Monday, April 7, 2008
HIV/AIDS and Permaculture Training
We were at a workshop in Moshi on sustainable agriculture with our counterparts (teacher partners from our school). It was a fun day of working outside making a garden with permaculture features to capture and hold the water and then double digging beds for the vegetables you want to grow. John and I and our counterparts are planning weekly sessions at school to teach about HIV/AIDs, safe sex and good nutrition through sustainable farming strategies including permaculture, biointensive gardening through deep, rich beds, hexagon planting closely and companion planting. I love this part of the job. We hope to have the neighboring villages participate in a 2 day program where we show the demonstration site the students will develop and let folks try some of the techniques. We have lots of erosion at our site from the loss of trees and the methods of planting crops on steep hills without terracing or constructing permaculture techniques. The pictures I put on the blog show the people shoveling sand out of the river after a big rain storm. The sand is left behind and all the soil is washed away with the water. The water is so muddy with soil it cannot filtered for drinking as another problem. Lots of water and none to drink! The villagers like it when this happens because they can shovel the sand in pile along the road and sell it for construction such as making cement for buildings and for roads. It really makes me sad to see this when it rains, so I am glad to teach permaculture and biointensive gardening.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Tanzania in March
Hello Family and Friends:
It has been a long time since I have had time to write. Since school has started in January we have been as busy as teachers at home… but sometimes in different ways.
We just finished midterm exams and the students have gone home for Holiday break. Classes start the week after Easter again. The students take 2 ½ hour exams in every subject. It took 4 days to finish exams. For a student to pass on to the next Form, they must get a score of 30% or better for Form I and II, 20% or better for Form 3 & 4. Eighty percent of their grade is based the final exam. So, practicing taking huge exams is very important. It is also important to take exams to get used to reading and writing in English. Kiswahili is their national language but all secondary education is in English. Accomplishing a 30% score is not easy for this reason. For students here, education is not free and to fail means a lot of money to families and few options to continue your education.
As I have told you, I have three different subjects, Biology Form I, Biology Form II, and Chemistry Form I. The Form I students have two streams meaning 2 classes of 51 students. Form II has two streams of about 45 students. John teaches Form III Mathematics which has three streams of about 35 students.
Each stream has their own classroom where all their classes are taught. So, the teachers move each period and the students stay put. It is nice in that they do not carry books and supplies around. Teachers need to transport books and supplies around but, the students willingly assist with carrying things. Their help is almost excessive from the perspective of this American teacher. The students insist on carrying everything for you where ever you go. For science experiments there is a laboratory that seats 48 students (12 lab groups). My Form I students exceed this number so they have lab groups of 5 students and some stand. I am known as the teacher that uses the lab and have even earned the privilege of carrying the lab key. The first month of classes I spent as much time hunting down the key as preparing the lab materials. The academic master had the key locked in his desk and I would have to find him to get the key to his desk to get the lab key.
This opens another conversation about school keys. All rooms and buildings have locks except for the toilets, although I have noticed that during holiday these have padlocks. What is most amazing is that the key to every room/building is available to anyone at any time, including students except for the laboratory, the headmaster’s office and any padlocks that teachers or students put on their personal trunks or desks. I was told that they used to leave the lab “open” but the national inspectors visited and said that the lab key had to be kept from students.
One day John set his watch down on his desk and left. When he returned it was gone. He searched his desk but could not find it. Finally he told another teacher. The teacher was so surprised. She told John that the students would never dream of taking anything from a teacher. She told him to look again in his desk. Sure enough, it was buried in the back of his desk. SO… we have learned that although everything is open it is safe with 400 students watching over us and our things. There have been cases where students take things from each other but teachers are different as we have learned.
Our school is built on the side of a small mountain. This means that every trip is either up to a class or an office …or down. My legs are getting a work out. Especially when I run to get forgotten supplies for a class or when we get electricity. It seems we have electricity about half the time. When there is umeme everyone runs to plug in their cell phones, the office madly makes copies needed and a few of us charge our computers and ipods.
A similar kind of mad-dashing around happens when it rains. I was astonished when my whole class jumped up and ran out the door the first time it rained hard during class. After the herd of students passed, puzzled, I asked a teacher standing under the eaves. She calmly stated that they needed to bring in their clothes so they wouldn’t get wet. The students hang their washed clothes and kangas (a large cloth used to wrap-up in the morning and evening to and from the shower and toilets) outside to dry during the day.
