From One Need to Another

We never knew that raising chickens could have such an impact. Well sure, it has changed our lives by having to take care of the little buzzards, getting to go egg-hunting with Micah, and having to always check the bottoms of our shoes before entering the house. However, the impact doesn’t end there, but will instead extend into the Gmz community here at Gesas. How’s that? Well, it was the chickens that helped the large literacy ball roll a little better in the local Gmz school.

You see, we brought the chickens here without anything prepared. No house, no fence, no real idea of how to take care of them. After all, if everything went wrong, we always had the freezer as their backup “housing.” When I proposed the idea of building a chicken house Gmz-style, all three of my language helpers put their heads together. Finally they said, “Sure, we can do it, but not today.” To which I responded “I want to start today, what can I do?” (after all, keeping the chickens in the back of my pickup at night was both annoying and smelly!) “Well, first, we need to go cut the bamboo.” When I confidently said that I wanted to go along, all of the two dozen people listening to our conversation immediately burst out into laughter, “You can’t go! It’s in the woods!” When I didn’t look convinced they added,“Besides, it’s really far away and you would get tired.” I may have entered the 4^th decade of my life, but I don’t think I could be considered THAT old yet so I challenged them “I can go anywhere you can!” They just smiled and said, “Let’s go then.” Knowing that I had to live up to my own challenge, I ran home to change shoes, put on sunscreen, slammed a granola bar, grabbed a bottle of water and bolted out the door. Turns out, the bamboo we were cutting was only a 20 minute walk away and only a stone’s throw into the forest, but all the while they commented on how amazing it was that I was there working with them (Not that I was allowed to hold a knife or anything, my job was to take the cut bamboo back to the clearing.). Now, I normally don’t take a camera on such adventures simply because I want to avoid the “tourist” image and the distraction that it causes. But, for whatever reason, I packed my camera on this trip and started shamelessly snapping pictures. After all, what better way to learn and remember the process than to capture it in photos? Besides, I thought, then I can show their ingenious architecture to all of you!

Cutting the bamboo.

Carrying it back home.

Splitting the bamboo.

Digging post holes.

Bracing the floor.

Weaving the walls.

Binding the roof poles.

Adding the grass.

Finishing it with the ladder.

And, so in two consecutive Sundays the project was done. But, it wasn’t until after the project was completed that I had another idea. Literacy is being taught in the school nearby our home, but there are no books in Gmz for the children to read. So, why don’t I take the photos of the chicken house project and make a story booklet to be used in school?

So, that is what I did and created a 16-page booklet detailing each step. But I didn’t stop there. I had gotten several other stories throughout the language learning process (including translations of our stories such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Tumble Bumble and The Big Red Barn). So why not transform those into booklets as well? Now, as a result of these booklets, Larry and I decided to set up a story-writing project by which students who have passed grade four can write stories to be “published” and placed into the school library. The authors themselves not only practice their reading and writing, but they also get a copy of their booklet and income the equivalent of two days labor (that’s about $4). Not bad, and to think, it all started with our need for a chicken house.