On
Wednesday afternoon I (Doug) went with the rest of the community to
harvest two big fields of sweet potatoes. We harvested two varieties.
To plant the sweet potatoes they start by planting a few left over
from the previous year’s harvest. A couple of weeks later, after the
vines have sprouted and are crawling across the ground, they prune it
and transplant sections of its pruning, into loose, mounded rows.
It
was basically a treasure hunt. We brought a few shovels but most just
pushed through the mound by hand until we found a clump of red skin.
In two hours we collected, weighed, and laid to dry 1,250 kg of sweet
potato. We were all very proud and very tired.
Chicken Harvest
In addition to
harvesting sweet potatoes and soybeans on our community work day, we
also harvested chickens. Yes, by harvest we mean butcher. (Warning,
this section contains graphic photos of this butchering process.)
This month, I
(Jenny) am assigned to Group 4 (Chickens) in the crops and vegetables
section for FoodLife Work, so I was privileged to participate in this
harvest. I knew at some point this day would come but I couldn't
believe it was here already. So Wednesday morning, Uncle Timo (staff
member from Ghana who is the ARI chaplain and works in the chicken
section) and a few of the participants collected the broilers (40 at
first, then later 10 more).
The first step
was to slit the throat of the chicken and put it in a cone structure
to bleed out. This sounds simple but as you can imagine it can be
quite difficult for a person who has only ever squashed
spiders/roaches and harvested vegetables to take a the life of
another organism. After explaining and demonstrating this first step,
Uncle Timo invited me to do the next one. As I took the knife from
him I hesitated, but with encouragement and support (and watching
Anna expertly do one before me) I did it. I thanked the bird and
maybe she thanked me too. And then I put her in the cone.
The next step was to scald the birds, this is to make the plucking process easier. Uncle Timo took the birds from the cones and scalded them, and then put them in a plucking drum. This is a stainless steal drum with rubber finger-like protrusions that spins around and uses running water to remove most of the feathers. Afterwards, we need to hand-pluck the rest (usually on the wings and around the tail).
After ensuring
all the feathers are removed, we begin the actual butchering process.
First, we removed the internal organs—keeping the heart, liver,
spleen, and gizzard—and composting the rest. Then we removed the
feet and heads (some of which we kept because the participants wanted
to cook!).
By this point, the chickens looked like any other chicken you might find in a typical grocery store. We bagged them up and put them in the freezer to enjoy throughout the coming months.
There
were about 9 or 10 of us all together working on this harvest. We
processed 50 broilers in about 3.5 hours. This was an incredible
experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn more about
my food and the life of the world around me. If anyone has any
questions about this process or my experience, please feel free to
ask! We are planning another harvest in a couple of weeks, so I hope
to refine my skills!More pictures:
J.B.'s
Lecture on “Development”
Wednesday
night a special presentation was given by J.B. Hoover. He worked at
ARI in Admissions and Graduate Outreach for twelve years. Now he
works as the Executive Director of AFARI – American Friend’s of
the Asian Rural Institute. J.B. currently lives in Seattle. When he
first met Jenny and I, he smiled and told us that his aunt is a
member of our home church: St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Conway,
Arkansas!
Even
though we were all red-eye tired from harvesting chickens and sweet
potatoes, most of the participants, volunteers, and staff came to the
presentation and had a lively discussion. J.B.’s presentation
explored the differences between the conventional model of
development and ARI's approach to development. To do this, J.B. picked apart the
mission statement of ARI, phrase by phrase.
First,
JB explained the idea of conventional development: to help
“underdeveloped” countries (e.g. the Philippines and Uganda) advance
to become like “developed” countries (e.g. Japan, USA, England
etc.). We talked about how viewing and referring to countries as "developed" and "underdeveloped" causes the so called "underdeveloped" countries to feel less. It causes them to feel like they need to adopt the lifestyles, policies, and values of the so called "developed" countries who seem to have all the answers.
But ARI sees the world through a different lens, one that acknowledges the ability of every human culture to find unique and appropriate answers to the issues that they face. To illustrate this J.B. began to lead a discussion on the ARI mission statement. Here is the statement and below are some points we hit on while fleshing out the exact meaning and manifestation of these ideas.
