Ilunga Mbumba was the chief of his village.

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He lived in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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He was a man living in poverty with no means to provide for his family.

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A Peace Corps volunteer sent to the area to teach locals how to farm fish met Ilunga.

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Ilunga became excited at the possibility of raising tilapia to feed his family and sell the surplus.

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There was just one problem.

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He needed a pond.

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There were no bulldozers. No excavators.

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Ilunga didn’t even own a shovel.

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The Peace Corps volunteer gave him one on credit against his next harvest of corn.

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Ilunga set out to dig a pond 49 x 66 feet.

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The Peace Corps volunteer cringed when he watched Ilunga take the shovel and dig it into the hard ground for the first time.

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Ilunga had no shoes.

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For months he dug and dug, only stopping to tend to his crops and rest.

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When he finally dumped the last shovel of dirt on the ground,

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He had dug up 4,000 cubic feet of dirt.

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That’s equivalent to around 50,000 shovelfuls.

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They filled the pond with water and added 300 tiny tilapia.

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Six months later, Ilunga harvested 97 pounds of fish.