(by Skye at RCE)
The folks at Wild Hope are doing amazing work. Every so often I get over to one of their blogs, especially Let's Put the Kettle On. (I guess I want to be like Lisa when I grow up.) :)
But this post, Watching Africa Blow Away, really made my heart hurt for the people suffering, for so many different reasons. Hopefully our business development centers can make a difference for individuals, families, communities, and eventually, the nations, starting with Burundi and Rwanda.
Here's a taste of her post:
We drive across the East African plains and wonder at the moonscape they have become. Along the roadside, the trees stand brittle and covered in a heavy coat of dust. The faces of the little shacks along the way are the same. Fine, powdery dust has lifted easily in the dry wind and painted everything a lifeless brown. The monotony of color is strange and disturbing...
Africa, it seems, is blowing away.
Even the elephants are skinny...
Now, everyone knows that East Africa experiences cyclical droughts, but this is different. A combination of man-made and natural factors have collided to set up the perfect non-storm. No rain of significance over the last couple of years and 2 harvests in a row have failed now.
"And, what will happen?" I wonder to myself. Will East Africans stop felling the trees that draw their rains? Will the farmers finally learn to protect their topsoil by ploughing with the contour of the land instead of up and down the hillside? Will the pastoralists who have lost so much grazing land reduce their herds and stop stripping the fragile environment right down to bare earth?
And will the world notice?
(Keep reading...)
The folks at Wild Hope are doing amazing work. Every so often I get over to one of their blogs, especially Let's Put the Kettle On. (I guess I want to be like Lisa when I grow up.) :)
But this post, Watching Africa Blow Away, really made my heart hurt for the people suffering, for so many different reasons. Hopefully our business development centers can make a difference for individuals, families, communities, and eventually, the nations, starting with Burundi and Rwanda.
Here's a taste of her post:
We drive across the East African plains and wonder at the moonscape they have become. Along the roadside, the trees stand brittle and covered in a heavy coat of dust. The faces of the little shacks along the way are the same. Fine, powdery dust has lifted easily in the dry wind and painted everything a lifeless brown. The monotony of color is strange and disturbing...
Africa, it seems, is blowing away.
Even the elephants are skinny...
Now, everyone knows that East Africa experiences cyclical droughts, but this is different. A combination of man-made and natural factors have collided to set up the perfect non-storm. No rain of significance over the last couple of years and 2 harvests in a row have failed now.
"And, what will happen?" I wonder to myself. Will East Africans stop felling the trees that draw their rains? Will the farmers finally learn to protect their topsoil by ploughing with the contour of the land instead of up and down the hillside? Will the pastoralists who have lost so much grazing land reduce their herds and stop stripping the fragile environment right down to bare earth?
And will the world notice?
(Keep reading...)
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