But ARI sees the world through a different lens, one that acknowledges the ability of every human culture to find unique and appropriate answers to the issues that they face. To illustrate this J.B. began to lead a discussion on the ARI mission statement. Here is the statement and below are some points we hit on while fleshing out the exact meaning and manifestation of these ideas.
The
mission of the Asian Rural Institute is to build an environmentally
healthy, just and peaceful world, in which each person can live to
his or her fullest potential. This mission is rooted in the love of
Jesus Christ.
To
Carry out this mission, we Nurture and Train rural leaders for a life
of sharing. Leaders both women and men, who live and work in
grassroots rural communities primarily in Asia, Africa and the
pacific, form a community of learning each year together with staff
and other residents.
Through
community-based learning we study the best ways for rural people to
share and enhance local resources and abilities for the common good.
We
present a challenge to ourselves and to the whole world in our
approach to food and life.
environmentally
healthy – We can survive without the world of science and
high-technology, but we cannot exist without nature. Our world is
entirely reliant upon a healthy environment, so this comes first in
the mission statement.
just
and peaceful world – much like the healthy environment, nothing
else mentioned in the mission statement can be achieved without a
considerable level of equality of power. Jil from the Philippines
mentioned also that “peaceful” does not just mean absence of war
but also all other severely disruptive forces like hunger and
disease.
each
person – not just the “successful” members of society who went
to the right school and started working for the right company.
rooted
in the love of Jesus Christ – not in Jesus Christ or in
Christianity itself, but rooted in the love. Because Christ’s love
is without limit, we welcome people of all
religions, cultures, and tribes to join our community here.
nurture
and train rural leaders– life here is like fertilizer, allowing
people who are already leaders in their communities to grow their
skills in new ways.
for a
life of sharing – not for a life of successful career in selling
these useful leadership services, but founded in Christ’s love,
giving freely to all who will receive.
leaders
both women and men – women are mentioned first because they give
priority to women. Of women who apply to study at ARI 1 in 3 are
accepted, compared to 1 in 7 of men. Admissions does this for many
reasons. To name a few: they believe in equality and are eager to
provide opportunities to women, who are usually given few; they
believe that it takes both women and men to change a society; they
acknowledge the importance of female leadership in the world.
who live
and work in grassroots rural communities – ARI’s work is done
through people who are not separate from, but a part of the
communities they are working in. Instead of sending help, they empower
help that is already at work within the communities, that understands
the culture, struggles, and needs of the people.
community
of learning – Admissions works very hard to select people from diverse backgrounds. By having a class of participants from a broad
spectrum of cultures, countries, professions, and religions, we can
learn from each other. We learn about each communities' issues and
efforts. We learn to step outside of our usual frames of thought.
share
and enhance local resources and abilities for the common good – ARI
is NOT teaching how to monopolize on local resources and capitalize
on exporting them. To perpetuate capitalism like that would only
benefit the rich and privileged. Every effort that ARI is making is
for the common good. Using local resources is vital. The goal is not
to build dependence but to empower the community.
a
challenge to ourselves – Before we push the world to change, we
need to push ourselves to embody the change we envision.
and to
the whole world – Yes, the goal of ARI, is to change the WHOLE
world into a place where each person can live to his or her fullest
potential. We are certain it is possible. If you have not already,
please join us in this effort, by working within your local
communities, using the resources God has laid at your feet, and respecting the integrity of our ecosystem.
Okonomiyaki
On
Friday we took the day off. We went into town to get some coffee in a
café and catch up on some reading. Then we went for lunch to eat our favorite Japanese food: Okonomiyaki! We went with a fellow volunteer, Kelly, to the restaurant that
we discovered in town last week on our ride with Kathy. It was
magical!
Sunday
This Sunday we
are going to travel to the big city. There is a bazaar at an Episcopal
church in Tokyo where ARI has sent some of its goods to be sold. We
have been commissioned to travel there with JB and to help raise
funds for ARI while visiting our Episcopal community here in Japan
for the first time! We'll tell you all about our trip in
our blog post next week!
Fellow servants
in Christ,
Doug and Jenny
Knight
