September 14, 2011

Two years and four months after we discussed joining the Peace Corps we are on the plane going to Botswana, Africa to help fight HIV/AIDS.

I have felt some moments of fear and a little regret, but mostly I have felt this is very much the right thing to be doing.  I actually feel God’s grace and as though I have a tremendous opportunity to finally live a purpose that has often been elusive.  I also feel I have another chance to be the person I have wanted to be without the hindrance of my past fears and insecurities.  I hope that the opportunity lives up to my expectations and that I live up to the opportunity.

I’m not sure what to do with all this relatively new information about myself – but these awakenings indicate this is what I should be doing with my life.

The last weeks before we left were a whirl wind of packing, visiting, selling, and getting rid of things.  All of this around three major going away parties and a big family dinner party.

The last few days became solemn.  We generally were in that weird place of having too much to do and not knowing what else to do.  I decided no one can ever really be ready to go live in another country for 27 months.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 I left Chicago and everyone in the US that I loved except John, and I did cry while trying to manage some fear.  We landed inPhiladelphiathree hours later and the emotional tide had started to turn.  I was looking forward instead of backwards and I was excited.  It was obvious now that in addition to leaving some things behind we had a future to accomplish – something we chose and worked hard to obtain – and we were on the cusp.

There are four other married couples in our training group which is called Bots 11.  The group is a little older (and I think wiser) than the average Peace Corp workers.  I am so happy to be with productive people who want to help and get things done.  They were smart and pro-active.  I have not had that in my life in such a very long time.  It just feels great.

That last night inAmericawe had our last dinner by ourselves (Mexican).  We went home after dinner and meant to work on the blog – but it was late and we had to get up at 2:00 AM to drive to JFK.  We engaged in a flurry of phone calls and emails and texts good byes right up until take off.

Economy class was surprisingly nice on the plane.  We had much more leg room than normal and our own TV/Movie thing, free drinks, snacks and meals.  A very nice man allowed John to trade with him so we could be together, even though John had a last row seat that would not recline during the whole 16 hour flight.  I think the good karma has started!!!!!!

In Botswana:

I did not sleep more than 15 hours over the first four days; when time was available.  I just could not rest.

On Friday, September 15, 2011 we arrived in the Johannesburg Airport

which was big and awesome with lots and lots of fun shops.  It would have been better if we had had more sleep or had to carry less luggage – but it is was a cool airport.

So far Africa was looking like a first world country with truly beautiful African art.  After three hours of wandering around, we took another bus to a plane and flew to Gaborone, Botswana.  The local PC staff met us there along with the country director, Tim Hartman, along with three top managers and several other PC volunteers.

We were there and it was quite anticlimactic.  Many of us felt as though we were on vacation and found it hard to imagine – that we were actually going to live inBotswanafor two years had not sunk in.

We drove to the Big Five Lodge, considered a luxury lodge – which equated to a Holiday Inn that had just exterminated for bugs.  But we were glad – a nice shower with hot water, a comfortable bed.

We got an hour to freshen up and then we had a lot of exercises that were designed as “get to know ya” exercises and some were a bit hokey, but they all had a purpose.

We had to put on skits to demonstrate various concepts and ideas put forth by the PC.  Our little group did win the big “skit contest” when we set up a Soup Nazi (Monty Python style) type administration desk to educate people.  The county director voted for our skit too!

We ordered some sodas at the hotel bar and were only charged $1, but then they came back and told us they had made a mistake and they really needed $10 – seemed ridiculous!

The first of many situations we have yet to master.

In the Peace Corp:  The next morning we woke up and got our really cheap, albeit functional, cell phones, P350 (that’s 350 Pula, the local currency), medical kits, and bed netting.  We drove to Kanye to met our Host Families and we were happy to get someone who spoke good English and looked clean and put together. Our new host Mother’s English name is Lillian.

We are sharing a home with Lillian, Morgan, and Legos Mongala.  They are very nice people.  They do all they can to make us feel their home is our home.  They also are ok with giving us private time, which seems to be much more of an American than African concept.

Lillian has taken John and I to meet much of her family.  Her family is huge and she gets a lot of support and happiness from being surrounded everywhere by cousins, sisters, brothers and various in-laws.  It does seem like having that sort of support provides for all sorts of things that money can’t buy.

