agriculture – Page 2

Heinz Baked Beans

Author: Charles December 31, 2015

This is what I pulled up from the ground.

Yes readers, The Who once did a parody commercial called Heinz Baked Beans. I will never think of beans the same again.

Matthews is staying in Kamuli until Sunday. Last week, he had mentioned it was time to harvest the beans on Adams’ land. He was very concerned about that. Obviously harvesting can’t wait. I had told him I would help, so I made the same offer to Adams. I felt I needed some exercise anyway, and it would be interesting and educational. Part of the Adventure! So yesterday I was out there in the field with three young men (including Matthews’ nephew) and a woman picking beans.

I joked to Adams, if a gypsy fortuneteller told me three years ago I would be picking beans in equatorial Africa, I would have demanded a refund.

Beans in the pod.

This is the same field Matthews is growing passion fruits. You saw a photo of it here. The beans were brown, on now-dead stalks close to the ground. You had to find them among the lush green foliage. Reminded me of hunting Easter eggs. I asked about the other plants, and was told by the other workers they were “greens” a general term that seemed non-responsive to me. The bean plants were easy to pull out, gather, and throw into about 30 piles we made across the field. Then we carried the piles to make big piles on the side of the road, and then threw them up onto the bed of a large truck.
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This was stoop labor and the sun was hot. Since I’m not Ugandan, I was a migrant worker! It certainly educated me about the harshness of the work migrants often do all over the world. I was thoroughly exhausted, looked at my watch, and laughed. I had only worked for one hour. I was so happy when it was time for a water break. I wore my work gloves I hadn’t worn since digging the permagarden (I need to update about that). I had on long sleeves and sweat pants and came home covered in burrs and other stickers. The other workers used their bare hands and wore sandals.

I’m with one of my fellow harvesters.

A female oil and gas engineer named Maria had driven us to the field and then stayed chatting with Adams. She had met Adams many years ago in her village and now had her own car. An empowered woman! I want to know more about her story and will ask Adams. On the way home, she chided Adams for not working and letting himself get fat and out of shape. “This older man is in better shape than both of us”. Cue my diabetes story, which Adams already knows. Like others I have told, it is inspiring but apparently not motivating.

I have plans today, New Years Eve, to visit a Danish businessman named Henning in Jinja who has invited me to meet his family. He does work with my ATEFO org and we’ve had some great chats. His wife is a doctor. He sends his kids back to Denmark frequently so they can stay acquainted with their friends and Danish roots. He says their place is on the water (Lake Victoria). Later tonight I will meet a bunch of PCVs at a place called Bourbon, also on the water, and there will be fireworks over the lake to bring in the new year. Vickie, a PCV, has lined up a place for me to crash tonight. I’ll leave a large bowl of silverfish for Meowri.

The beans drying in the sun. Adams says this filled a sack weighing about 80kg and will yield around 200,000UGX. He paid the other three workers 10,000UGX each for working on the harvest and then separating the beans from the pods by beating on them. That’s about $3.00US each for a lot of work!

General

agriculture, empowering women, Uganda food, working

Christmas is Coming

Author: Charles December 20, 2015

Happy Holidays to America! Here is my cohort’s Holiday Video filmed during In Service Training. I am dressed as Santa in it, so I got a bit of airtime. I took off my fake beard for my scene with a sign, and with my gaunt face and goatee, I look like the Billy Bob Thornton creepy character “Bad Santa”. Harmony coaxed a little enthusiasm out of me for the backing Christmas song by INSYNC, which will make my kids laugh because in my daughter’s teeny-bopper years, I loathed INSYNC. Anyway, enjoy!

Meowri and I are settling into a routine. In the afternoon before sundown I read on my front porch and let her run around the compound, chasing the chickens (which don’t belong to my neighbors) and running from the seven children who live next door, and are finally not terrified of her. Here is a brief chicken attack (about my limit to upload to my brother via WhatsApp). The other day my neighbor bought a nice fat hen to slaughter for dinner. I had to keep Meowri inside because the hen was anchored by a brick and couldn’t run away. I’m not sure what will happen if she catches one. Short-sighted of me I know. She seems satisfied to just scare them at this point.

