Back To Our Unusual Usual Sh*t...

A 2-night stay in the jungle forest of Rumangabo, 2hrs north of Goma, got us out into the verdant Congolese countryside, passing through very basic, frontier villages, and directly into the area where the Congolese army and the M23 were warring just a few months ago.
A group of children playing on an abandoned rocket launcher was chilling, to say the least.
Babies are everywhere.
Often vestiges of soldiers who were stationed in the area that have moved on.
Oh, beautiful Congo!
Mountains, volcanoes, and an opportunity to hike into the jungle forest for a magical encounter with mountain gorillas.
And back at a lovely lodge called Mikeno, we had meetings with national park authorities to discuss bringing our initiative to the farming cooperatives living in the critical zone along the park boundaries when we return in September. 

Roughly 450 families along a 45km stretch of farmland that abutts the national park.
Once again, as in Rwanda, if the communities around the park can become stable, with food on the table and excess to sell at market along with surplus animals, community members will not go inside the forest to cut trees and poach animals.
Nor will they throw in their lot with SOCO, a huge oil corporation that has discovered massive oil deposits under the forest floor and is attempting to fill the community's heads with big, empty promises.

So now we have become a "stick-it'to-big-oil" initiative as well!

And Now, An Entirely New Kind Of Sh*t...

After a few more intense meetings, working in english, french, and a creative combo of the two, The Guardian Project is proud to announce that we have launched our first Micro-Finance/Village Banking initiative (name to follow)!
Pages of notes and numbers will now be drafted into a contract and translated to french.
We will begin with CPNCK on Idjwi Island.
CPNCK will now be able to create an on-the-spot market for the coffee, eliminating the long period between harvest, transport to far-off markets, payment and reimbursement to farmer.
In the past this has been a major stumbling block for simple farmers, with limited access to cash, to make ends meet.
How wonderful for Jeff to be able to apply his extensive understanding of finance to such a productive end!
"Jeff, i-na-na!"
Three cheers for Jeff!
And three cheers for the cooperative for being so hard-working and committed to their obligations!
Sensitizing within the cooperative has already most enthusiastically begun.
"CPNCK i-na-na!"

the idea begins to percolate as Gilbert explains (in french) Jeff's vision to Chance and Victor

"Jeff e-na-na! Jeff e-na-na! Three cheers for Jeff as the news is shared

working out the details of forming a common vision and understanding

and of course, more celebrating!

teaching the teachers to sing "hokey pokey" with the kids

New Sh*t In The DRC

We finally meet with the heads of the CPNCK Cooperative that Gilbert is so proud of.
An incredibly joy-filled over-night on Idjwi Island officially launched our newest expansion, complete with a meeting with the King of the Island (who received 2 goats!) and the Governor!
What a peaceful, though terribly poor, paradise, isolated from the on-going conflicts that plague the greater region.
Introductions, speeches, initiative review and dancing were of course an integral part of the event as 50 tagged sheep were distributed to the first of a very large, hard-working coffee cooperative with 76 more to be purchased in the coming week for a Women's association of war-widows that are also part of the cooperative.
And the next group will be 120 ex-soldiers who have laid down their weapons to grow coffee...inspiring more soldiers to do the same on a regular basis.
What an incredible peace initiative.
And we take a moment to remember the hundreds of farmers who have drowned in their small dugout boats in rough waters, while trying to get their beans to Rwanda to sell, quietly, as the industry here in DRC is still in it's naissance. We will be supporting their wives with goats as well.
Tragic yet inspiring stories were shared by many men and women and tears were shed amidst the laughter.
Please consider donating to this exceptionally needy, proud and hard-working people.

the ferry from Goma to Idjwi was filled with a global buffet of soldiers including Hungary!

 

 

  

A warm welcome of song, dance and drumming...

everyone is smiling, laughing and talking...right up until someone points a camera

 

 

one last review and good thing, third party misunderstanding had unnecessarily complicated the whole program

meeting the king, a kind and thoughtful man, committed to improving the lives of his community

telling our story so far...and one last review of 'memo of understanding1'

nearby, some of the tagged goats waiting for distribution

and, as always during distribution, we play!...head and shoulders, knees and toes...

more dancing to celebrate, especially after the widows learned they would be the next recipients!

spreading our "skinnammarinky-dinky-dink..."

celebrating coffee

Congo Sh*t...

Ahhh, Congo...
"I don't think we're in Kansas any more Toto!"

Goma, Eastern Congo.
The ever-present AK47s.
And U.N. and NGO vehicles outnumber everything except moto taxis!
The sheer volume of foreign aid workers spending donor and tax money here in Goma has made the cost of everything soar.
Western prices rule at the few hotels and restaurants.
And yet no real sign that anything is happening to better the lives of the locals.
Show me the money!
A sharp contrast to Rwanda.
Haiti all over again.
Cold beer on our hotel balcony, and the fisherman coming in with their catch as the sun sets gives us a peaceful, easy feeling.

