FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“ DATE: JULY 23, 2022 RICE PORRIDGE ANYONE? With 90 TONS now filling 2 barns, our kids can have rice anytime they want it. We buy our rice in the hull, straight from the field, as weevils don’t mess with it. God’s shell keeps those tasty little kernels nice and safe until we desire to dehull it for eating. Our group of widows living in our homes as well as some of the women from our church dehull rice BY HAND for the children once each month, giving them the freshest, vitamin rich rice available anywhere. Just ask any visitor who has eaten it how tasty and filling it is! Bringing in 90 tons of rice took three days as we could only handle 600 sacks a day Note that 90 TONS is twice what we usually buy, but we decided this was best for 2 reasons. 1. Our main rice growers lacked rain at the proper time this year, leaving them with NO harvest. THANKFULLY, the small farmers in other areas of this county were able to bring in a few sacks each to fill our need. FYI: Rice in the hull will keep up to 2 years if kept dry. 2. With uncertain weather patterns for 2023’s rainy season, this could easily affect corn growers in 2023 as well. Thus, best to have a food reserve we can count on. BEE HOME DISCOVERED Rice stacking interrupted until we chased off a large honeybee family. Unknown to all of us, a family of bees built a four-bedroom home in the 4X4 building beams in the second rice warehouse. 4 Bedroom home of local honey bees OUR THANKS TO OUR BUSINESS CONTRIBUTOR WHO MADE RICE BUYING POSSIBLE. YOUR LOVE GIFT WILL FEED HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN OVER THE NEXT YEAR. WINTER COLD CONTINUES BUT… Nothing seems to stomp out the malaria mosquito! Malaria mosquitos are less active during this cold time but are never stopped completely. In cold weather we know some of the children will suffer Upper Respiratory Infections (colds, sinus infection), but this winter has been exceptionally tough on all of us. Edward, 9 years old has malaria and Baby Franciano has a sinus infection but still smiling I hear many of our donors are laughing because our “winter” means night temperatures of 50F/13C, but our children are use to 10 months of VERY HOT weather. A 40-degree F/25C DROP IN TEMPERATURE is super cold to them, especially because many only have light cotton clothing. THANKS TO YOUR GENEROUS LOVE GIFTS, we can afford the cold weather clothing to protect them, as well as the medicines that help our children recover quickly when they do get sick. UGLY BUT VERY HELPFUL IGUANAS are not known for their beauty, but they sure love eggs and things that slither along the ground. This curious critter keeps our snake population to a minimum as it scours our woods for tasty morsels of snake eggs, or newly hatched snakes. This guy has been around for several years and makes an appearance out of his intense curiosity every now and then. Not violent, but that tail can be lethal, so that even our guard dogs know to “bark, but don’t approach”. Our guard lizard (3 foot iguana) decided to check out my guard dog After taking the photo, I told him it was time to “disappear “again, and he casually walked back to the woods as I walked a few feet behind him to make sure he got there uninterrupted by my guards. The locals fear anything that gets that big, but I am doing my best to educate all our kids and staff on how beneficial even ugly creatures can be. WHAT CAME IN, MUST GO OUT With food buying over, it is time to visit villages and update our orphan lists in August. Due to the late harvest of corn, last year’s orphan group has food that they raised themselves. Our team will begin distributing food in September. BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF |