Trip to Lundazi, in the Eastern Province.

 Mid December, Ad traveled to Lundazi to visit projects of the partner CCAP, Church of Central Africa Presbyterian. Most of the projects are focused on Food Security through improving agriculture. Some people call it Conservation Farming, others call it Farming God's Way, but essentially it is taking care of soil by using manure, compost, and other organic matter to conserve fertility and moisture. According to the farmers groups this technique has eliminated hunger in their villages

Ad meets with a farmers group. The person on the chair is the Chief of the village.

Farmers tending to their "tree nursery"

Traditional Maize Storage "shed".

 Farmer at the right (agriculture volunteer)  shows his cassava tubers.

People are growing maize, cassava, and groundnuts for their families to eat, but they also grow cotton and tobacco as cash crops. CCAP helps them not only improve the soil, but also to try out new crops and small scale irrigation. CCAP trains an agriculture volunteer worker from each village, and also helps the groups to purchase maize hybrid seeds. We met with the participating men and women including the volunteer and the chief of the village to discuss the progress in their projects.

Another Farmers Group

Curious little children like to be in a picture too. 

These three women missed the group picture, but wanted their picture taken too.

Lundazi is more than 700 kilometers from Lusaka, close to the border with Malawi. We stayed there two nights in an old castle. Something I definitely didn't expect in Zambia - a real castle, built by the British during the colonial era. It has been declared a national monument, and is in use as a hotel.

Man made lake next to the Castle.

CCAP Church in Emusa. 

On the way back we saw a lot of people riding bicycles in the city of Chipata. Bicycles are there often used as taxi's.