Several of Lillian’s children have come both weekends to visit.  They are great to talk too.  All of her children are educated and have good jobs.  They help with the chores and try to make sure we are comfortable.  They are also kind and good people.

Money:  1 dollar equals 6.5 Pula.  The first day we told Lillian we needed to go to the store and she said she needed groceries because there was no food in the house.  We agree to go together and took a P12 taxi to town.  She kept asking if she could buy certain foods and we kept saying yes – because they seemed to have no food.  But the total grocery bill was P700 plus a P50 electric bill – and for some reason the cab back home was P25.  We called the PC about this and we were chastised for setting a bad precedent.  We were told if we had questions we should call before and not after the event.  They were right.  However, there was no food at the house and the PC was supposed to have delivered it days before.   The PC said they would call Lillian and re-explain that we were not to spend any of our own money.   I told Lillian I was sorry that I called the PC, but a mistake had been made as there was not enough money/food.  It was a little awkward – but I hope ok.  It is hard for Americans to know when things are ok.

Money continues to be an issue in this home and we keep trying to get more comfortable saying no and not buying basic foods and staples.  It is hard – but I know the PC has been here for nearly 40 years and we should continue to strive to implement the way of living they have requested of us.

We also bought a toilet seat for which I am not at all sorry.  We have all enjoyed pooping much more now!  Very cheap toilet seats that would not be acceptable in America cost P200 or about $30 USD. However in Botswana – it is a fantastic addition to our house.

Food:  We have had a food fiasco that keeps repeating itself.  The first day we told Lillian we wanted to help cook dinner and somehow that turned into John and I must cook dinner each night.  It may also have to do with the cultural manner of the youngest people always being responsible for cooking dinner in a home.  I feel like we are making cultural blunders but not entirely sure what we are doing wrong and then how to stop it.

But none of it is a big deal – just a learning curve.

The worst part about the dinners is we are terrible cooks here.  It is difficult to cook with no running water, all different ingredients than what we are used to and all different cooking tools and utensils.  We can barely stand to eat our own cooking.

Most of the time they do the dishes which is another thing that takes 10 times more energy and time than back home.  We have to take the dirty dishes to the outdoor kitchen and fill basins of water with the pump which is another 10 feet from the outdoor kitchen.

If we do dinner and dishes it is a good three hours of each night.

Chores:  Laundry is another example of differences in America.  We are lucky to have a washing machine, but it must be moved from the bedroom to the bathroom for manual water hook up to the cold only water hose.  The laundry must be hung to dry and taken down and folded and then ironed.  It truly becomes an all day event, taking hours of time each Sunday.

Town:  We do love the little town.  It appears the town has most everything a person needs.  Items and food runs about 15% less than American stuff does, but we are only earning 3% of the salary we earned in America – so we will learn how to scrimp once again.

There is a nice café in town.  So far we have tried the goat chops and the ox tail.  All quite good!  It is pretty expensive and we can only eat there once a month or so – but it is sort of like a slice of our old life to go there and be waited on.

Gender Issues:  Many people warned me to be concerned about gender inequities and I was dreading having to figure how to deal with this.  In the 10 days we have been here I have not seem much evidence of this.  Morgan (the father here) dotes on his wife and helps her with chores all the time.  In the PC office there are several Botswana men and women working side by side.  I do see some things here and there and I’m sure the more I understand the culture the more I will understand the warnings I have been given.  However, I can see the Batswana are making progress in providing equity to women and I am glad to see progress in this regard everywhere I live.

Stuff:  John and I now save everything that used to be considered trash.  We save every plastic bag and we use them before they pile up.  We save the twine and twisty things on packages and in fact we save the package.  It is funny how trash truly beings to look like resources when resources are limited.

Language and Cultural Training:  The PC is doing a good job in giving us a full education.  I know it must be hard to design a class for such diverse people who will be asked to do so many different things.  They have many teachers and they try to break up the day with exercises that require us to restate what they just taught in different voices and manners.  Sometimes it seems childish, but mostly I see the value in what they are doing.  I am learning a lot of new things about this culture and the standard new things about a new job.

A standard day looks like this:

6:00 am rise – shower, organize, study

7:30 am – leave for school

8:30 – 5:00 – School

5:00 – 6:30 – Travel/Internet/shopping

7:00 – 9:00 – dinner/dishes/I

9:00 – 11:00 – ironing/homework/study.

