Community Garden Compost

More community work updates.
Wow...things seem to be happening so quickly the last few weeks.

I have fantastic news for our community garden/demonstration garden project. Originally, when Rachel and I were talking about starting the garden project, we did a little research into what other ngos in the area are doing to get some ideas about what works and what doesn't. We found a really good organization called ACE Africa working nearby. They do work in HIV/Aids support as well as organic agriculture. We visited a demonstration garden of theirs and discussed their programs. After this...we planted our own community garden.

Now...the garden is growing well and I will hopefully be eating watermelon before I leave. We are now working on developing the structure of the gardening program, things like how to expand, how to gain interest, how the harvest sharing should work and how the records should be kept. Juli and Sabrina arranged to go back to ACE Africa to talk with them about our project. They went into town with Anerico and had a fantastic meeting with them! In fact, they agreed to come to our village and do a two day seminar on organic agriculture on July 4th and 5th.

AHHHH I won't even be here then! But I'm really excited for it. Juli and Sabrina as well as our new Canadian volunteer Maria will be here to run things.

In the meantime, we have been busy making an organic compost pile to use in the garden.
First step... prepare the location. The big stick is for Anerico to check the temperature in the middle of our pile as it decomposes.

Next step....collect dry material for the base of our pile.


After this... we put a layer of cow dung down. Thanks to SabJulStay's mom we had lots!


Then, we collected green material and mixed with ash to add to our pile. Anerico kept telling us to make it bigger and bigger....that guy certainly has big plans for our projects!

Lastly...the pile is covered with soil and left for a month.
A month from now we turn the soil, then leave for two more months....then use on our garden.

How is the technique Mom? Does it look okay? I think you know a lot more about gardening than me, but you'll be happy to know I'm learning....and working in the garden. pretty funny eh?

Junk Fruit and SabJulStay

Hello!

A little more about life in Kenya!
Has anyone ever had something called junk fruit before? I've never really seen it before coming here. It is a massive fruit that grows on a tree that is super sweet, sticky and kinda tastes like bubblegum.

Here are Juli and Hamza posing by the junk fruit tree. This one is small still, not ready to be picked yet! One junk fruit can probably feed about 10 people...and the whole thing costs about 60 cents. Good value eh?


The fruit is a little difficult to open. We always have to borrow a panga (huge knife) from the neighbour to cut them open. Here is Sabrina in our house, opening the junk fruit.



Everyone in our little family loves junk fruit!! Even Maximus, he goes crazy when we are eating it.



One of the other big events that has happened in the village was the birth of SabJulStay. It was certainly a new experience for me to see a cow give birth. Anerico's neighbour's cow gave birth last week, so we took a break from our gardening work to come watch...and name the calf after ourselves of course.


Me with my partial namesake.


The birth of a calf is a pretty big deal here, it means milk for the owner to drink or sell to their neighbours. Sometimes I think about how it's pretty funny that my coffee and tea is made with the milk from the cow just outside our house. I pass it on my way out everyday.

Best News Ever!

Two of the chickens have started laying eggs!!
This is fantastic news because it means that Anerico will very soon be able to afford to purchase his own chicken food and even start generating some income!! Whoot!!!!!


I have been working with Anerico to help him learn to keep records for his project and now he will have something to record.

It's funny, I saw him yesterday and he said that two chickens have been laying eggs everyday for the last three days. He told me that he hasn't even eaten any of them, he is just keeping them so that we can eat the first eggs together! I better get over to his house for lunch quick, don't want them to go bad.

Rachel and I named the two roosters after ourselves (selfish I know, but we couldn't resist having the two cocks named after us!), but I think I will name the two chickens who have been laying Marie and Emily after my aunt and cousin who purchased them.

More PTA - Agriculture Program

Another one of the main responsibilities of the PTA is the school agriculture program.
Right now, the school lunch program requires each parent to bring in 4 kg of maize and 4 kg of beans per term per child. The is cooked and used for the lunch program.

The parents were very keen on setting up some kind of agriculture program with the school to improve this program. At the beginning of the growing season, we decided to grow maize, soya beans and sukuma wiki (kale). The intention is for the kale to be used to add some much needed nutrients to the lunch program. Here is the chairman of the PTA transplanting kale seedlings from our nursery bed to the main garden.



