people.  Are we teaching these behaviors or are we working to teach ethical behavior that will lead us towards a better future?  Take a look at the following imported poster that we found for sale in a local shop here in Malawi and decide for yourself…

Hardwell Kaniye

Three more young Malawians have just received their Certificates in Permaculture Design!  Howard Zamula, Hardwell Kaniye, and Junior Mwale are all secondary school students and neighbors of Never Ending Food.  For several years now they have been coming around to observe the permaculture activities at Never Ending Food.  Eventually they began to show initiative by implementing various ideas at their own homes.  This initiative was rewarded last year when Never Ending Food agreed to take these three boys on in a paid ‘apprentice’ position, with the understanding that they

Howard Zamula

would be working towards a certificate in Permaculture Design.  The boys began coming for an hour or two each day after school to help with the hands-on maintainence of the plants, animals, soil/water management, and other related actitivies.  When time allowed, Kristof would hold sessions with the boys, teaching permaculture theory, design aspects, guild systems, zoning, and more.  They were also able to watch many videos on Permaculture, organic gardening, and the effects of industrialized farming (including biotechnology and genetic engineering that is quickly sweeping into Malawi after Monsonto bought our National Seed Company about 5 years ago).   Last year Never Ending Food acquired a new plot of land (about 3/4 of an acre), the boy’s final project consisted of mapping this new plot of land and creating their own personal designs for what they would like to see happen there in the future.  We took each of these designs and combined them into a ‘master plan’ which began to be implemented this year during the rains.  We are currently harvesting the results of their hard work and have brought in several cartloads of maize and sunflowers, along with beans and Irish potatoes.  In the upcoming months we expect wonderful yields of sweet potatoes, millet, pigeon peas, cassava, peanuts, roselle

Junior Mwale

(for tea), and a wide variety of seeds for next year (amaranth, hibiscus, crotalaria, blackjack, local basil, and many more)!  The change has been phenomenal, what began as a monocropped and fertility-depleted maize garden is now transforming into a diverse multi-cropped, seasonally available, and organic year-round patch of food security.  Never Ending Food is saving some of the best seeds from the yeilds and sharing the remaining food with the six families who live in the model villages and the families of those who helped with this year’s labor.

These boys have shown a great deal of dedication and perserverence despite their friends (and sometimes their families) telling them that they were acting ‘crazy’ and should be sweeping and burning instead of planting things!  Now, however, all of their families have really come around to the ideas, and their houses have frequently become part of the Never Ending Food tour for visitors and guests.  (We often average 3-4 visits per week as the interest has been rapidly spreading!)  Howard, Hardwell, and Junior have also become excellent teachers as well as role models.  Part of the graduation

ceremony included a tour of the implementation of their designs and a chance to explain these things to their parents.  To Howard, Junior, and Hardwell we tip our hats, offer a HUGE congratulations, and encourage you to carry not only your certificates, but also your knowledge, with you for the rest of your lives…whatever the future may hold!