It seems we don’t have any time.  A great deal of time is being consumed by tasks that take less than half the time in America.  Living with other people is fairly consuming too.  We are grateful for the opportunity to learn from them, but looking forward to getting our own place with a real job.  I don’t think this whole thing will really seem real until that happens.

Communication:  At school they have been telling us that they would set up the classroom for internet “any day”.  But on Wednesday they announced that the last Bots 10 class was anti-social and abused the internet and therefore we would not be able to access the school system.  Everyone was quite bitter about this.  There was some minimal resistance in class – but people kept quite.  I like that this class seems to “get” things.  These types of issues are never won in a class room debate.  The suggestion box is filled and we will see what they come up with.

Other:  Lillian also told me that she is lonely with her children all gone.  She is hoping to get a little girl to keep her company and help with the chores.  I jokingly asked if there were any available and she said there were and she is hoping to get one soon.  While it seems strange that a child can be passed around like that – everyone seems happy and the community acts as if children are communal.  Maybe the child can teach us how to cook.

Post 4

9/22/11

We made it a week!  It’s been a week since we got here and the training is going well.  We get up at6:30each morning and get to training at8:30by a short walk and bus ride. We get back home each night around 6 or so and cook a meal for our host family, then study our language and try to sleep.

The 12” x !2” fiberfill pillows we are provided  make it very hard to sleep.  I need my old pillow.  Carol’s mom said she would send me a new down pillow.  Can’t wait!

In the mornings on our way to school, we walk past many small houses with people doing laundry or getting their kids off to the dirt paths to school.

The kids all love to speak English and the adults all say hello as you pass them.  Greetings and formalities are very important in this culture.  So is your appearance.  Men have to wear long pants and nice shirts everyday, everywhere.  The women should have dresses below the knees, no shoulder less tops and heeled shoes.  Even when its 110 degrees out.  No shorts!  That’s tuff!

We have to iron nearly every night but we are lucky so far that our host mother has a portable washing machine.  It only washes with cold water, and seems to be broken a great deal of the time – but we will take our gratitude where we can.

Dust is everywhere and our hair is dirty and in need of a shampoo after just one short walk to the bus.  I cant imagine how their computers hold up.

The only place to get internet access is the free wi-fi at the library or one of the 4 workstations at Rob’s IT Services store.   Unfortunately, both of those places open after we start training and close just before we end, so we have no hope of using them. The class was outraged when the PC announced today in class that the wireless internet that was available (technically in their building) would not be available to us at all.  The Suggestion Box was immediately full.   Hopefully they will reconsider their policy.  That would seem reasonable.   The PC Staff has been very supportive and are in tune with our concerns and needs.   It is nice to work with the staff and I have a high comfort level with them all.  The Country Director has been here with us the whole time.  He is quite a dynamic man, and seems quite qualified for his high position.  It’s nice that he is attending to us personally and is so interested in our issues and outcomes.

I really need about 10 hours or so online so I can catch up with my banking and emails and blog and all the other real world stuff.  It’s very frustrating not being able to get stuff off my list of things to do. I have to type these posts on my laptop during the week and then copy and paste them to the blog or an email when I can connect.  It’s a very inefficient system, but at least it works.   I guess that’s all part of the cultural change I am going through.  I’m trying not to let it bother me.

We decided not to attend the funeral today since the topics at training were Security and other important stuff that we didn’t want to miss.  The PC’s utmost concern is our continued safety and they go a great distance to show it.

We got out of class a couple hours early yesterday and just about all 35 of us independently showed up at one of the bars for a beer after an internet stop at t he library or Rob’s.  It was nice to relax for just a few minutes.

It’s fun having a 1000 lb steers walking on the sidewalks and goats eating grasses on the side of every street.  I can’t wait to check out a Safari and see some cool animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post  5

9/23/11

Today was a fun day. It was Friday and we spent the morning on our first Perma-garden lesson.   This is the PC’s approach to teaching gardening to local peoples with the expectations of transferring enough knowledge and motivation to the locals to keep the garden going perpetually.

This may be the most visible day to day effect that the PC has here.  The PC is teaching us all that we need to know to be able to show and help locals at our permanent villages plant gardens given the agricultural environmental issues we will face.   It is interesting information and some of it could even be applied back home.

After a full morning of pick-ax’ing and shoveling through rocks and dry clay, we managed to dig up and prepare 5 50 square foot garden plots which I’m guessing we may be planting tomorrow.