Everything at my org has slowed to a crawl during the holidays. I hope to be teaching farmer groups again soon. This slowdown is pretty common among all the volunteers. I don’t mind, most of my year has been pretty frenetic. Peace Corps introduced ATEFO to another NGO looking to fund a partner to cluster maize farmer groups. They are negotiating a contract.

Starting Monday, Taxi prices will double or triple, as families go home to their villages for Christmas visits.

I did get to go to a deep village for the end of year share-out of savings of a VSLA group. They asked me to hand out the envelopes with the money. They each had to sign for their envelope, and about half of them used their fingerprint.

We are hearing about refugees in Europe, and the US taking in 10,000 of them in the next year. Uganda is an impoverished country with 37 million people the size of Oregon surrounded by countries with conflicts. As pointed out here, Uganda took in 90,000 new refugees and hosts a total refugee population of 500,000. Aruna says April will be the best time to visit his childhood camp.

So did anyone take the practice Foreign Service Exam?
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We went to a couple of more mobilization meetings for WASH. At the meetings we stress that the new water and sanitation facilities have to be maintained by the community. This is a constant problem in the third world. Sometimes people see facilities get vandalized but they don’t do anything about it because of the interpersonal relationships between the families and neighbors. Both Rotary and Peace Corps want sustaining change. Nita is from the sponsoring Ntinda Club. She stands in front of a water tank which was installed to catch water via piping off the roof. However the roof line ends below the top of the tank, rendering it useless. …Uganda!

President Museveni is bringing his campaign to Bugiri on Monday These are campaign posters of my friend Esega from Bugiri Rotary Club who is running for Parliament. I’ll have to ask him about the chair. The posters look the same for all candidates. I questioned why not something different to stand out? I’m told its because these photographs are on the ballot. I will have more to say about the elections after tomorrow, probably by special email.

I took a different way to my Rotary meeting the other day and passed by this coffin maker. Sad to see the child-size. The one on the left is the cheapest, at 50,000UGX (less than $20 US) and the fancy one next to it with glass and mirrors is $250,000UGX ($80 US).

Matthews took me to a field belonging to Adams. He has planted hundreds of sticks to allow starter vines of passion fruits to grow. In a few months he will replace with larger sticks and spread netting across the top to allow the fruits to grow on the top of the netting. He says he should be able to harvest passion fruits for 3 years once the vines are established on the sticks and netting. In between the sticks he is growing beans.

General

agriculture, Local Politics, Meowri, Uganda Culture, volunteers, VSLA groups, Water

She will, rise above

Author: Charles November 8, 2015

We finished In Service Training, spending the last week with our counterparts. Good to be home. (“Charley! You were lost!”)

My counterpart Matthews showed the Agri-Business cohort how to make an elevated garden and a sack garden. There was a great session on Climate Change as it relates to Uganda. I am backed up on things I want to blog about! I also came home to new neighbors, a seemingly large family. It doesn’t appear they speak English. The mom put up extra lines, thankfully, as we both did a ton of laundry.

Matthews and I put together a one year action plan to present to our supervisors in the Peace Corps and ATEFO. More on that when it is reviewed and approved.

Today I’ll talk about gender equality, plunge into some depressing statistics, but end on some high notes.

Gender Equality in the developing world is a major issue, which is why Peace Corps puts so much effort towards empowering women. Michelle Obama started “Let Girls Learn” which is directed at improving the educational opportunities for women throughout the developing world. I will be honest and say that my own reaction initially to all this gender stuff was that boys seemed to be getting ignored, so I would strike a balance. But the culture and evidence demonstrates a disparity. I won’t neglect the male gender which is also needy, but the imbalance has changed my attitude. I seek truth, sometimes it requires a change of mind.

