The rainy season is nearing its end, and it’s not looking pretty for the people in our region. Last year the rainy season was too short, leading to bad yields, and this year the rains were on time, but much heavier than expected, and the flat-farming of maize and beans practiced on our rolling hills suffered, and has led to predictions of famine. The yellow bean leaves and corn that tassled at the height of my knees are a hauntingly common sight. You can see that the topsoil has been washed away and there is devastating erosion in some places. The saddest thing though, is that a lot of it could have been prevented by a little bit of terracing, and digging ditches on the contours. I have my work for this year cut out for me.

Yesterday my Country Director and the Permaculture Specialist came to my site on their rounds of visiting all of the volunteers. They were very happy with my farm, which I never really considered Peace Corps work because it’s just something I do in my free time. They recognized it as just the first attempt a green farmer (green because I’m a novice, green because it’s organic, and maybe green due to weeds), and definitely found a lot of things I could work on to make it more productive, but said that it was a great example, especially due to the central location (right outside the school on the main road where everyone can see it). Who knew that it’s considered work just because I can’t go 5 minutes without talking to the people that pass by the farm and exchange advice? In the past 4 months I have progressed from being shocked every time green things come out of the ground because I put seeds in it, to having to plan my diet around what's ready. The list of things growing now includes corn, beans, cabbage, pumpkins, peanuts, garlic, onions, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, carrots, bambarra nuts (yeah, I didn’t know what they were either! They grow like peanuts), lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, cilantro, basil, nasturtiums, mango trees, pigeon peas, and soy beans, and the sunflower and wheat have been planted but have yet to sprout.

I did get the kitten I had mentioned, but so far her contribution to my living situation has not included killing any rats. Her pastimes do include climbing me, eating enough food to make her stomach almost drag on the floor, and stealing sponges.

Small projects I am working on are a brief lesson for all the Mamas in the village about respiratory tract infections, an AIDs seminar for the teachers, a primary school environmental club, and a tree nursery group.

I recently had a good conversation with our new head teacher, as I had planned to discuss the problem of elementary school students who live far away. Just like many American students (especially Alaskans in winter), these kids get up before the sun rises, but then they walk an hour or an hour and a half to school (or run some of the way), endure beatings if they’re late, spend the entire day at school (even the 2 hour break which should be for lunch), and walk all the way home, arriving after dark for their 1 meal of the day. It would be incredibly hard to orchestrate a school-lunch program that would be sustainable, but we are going to try and get parents to start packing lunches for their kids, and the teachers will put the lunches in a safe place.