Well, this made sense. Then later in the day, I passed the student dorms. The dorm windows have bars on the outside and shuttered glass windows that close from the inside. I saw that the dorm windows had clothes stuffed between the bars and the glass. Socks and kangas were tied around the bars and shirts and panties were stuffed in-between. I thought a minute, then remembered that the dorms are locked during the day. The clothes were stuffed in the windows, under the eaves, to keep dry in the rain, of course!
The food at school is simple but nutritious. Students eat porridge in the morning (6am) porridge at tea time (10:45am), ugali or rice and beans and cabbage at lunch(1:15pm) and the same or mkande for dinner (6:30pm). Mkande is a thick stew made from cracked corn and beans. If available there will be onions and tomatoes added. Porridge can be made of many things but the school uses mostly corn. The school has a farm that grows corn, beans, sugar cane, cabbage, onions, bananas, and mango. The students get fruit that is in season from the farm and on very special occasions, meat or fish. The school has chickens, goose, turkeys and cows in moderate numbers. The school soil is good because of the manure and composting. Fish is easy and relatively cheap to get. It is dried so all the fish dishes are made from dried fish.
We can make just about all the African dishes because Mama Flora taught us. I had two of the school nuns over for lunch and made vegetable coconut soup and chapatti. They said that because I can cook African food and know how to wrap kangas like an African mama, they were going to give me an African name . It is really nice to have such fresh food. My garden has fresh greens, carrots and fruits such as some kind of apple with lots of seeds (sort of like pomegranate) and papaya. Our neighbors give us bananas for eating and cooking regularly. The local vegetable stand has tomatoes, onions, coconut, fish, and mango regularly. Other stuff we buy in Lushoto. We eat little meat because John doesn’t like fish and meat is hard to keep without refrigeration. We buy pork and goat meat to cook as a treat. When shopping in town, we usually have chicken at a restaurant.
African fashion varies but there are some rules that I have made for myself to help me know how to dress in a culturally appropriate manner and to “fit in”.
Rule I
A dress or skirt below the knee is a must. Longer is better.
Rule II
Wear outfits that have matching top and bottom as well as a matching head wrap. Beads that match and dress sandals are even better. This assures you look “smart”.
What to do if you do not have matching components… go to Rule III.
Rule III
If it doesn’t go with anything, it goes with everything.
Rule IV
If your skirt or shirt has a spot or you have a bad hair day, cover it with a kanga. If you can’t decide which kanga to choose… refer to Rule III.
Other news is that I walked in the Kilimanjaro ½ Marathon on March 3rd. We were in Moshi for a Peace Corps training on HIV/AIDS and permaculture the week before, so I decided to join some other PCV to do the ½ marathon. Most ran but a few of us walked. It was so fun to be with some amazing Tanzanian and Kenyan athletes as well as those just out to do it, just like us. Definitely years at the Birke ski race and coaching made me the loudest cheering fan. Because I was walking, I got to see everybody looping back and I had plenty of energy and breath to cheer. And, I have learned the African women’s celebration call to use, too! (This sound is made with a high pitch “who” while moving your tongue side-to-side, back and forth quickly, between your lips).
We had our first overnight guests. Two PCV’s that had come to run in the marathon followed us home to see the Lushoto area. One was from Iringa, TZ and one from Zambia. Both were environmental volunteers and we had fun learning about the things we could do here at Kongei to encourage the community to make environmental improvements.
It looks like my sister, and brother-in-law will be visiting in June. We have a break in June and start teaching the second week of July through November. Right now we are having BIG rains that come about one a day or every other day. I need my mud boots to get to school and I am learning all the Kiswahili words for mud, slipping, falling, dirty, BIG rains, and weeding the garden. (Last month I was learning to say “watering the garden”--- no more watering! June starts the dry season, so it looks like a two more months of rain.
Palm Sunday was a one hour hike up a steep mountain to the one church having a huge service with special music and of course, palms cut from the surrounding trees. It was worth the hike. On our return the rains made for deep mud and a wait under eaves of a goat barn until we were invited in by the children of the home to wait in warmth. I went with one of the school Sisters, and I was amazed to watch her climb through the mud trails and rain in her white habit. No problem she says.
We hope to get two of the non-working computers at school going and we finally got a modem to try to get internet at site. Don’t hold your breathe. This is Tanzania.