Looking at women in agriculture,
• 90% of rural Ugandan women work in agriculture, and are the backbone of the rural economy.
• The UN estimates that African women contribute an average of 70% of food production, and over half of all farm-related labor.
• Women typically work much longer hours than men:
• “paid productive” and “unpaid reproductive and domestic” duties
• Women in Africa typically earn about half of men’s wages, and are more likely to be paid at a piecemeal rate.
One of the fastest and broadest ways to improve rural livelihoods is to increase women’s share of household income
• Encourage female participation in cooperatives and farmers orgs
 Economies of scale
 Building of confidence, skills, leadership, and security

An increase in a woman’s income of $10 achieves the same improvement in children’s nutrition and health as an increase in a man’s income of $110.

Notwithstanding these stark statistics, Female Farmers receive only 5% of all Agricultural Extension Services from 97 countries. Only 15% of the world’s extension agents are women. Only 10% of the total aid for agriculture, forestry, and fishing goes to women. (Many thanks to Katie J, who presented a program with her counterpart which presented the above)

I can say that ATEFO has encouraged leadership positions for women in our VSLA farmer groups. Matthews is on board with the idea of one program of our package for the farmer groups be devoted to gender. I keep thinking about how permagardens would help the women too.

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HIV/AIDS is the second leading cause of death among adolescents, (trailing malaria).
66% of all new HIV infections are contracted by adolescent girls.
78% of primary pupils and 82% of secondary pupils have experienced sexual abuse in schools
58% of girls aged 15-19 have experienced physical or sexual violence
49% of girls are married by age 18
25% of girls age 15-19 have had a baby or are pregnant; compared to only 2.5% in America
45% of uneducated girls are pregnant compared to 16% with secondary educations.

Girls are traditionally taught the facts of life by an “auntie” (Ssenga), boys by an “uncle”. They are fonts of misinformation.

I have heard about the spread of HIV through the boda guys and truck drivers, but the shocking amount of sexual abuse suffered in school is the low point for me. It’s not hard to project my own children in these situations and get enraged. Schools should be safe. We get our predators in America but it is comparatively rare. And let’s not forget the abuse outside of school walls. Sadly, when parents learn about abuse to their children they are often mollified by a payment of money, and if their girl is pregnant, a marriage can be arranged.

These sessions make me think of the great work of the Blue House in Kazo Uganda, the girls orphanage supported by my sister Karen from St. Paul Minnesota. They have successfully raised funds to support their girls even at the university level. These orphan girls, clearly a vulnerable class of people, are getting protection, a more normal childhood, and a boost in life. Learn more about it here: http://www.hopemultipurpose.org/

Speaking of empowering women, this is a good spot to update everyone about Sharon, my home stay “sister” whom my Rotary Club is supporting for education. The High School did not work well for her. We did not know that “Victoria School” was Muslim. Sharon, a Catholic, was required to attend morning prayers in the mosque starting at 4 a.m., each day, plus the other calls to prayer. It was really distressing to her. Further, there was a misunderstanding about how much the funds we provided was going to cover, since it had been my intent to pay all the way to completion and they were telling me I was a year short.

So I told Sharon it would be OK to quit and we got a refund for about half the money. We looked for alternatives. She was invited to be an au pair for a Ugandan woman in Denmark (“Charles will that be close to your home in America?”) but decided against it. Then she successfully interviewed for the Iganga Nursing and Midwifery School pretty close to Simon and Hellen’s home. Only 25% of applicants were accepted. She shared that hearing about Jan’s nursing career is one of her inspirations. I really like the potential for this. Even if Sharon had completed Senior level, there would be a continuing need for University. And there are millions unemployed graduate at both levels. I have been encouraged with the potential nursing offers her for stable future employment, though nothing is guaranteed. The program is five semesters, and my Rotary Club has stepped up again to pay her fees and boarding, starting with a guaranty for the first two semesters. There was also enough to cover her initial uniform and equipment costs. My heart is so gladdened by my Club’s generosity.

