A visit to ECHO

We visited a place called ECHO on Tuesday, June 28.  ECHO stands for Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization.  They teach others how to help poor international people, especially in the agricultural arena. 

I love some of the innovative stuff they have come up with.  It is a living farm, designed to train those interested some hands-on techniques.  On our tour the first thing we learned was that they try to use what the country/area they go into has.  They have learned that to introduce something uncultural usually does not work.  The people might be fascinated by it, but it won't get used.

Next, we were shown various plants that can be grown (or are growing) in various parts of the world that their team or other scientists have discovered are useful to that region.  The Moringa tree is one of those.  All parts of the tree are useful for something.  The leaves have more potassium than a banana/potato, more calcium than milk, antioxidants, and amino acids.  The wood can be used for fire wood or carpentry.

Moringa Tree (and large pods with seeds)

Next we visited the water purification area.  Again, Moringa tree comes to the rescue.  By crushing the seeds and placing them on top of dirty water, about 90% of the contaminants settled to the bottom (including ecol i).  Next, clear, plastic water bottles are used to solarize the water and kill any other bacteria present.  Since most of these people won't have thermometers, they use a small amount of soybean oil mixed in with the water.  At 151degrees the oil mixes in with the water, which is the same temp needed to kill the bacteria.

Another thing I thought was really neat, and we will try this when we get home, was the "cooking brick".  Most poor areas just use rocks, wood, and a stove to cook with.  But you can only cut down so many trees before you have to go farther to gather more wood. 

A cooking brick can be made by chopping up leaves, paper, "road apples", and just about anything else one can find, mixing with some water and compressing in a cylinder, to squeeze out the excess water.  And wa la, you have yourself a cooking brick.  Very cool.

The kids enjoyed a workout on a special contraption and pumped water at the same time.  You know, we have a pond and a stream at home....

There were many other things we learned about and I'm sure we only scratched the surface.  I would love to take a course to learn other techniques, but I guess that will have to wait til next visit.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

And so it is.

We will be leaving Fort Lauderdale in the next few days and heading back to Birmingham via the West coast.  We plan on stopping at a place called ECHO.  We've visited before when we lived in Florida, but it will be much more meaningful now that we work with an impoverished area in Peru.  Looking forward to it!

Meanwhile, we still have a few meetings before hitting the road. 

Bill has managed to meet with groups or individuals every day for the past 2 weeks or so.  And life has been a little bit of everything for the rest of us.  It's just going to be that way when we travel as a family.  We've added a little bit of new friends, memorable meals (think cooking gourmet in a 4x4ft area with other family members trying to get around or get things...), swimming at the "Helm Hotel" (our base house when we come down), being flexible in space (kitchen table is aka the office) and time, and countless other things I've already forgotten.

There is one thing I have NOT enjoyed. 

Our RV spot happens to be on more dirt/sand than grass.  Mix in 3 boys and one RV and wa la, you have yourself an instant magnet for dirt on the floor.  ALL THE TIME!!!  We've had the boys try to remember to take their shoes off or wipe it on the outside mat, but to no avail.

And I'm not sure why, but we have a straw broom instead of the other kind.  ???   Do you feel my pain?! 

I'm fine now.  Just had to get that off my chest. 

So, soon we will be back to our little casita for awhile.  We have already started filling up the calendar though and all but December seem to have something scheduled.  One bit of good news:  we will be doing an International Dinner July 16 here in Fort Lauderdale.  We are still getting all the details worked out, but we have a space for about 150 people.  Woo Hoo!  So, if you are in the area, plan on attending! 

If you haven't "liked" us on Facebook yet, head on over, type in "Believer's Bridge" and like us.  We try to put updates on it to keep folks informed.

I have not taken many photos this time around, but will try to put some up soon.  Until then, you'll just have to stay in suspense. ;-)

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."  Philippians 4:6