I enjoy just imagining spring in Minnesota. Your days are getting longer, spring green colors. We have the full moon but our days will stay the same.
Peace to all,
Randee
It has been a long time since I have had time to write. Since school has started in January we have been as busy as teachers at home… but sometimes in different ways.
We just finished midterm exams and the students have gone home for Holiday break. Classes start the week after Easter again. The students take 2 ½ hour exams in every subject. It took 4 days to finish exams. For a student to pass on to the next Form, they must get a score of 30% or better for Form I and II, 20% or better for Form 3 & 4. Eighty percent of their grade is based the final exam. So, practicing taking huge exams is very important. It is also important to take exams to get used to reading and writing in English. Kiswahili is their national language but all secondary education is in English. Accomplishing a 30% score is not easy for this reason. For students here, education is not free and to fail means a lot of money to families and few options to continue your education.
As I have told you, I have three different subjects, Biology Form I, Biology Form II, and Chemistry Form I. The Form I students have two streams meaning 2 classes of 51 students. Form II has two streams of about 45 students. John teaches Form III Mathematics which has three streams of about 35 students.
Each stream has their own classroom where all their classes are taught. So, the teachers move each period and the students stay put. It is nice in that they do not carry books and supplies around. Teachers need to transport books and supplies around but, the students willingly assist with carrying things. Their help is almost excessive from the perspective of this American teacher. The students insist on carrying everything for you where ever you go. For science experiments there is a laboratory that seats 48 students (12 lab groups). My Form I students exceed this number so they have lab groups of 5 students and some stand. I am known as the teacher that uses the lab and have even earned the privilege of carrying the lab key. The first month of classes I spent as much time hunting down the key as preparing the lab materials. The academic master had the key locked in his desk and I would have to find him to get the key to his desk to get the lab key.
This opens another conversation about school keys. All rooms and buildings have locks except for the toilets, although I have noticed that during holiday these have padlocks. What is most amazing is that the key to every room/building is available to anyone at any time, including students except for the laboratory, the headmaster’s office and any padlocks that teachers or students put on their personal trunks or desks. I was told that they used to leave the lab “open” but the national inspectors visited and said that the lab key had to be kept from students.
One day John set his watch down on his desk and left. When he returned it was gone. He searched his desk but could not find it. Finally he told another teacher. The teacher was so surprised. She told John that the students would never dream of taking anything from a teacher. She told him to look again in his desk. Sure enough, it was buried in the back of his desk. SO… we have learned that although everything is open it is safe with 400 students watching over us and our things. There have been cases where students take things from each other but teachers are different as we have learned.
Our school is built on the side of a small mountain. This means that every trip is either up to a class or an office …or down. My legs are getting a work out. Especially when I run to get forgotten supplies for a class or when we get electricity. It seems we have electricity about half the time. When there is umeme everyone runs to plug in their cell phones, the office madly makes copies needed and a few of us charge our computers and ipods.
A similar kind of mad-dashing around happens when it rains. I was astonished when my whole class jumped up and ran out the door the first time it rained hard during class. After the herd of students passed, puzzled, I asked a teacher standing under the eaves. She calmly stated that they needed to bring in their clothes so they wouldn’t get wet. The students hang their washed clothes and kangas (a large cloth used to wrap-up in the morning and evening to and from the shower and toilets) outside to dry during the day.
Well, this made sense. Then later in the day, I passed the student dorms. The dorm windows have bars on the outside and shuttered glass windows that close from the inside. I saw that the dorm windows had clothes stuffed between the bars and the glass. Socks and kangas were tied around the bars and shirts and panties were stuffed in-between. I thought a minute, then remembered that the dorms are locked during the day. The clothes were stuffed in the windows, under the eaves, to keep dry in the rain, of course!
The food at school is simple but nutritious. Students eat porridge in the morning (6am) porridge at tea time (10:45am), ugali or rice and beans and cabbage at lunch(1:15pm) and the same or mkande for dinner (6:30pm). Mkande is a thick stew made from cracked corn and beans. If available there will be onions and tomatoes added. Porridge can be made of many things but the school uses mostly corn. The school has a farm that grows corn, beans, sugar cane, cabbage, onions, bananas, and mango. The students get fruit that is in season from the farm and on very special occasions, meat or fish. The school has chickens, goose, turkeys and cows in moderate numbers. The school soil is good because of the manure and composting. Fish is easy and relatively cheap to get. It is dried so all the fish dishes are made from dried fish.