Here is the kale garden a few weeks later, seems to be growing well. We will have some greens in the lunch program in no time!



The maize and soya beans that we planted have two purposes. We have decided to sell a small amount of maize to sustain the program. We aren't planning on making money from selling maize, just getting enough to buy seeds and gardening supplies for the next growing season. I think this has potential to work, because we can just sell some to the parents for their regular contribution to the lunch program. The remaining maize will then be combined with the soya beans to make a porridge for the kids to eat at the morning break. Look how tall the maize is growing! This is Yassin, the PTA member in charge of agriculture helping out on our weeding day.

PTA in Action

Okay...last post for the day, make sure you read my other ones from today, not just this one!

Here I wanted to talk about a big day we had with our PTA. One of the main objectives of the PTA that Rachel and I set up is to mobilize the parents so that they can contribute to the school community. One big thing we talked to them about doing, is classroom maintenance. Our Nursery classrooms were in serious need of some repair.


This is the wall between two classes. It was terrible because you could hear everything from the class beside you. Also...sometimes the kids would poke each other through the wall during class. Pretty funny, but probably not the best for learning.



Since these classrooms are made of mud....repairs are free! We sent out letter with all the kids for the beginning of the term to ask parents to come to the school for our mudding day.

First step....mud prep. All the men brought their own tool and set to work digging a mud pit.



The women, who all brought their own pails...set to work fetching water for the mud.

What did we do? Well.. here is Juli trying her hand at water carrying. Everyone finds it so funny when we try to carry on our head. It is NOT easy. Juli's bucket was empty...and it also fell right away.

Water carrying aside...there is still a lot we are able to help with. I have done mudding a few times now, instead of saying 'ana jaribu' (she has tried), they say 'you are now perfect'. yay! Mud prep is a LOT of work, here I am mixing...


After mud prep it is carried into the building and thrown at the wall. This part was actually pretty quick, so many people were helping by this point.



Here is the after picture. Pretty cool that this could all be done for free.



The teachers and the students are happy with the improvements!

Tumaini Calendar!!

Does anyone remember that Amanda, Rachel and I were working on making a calendar as a fundraising project for the school? Amanda is planning to use the calendars to fund the teacher's salaries. The school is set up so that Amanda uses money that she fund raises for the teacher's salary and the school fees that the parents pay are used for the school supplies and general maintenance.

We used pictures that we took of the kids and drawings they made. Well...they are ready!
I haven't actually seen a physical copy of it, only the pdf proof. I think they are desktop calenders.... Amanda has already brought some to Canada to sell at her store and they are proving to be quite popular. Whoot! It sounds like I'll be using my second checked bag to bring her back some more in a few weeks.

I'm not sure if this picture will come out too clear... hopefully you can still see it.


Here is also a sample of a month...



The little girl in the photo is Neema...she's a cutie!

Sugarcane and Bat Catching

So...it was easy enough to take care of our rat problem.....and our cat problem.... but we did call in some reinforcement for our bat problem.

Since Rose's room has no windows, bats discovered that it is the perfect place to hang out. We found that there were at least three or four sleeping under her bed!!!! This isn't the hugest problem of all time, but they were bringing bugs into our house to eat... gross. We did a little bit of research about how to get rid of bats, but everything we read was about sealing your house to prevent them from entering. Hmm....that's a bit of a problem in our little mud house. Rama, aka batman, said he could come help us out. Here he is with his tool of choice, a green branch....


Success!!! Luckily, by catching one of the bats...all of it's friends have been scared off and found other shelter.


Later that day, it was discovered that I have been missing one big huge Kenyan experience, chewing sugar cane. It is a favourite hobby of kids and adults alike here. It's pretty common for people to pick up canes that have fallen off the trucks and chew away. Most people here just rip the bark off with their teeth, but Rose was kind enough to prepare some for me instead. I'm sure the dentist will than her for that!


Everyone thought it was pretty funny that I wanted to take so many photos of it.


Here is a much nicer photo of me, my sugar cane and some friends.
I don't think it will be a hobby of mine...although it was a good time, I'll stick with my chocolate!