Creating a Farm - Mohammed's Dream

Having met Lucille and Di and many other Gita people from our Gita tours to Egypt, Mohammed become very interested in the Yogic principles. He read Margrit Segesman's 'Wings of Power' particularly the section on visualisation. After quizzing everyone on the likelihood of this working he declared he wanted us to join with him in manifesting a farm for his family and village to become self sufficient. He formalised his vision as "To give people s sense of purpose and future, helping Egypt to become less dependent on foreign aid by reclaiming the desert and making it fertile"

To provide a self–sufficient, profitable farm for the extended family to work on and enjoy, as an example for others to follow and emulate.

How? In late 1986 the Egyptian Government was to release a tract of land in the Western Delta area approximately half-way between Alexandria and Cairo. The land was in the desert area known as MUDRIYET and was being auctioned in lots of 25 fedans (apporx. 20 acres) This land was virgin desert, but on an artesian basin (similar to Alice Springs).

Mohammed borrowed, scrimped and saved sold everything of value and went to the auction. Against the advice of everyone but his mother, Lucille, and Di, he bought an allotment and began to manifest the dream.

The marker pegs were hardly in the ground when Mohammed prepared the sign for the farm – it was to be called ‘ GITA LAND” because he was following the visualisation Lucille and Di had talked of and the things he had read in Margrit Segesman's book “Wings of Power”. GITA, meaning song of joy, he felt, was a fitting name for his dream.

A bore was needed to reach down to the artesian basin before unlimited sweet water was available. This was an extremely difficult task in shifting desert sand! Firstly it had to be excavated 15 metres and lined with bricks to hold back the sand, then the bore was taken down to 35 metres with an 8 inch pipe.

An old tractor was purchased to level the sand and furrow the areas up to the main channel. This could also be used for digging the crops, harvesting and was the only means of transport to and from the land.The tractor was modified to connect to the pump via a belt to generate the power to pump the water to the surface. * (There was no electricity to the area yet - it is available several kilometres away, but connection is at the user’s expense and will cost many thousands of dollars.)

The whole village worked on the canals, even the children were involved. Later, when the first crop was sown, the girls from the village came every day to sow the 20 acres BY HAND. Experimentation with other viable crops – snow peas, broad beans, tiny tomatoes and baby squash - planted by Lucille and Di - Hard work!

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The canals were built by hand in the old traditional way - the only modification being modern cement instead of mud. Modern plastic piping would have been more efficient and possibly cheaper but Mohammed knew that it would not be acceptable to the old families with their centuries of traditional farming and therefore, he would not be supported by them in the work. If the dream was to become reality, everyone needed to believe it was possible and to feel they had a part in it.

In just 3 short years, what was a tract of desert similar to one of our Australian beaches has become a productive farm. An orchard has been planted - 200 tiny trees - Mango, Lemon, and Lime, and Orange, Apples, Dates, Apricots and Guavas, Nectarines and Peach Kernals from Australia have also germinated and grown.

The family has produced enough vegetables for their own needs and enough wheat (ground into flour) to feed the entire extended family. Now "Gita Land" is looking like a real farm with chickens and ducks wandering around, two donkeys for transport and carrying fodder and 5 cattle - bulls being reared for market. They provide the desperately needed manure to enrich the sand and hold the newly - emerging soil together.

The Khuti Foundation, as the outreach of Gita International, later helped to provide the funds to purchase a proper pump to bring the water up 35 mts, to the surface.

* the Khuti Foundation - A blueprint for the peaceful evolution of Humanity