Tree Planting - Part 3

The week following the "work day" - a national teacher from Samaritan's Purse came to my village to teach about the tree planting and nursery sacs.  It is so great to partner with other organizations who have knowledge and are great teachers!

The first part of the training session was the teaching portion - we all gathered under a straw hut for shade and learned about how to construct tree nursery sacs, plant the seeds, and plant the seedlings.

Following the training session began the work portion of the day!  We discovered that the manure we pounded the week before was not the correct consistency .... it needs to be the same consistency as the sand!!  

Good thing I brought the sifter back with me - and the men got to work sifting the manure to a finer grain:

The clay that I found by the river also needed to be pounded to the same consistency as the sand and manure.  So, out came the cement pounders from the time before - and the clay was pounded in the sack to keep it contained:

While the men had three work stations going: with all the manure sifting, sand mixing, and clay pounding ... Megan and I made friends with this little girl in the compound.  She stuck to us pretty closely all day - we could call her "velcro" - at one point, she had her arms wrapped around my legs, but I needed to move to another spot.  So, I just picked her up at her knees and she hung onto my knees as I walked around to the other working station!!

She doesn't smile much, nor talk - but she is the sweetest little girl.  She still comes running every time we arrive in the village, waiting for hugs from us both - which we are happy to give!

Finally - the tree sac mix was ready to begin - all components being prepared - and the men began to mix together the sand and manure.

Shortly the clay and insecticide was added in.  Soon, there was in the mix:

• 2 wheel barrows of sand
• 1 wheel barrrow of manure
• 1 shovel of clay
• 1 bottle of insecticide powder

I never imagined how much work it would be to get this all going - two days of work!  And then the hard work - mixing in water and turning shovel full after shovel full of the dry mixture until it was moist for the sacs!

Once this was ready - it was time to eat lunch!! 

And this "lemonade stand" on wheels happened upon the work day as well: 

On the back of his bicycle, he has a styrofoam cooler filled with cold water for sale.  He has likely biked in 6 km from the nearest town with electricity on the highway - today, he found many willing purchasers of his product!!

After lunch, it was back to work ... the mulch was ready - and it was time to learn how to fill the nursery sacs ... to tamp down the mulch soil and fill the bags to the top!

Each man received a small market sack of this soil mulch to take back to their village area, along with a bottle of the insecticide, in order to make the soil base for their tree sacs.  They were each given also enough tree sacs to suffice the trees for their field size.

The men returned home with their sacks and the knowledge of how to mix the soil base to fill all their sacks.  The next meeting is set for 2 weeks later ... enough time for them to prep the tree sacks by watering the soil and weeding out any weeds that start to grow.  At the next meeting, we will review the process for planting each of the two types of trees! 

Tree Planting - Part 2

Last I wrote - I had 14 men who desired to learn about tree planting!  Before the actual training session - we needed to have a work day!  The Samaritan's Purse trainer needed all the ingredients for the tree nursery sack "mulch" available and ready to use the day of the training session.

I needed to find for the mix:

• 2 wheelbarrows of sand
• 1 wheelbarrow of manure
• 1 shovel full of clay
• 1 bottle of insecticide powder

As we were gathering men from six village sites, we prepared the ingredients for them to mix on the training day and take home with their nursery sacks.  The sand was brought up from the river bed and needed to be sifted.  The manure was provided by one of the cow herders - and it needed to be pounded down to powder.  I brought out to the work day a construction sized sifter and cement pounding sticks (with metal heads) to pound the manure.

The clay was really difficult to get .... every place that sold sand and clay, they only were willing to sell clay by the truck load.  And I only needed 8 shovels worth!  I ended up down at the gardens by the river, hoping to get some there as they likely used it in their gardening as well.

I asked the first two gardeners who I met on the road ... they didn't know, but mentioned to ask the guy in the garden beside them.  They came along with Megan and I to ask him - he didn't have any, but said to ask the old gardener in the garden plot next over.

So, Megan and I headed over there - being trailed now by three gardeners all willing to help.  The old man motioned in the direction of the river ... so we followed him - now we are two plus four gardeners.  He was motioning to a garden plot by the river with clay.  So, we picked our way through the garbage dump down to the river to inspect the soil and discovered it was clay.  Another fifth gardener has now joined us - and he sends his apprentice kid to get a shovel from his garden plot.

The men then shovel clay into the sack I brought with me.  The young kid carries it back to my truck - meanwhile all the men have disbursed into their various gardens, and the kid walks off.  Megan and I stand by the side of the road looking at the sack of clay and coming to the conclusion that we don't need to pay for the clay!!  Gotta love Africa!  I have no idea who owns that little plot of land ... but, thanks for the free clay!

Getting ready to work!

I've decided - especially in the heat - that if I'm going to ask the guys to do something, I need to show I am willing as well!  So, I finally get to use my gardening gloves!!  I don't anticipate that they will let me work, or not for very long at least, but I want to get in on the fun as well.

Finding the one spot of shade in the courtyard!

Starting the teaching:
taking role call of those present and demonstrating what needs to be done

Pounding the Manure:

My Samaritan's Purse contact said that in one village, he saw the villagers using the mortars and pestles of the women to pound the manure and then washing them!!  Seeing as I am currently teaching the women about prevention of worms - one road to avoid being animals and their poop around the food prep areas .... I didn't really want to model them using their kitchen tools with manure:"hello worms"!!  Hence - buying other implements to use.

The men got right to work on pounding the manure, but - it is quickly evident, even for me to see in the pictures, that this is an awkward action for them ... makes sense, the women are the ones who pound with an upper back/arms motion!  They'd probably be pretty good at this seeing as this is how they pound their millet to flour.  But again, I want to keep the two work ideas separate.

Eventually, the men pulled the wooden sticks off the cement heads and resorted to "whacking" the manure.  One guy told me the next week that this is how they crush the tree leaves to powder after harvest for their cows to eat.

Familiar tool - familiar action  ..... the work went much faster!  The one guy in this video has a pretty nifty wrist flip going on with his stick!

And of course - I need to get in on the action too!

Sand Sifting:

At the end of a few hours - the work was complete and it was a great day!  Everyone participated and got right into the work ... laughing and joking with each other all day long!

Stay tuned later for installment Part 3 of the tree planting project!!

Meeting Distractions

I have been in the village quite a lot lately - with many training sessions.  Admittedly, those being taught in Djarma leave me a mix of paying attention to at least what I see being taught and a fascination with the "wildlife".

The hut out in the village is crawling with ants and insects.  I find it fascinating and slightly distracting!

There are the normal everyday ants.  And then, there is what I call the "ant on steriods":

... the ladies call it "horse of the sun".  Not sure what that is - and I find myself trying to count the legs on the picture to see if it is a spider, though they don't use the word for spider.  I've concluded that it has six legs and two antennae.

I've been assured that it doesn't bite nor is it poisonous.  But, as one who hates spiders, the speed of this thing as it runs around the mat at my feet is disconcerting to say the least!

As some of the training sessions include millet seed lessons - the ants converge upon the mats and struggle to carry the millet seeds - more than twice their size - back to the ant hole!

It is quite impressive to watch their strength and determination!!