Garden update

 

The garden is growing well, but you can see from the arid surroundings that all this green represents a lot of watering:

 

Bridget's water melon and cabbage

Amos's tomatoes

Amos's beans

Bridget's pumpkin, onions, carrots, beans and cabbage

Some interesting bugs

 

A big praying (and dancing) mantis:

 

 

 

And a stick insect:

 

SPIDERS!

 



First there was this one by the tap when we went to water the garden:

 

watch added for scale

Then there was this one trying to get under the door one evening:

We thought that the shiny black on its back was eggs, but if you look very closely you can see that they are tiny tiny spiders.  When we flicked it with a stick to discourage it from coming into the house it was like a cluster bomb going off!  -Tiny tiny spiders all over the place.

Bridget does not like spiders, which has been news to Amos.  Whenever  a big spider turns up, he has been saying "well, I never knew this about you" as Bridget shudders in a corner!

Some lessons

We thought you might like to see some of our lessons:





Bridget teaching her adult literacy class the day's English saying!

Amos teaching in the library



Bridget and the pre-grade class making spiders with their hands

And finally, we are having some intensive Chitonga lessons:

Ba Nelson a Ba Amos mu ciyo wa Chitonga

Water

Most houses or groups of houses in the compounds near where we live, have a well.  The well water is used for washing and watering gardens - drinking and cooking water is brought from either the hand pumps or from stands where mains water can be bought.
Now that the dry season is taking hold, many people's wells are dry.  This means that water must be carried daily from the pumps, often meaning a wait of two hours now that the pumps are busy.
Gardens are drying up.
Life is difficult here.

The well.  You can just see a splash of water at the bottom

Verily and Mildred looking for water



There was about a cup full of water in the container when it came up



Sad un-watered garden

Waiting your turn at the pump

Gardening News

Sorry it's been so long since we posted here.  Life goes on as usual here, although we are having a bit of a break from some of our teaching for the school holidays (until early September), and Rose is with us, so we're having a good time with her.
Gardening news is that a week or so ago Amos chased 5 piglets out of the garden, but not until they had eaten some of the greens and dug up some pepper seeds. 
So far, from the garden we have eaten rape, carrots and some cabbage leaves.  Still to come, whole cabbages, onions, beans and peppers.
Here are some pictures (but not of pigs):

Carrots

The garden so far.  Amos is watering beans in the back ground

Daily watering

Transplanting onions

Some Pretty Creatures

Golden Oriole

A pretty lizard

Provincial Agricultural Show

It was an agricultural show, but not quite as we know it...

There were tractors

There were seeds

There was entertainment

A marching band and majorettes

Goats (in the high pen at the back, chickens (in the basket) and turkeys

And cattle

And that was the show.

Some Gardening News

As you may know by now - the excitement that this has caused MUST have reached you by now! - we have a garden.

Our garden extends as far as the small bush in the centre of the picture

The seed bed.  Carrots, cabbages, red onions and white onions

The ground is very hard and dry, with very little organic matter.  We are slowly digging beds ready to transplant into, and digging in all the dead grass and kitchen waste that we can.  We also have access to some very old chicken manure, which is being buried and spread.

We also have some water melons growing outside the house.



Water melon flower.  In a few months I hope to be able to show you water melons!

A Day Out With Friends

Having received a generous donation from home, we were able to take a group of our friends from church to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls and some animals.  Including the driver and a baby, there were 19 of us in a small bus.   For most of those present it was the first time to see the Falls.
Here are some pictures of the day:

First view of the Zambezi:

Victoria Falls:

Getting ready for the wet

The Falls are in all that spray somewhere

Ivonne and Christine

Christine, Ivonne, Emmeldah, Memory and baby Cholwe

Taking pictures

This is why we got so wet

 Drying off at the top of the Falls:





Picnic by the river:

And home again: