The World Changes Every Day

My day as a Marché Mama* In my Women’s Group Garden, we had a large public bed planted full of lettuce.   The produce from the public beds is meant to be sold for the profit of the group as a whole, to pay for things like supplies or repairs to the irrigation.   The only problem – not many people were coming to the garden to buy the lettuce, the women said it just doesn’t sell.   People aren’t much into salads here.   I was sure they were right, but wanted to find out just how hard it is to sell lettuce here.   So about a month and a half ago, I suggested that one of the women harvest a lot of lettuce from the public bed and bring it to our weekly market on Sunday to see if anyone would buy it.   I offered to go sit with the designated woman in the market to observe how things went.   Bana, my “host mother” from my concession and also a member of the gardening group, offered that her 10-year-old daughter Nafisa could sell the lettuce.   S...

Yes, I realize that there was no Month   7 work post – time has really started to fly!   Talking to other volunteers, we find it hard to believe that there was a time when it was a major victory to find enough to do to fill a day.   Here’s a summary of where I am work-wise: Garden Since my last work post, my garden has been a bit of an “emotional roller coaster.”   It peaked in a wonderful bounty of summer squash, cucumbers, melons, lettuce, greens, basil… I was feasting, and sending bags of produce to my neighboring volunteer.   But then, the bugs struck.   Everything grows faster in the African heat, but it also seems to get attacked harder.   I had a major infestation of aphids and others on my cucumbers and other plants, having to pull out a lot of them.   I tried preparing natural insecticides using Neem (a tree with oils in the leaves that deter bugs) but these work better as a preventative measure, and can’t get rid of an insect a...