Garden Update

The garden is coming along nicely.  We have been able to establish farm records to determine planting times.  This term we were able to provide veggies the first week of school.  We are also producing enough to provide vegetables to the schools two days a week.  Our biggest issue is still transportation to the schools.  We can get it there consistently once a week, but it is really variable on the second day. 

Here is some of our cucumbers and cabbage.  The cabbage is being attacked by snails right now.  Funny thing about northern Ghanaians is they are deathly afraid of snails.  In the south they eat them, but in the north they fear them.  We are the only ones who are brave enough to pick them off and kill them.

 

You can kind of see from this picture the difference in how the garden is looking.  We have twenty established beds now.  It’s getting bigger all the time.

Scott is making some organic insecticide out of the leaves from the neem tree.  We pound the leaves and let them soak in water over night and spray the next day. 

 

This is our new okra bed.  We just planted it.  We hope to get a good harvest this rainy season.

Our bera beds are looking amazing.  Previously we thought everyone was calling it bra, but we found out it is actually bera.  We thought it was a lot funnier when we called it bra.

 

This is ayoyo.  Ghanaians put it in soup.  It gives the soup a nice slimy texture like snot.  The flavor is good but the texture is not the best.

 

Here are some of the local kids who come and help us on the weekends. 

Overall we think the garden is going well.  We have days of major frustrations, but we are glad to know that a thousand kids are getting to eat fresh veggies at least once a week.

 

This is the most massive birds nest we have ever seen.  It is right on the outskirts of the garden.  It is so big a human could probably fit in in. Two hamerkops are building it.  We haven’t seen any babies yet but we will try and get some pics.

Our Drawing Crew

We have several groups of kids who come by the house every day to draw.  Every time we go through town the kids say “Madame, master we will come for drawing”  They absolutely love it.  If it a large group that comes we just use chalk and draw all over the porch.

 

We have started painting with a few of them, but it is too chaotic if there is more than three.  Our Dagbani is not good enough to manage lots of kids with paint.

We also draw with crayons and colored pencils.

      

We have started to hang some of the drawings and paintings on our wall. The kids love to come and look at their masterpieces. 

What we really do everyday

So we realize that our blog may be at times a misrepresentation of what we do everyday.  We do get to go to cool places and see neat things, but most of the time we are just hanging out at the house if we are not working.  Here are some of our typical activities:

Mowing the lawn: There are no lawn mowers so we use a cutlass to slash the grass back.

Reading Books: We average about a book a week each.

Listening to the radio: It has had a few spills, and yes those are twisty ties being used as wires,  but if we position it right, we can still get the BBC in the afternoon.

Washing Clothes:  This may be our most favorite thing to do.  It takes us all afternoon to do our laundry. On a good note our forearms are getting strong.

If it begins to rain or if it is particularly humid, we string it up all over our house at night.

 

Burning Trash: If we don’t burn the trash as soon as we take it out, the kids will ransack it.

Sweeping :  They don’t believe in handles in Ghana so it is quite the work out to sweep the house. During the dry season it gets so dusty we get to do it every day. 

Sorting the rice for rocks: Believe it or not but rocks are not good for your teeth so sorting rice is a must.  We also enjoy sorting the beans as well!