December 31, 2002 - Shelbyville Sentinel News: PCV Audrey Horrall spent two years teaching aquaculture in Zambia

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2002: 12 December 2002 Peace Corps Headlines: December 31, 2002 - Shelbyville Sentinel News: PCV Audrey Horrall spent two years teaching aquaculture in Zambia

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PCV Audrey Horrall spent two years teaching aquaculture in Zambia





Read and comment on this story from the Shelbyville Sentinel News on Peace Corps Volunteer Audrey Horrall who spent two years teaching aquaculture in Zambia. Fish farming, she said, was a way for them to earn money.

"Everyone loves fresh fish and there is a good market for it. The fish would also be a way for them to add quality protein to their own diets," Horrall said. Read the story
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Local woman spent two years teaching aquaculture in Zambia*

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Local woman spent two years teaching aquaculture in Zambia

By Walt Reichert

Sentinel-News Staff Writer There's an old proverb: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Audrey Horrall, of Harrisonville, took that one step further. She just returned from a two-year stint in the Peace Corps, where she taught poor farmers in Zambia, in southern Africa, how to raise fish and feed not only themselves but earn an income in that cash-strapped part of the world.

Horrall joined the Peace Corps in September 2000 shortly after she graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in agricultural biotechnology.

After three months of training, she took up residence in the northwest corner of Zambia, where most of the farmers depend on corn, sorghum, millet, sweet potatoes, sugar cane and ground nuts to feed their families. The villagers are pretty well fed, Horrall said, but almost no one has extra cash. Fish farming, she said, was a way for them to earn money.

"Everyone loves fresh fish and there is a good market for it. The fish would also be a way for them to add quality protein to their own diets," Horrall said.

Using only rudimentary tools and their own labor, the villagers learned to excavate a pond, dig a trench to the nearest water source and care for the fish, a type of tilapia, that reached harvest size of 10 to 12 inches in about six months.

"The traditional way of raising fish was to dig a hole, put a few fish in, walk away and come back months later to get the fish," Horrall said. "What we taught them requires more management but the benefits are much greater."

By the time she left Zambia, Horrall had about 20 farmers in the area raising fish in ponds. In some of the provinces, as many as 200 farmers were raising and mass marketing fish, Horrall said.

Though she lived in a grass-covered house with an outside bathroom and no running water, Horrall said she was well taken care of by the Peace Corps and by the people of the village. Once, while on vacation, her house was burglarized. Horrified and embarrassed by the crime, villagers found the perpetrators and recovered all of the goods except for a couple of jars of honey, she said.

"The villagers were very protective of me," Horrall said.

Looking ahead

A stint in the Peace Corps is not all work, Horrall said. She found time to travel much of the continent, including tours of game parks in the region where she saw many of the animals in the wild Americans see only on television or in zoos.

"I had an incredible time," she said.

Besides travel, she also took the opportunity to buy and ship back African artworks and everyday items including baskets, carvings and clothing.

In her home in Harrisonville Monday, she modeled the chitange, the traditional skirt worn by African women. She also showed off her collection of African carvings, including several types of juju men. Juju is similar to witchcraft, she said, and the juju carvings ward off the evil spirits.

Horrall's parents, Debra and Kenny Horrall, were glad she made it back in time for Christmas.

Horrall hopes to return to the African country someday, perhaps in a professional capacity rather than as a Peace Corps volunteer.

For the short term, she may end up in graduate school. But for the long term she hopes to use her college degree and international experience to secure employment in the of international development field.

"It was sad to leave the village and my Peace Corps friends, but it's good to see my family again," she said.
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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; PCVs in the Field; COS - Zambia; Special Interests - Aquaculture

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