Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Seasonal Totals and a Block Party

The last two months at the Jordan Valley farm have been the most productive in our four years.  In the first two months of the seven month season our team has delivered over 54,000kg (119,000lbs) of fresh produce to Iraqi, Syrian, and Palestinian refugees at four different locations across Northern Jordan.  One of the most significant pieces of encouragement for the AC4D team has come as the result of a medical day sponsored by Operation Mercy in the Azraq region this week.  The medical team coordinator relayed to us that they overall health of the 100 children at the school that we have been serving for the last year and a half has improved dramatically.  His statement was, "I don't know where all the nutrition came from.  The last time that we did medical checks on the kids we were seeing serious signs of malnutrition; lots of infections, lots of skin problems, even some kidney failure.  Now they look great!  Full of energy."  Then it dawned on him where all the nutrition came from.  We have been donating two metric tons of fresh produce to those families every week for almost the entire interim between his health checks.  Turns out huge amounts of fresh food delivered to their homes will make kids healthier.

This week I took my oldest son to distribute food to several families in the area to give him a sense of the conditions that people are living in.  It was difficult to see but a great pleasure to engage with knowing that we can make a difference in this small area with these few hundred people. 

 


Delivering food to families in the Azraq Region of Jordan


Block Party

We also hosted a meal for the farmers in our area yesterday to break in the new Zarb pit.  Zarb is a traditional Jordanian dish of chicken or meat cooked in an earthen oven. Its a big draw.  Equivalent to cooking a half beef in the front yard of your house in Texas.  Everybody in the neighborhood shows up.  We had a great time and it was a good opportunity to take the pulse of what is happening on the farms around us.  

    
 

This stand goes in the Zarb Pit and cooks for several hours