The school has me listed as her guardian, and Sharon wants me to take her to her first day of school and moving in on November 16. Like when I took my own kids to college! My host family is going to host another volunteer in December. A large cohort of education volunteers arrive in Uganda on November 11, and six will be placed in my eastern region. We won’t be the new guys any longer. Further, I understand that my town of Bugiri will host the Lusoga language cohort in the near future. In a year, my “celebrity” here as the only Muzungu will be diluted, at least for a month.

General

agriculture, children, demographics, empowering women, food insecurity, host parents, Lusoga, perma-garden, training, Uganda Culture

Daily Records

Author: Charles October 7, 2015

Matthews holds the rice sack summary with me and translates. That’s Moses in the foreground checking data while I talk.

Here I am, speaking to a farmer group after their weekly VSLA meeting, about the importance of record keeping. I ask at the beginning: Who keeps records? No one does. For a Peace Corps assignment, I interviewed the heads of the three financial institutions in Bugiri. I asked their biggest problem with customers, all mentioned lack of record keeping.

I encourage the farmers to keep simple crop records in a notebook (Date of planting; Amount of inputs used; Date of harvest; How much was the yield; Additional notes about disease, drought etc.). I also show them how a cash book works (it’s similar to a check register- if you are under 30 ask your parents).

I do not want to spend the next two years speaking to 200 farmer groups about record keeping. In a staff meeting yesterday, (after clearing my talk with Adams) I explained that Peace Corps wants me to help farmers, but my job is also to help ATEFO help farmers; so my efforts are sustainable after I leave. ATEFO’s primary purpose is teaching farmers to take a more business-like approach to farming, rather than just sustenance. Record keeping is fundamental to being successful in business.

The farmers can already see how important record keeping is, since the VSLA needs a journal to record welfare and savings contributions, and loans, and each farmer has his own passbook. Extending the concept to the farm and home should be easy, and this record keeping is much simpler compared to the VSLA record keeping.

Our trainers run around to these village VSLA meetings to write down data on savings to report to our funders, and will point out any deficiencies they see in their VSLA, both laudable activities. We are helping build a culture of saving. But we are failing the farmers if they do not receive a 20-30 minute lesson on record keeping, budgeting, post-harvest handling etc.

I suggested that each trainer in the our three districts should go out with me for a talk or two, then I would go out with them to watch them give the same talk. They are seeing these groups at least once or twice a month, so throw in a talk. We get more lessons delivered to more groups this way. Their talks would be faster than mine too, without a translator.

Speaking of translating, I say five words, then Matthews (holding the rice sack with me) speaks for 60 seconds. He swears he says what I say, and the three Bugiri trainers we go out with agree Lusoga takes longer to say the same thing. It’s hard to argue, because as you know, I am no expert on Lusoga.

I can’t say whether the trainers will agree to this process, although Adams seems to, and one trainer admits I am right about ATEFO’s purpose and sees no issue with my plan. But it requires a little bit more time, as they race around collecting data. If no one is there with the trainer, how do we check that the lesson is given? Maybe randomly check with VSLA chairmen. It’s like I used to say to clients: I am paid to give you advice, it’s up to you whether to follow it.

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When middle class Americans run low on money, they often use up their retirement funds, and credit cards until they run out of credit. They hope they get that new job or their business will get better, and then they will pay it all back, only turning to bankruptcy as a last resort.

Ugandans don’t have those two ‘backstops’ let alone an ability to get a ‘fresh start’ which bankruptcy provides. They also don’t get unemployment benefits. So have a bad harvest, and the next step is food insecurity (but not if they have a permagarden!) , or eating poorly, causing stunted growth and other nutritional ailments . School fees can’t get paid either, so the children suffer in that regard too.

Meanwhile the children keep getting born….

Once while I was speaking to a farmer group, my office mate and trainer Moses went deeper into the village and bought a couple chickens to take home. He hung them on his handlebars and said he would let them get fatter before eating them. What do chickens think as they hang, going down the road? Maybe one day I will do a blog post on chicken and rooster behavior. I’ve learned a lot watching them everywhere I go.

On Saturday I got my first visit from another PCV, Vanessa. She had her home stay for language learning in Bugiri and wanted to visit her home stay family for the last time before her service as an Education volunteer ends in December. So I finally got to show off my home!