Another overnight in Goma, epicenter of U.N and NGO activity, and except for the lake, a drab and dusty border city.
Ex-pat employees and high-ranking officials are tucked away behind high walls and oodles of barbed wire in homes that rent for prices higher than those we would pay at home.
And the presence of so many NGOs and UN employees, spending donor and tax dollars, has created quite a thriving prostitution industry as well!
Pasty-faced, middle-aged western men with local women young enough to be theirs daughters or even, most sadly, in some cases their grand-daughters.
UGH!
A beer on the terrace of the Ihusi Hotel can easily, and did, present many an opportunity to talk to the directors of government, NGO and private enterprises that would otherwise take a chain of emails and introductions.
Meetings, both planned and chance, are making connections, and helping to illuminate the complexities of all that is Congo.
The more we learn, the more we know that we know nothing!
And, as always, with every cooperative we've encountered since we began The Shit Starts Here, we are meeting hard-working, (and I mean toiling!) people, who manage to be joyful in the face of so much adversity.
No room for depression here!
As we continually hear, "it accomplishes nothing!"
We in the West could learn from this.
I'm avoiding "poverty porn" pictures as many here call it...you know, close-ups of raggedly dressed, barefoot children and the simple homes they live in, with their struggling parents nearby.
But trust me, it's here, in numbers and degrees!

Look Who's Talking Sh*t...

We are humbled, and overjoyed to be recognized by Dr. Jane Goodall!

Through my recent role as a judge for the G Project, I became aware of an inspirational project in Africa led by Rita Rayman and her husband Jeff – a project which they describe as micro-finance but the currency is sheep. The Jane Goodall Institute’s success in protecting habitat for chimpanzees in Africa depends on creating programs that are controlled and embraced by the local people. Our community-centered conservation programs in Africa empower local people to build sustainable livelihoods while promoting regional conservation goals such as reforestation and ending the illegal, commercial bushmeat trade.
That is why I am pleased to endorse Rita and Jeff’s project, aptly named The Sh*t Starts here. The concept is simple - by providing sheep to farmers who compost the manure into fertilizer, crop yields increase, food production increases, and people are able to generate an income.  I believe that these results decrease the need for poaching and create stable communities which work with us to protect and conserve the environment shared by all Earth’s living creatures.
I commend Rita and Jeff for their commitment to this innovative, effective program and I wish them great success in the future.
Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE
Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute &
UN Messenger of Peace

2014 Promises To Be A year Full Of Sh*t...

Remember the G Project contest back in the summer of '13, and the amazing support you all gave us with your votes?

Well, we are proud and excited to announce that G Adventures/Planeterra has partnered with us to change people's lives!

G Adventures aims to ensure an ethical, authentic and unforgettable life-changing experience for everyone through Sustainable Travel.

Planeterra Foundation was founded by G Adventures as a way to give back through travel. 

Planeterra taps into G's global network of travelers, working as a social enterprise, investing in the futures of the people and the places G travelers visit.

Sponsoring a cooperative today and designating a portion of travelers' funds to future cooperatives.

http://www.planeterra.org/mightysite/destination-preservation-pages-23.php

And all the wonderful details can be found on our website, http://www.theshitstartshere.com/The_Sh_t_So_Far.html

Thanks to G Adventures/Planeterra, there will be lots more 'little shitters' helping to change people's lives.

Planeterra - Funds - Environmental Preservation | Planeterra

www.planeterra.org

Planeterra - Funds - Environmental Preservation

And Cause We Just Can't Stop Talking About This Sh*t...

September was spent visiting with group leaders from various cooperatives in both Musanze and Nyungwe in Rwanda, and Barlonyo, Ober Bar, Gullu and Kamdini in Uganda, giving us a chance to learn about the challenges, as well as the successes, of this incredible initiative.

Animal health is a primary concern and illness, disease and feral dog attacks are a problem.

The most successful rearing comes from locally sourced animals that are already accustomed to the environment and don't have to be purchased at market or trucked in from longer distances.

But the positive aspects of the initiative far out-weigh the negatives as crop yields are up for everyone, and extra income improves living circumstances.

increased income  allows for entrepreneurial efforts like this tomato tree farm - the product of a coming together of various members of the WOMEN's Cooperative in Rwanda

...as always, the shit starts here as babies continue to be born, a source of great happiness for all families involved.

group leaders from both the WOMEN's and AMIZERO cooperatives in Rwanda provide updates and testimonials including the fact that there is, in many homes, a new-found equality and harmony between husband and wife as the husband recognizes the benefits of his wife's contributions to the family through TSSH.
So TSSH is a peace initiative as well.

Encouraging Paul to understand just how big this little project really is! Paul rocks!

Causing a bit of a sensation in communities rarely visited by foreigners as we visit some farms to see independent entrepreneurial initiatives.

tethering allows easy manure and urine collection...supplemented with greens and a bit of soil and...

making fertilizer is this easy, IF you have the necessary ingredients!

VOILA, we've got gorgeous, enriched, organic and most important, constantly renewable fertilizer!

always wonderful to run into members of our initiative (note the tag on mum)

updates on births, pregnancies, sterility, attacks from feral dogs, disease, and how the co-ops are addressing these challenges after one year in the initiative.

and, as always, dramatic scenery surrounds!

catching up with Andrew, head of our inaugural graduating co-op, to hear what's been going on since they completed the terms of the contract.