We can make just about all the African dishes because Mama Flora taught us. I had two of the school nuns over for lunch and made vegetable coconut soup and chapatti. They said that because I can cook African food and know how to wrap kangas like an African mama, they were going to give me an African name . It is really nice to have such fresh food. My garden has fresh greens, carrots and fruits such as some kind of apple with lots of seeds (sort of like pomegranate) and papaya. Our neighbors give us bananas for eating and cooking regularly. The local vegetable stand has tomatoes, onions, coconut, fish, and mango regularly. Other stuff we buy in Lushoto. We eat little meat because John doesn’t like fish and meat is hard to keep without refrigeration. We buy pork and goat meat to cook as a treat. When shopping in town, we usually have chicken at a restaurant.
African fashion varies but there are some rules that I have made for myself to help me know how to dress in a culturally appropriate manner and to “fit in”.
Rule I
A dress or skirt below the knee is a must. Longer is better.
Rule II
Wear outfits that have matching top and bottom as well as a matching head wrap. Beads that match and dress sandals are even better. This assures you look “smart”.
What to do if you do not have matching components… go to Rule III.
Rule III
If it doesn’t go with anything, it goes with everything.
Rule IV
If your skirt or shirt has a spot or you have a bad hair day, cover it with a kanga. If you can’t decide which kanga to choose… refer to Rule III.
Other news is that I walked in the Kilimanjaro ½ Marathon on March 3rd. We were in Moshi for a Peace Corps training on HIV/AIDS and permaculture the week before, so I decided to join some other PCV to do the ½ marathon. Most ran but a few of us walked. It was so fun to be with some amazing Tanzanian and Kenyan athletes as well as those just out to do it, just like us. Definitely years at the Birke ski race and coaching made me the loudest cheering fan. Because I was walking, I got to see everybody looping back and I had plenty of energy and breath to cheer. And, I have learned the African women’s celebration call to use, too! (This sound is made with a high pitch “who” while moving your tongue side-to-side, back and forth quickly, between your lips).
We had our first overnight guests. Two PCV’s that had come to run in the marathon followed us home to see the Lushoto area. One was from Iringa, TZ and one from Zambia. Both were environmental volunteers and we had fun learning about the things we could do here at Kongei to encourage the community to make environmental improvements.
It looks like my sister, and brother-in-law will be visiting in June. We have a break in June and start teaching the second week of July through November. Right now we are having BIG rains that come about one a day or every other day. I need my mud boots to get to school and I am learning all the Kiswahili words for mud, slipping, falling, dirty, BIG rains, and weeding the garden. (Last month I was learning to say “watering the garden”--- no more watering! June starts the dry season, so it looks like a two more months of rain.
Palm Sunday was a one hour hike up a steep mountain to the one church having a huge service with special music and of course, palms cut from the surrounding trees. It was worth the hike. On our return the rains made for deep mud and a wait under eaves of a goat barn until we were invited in by the children of the home to wait in warmth. I went with one of the school Sisters, and I was amazed to watch her climb through the mud trails and rain in her white habit. No problem she says.
We hope to get two of the non-working computers at school going and we finally got a modem to try to get internet at site. Don’t hold your breathe. This is Tanzania.
I enjoy just imagining spring in Minnesota. Your days are getting longer, spring green colors. We have the full moon but our days will stay the same.
Peace to all,
Randee
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Kongei School Life
School started mid January. All is going well. I teach Biology to Form I and II and Chemistry to Form I. John is teaching mathematics to Form III. Form I and II is similar to middle school grade students and Form III and IV like high school(9-10). For the first two months, Form I has Language Academy to improve their English. I am enjoying teaching language academy for the Form I as it reminds me of all the kinds of strategies we used for SPPS ELL learners. Also, it is what I went through to learn Kiswahili the last four months. Form I students and I are both “new” to the school so that helps us build a close relationship.
Students live at the school. The get up at 5:00 am and eat porrage and milk tea at 6am. The girls have cleaning jobs until 7:15am such as cleaning the ground and water channels of leaves, bathrooms, classroom floors and blackboards, ect. At 7:30 am all students gather in the main courtyard for Parade, which is a formal gathering for announcments, demontrations of student projects or writings, prayer, and inspection of uniforms. Classes start at 7:45am. There are 9 periods in a day with a 15 min break for tea at 10:45 and 45 min lunch at 1:15. Classes end at 3:30pm. Every Form has some days of 45 minute classes for each subject and some 90 minute classes. Math is always 90 min. after Form II. Every Year the students take Chem, Biology and Physics as well as Math, English, Kiswahili, Civics/History, Agriculture, and Religion. I teach one single period and one double period of Chemistry Form I, Biology Form I and Biology Form II every week. SO that is 18 periods a week of teaching. I also assist with Science Club, Music Club and Library after school.