Besides introducing me to her lovely home stay family, she showed me where a pork joint is on the edge of town. Most PCVs love pork joints. The cooking was in a thatched hut with a another hut next door with tables and chairs. We got there at noon and were served at 1:30, about normal for a pork joint. We ordered two kilos. They chop and cook it up on a large plate. Very fatty with lots of little bones, but it’s pretty good. Forgot to take pictures. No one at my office knew of this place, so we will all go there some day. Except Adams, who is Muslim, so it’s his loss.

Vanessa (29) is taking the foreign service exam today (Wednesday) at Peace Corps headquarters, as she tries to figure out what to do next. She is considering Peace Corps Response, something my niece Britta did. In Response, a returned volunteer (or any American with 10 years experience in a suitable career) goes to a country for only about nine months or a year. Britta terminated early in Bolivia due to civil unrest, and then did Response in Liberia. I may want to do this too. More exotic travel on someone else’s dime. Anyway, good luck to Vanessa!

This week is slower than last week , when I visited about 10 villages and gave my talk to a few of them. Monday was primary election day for the NRM party (President Museveni’s party – the National Resistance Movement). My trainers said no one would show up for VSLA meetings. NRM has another primary on October 26 for different offices. On Tuesday we had the aforementioned staff meeting. Today, Matthews is in Jinga for some medical tests, so no riding out to villages. A chance to work on my blog. Friday is Uganda Independence Day. I will walk with the Bugiri Rotary Club in a parade of some sort, and then we are supposed to play in a soccer game against an unnamed opponent. So I’ll be getting a bit of exercise at practice this week.

General

agriculture, ATEFO (my NGO), Entreprenuership, food insecurity, Local Politics, Lusoga, Teaching, Uganda Culture, Uganda food, VSLA groups, working

Goin’ Fishin’

Author: Charles October 7, 2015

On the way home one afternoon, we visited a fish farmer, who we help along with rice farmers. The digging on this pond was almost finished and about to become operational.

On the way home one afternoon, we visited a fish farmer, who we help along with rice farmers. The digging on this pond was almost finished and it’s about to become operational.

This is where fingerlings are kept. He said about 50,000.

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These are his hatcheries

Speaking of fish, these are cooked fish at the market. Can’t bring myself to try one. I can buy frozen mince meat (ground beef) only in Iganga. I make spaghetti meat sauce and hamburgers from it on my electric grill. I go about every other weekend to Iganga to withdraw money from Barclays (the only ATM in Bugiri charges 13,000 shillings for a withdrawal and a roundtrip to Iganga is 4,000) and do some shopping. Sometimes I use the free wireless and eat western food at the Sol Cafe, and often I visit my nearby home stay family.

General

agriculture, Fish farming, Uganda food, working

Village

Author: Charles July 17, 2015

I got the opportunity to weigh myself a few days ago. I weigh 75 kilos which is 165 pounds, a loss of 10 pounds since arriving in Uganda and a total of 47 pounds since January. I feel great and eat plenty.

Two weekends ago (July 5), my host father Simon took us to his home village, Kawanga, about an hour north of Iganga, although it took longer due to mechanical difficulties which caused us to stop several times. Simon’s brother, Emma, his oldest daughter Sylvia, a teacher, and her child Immaculate went with us. At times we had 12 in the vehicle, including his truck bed, going over bumpy rutted roads. He is licensed to carry up to 13.

I met Simon’s mother Beatrice there. She is 84. When she was young, Beatrice was not allowed to get an education. Simon’s father died when he was very young. Simon’s mother was determined her children get opportunities, and she took on farming, chopping wood, and making the village hootch, whatever it took, to raise the fees needed for her children’s education. Simon reveres her for her efforts.

Simon’s village is the most remote in the district. He is determined to raise the standard of living. He helped raise funds for a four room school house in the village. It attracts about 400 students from all over. Classrooms with 100 student are common in Uganda.

