Two Years in Africa: October 2012

Community entry is over. In-service training was a blast down in Lusaka. We spent a week catching up as an intake group, telling each other about our different sites and what we have been up to so far. Several days were also spent with more specialized training in topics that we did not get to in our initial training. That included lectures on bee keeping, livestock rearing (rabbits and chickens), the non-existent Jatropha market, mushroom growing and much more.

Back in my village I have continued working with my local women's group. I gave a demonstration on how to make bread on a brazier. We made regular bread with white flour and one with maize flour. Both turned out wonderful! I usually end up burning my bread a little, so I was thrilled when I got it right in front of a group. Only problem was there was barely enough bread to pass around the big group. I think everyone left happy though.

My work with Mabula Upper Basic School has started this week too. Last week I went to outline my program with them. As much as the school would love to give me a few classes to teach I have declined. Not only do I not feel qualified to be a teacher but more practically I will be gone too often to be of much use as a teacher. Different programs and obligations will have me away from the village at least two weeks each of the next three months. I also have many other groups and individuals that I work with while I am at site. Although I am not available to be a teacher I still think it's important to work with the students. My plan with the school then is to work with their agriculture science class doing a project once or twice a month.

My class and their trees.

This week our first school project was to start a tree nursery. We planted some quick growing agroforestry trees that we can the leaves use later for making compost, and a few lemon trees that later we will graft into oranges. Next up for projects will be teaching conservation farming in the school field and composting. Gardening, solar drying foods/nutrition, alternate technology and environmental conservation are topics I am looking at for later.

My newly furnished house.

I have also spent the last couple weeks biking back and forth from Kasama trying to finish furnishing my house. It took several trips but now I have some shelves for my 'kitchen' area (corner really) and a small table with an awesome little shelf for keeping all my books off the floor. I'm really happy with how homey my little hut is getting to be! This week I'm planning on building a nice little adobe oven at my house too. It should make baking bread easier and more fuel efficient (not to mention cookies, cake and pizza). I'm really enjoying cooking now that I have lots of time on my hands. Lunch yesterday was soya tacos with fresh handmade tortillas. Yum!!!