Peace and Season's Greetings to All

I can't believe it's Christmastime! That seems so bizarre right now. I think we are getting a turkey to cook on the charcoal stove.

We have been having an in-service training this week. I returned to my village with a friend who lives in Njombe, because we had a free day on Sunday. It was really cool getting to show him my village. Plus he is one of the most hilarious people I've met in my life. I got a chance to work on my farm a tiny bit, but it was the Sabbath and my farm is right on the road, so I got lectured by several people passing by that I shouldn't be working. I really wanted to get a little bit of a start though, and won't be back in my village for a long time, so I felt it was necessary.

My corn is healthy, my garbanzos and beans are growing, the Chinese cabbage is up but being ravaged by something, half of my peas were eaten, half survived, and the tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, onions, basil, mint, beets and eggplant have yet to come up. We'll see. I plan to plant pumpkin seeds, potatoes, peas and beans on my farm.

The major thing that came out of training was a rough plan to buy seedlings and plant them in January. I'm still working out the details with my village executive officer. The training was fun, and it was good to work on planning a project.