As you will see, Simon built a shed with corn (milling?) and rice processing machinery that helped the local farmers add value to their crops. As I have learned in training, most farmers are sustenance only, meaning they only raise enough to support themselves. But that is often insufficient when you encounter a dry spell, or unexpected family illness, not to mention keeping up with the school fees. So we look at opportunities for value-added products. Unfortunately after a year of operation, a big storm blew off the roof and wrecked the equipment. It has not been repaired since. So many pieces of equipment do not stay maintained in Uganda.

Simon’s “target” is to introduce goat farming as a viable business for his community. He wants to start a demonstration project on his land. He produced a business plan and budget for my review. Looks like he needs about $4500 US.

Incidentally, my photos are sharper because now I email them to my brother with the text and he does the blog from Colorado. This uploading process consumes a great deal of data, which is expensive on my Peace Corps stipends. So I waited to transmit until we went to the “Sol Cafe” on Saturday (a foreigner hang-out) and took advantage of the free wi-fi. My brother is also more skilled on WordPress. I wish I could upload some video, but it times out and sucks up the data.

Our first stop on our tour was a house that Simon recently built that he wants to retire to when he starts up his demonstration goat farm. It is empty right now, his mother refuses to live in it. She lives in the house you see slightly to the left and behind it. We ate lunch on the floor of this house.

This is the building which housed the corn and rice machinery with the roof blown off.

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This is taken from the back of Simon’s house. The boy is his cousin’s child.

The young man from the neighborhood who Simon hires as caretaker in his absence. He is carrying sweet potatoes. Simon and his truck are behind him.

Simon’s mother, Beatrice, and daughter Sylvia, and Immaculate

We saw little compounds like this scattered about. Simon claims that up to ten people sleep in each hut. Takes up the whole floor as you might guess.

Various crops are drying on the ground. If they would just use a tarp, less would go to waste. Even better would be secure storage/drying bins. You don’t need to be trained by the Peace Corps or have an Ag background to know this! They need capital to have better storage and thus more income. PCVs would hope to introduce other income generating activities to raise such capital. Hey Peter, these are not ideal roofs for a Perma-Garden!

This is Simon’s cousin and two of his children. They sleep seven in his hut. He was showing me a snake bite on his leg. Simon is disappointed his cousin refuses to send his children to the school Simon helped fund. He won’t even take a tour of it.

We had the occasional animal delay besides mechanical delay.

We made a few stops within the village neighborhood, always attracting hordes of kids. They literally backed away upon seeing me come out of the car, then stampeded me when I showed them their pictures on my smart phone. These kids make the kids in my host family seem privileged by comparison. But they don’t know how poor they are, so they are happy as kids will be.

You can see Simon holding his phone on the lower right. He hardly knows how to use it without Hellen’s help. I’m not much better.

General

agriculture, children, Education, Entreprenuership, health, host parents, travel, Uganda Culture

Garden

Author: Charles June 26, 2015

Peter has been training gardening to Peace Corps volunteers for 30 years. To say Peter is avid about perma-gardening is putting it mildly. I will try to encapsulate the philosophy behind it. He observes that it is a common to see large NGOs and Foundations such as Gates, USA Aid, the Rockefellers etc. often boast of 10-20% increases in crop production. However, when this happens, there is a corresponding drop in child nutrition and frequent food insecurity (43% of Uganda with it’s 80% farmers, is food insecure). This seemingly counter-intuitive result is due to the “800 lb. gorilla” in the room, namely that the husband controls the family money and often does not spend it wisely. The desire to buy new farm equipment, pressure to pay school fees, and unexpected doctor bills all contribute to Food Insecurity. (I am a bit surprised that the rampant alcoholism was not discussed in training, but the Ugandans are pretty open about it)So sometimes the family does not get a variety of nutritious food it needs. This is crazy when you consider the fertility of Uganda and all the rain. There should be plenty of food for the whole country.