This is just the start of dozens more that will be done by locals and will eventually provide a substantial amount of much needed vegetables.

After the morning garden session, we went back to school covered with sweat and red dusty dirt.   I finally was allowed to wear shorts and a T-shirt.  That felt really good.  The emphasis on dress and appearance here is absurdly high when compared with the functionality of dress that most Americans are used to.

Back at school we had a quick lunch, and tried to clean up as best we could in the public bathroom, then put on our best suits for an afternoon meeting with the local Ksogi.  That is the term for the village chief.  We went to a special meeting building where town meetings are held and were introduced to the Chief.  He was very impressed with us and expressed extreme gratitude for us making the efforts we are.  The also told us he and his community would take care of us.  It was a fun meeting with lots of good questions from both sides.  During meetings it is not common for someone to take a cell phone call while in the middle of saying something.  The chief got a call and we were all put on hold for a moment or two.  I believe this has much to do with the fact that all incoming calls are free, and no one wants to ever have to make a call when they can receive one for free.

Another interesting event at the meeting was when a drunken man entered the meeting room and requested to ask some questions of us.  The chief and some of his men escorted the man outside for a moment and we were told he was not going to be allowed to speak because of his drunkenness.  However, it was pointed out that the elders had simply told him he had to leave because he didn’t have a jacket on.  They told us this is the way they deal with people.  They never want to be confrontational or rude.  However, the man came back with a jacket on.  They allowed him to speak to us – out of their need for civility.  The man simply wanted to thank us and offer his services.  So we learned, it is better to be polite than to enforce what seems as though it may be a good rule of order.

Yet another interesting observation at the meeting was that the chief and his 5 men were all dressed in their typical suits and they sat on an elevated part of the room in a row of chairs like a speaker panel in front of us.  The main assistant to the chief who was the MC for the meeting sat slouched so low on his chair that he looked like his mid back was on the chair seat.  It was so peculiar looking to see him so casual, it was almost comical.

Despite all of this, the meeting was a serious meeting, with the best of intentions and outcomes and it was truly an honor to have been invited to this, and particularly to have the chief show such interest in our mission.  In the end, the Chief was asked what message he would like us to  bring back to America.  He told us he loved Botswana and its peaceful people and peaceful ways.  He pointed out everything is resolved by conversations and never by weapons (which is slightly exaggerated based on newspaper accounts) –  and he asked us to bring the message and way of peace back to America or wherever our lives took us.

After the meetings we went home and prepared a meal for our host family.  Fried chicken using sorghum and vegetable oil.  It was pretty bad!    We are constantly humiliated by the meals we must present every night to this family.  We simply have not learned to master the ingredients and the ways of cooking without running water.  However, they still continue to request we make dinner for them each night.  They are older than us and in this culture the younger people are required to cook dinner for the elders, especially because we are to be considered as part of their family.

The food situation here is about the only real complaint we have.   If it were not for the fact that it is appropriate for us to live at the same level as our host families, we would spend our own money and have access to quite acceptable varieties of meals.  As we are heavily discouraged from doing that, we are finding that the food that the PC has provided to our host families to get us through each 2 weeks has disappeared way a head of schedule and the only remaining food is rice, sorghum, maize, samp (we don’t know what that is yet) and gigantic cabbage heads.  We already ran out of ways to make this combination of foods tasty and we still have another week to go before we get our next 2 week food delivery.  We certainly won’t starve and I’m guessing this may be all by design to prepare us for potential conditions in our permanent villages, but it’s hard to resist spending our own money for some goodies when it is readily available.

Carol’s parents are both sending packages that will contain the snacks we swore we would not request,  but the packages probably will not arrive for another month.

We don’t mean to worry anyone – I have read that it takes aerson 60 days to actually starve to death if they have water.  (Actually, John thinks it is only 14 days).

Post 6

9/24/11

Today we got to finish our garden project.  We had to dig three more beds and we planted more than 100 plants (cabbages, tomatoes, rape and onions).  It was very exhausting, and we all got filthy dirty.

Again – everyone loved working the earth – as all PC people must do.

Today is Saturday and we were all so happy that it is only a half day of work.  Several people went home to clean up after the big dig – but not us!!!!

We went to the library to catch up with email.  Carol applied for a library card too.  She hopes to better learn the language if she can check out children’s books.

We left the library and went to the only café in town.  There were 10 PC people there eating hamburgers.  The last hamburgers they had!!!!!!!!!!!

