Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Water is life and is essential to building sustainability.

The publicity surrounding Water Week in South Africa and the focus on issues like access to water and the hazards of drinking dirty and polluted water is a positive event on our calendar.

Water is life and the search for a workable model of sustainable living that can be maintained indefinitely must revolve around the question of access to clean water and the uninterrupted access to this resource in the future.

At Sicambeni village we dug a small dam at Mama Pats place last year in time for the rains. This was done to prevent the loss of water due to runoff down the hill and also to alleviate the soil erosion.

The success of this dam in providing ample water for irrigating the garden at Mama Pats has focused attention on the need for proper water management in the rest of the community.

On the new land recently released by the community for further expansion by Amapondo Projects the question of how to store this precious resource and not allow the rains to simply flow into the river and out to sea is being debated.

Possibilities include another small dam or two, a channelling system whereby rain water can be redirected onto the crops as well as neighbouring land with their own small gardens as well as the location of these projects with an eye on future expansion.

We don’t have final plans as yet, the debate and discussion within the community is in itself a crucial part of the Amapondo Projects and the direction they are taking.

The current crop of volunteers are also involved in brainstorming and looking at possible solutions to making the new land self sufficient and not dependent on water from taps in the community.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Volunteers come and volunteers go but the Amapondo Projects go on growing and building on each individual contribution.

As we once again bid farewell to some volunteers and welcome others with new ideas and different skills and knowledge to add to our growing database it is interesting to take a look at the impact that this constant change has on our projects.

Some would say instinctively that it must be negative with faces changing constantly at the school and new recruits needing basic training from Mzu up at Sicambeni . The reality is different though as each individual leaves a footprint and a definite impact on children, community members, other volunteers as well as the permanent and semi permanent people involved here.

The whole keeps growing bigger and those that move on leave something permanent. We are also experiencing that deeper need in some volunteers to return, after earning more cash back home, and add more to what they see as unfinished business.

This characteristic of leaving than returning that is creeping in with all the volunteers to some degree or another is a direct result of becoming a member of a large, global family that connects than moves on, changes and reconnects.

The personal identity that each member of the crew has gained is something that they can build on further in their personal lives and future endeavours.

In regular conversation with volunteers on the final lap of their Amapondo stint a curious pride has been revealed in having been involved in a work in progress. The point about our projects is that it really is all about the journey and not the destination.

Having a destination and reaching it means a certain period of stagnation whereas a continuous movement onwards and upwards means being ever vigilant for new opportunities and new areas to apply older and well perfected tricks of the sustainability trade.