Fish, Farm and Family! A Fabulous Place!

On Saturday we took off to visit this incredible place.  

Roger and Faith, new friends from church have built this place from the 

ground up.  Roger has always had the dream of owning his own 

fish farm and Faith is right along side of him.  But they 

also foster 18 children who have been with them for the last few 

years.  Most of them are school age... except for the one little one you will meet later,  

and she makes 19.  As you look at these pictures there is one thing you need to know. 

They are so far out in the rural area they have no electricity. 

They cook with wood, gas or charcoal.

These are courageous people!  And they are a lot of fun

and are strong believers!

We drove about an hour south of us and pulled up here

about 5km from the main road. 

Ok.. so they don't just have fish!  Not only do they have
turkeys...so they can have Thanksgiving....

They also have chickens....
many in the brooder house and running around, too! 

The lake, that makes this Lakeside Fish Farm....is off in the distance.

What a view for the turkeys and chickens and cows and pigs, too! 

Babies everywhere!

Lots of new families!

 Dave, Roger and Bruce talking about the lay of the land.
There was nothing on this property 4 years ago. Roger has hired many
workers and they have put together a mini-ranch!
That's what i call it.. not what Roger calls it!  It is so wonderful!

These are Cassava plants.. it is a root plant that folks eat, make flour from, etc.
We have learned that this is eaten all over the world... but apparently not in the US.
We had never heard of it.  More info if you would like on...
http://www.cassavachips.com/cassava.html

Boy, did this make me miss home.
Roger has thought of everything ---for the kids! 

 What a place to swing and relax, huh?

This is the newest home they have built.
They hope to move in here within a week or two.
The tree is a Papaya tree.

Another view... The house faces the lake and the entire family of 21
will move into this place. It is so well designed. 

The view from the house they are living in now. 

Their front porch facing the lake.  The guys were soaking 
in the view and soaking up information from Roger.

Dave and Faith!  She does have Faith and Joy and Love, as well.
I just love her. 

The Justice Ministry had just asked if they would take in this little girl.
She is an orphan and needs a home... so for the meantime she is
in a great place with people who love her.
Her name is Mutoni and she is around 2.   

After we met Mutoni, we started the tour of the whole place! 

This is where Roger and Faith have been living as they have
been designing, building and working on the farm.  A great house!

This is one of the bathrooms in the new house.
Shower curtains aren't up yet.. but it is getting close to done.

The actual cooking kitchen is across the way from the house.
All the cooking is done there and then brought to this serving area
where all the family will eat.  It opens out into this area....

 Pictures can't do this justice but this is a huge eating and living area
and you can just visualize everyone here eating and talking and being
together. 

This is the front/side of the house.  A porch for all the kids
and a private porch for Roger and Faith, too.
They were thinking ahead when they designed this entire home!

This is the house they built for Faith's mom who lives here.
I didn't find out until later, but her Mom ended up quite sick the
day after we left and has been in the hospital all week.  

And now, we start are our walk down to the fish farm.
Can you imagine living here everyday?
Ok.. maybe not without electricity but it is so serene. 
If you can see the guys walking way down the road you get a picture of 
the magnitude of the property and the lake.

 I know nothing about how fish are grown and taken to market
but this is what Roger is doing.  Bruce should be writing this
part because he learned a lot about it... but this was our first view.

The white lines over the fish and the bamboo around the edges are to keep
predators, birds and animals away from the fish.  

 These haven't been walled with bamboo but they do have the wires over them.
You can see how big the tanks are.  Each of these holes was dug by hand...
 I would say they are about 4-5 feet deep.. Maybe they were deeper, but I'm not sure. 

This give you the full picture of the magnitude of the operation.
There are thousands of fish growing here, primarily, two kinds of Tilapia.
Tilapia is an African freshwater fish.  This is an enormous business venture.

Fish tanks as far as you can see.  There is food in the red and
blue "trash cans" and they are fed several times a day.  So, we fed them
as we walked along.  A worker does this all day long, usually.

Just a picture of the wires.

 Creativity thrives here.  When you don't
have resources you make up your own!
Nothing is just "run to Lowes or Home Depot
 and pick it up".

 An almost protected environment! 

 Except for the extra guys that get in the water!
Like this big guy....

... and this Bigger guy!!!  He can't get out once he is in so he
has to be pulled out.  The edges slope and the pools are lined
( stuff from Houston, TX) so he can't get any traction.
The face of desperation!  Once out he ran like crazy like a puppy round and
round in circles as fast as he could the whole length of the ponds.  
I loved it! I miss Barney so much!

Perhaps this can give you an idea of just how many fish are in these ponds.

 As we are walking along the fish farm I looked up and
this is the view from this location.
What a place to work!  Fish aren't my cup of tea.. but i do pray that this business will
flourish for them and the Lord will bless them. 

 Faith and other visitors that were there staying for the week.
She insisted we have some coffee and scones before we leave.

They wanted us to stay for lunch but Dave and Bruce are heading
to Gisenyi this afternoon so we needed to head back. 

 But just before we left.. we look up and down the dirt lane towards home come two
of their kids returning from boarding school.  It is break time and you can
see the joy in their faces to be back with Mom and Dad and Home! 

  Roger went out to meet them as they were coming down the lane and
it looked like a reenactment
 of the like the Prodigal Son story.
But these aren't prodigal sons.  They were so excited to be back with their
family.  I'm glad we were there for this moment.
It was so heartwarming!

Faith's mom is hopefully coming out of the hospital this week.  Please 

pray for them --for her health and for Faith as she cares for her. 

Thank you, Roger and Faith for sharing your beautiful place with 

us and for being such faithful servants to the Lord and 

all of His children!  You are such a great example for all 

of us by showing us how we are to live out our lives of faith!  

love,

margie

After this visit we headed back to Kigali and changed our plans! 

More Saturday continued soon....