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UMTV Brief
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This week on UMTV, rebuilding... Africans helping Africa. | ||
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Garden of Hope Intro:
Welcome to UMTV’s Web Brief; I’m Reed Galin.
Success in this country is often measured by wealth and prestige - material means. How’s this for perspective? For those at United Methodist-supported Africa University in Zimbabwe, success means making sure your fellow citizens stay alive. Students like Henry Otieno are trying to plant seeds of hope - literally.
Garden of Hope Story:
IT’S DINNERTIME AT THE ORPHANAGE AT THE UNITED METHODIST MISSION IN EASTERN ZIMBABWE. THE WHITE PORRIDGE IS A NATIONAL STAPLE CALLED SADZA. IT’S MADE FROM MAIZE. THE GREEN LEAVES ARE CABBAGES PICKED FROM THE GARDEN OF HOPE.
Nicole Windhurst /Orphanage Director: “It means the promise of food everyday. It means that we don’t have to worry about where our vegetables are coming from.”
EVERY CABBAGE, CORN COB AND CUCUMBER HARVESTED FROM THIS SPECIAL GARDEN HELPS TO FEED THE CHILDREN AT THE ORPHANAGE.
Nicole Windhurst: “In the future, it means a chance for the kids to learn serious agricultural skills.”
THE IDEA TO PLANT THE GARDEN OF HOPE HAD ITS ROOTS IN 1998, WHEN HENRY OTIENO WAS AN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT AT THE NEIGHBORING UNITED METHODIST-SUPPORTED CAMPUS OF AFRICA UNIVERSITY. WHEN HE HEARD THAT THE CHILDREN WERE NOT GETTING THEIR NUTRITIONAL NEEDS MET, HE PUT HIS AGRICULTURE STUDIES TO WORK.
Henry Otieno / Africa University: “Generally a child without parents always gets rejects. They always get what has been thrown, what has been left. I feel they should get what belongs to them, what is first-class.”
Nicole Windhurst: “Typically, orphans get the bottom of the barrel. With this they get the cream of the crop.”
Lena Nozizwe, Reporting: “You always have a lot of food here?”
Orphans: Yes!”
Lena Nozizwe: “Is it good food?”
Orphans: “Yes!”
OTIENO IS NOW A GRADUATE STUDENT AT AFRICA UNIVERSITY-BUT HIS STUDY LOAD DOES NOT KEEP HIM FROM PLANTING SEEDS OF INSPIRATION AND HOPE, AND CULTIVATING A BUMPER CROP OF SMILES.
Tag / Commentary: Africa University Legacy Intro:
The orphanage continues to work with Africa University to sell any extra food to make money for the children. This month, Africa University is celebrating its 10th birthday. The school’s impact can be seen across the continent through students like Zephirin Ndikumana. He was one of the first agriculture majors at the college. He credits the school with teaching him a new language and a new way to communicate what he’s learned.
Commentary: Africa University Legacy Story:
To me, Africa University means a lot. And it has shaped me morally, physically, also spiritually, and then academically.
I’ve been taught English. We use French at home.
My major was agronomy-to teach farmers how to grow crops, and how to harvest, how to take care of their soil fertility, how to sow, how to reap, how to process crops, how to apply fertilizers, all that.
If you plant crops, they take up nutrients from the soil. And if you keep on planting and harvesting, and planting and harvesting, you are like mining. You are removing and you are not returning. So the process of doing soil analysis helps the farmer to know what he has removed, what is remaining, and what he should plant in order to balance out the soil fertility.
For me, Africa University is just grand.
MIAs No More Intro:
War is about orphans and widows. Doesn't matter what kind of war it is, a war of terrorism or combat between nations... The war never ends for those who lose loved ones. That may be even truer when the dead and missing are never found and questions never answered. When I say "M.I.A.", you probably think of those missing in Vietnam. But tens of thousands of American families relate that term to World War II. If that seems a lifetime ago now, it was.
MIAs No More Story:
THEY WERE TOGETHER FOR 57 YEARS, BUT NOT A SOUL KNEW WHERE. THEIR WIVES REMARRIED AND GREW OLD. THEIR CHILDREN NOW HAVE CHILDREN OF THEIR OWN. AND THEN, MYSTERY RELEASED ITS GRIP.
“Do you have any memory of your father?"
Nancy Lewis, Daughter: "Absolutely none. Absolutely none."
Jerry Ahr, Son: "That’s the big thing, I guess. Never getting to know him."
THEY NEVER MET EACH OTHER, BUT JERRY AHR STILL MISSES HIS FATHER. HE WAS 8 MONTHS OLD WHEN HIS FATHER'S PLANE VANISHED.
Jerry Ahr: "They were coming back on a bombing run over the cloud cover was so heavy that visibility was almost zero."
HIS DAD WAS THE CO-PILOT ON THAT B24. THE PLANE HAD COLLIDED WITH ANOTHER BOMBER, BUT THE CRASH SITE OR THE CREW COULD NOT BE FOUND.
YET ONE DAY, ALMOST LIKE THAT, NINE MEN - AND PAINFUL MEMORIES - WERE UNEARTHED.
Col. Paul Bethke, Chief of Mortuary Affairs: "1997, in September, French salvage personnel were in the site looking for parts of the aircraft wreckage, when they came across the site and found some remains."
THE B24 LAY DEEP IN A MOUNTAINOUS FOREST IN FRANCE, EVERY SOUL STILL ON BOARD. SIX WEEKS TURNED UP PIECES OF TEETH AND BONE, HIGH SCHOOL RINGS, WATCHES, AND ID TAGS.
Nancy Lewis: "You can see from the dog tags that it must have been a very violent crash. They're all gnarled and mangled. But it's possible to read the name and identification number. So we’re proud of these. We’re glad we have these.”
NANCY LEWIS CARRIED HER FATHER'S DOG TAGS TO HIS FUNERAL AT
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY.
NOW, THE FAMILIES CLUTCH NEATLY FOLDED FLAGS … FINALLY, SOMETHING TO HOLD ONTO.
Tag:
Although a bittersweet reunion, these families could be considered lucky. There are still 78,000 servicemen missing around the world. Since World War II, Army recovery teams have unearthed the remains of 389 individuals and returned them to their families with full military honors.
Tease next week:
On the next UMTV Web Brief … Honoring the creators of an unbreakable code.
“I’m not a hero. The guys we left behind are the true heroes.”
Thanks for watching. Make it a good week.