Aquaponics and Compassion for the Poor (ACP)

 The guys have been taking me out to swim for exercise in the mornings.  It's hard to exercise when your house is over water. So I've started going out into the cleaner waters of Makoko Lagoon to swim in the mornings.  If you look on a satellite photo, you can see the bridge that spans the lagoon and I can say that I swam to the bridge and did a 3/4 back flip off of one of the base of the bridge (the Lagos Ojoo Expressway) pilings.  The yellow circle is approximately where I think our missionary house is. Anyway, while swimming, I found sharp shell clusters in the mud.  So we gathered a bucket of them for the Aquaculture system.   These sharp shells will be placed between the plants in the aquaculture system and make a perfect medium for the water cleaning bacteria to live - bacteria hotels!   Below you can see we created an air bubbler by poking a small hole into the water pump hose that we split back to the fish tank.  This hole amazin...

I must confess that I love tomatoes too much, I just ate them!  But it was fun to eat the first fruits of our aquaculture garden.  One of my helpers picked them a bit more green than I would a have picked them, but... they were still fresh tomatoes.  Even though we transplanted large volunteer tomato plants - they have taken well to aquaculture and have put on new leaves.  Many of the plants already set tomatoes when we transplanted.  So, that's what I have been eating (and not sharing :)  Aquaculture and Compassion for the Poor (ACP) If you would like to give financially with a card – go to the following page and find the heading called: ·         Aquaculture and Compassion for the Poor (ACP) ----------------- If you would like to write a check , write the check to: ·       Cross Connections of KC ·       PO Box 901945, Kansas City MO 64190 ·       This is the non profit that takes care of m...

 Can you help me identify this local fish.  In an obscure language it is called Adawee.  It seems to tolerate both brackish and fresh water and gets big.  I know for a fact that it can handle low oxygen and rough environments.  I've had two in my tank for a couple of weeks without a bubbler.  The people do eat them.  And they eat about anything we through into the tank. They sound like a better fish than for tilapia for our purposes.  Can you figure out their identity? Aquaculture and Compassion for the Poor (ACP) If you would like to give financially with a card – go to the following page and find the heading called: ·         Aquaculture and Compassion for the Poor (ACP) ----------------- If you would like to write a check , write the check to: ·       Cross Connections of KC ·       PO Box 901945, Kansas City MO 64190 ·       This is the non profit that takes care of my accountin...

 Today, Solomon and Lydia began presenting their idea of a cooperative in Makoko to the people in the town centers.  They did a fantastic job presenting their work.  Basically, if the people will join together in the cooperative, they can potentially duplicate the filters into every home in Makoko.  It would be self governed and built from within the cooperative.  It works from the principle of "...Love your neighbors as yourself." Here you can see people stepping up to join the cooperative.  They signed up 16 people so far for the cooperative. Aquaculture and Compassion for the Poor (ACP) If you would like to give financially with a card – go to the following page and find the heading called: ·         Aquaculture and Compassion for the Poor (ACP) ----------------- If you would like to write a check , write the check to: ·       Cross Connections of KC ·       PO Box 901945, Kansas City MO 64190 ·   ...

 We finally got the pump installed and running on the Aquaculture System! You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a small 12v water pump in Lagos Nigeria.  I know they have them - just finding them is the eternal question here. Creating small scale food production systems is my expertise.  So my dream in going to Makoko is finally happening.  We have transplanted volunteer, tomatoes, corn (yes a corn pant) a local plant that people buy and sell but which I have no idea what it is, and some plants that the guys dug up for the system.  I have cucumber and pepper seeds to plant tomorrow.  Plants clean waist waters! Now that we have a pump, the plants will begin to flourish in the nutrient rich waters and we can add fish to the system.  Perhaps I will have enough time to teach people to make their own systems and expand the system. Aquaculture and Compassion for the Poor (ACP) If you would like to give financially with a card – go to the following pag...

 The new guy (Gahdi - in white) asked if I would teach him plants.  So I asked Solomon to work with Gahdi on the aquaculture system.  Solomon (in colorful outfit) came up with a new design for the system that is stronger and has double rows of plants.  This is good that he is thinking about better ways of building - that is the nature of aquaculture!  I love plants and I love to work with people who want to learn plants.  The fish are OK, but I do it for the plants.  The people here have rarely seen a live plant in their community and then to see the plants connected to living fish blows their minds!  However, it's still too leaky but they will learn that over time.  Rome was not built in a day!  And, I learned as a teacher to back off and let them learn life lessons that stick with them.  Another life lesson is that they got so excited, they went and got a new bunch of plants before the system is up and running.  Do you notice...

 Our neighbors are Muslim and our cistern often overfills.  So what do you do?   You give them the excess and share water as you can!  This is the way we see demonstrated in the Bible - Acts 2:45.  I have not seen any kind of problems between Muslims and Christians and, Solomon (pictured above installing an overflow pipe) says there are no religious problems in Makoko.   Romans says the way to make the world better is by overcoming the world in doing good! - Rom. 12:21  And all of God's demands of our life actions are summed up with loving others! - Mark 12:31   If we don't love (even, or especially, our "enemies" - although I see no enemies in Makoko except poverty and low self esteem) we've missed the point of life!   Jesus loves you now and there is nothing you can do about it! The same love in which God so loved the broken world - John 3:16 must run through us toward others.   To change the world for the bett...