A picture is worth a thousand words

The last couple of weeks have been very heavy blogs so today’s will be much lighter, shorter and hopefully inspiring.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words so today I will give you three photos to look at and, for those of you who have not been to Project Canaan yet, I will describe to you what you are seeing, in less than a thousand words.

Both photos were taken by Ian on his new “Phantom 2 Vision Drone”, which is the coolest thing I have seen in a long time. It’s a small 4-propeller remote control helicopter that Ian flies using his iPhone.  The video is spectacular and we hope to have lots of it on our website soon for you to see.  Today I will show you two still photos from the drone to wet your palette and to see the mighty hand of God at work.

The first photo is of the Children’s Campus and new Emseni Campus.

Starting at the bottom of the photo is the Emseni Campus, which is where the children will move when they are between the ages of 3-4 and it will be their permanent home until they finish High School.  The long building on the left where the walls are going up is Emseni East, the first dorm that will hold 40 children. The ground cut out on the right is The Oasis, which is the industrial kitchen and a dining hall that will seat 200 children. Both buildings should be up and running with children living there by March 2015.  The Emseni Campus will be home for 180 children in the years to come. 

Looking to the middle of the photo you will see a group of buildings with green roofs - that is the Children’s Campus.  The long building in line with Emseni East is the Labakhetsiwe Toddler Home.  The building to the right of that is the El Roi Baby Home. The building at the back of the green grass area is the Sisekelo Preschool and to the right of that is the Kuthula Infirmary where sick babies are taken to for special care.

On the top left corner of the photo is the new Project Canaan Academy Kindergarten, set to open in January 2015.  Of course in the top right hand side of the photo you can see our beautiful fields where we are growing green beans, mini-vegetables and baby corn.  Just last week we sold 4.5 tons of green beans alone!

The second photo is of Dam #3, which is being built in partnership with Rotary International.   As I type this, our water situation is getting critical and Dam #2 is down to only 20%.  Once the water is gone we will not be able to irrigate our crops between now and when the rainy season starts in November.   This dam will hold 11 million (41.4 million liters) of water.  It will be 50 feet high (15 meters), 590 feet (180 meters) long, 377 feet wide (115 meters) and the main road to the farm will run along the top of the dam.  It is being built with layers and layers of clay that is found right on Project Canaan and it is moved by a truck that carries 30 x 10 ton loads of clay each and every day to be dumped at the site. 

 

When the dam is complete and the rains come and fill it, we will be able to irrigate an additional 50 acres of land (20 hectares).  The water in the dam should last 240 days and thereby getting us through dry season with 3 harvests.  This will in turn benefit our community with more employment, access to food, and healthcare at the El Rofi Medical Centre.  The income generated through the increased sale of vegetables will help us provide for the 70+ children who are living at Project Canaan as well as get us closer to our goal of self-sustainability by the year 2020. 

Of course I can’t just give you those two photos without one that requires no words at all – all thousand words are in the picture itself.

Gabriel's Got Milk!

It is overwhelming to see all that God has done and continues to do every day. While we see it with our own eyes, the photos from the drone seem to give the projects a whole new perspective.  I sent the photo to a friend in Canada this morning and she replied back, “This is what God must see from His advantage point and He is smiling.” 

Live from Swaziland … I am incredibly thankful.

PS:

Emseni means “Grace” in siSwati.

Labkhetsiwe means “Chosen ones “ in siSwati.

El Roi means "The God Who Sees" in Hebrew.

Sisekelo means "Cornerstone/Foundation" in siSwati.

Kuthula means “Place of rest” in siSwati