Peter teaches that a Perma-garden right next to the family home is a solution to the family’s food insecurity. Perma stands for permanent (duh). Based on the annual rainfall of Uganda, a 6 x 4 roof releases 24,000 liters of rain run-off per year. Allowing for a foot path, the perma-garden would be a few feet away from the side of the house and take advantage of this run-off. You want the garden with a slight slope away from house. Of course, there is also the rain that falls directly on the garden. Taking advantage of roof run off saves “Ma Ma” literally hundreds of trips to the town pump to fetch water in heavy Jerry cans.
The particular design he uses for the garden is his own invention and is ingenious. It incorporates berms on the sides, swales acting as foot paths, and holes in the corners. The photo on the right is after construction before planting The soil in the garden and the berms are “double-dug” and “conditioned” for a much as four feet down, with handfuls of manure (for bacteria); and lots of brown stuff (dead leaves => carbon); green stuff (nitrogen), and charcoal (the small worthless crumbled pieces the charcoal salesman at the market lets you sweep up from his stall => oxygen).
In addition to the garden, we also built a compost pile incorporating the same ingredients.It is kept in the shade and still reaches a temperature over 130 degrees. At that point, pests and bad bacteria die, but good bacteria thrives. When you pull out the stick, and touch the bottom, it is extremely hot.

The six S’s of water management are Stop, Slow, Spread, Sink, Save and Shade. When the rain hits the garden from the roof (usually in a big rush, as I have observed, the rain here is incredibly intense) the berms stop it, slows it down and allows it to spread throughout the whole garden. Extra run-off is channeled around the garden and goes into the corner holes before the excess is released. The water sinks deep into the garden and is saved. Because it was dug deep, the plants’ roots go down further than the normal 6 to 12 inches to clay. During the dry season, it can still access the deep water saved.

Now you can buy propecia online UK for online viagra india the UK customers. Even if you smoke more appalachianmagazine.com cialis viagra sale than one pack a day, you automatically increase the chance of erection issues. We effectively reverse these feelings through our proven anti-aging view for source buy viagra italy BHRT treatments. I’ve had to give up running and take up yoga and swimming instead. http://appalachianmagazine.com/2016/01/10/weather-service-issues-hazardous-weather-outlook-for-west-virginia-as-cold-weather-expected/ generic viagra rx Instead of planting in rows, he uses a triangle pattern that allows for more plants closer together. The broad leaves overlap, providing shade for the whole garden, preventing the sun from drying out the topsoil. There are innumerable leafy plants (with Vitamin A – often deficient in children) and vegetables you can plant. Peter claims a perma-garden is 400% more productive than the field farmed by Husband.

The materials for a perma-garden are free and easy to get. Once you dig it, the garden is year-round, permanent, and low maintenance. Just rotate the garden plants each season to keep the soil fertile and confuse the pests. Meanwhile, Pa Pa has to plow his 2 acre farm every season and buy fertilizer and pesticides. Our last session got rained out before we could actually plant the garden. He left the next day to teach this in Rwanda. A few of us thought we could do the planting, but Peace Corps has us scheduled pretty tight. Peter built another one (shown here) on the compound in a special training session just last April. It has been totally neglected ever since, and it’s pumpkins are much larger than the compound’s pumpkins, aided by drip lines.

It’s important to get both Ma Ma and Pa Pa to buy in, but a huge advantage is the empowerment it gives to Ma Ma; and no matter how bad things get, the family has food security. I knew some volunteers were planning to install a garden, but I hadn’t given it much thought. I don’t know if my site will have room for a garden, but I would dig one if I could. Peter says when you start clearing away your plot, the curious neighbors will observe this. They have been digging since they were 3 years old and will probably want to help, and rip the hoe right out of your hand. It’s only a matter of time before the early adapters influence the entire village to start their own perma-gardens. Hoeing is strenuous but I did my share. I enjoyed a lengthy conversation with Peter one afternoon, comparing notes about our similar kids and mothers. I scored 11 out of 65 on his test on the first day, and 63 on the retest on the last day.

I move to my home stay for 4 weeks starting June 27. Mostly language training then. As I predicted, early language training has been quite a challenge for me compared to the ability of the four others learning with me. I need to study and practice quite a bit more to keep up.

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