I have already taught Saturday classes to catch-up on things we could not finish during the week for Form II. I like the option to teach evenings and Saturdays, it seems more relaxed and the students seem to like it too. Last Saturday, I coached my first Music Club session. There was not a plan to have a music club, but people heard me playing my Native American flute at night and when a group of students asked for a music club so that they could learn how to play the flutes in the school store, I was recruited. So, now I am discovering how to teach flute and it is a fun adventure so far!
I have found the resources I brought from my teaching and colleagues in America very valuable, both for teaching science to English Language Learners and for collaborating with my colleagues in creative lesson planning. These are simple things that can make a huge difference for the learner. These first months at site I have already had many opportunities to collaborate with fellow teachers on planning lessons and sharing ideas and resources. The Anatomy Coloring Book, a molecular model building kit, and the Bakken (Minnesota)curriculum for teaching static electricity by building your own equipment to generate static electricity without the use of current electricity have been a hit(Thanks Greg!). Also, the Atlas (vol 1&2) from AAAS has been useful to many of us in planning. The computer sent by MN friends and family has also helped gernerate reproducible documents that students can read and can show the video clips I brought from the SPPS Biology Curriculum on a flash drive. I am having students build life size human anatomy models using their own bodies as “forms” (taken from Ann Oubaha at Jackson ELementary.
In turn, the faculty of Tanzania has shown me how to get local supplies and how to engage fundis(carpenters, plumbers, masons, etc,) to build needed equipment. We have had fun scheming together to use the village people and landscape materials to create teaching tools.
Several Students have asked about wanting an American Pen Pal. Let me know if you know students in your class that are interested.
I have already experienced one of the frustrations of teaching children – anywhere in the world— a few students stealing from each other and bullying when adults are not watching. It has been very helpful to be part of this Tanzanian faculty and learn the way this is handled. The biggest contrast to my American school system experience is that the participation of ALL teaching staff members is required when the matter is discussed, when students come to be questioned and when students “fess-up” to their wrong doings. Although it was terribly sad to be missing teaching time, it was clear how important to the Tanzanian culture to have all the adults contribute to the problem solving equally and for the students to see that they are watched-over and concerned for by all adults. Obviously this can go awry depending on the integrity of the adults and leaders of a school, but for me, this was a positive experience even though frustrating from a teaching standpoint.
The biggest challenge at site is cooking in the dark. At first light I need to be walking to school to get there on time and more often than not, I return home just as it is starting to get dark. Without electricity, cooking by lantern light is a challenge, but it has made for some interesting meals. The month before school started, I had several people over for dinner, trying out all the different dishes that I learned in my host family home. I have had such a great time cooking and learning new dishes from neighbors and colleagues, I can do OK in the dark, but a few meals have ended up on the floor when I missed the jiko (stove).
One of the greatest joys has been expanding the garden outside my house. There is a papaya tree just outside my window where I planted the chaichai(lemon grass) cutting I brought from our CCT PEPFAR training in Morogoro. Then, I discovered the run-off from our roof could drain right to the papaya tree if I dug a little trench with my jembe. I then made two consecutive rings of plant beds around the papaya for planting matembele. This attracted the attention of the school shamba worker and the night watchman. They both offered to help water and this led to expanding the garden to include carrots, matenga, vitunguu, swiss chard, and herbs. After this, the school sisters offered to give me cuttings of flowers to put by our house. A few days later, a student was sent home with me, cuttings in hand, to plant flowers. Devota is still one of my favorite students to greet each day because we have the shared memory of planting flowers and talking together (in my “special Kiswahili “and her “special English”).
