Life

Its Saturday 1 pm. I had a much needed sleep in this morning (8.30am) but then the day started. I went to help a friend take some bags of cement to her home so she can render it- which then involved filling up with fuel, discovering a puncture, getting the tyre changed, during which time the farm manager left a missed call on my phone...but I had also run out of credit so i went off to buy some more units from the corner store and called him. 'We have 20 contract workers today!' he exclaimed. He'll need more money. We'll need to make sure all the contour marker ridges are measured out and dug so the new workers dig the ridges at the correct angle...I said I'd be there by 3pm. Meanwhile my friend gave me more money to purchase the remaining bags of cement- which I brought and loaded up, then stopped in at the markets to get some fruit- bananas and mangoes. the mangoes (ive got one stickying up my left hand right now!) are still pretty green and sour- but mango all the same! I was home by 12, ready for some breakfast. I'll leave at 2.15pm drop the bags of cement off on my way to the farm and spend the cooler afternoon marking out contours with an 'A frame', wooden pegs and a hoe, wondering how my Saturday got reduced to 2 hrs and 15 min...

Things are coming along really well at the farm though. 25 workers- 5 labourers and 20 contract workers for the next week means there is hope of egetting everythign done before the rains come. We've had a lot of trouble getting enough people to work- even after I figured out there was a boycott over pay which we managed to sort out. If there is meant to be 5, there will ususally bye 2 or 3. If we've got 10 lined up- we'll get 7. "Too many funerals' the farm manager said one day. 'Everyday there is a funeral! - its not good. ' I asked if the people were dying suddenly from malaria or accidents - or had they been sick a long time? They've all been sick a long time. AIDS. don't let the thought creep into your head that its not a big problem. It affects EVERY aspect of life here.

So- my Farm report:

- We've finished the farm plan and decided what to plant where- now we're working on sourcing the seeds and fertiliser etc

- The water management drain is 75% finished and the extra contract workers means the 5 labourers will be available to work on it solidly over the next few days...miracle!

- I've found a local farmer who has about 15 tonne of cow manure he's happy to have cleared away for free?! and a sympathetic local farmer who's willing to let us use his 7 tonne truck at fuel cost price...another miracle. i know I found chicken poo- but it's too strong withount months of composting and we haven't got time. Ive moved it to next years 'to do' list.

- I've been sourcing all sorts of tree seedlings to plant at the first rains while we're waiting to have resources and time to set up our own nursery. Those materials are slowly coming together too, but we should have about 100 fruit trees and 200 woodlot trees ready to plant in the next few weeks. yay!

- our training facility? it fell down. I don't really want to talk about it. lets call it a cultural learning experiance for me-and leave it at that! :-z

- I've also been told there is a donation that I can acces for the farm - so ive been busy not only dreaming big, but researching prices and the best way to go about getting things done and putting together a proposal and budget for the next 12 months...

So yeah- Ive been busy, along with continued language learning and still not feeling 100% after the virus/infection I had last week. Ive also been staying overnight sometimes - housesuitting a friends house near the farm which is awesome to save driving...but there's no internet!!!! waaaa :-) so im getting lots of work done- but feeling very disconnected from the outside world. well- my weekend ends in 10 min. better pack my overnight bag.

til next time