So now we are having a few beers and sitting by the poola.   Just kidding.  There is no pool in this town but Pula is the name for the local currency.

Carol ordered the ox tail and John got the ribs.  Everyone shared a few libations before evening laundry/cooking/studying.

We are sitting in the café typing our last blog facing the prospect of cooking one more dinner with cabbage, samp and maize.  Luckily, Karyl sent us a recipe for maize – that I hope Carol can remember since we can’t print anything or pull up the email once home.  We will let you know how it goes.

Post 1 9/16/11 The trip here was quite long and a bit grueling, and the PC would not allow anyone to upgrade to Business Class for any flights for obvious reasons. However, I must say that the 16 hour flight from NY to Johannesburg, South Africa was on a brand new, HUGE plane and even the economy class was quite satisfactory. Free food, drinks, socks, movies, snacks and the seats were more than accommodating. Never the less, we all arrived after 3 days of travel completely exhausted. The PC did an excellent job of accommodating us with the first night in a high end lodge with nice rooms and great food. Yesterday we were introduced to our Host Families and we all split up and went to live with them for the next 2 1/2 months. Our host family is an older couple in their mid 60s with a 30 year old son living at home, Lillian, Morgan and Legos. I won’t bother with their last names, nor trying to show off my newly learned Setswana language skills. Lillian speaks pretty good English and we have our own room in an out building with a shared bathroom. There is hot water and electricity and although our room is very small (12′ x 14′) we have a decent bed and a couch and a small rickety mobile closet.

Our stuff is still all over the place and it probably will be so til the end, since there is no dresser or anywhere to put all our stuff. Many of the homes we have seen have one or two light bulbs, a small fridge, a small source of cold water and an out house. We are quite grateful and satisfied with our current arrangements. The PC heavily discourages us from spending our own money and from living at any higher level than our host family. This means we can not just buy many of the little conveniences we would like to have, even though they are readily available. We are paid roughly $30 per week each for the training period, but all our food and living is paid for. Extra water bottles (we are again lucky because the tap water in this country is fine to drink!), taxi rides, cell phone minutes, minor electricity costs, critical missing house furnishings such as a wall mirror, alarm clock, wall hooks, additional bath towels, curtains and lots of other little stuff are all our responsibility. Lillian and her husband are very nice.

In fact, all the people are quite friendly. Everyone waves to us and smiles and says hello as we walk by. The kids love our broken (mostly just totally wrong) Setswana language and they all giggle endlessly. It’s a fun environment. We are not allowed out after dark at all, but that is fine, as we have much to study and do for the time being. Lilian and Morgan are of the 7th Day Adventist religion and are very strict about it. There is no drinking, smoking or swearing allowed and Saturday is the 7th day, and there will be no laundry on the clothes lines on that day.