It has been fun and helpful to explore as much of the surrounding neighborhoods by riding bicycle. One day we were riding from school to town and met a man that was carrying a sack of corn kernels on his bike. The sack had fallen and corn kernels spilled on the road. He was patiently picking them up, one by one. I felt reverence for this culture to see that these golden kernels were so valued. It reminded me how dependent people are on the food that comes from their village land – especially with the decreasing rainfall. (In contrast, the value of a corn kernel in America is long ago lost due to subsidized farming and overproduction of this monocrop.) I stopped, to greet him and to help with the task at hand. We talked and laughed and enjoyed the time together. It started to rain and we worked a bit faster and eventually every corn kernel was retrieved. Because of this time together, he is another person I so enjoy seeing on the road when traveling to town.
Happy Valentines day!
Randee
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Christmas in Tanzania
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We are just getting to know our neighbors and colleagues. Last Week we visited our nightwatchman's house. We met all the neighbors that we have been greeting along the road for three weeks as their houses are also along the side of the same Mountain. As you can imagine, we were humbled by their generosity of spirit and food. We were they only ones that were fed ( bananas, cucumbers, a donut type thing, juice and chai with milk. A nephew who spoke English was with us and helped when our Kiswalhili (and Kisamba) language fell short. He told us how important it was that we see their "environment" which I understood by the end included houses, shambas(farms), family structure and how to be a good neighbor. We were escorted to the houses and brought back home, but told that "now we know where they live and they expected us to visit -- and that we can expect visits as well!
School is empty. More teachers will arrive after Xmas. Now I am enjoying the older Sisters at our site, as they are my age and some speak a lot of English and have studied in USA. They are fun and seem to understand us foreigners a bit.
We spent Xmas eve with the Sisters, went to mass at our site church and spent Xmas with the other Peace Corps Volunteers in our region in a Lushoto Hotel with hot showers and the music and celebrating in town.
We are having a good time and looking forward to our work to start.
The Students arrive Jan. 6th and classes start Jan 14th. My Form 1 classes have only English and Math classes the first 8 weeks. I will teach English with Chemistry Themes and start Chemistry syllabus in March. Form 2 Biology will start in January. The syllabus is thematic, EX: Nutrition (plants and animals and Humans), Transport of materials, Environment, etc. Because we have a lab we will be doing "practicals" lab investigations regularly. I will have 45-50 students in my classes. I am glad we will have boarding students so we can work together after class aswell and have a science club to reach students on a more personal level.
I was able to get pictures loaded on this and the previous blog! Check them out!
Pictures of Our site , the school and our house are now on the previous blog.
These pictures are of End of Morogoro Training party , John's 60th Birthday Party, and Mikumi Park Lions.
More updates in January!
We both wish you ALL a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Peace and Good Health to ALL
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Our School Site near Lushoto, Tanzania
Onga!
(KiSamba for greetings)
We are now in Lushoto at our new home and school. This in in the Usamba Mts and the local people are Samba. It is very beautiful
and there are lots of fruit out our back door-- also a garden with vegetables to
tend to. Most nights there are folks drumming and singing us to sleep from somewhere across the valley from our house. I am practicing my native american flute in the
evenings, so I wonder what they think when they hear this. Because we are
separated by the valley and can only see each others lights, their
fire and our kerosene lantern.
There is a Kilimanjaro marathon coming up and some of the other Peace Corps Volunteers are participating. I am hoping to go watch and cheer from Marangu Hotel where I stayed two years ago to climb the mountain!
We start teaching in January-- Biology and Chemistry for me, John will teach Math. We have a school with a lot of growing success in national exams over the last 4 years. It is all girls boarding and so we will have time to socailize and have clubs arter the school days. We are told the staff likes to work together and that is
what we have seen so far. We are in paradise!
Our house had a pile of food and basic furniture when we arrived -- the community is very welcoming. I have been cooking ugali, beans, rice and more with all the fresh vegetables available. When it rains, I go out and dig up a little bit more space to plant a few more things we would like handy such as leeks and garlic, matembele and pumpkin.
We have 4 bedrooms and a living area then an open courtyard with a sink that separates this from the kitchen, storage area, toilet, and bathing area. We have water to the house but no electricity. We use kerosene for cooking and lights. We have charcoal stove as a back=up. The school has electricity (a km away) to charge our phone, ipod and computer. We have a solar cell. We visited a Benedictine Mission and one of the Brothers gave us a battery and a flouescent light that works great with our solar collector for light!
Yesterday we hiked to a view point that was incredible. There was a place that made cheese so we bought some for a treat at home. You would like it here. Lots of up and down and beatiful views (but hard on the knees). I rode my bike once.
Not hard to find mountain bike trails. That is all we have!
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