They are teaching us a little about their religion and are curious about ours. For the most part, there seems to be just about the same food here as in the states. So far, and probably the way it will be til the end, Carol and I are cooking or helping to cook all the meals. The kitchen we have is a one person kitchen (6′ x 6′). They have no running water in the kitchen at all, so clean food and cleaning dishes is scary. I have been cleaning most of our dishes in our bathroom sink with running hot water and inspecting the cooked food as best I can. As it turns out there IS fruits and vegetables in Botswana and plenty of meat and other stuff. Sorghum is the main meal that just about everyone eats every day. It is basically a grain that they prepare a few ways, but primarily like cream of wheat. It tastes awful if eaten plain. But with enough sugar and butter (they only use margarine – bummer!) it can taste like sweetened cream of wheat and is tolerable. Contrary to what I was preparing for, I will not be required to eat caterpillars and other strange foods just to stay alive or to avoid insulting someone. Also, it appears so far that no one eats kittens or puppies, although pets don’t seem to be around at all, either. Our host family wants to cook whatever we want, so we will try to prepare as healthy meals as possible. Most houses we have seen so far are one or two cement rooms with tin roofs and one or two light bulbs. However there are also nice houses with good cars. The neighbors don’t seem as segregated here as in America. The currency is the Pula and it’s roughly 7 Pula to the dollar, but food and hardware and everyday items are only slightly less than the US. It really hasn’t hit me yet that we won’t be going home after a couple of weeks of vacation in Africa. I think we are both enjoying each day more than the last and looking forward to getting through the 2 1/2 months training/acclamation period and into our own house and to work on our job assignments. The plan is to get language skills down pat and get familiar with the culture and practices of the Botswana people. It’s only been 2 days but we can see more and more that the language will be very difficult to learn. There are 36 of us in the same boat. We got to know the first names of all 34 others during our 3 days of travel. We can mostly see why they all made it through the PC two year application/filtering system. They are all people who can cope and figure out and deal with most any situation. Some of them better than others, but overall, they all seem to be good, qualified people. We will be working with all 36 of us every day, 6 days a week, 10 hours a day for the next 2 1/2 months and then the PC will split us all up and assign us to some other location in the country and we will probably only see them at the semi annual meetings. We won’t know where anyone is going until probably October 15th or so. We graduate from boot camp on 11/8/11. Then off to 24 months for our jobs. We have been issued cell phones by the PC and much to my dismay; my Droid Pro Global Phone is not working on the local system. We are 7 hours ahead of Chicago time. Please see our Contact Us section of this blog for how to call and write and email us. We hope America is continuing on ok without us. Our biggest fear was what we were leaving behind. We are very distracted here with a new, exciting life so we are happy and content at the moment and we anticipate that will only get better and better for both of us. Certainly email as much as you can. It will be nice to get emails once a week or so when we are able to connect. I don’t think Skype will work too well for now and hopefully we will have internet at our permanent home in a couple months. If not, we will have to make appointments and try our best to connect! Post 2 9/17/2011 We were given a full weekend to get to know our host families and move in and get our homes set up. It’s very nice to have this relaxing time. The PC has encouraged all the trainees to experience as many cultural events as possible such as weddings, funerals, town meetings, etc.. Yesterday we went to a funeral. Actually, it wasn’t the actual funeral. The cousin of our host Mother died a few days ago. She died in her sleep. We went with Lillian to her sisters’ house for them to mourn together. Many families here are inter-related where cousins have married cousins and therefore it seems that almost everyone is related to almost everyone else in some way. After her sister’s visit, we went to several other related folks’ houses and visited with them. The actual funeral will take place in a couple days. We are hoping the PC will allow us to take off the day from training so we can attend the funeral. Post 3 9/18/11 Today was Sunday and we were supposed to be able to sleep in late. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Malaria is a major concern in Botswana (biggest non-war killer in the world). It’s a deadly disease carried mostly by mosquitoes. Although it is very rare in the entire southern part of the country (were we are currently), when we arrived here we were issued mosquito nets for sleeping under and given a bunch of shots for Rabies and a 6 week supply of Malaria pills. We had to take a pill for each of the initial three days to build up a quick tolerance and we then go down to once a week. Some of the side effects of the drug are Insomnia, nausea, restless sleep and vivid wild dreams. So far, our sleeping has been difficult and since there are only sheer curtains on our widows, the blazing sun comes right in very early every morning. We started wearing eye masks, but the masks and the flannel sheets and the two very heavy blankets required to keep us warm at night, become very cumbersome inside the mosquito netting in the early morning heat that instantly builds up in our tiny room. We do have a decent full bed so we are grateful for that! Talk about dreams! We have both been having some wild ones in wild colors. Not quite some exotic drug trip, but a noticeable side effect.. We expected to continue setting up our house today and relax a bit before our big first day tomorrow, but that didn’t happen either. As in many cultures, families tend to spend a lot of time visiting with friends and family and neighbors. Today we met several of Lilians’ children and nephews and cousins. They came to visit us because our being here is a big event for all of them. The children were fun to play with and couldn’t get enough of the games on the Nook Marlaina bought me for this trip. We spent most of the day visiting and drinking tea. When the visit was over, I got my hands dirty for the first time. Part of our deal with the host family is to help around the house with cooking, cleaning and whatever else we can manage. Morgan used to be a farmer and rumor has it he was very good by local farmer standards. He is now retired and the family barely lives on an incredibly small government pension of some kind. They rely heavily on their garden for most of their food.

This evening I spent a couple hours pick-ax’ing through the very rocky ground to make small holes or planting spinach.

We carried 30 5-gallon buckets of dried cow dung up a tall hill to the garden and hand squished the large, barely moist chips into finer parts to put in the holes we dug. Hmmm.

We only finished about 10% of the holes so I’m looking forward to digging holes and carrying heavy buckets and hand squishing dried cow dung a lot more!