End-of-March update from Clive, Kim and Carl

We’re thoroughly enjoying life here – happy to respond to any/all of the following greetings - “Auntie Kim/Uncle Clive”; “Jaaja”(Gran); “Auntie Nakato”(Female Twin); Grandpa (or “Grand” as Charles calls us). We’re trying to improve our panga (machete) and hoe skills, two tools unknown to us before we arrived here. “Be patient” is Nyero’s advice to us. We now know who cooks the best pancakes in Ssanje village (made with bananas and cassava flour); what the usual price is for pineapples and bananas and how to charm our way through a Police roadblock - all essential life skills in rural Uganda. Kim has had her first boda-boda (motorcycle) ride and driven a local taxi with seven other adults in the car. Clive has bought an African-style shirt and had his first Ugandan beer in Kyotera (Mike congratulated him on finally acting like an Ozzie).
A few weeks ago we purchased a large quantity of tools for use by the Agricultural classes and by the Boarding School students after school and on the weekends. Bukenya is converting the unused Canteen into a new toolshed for secure housing of the tools.

Kim with Dembe (the man-who-knows-everything-we-need-to-know) & Jude (Agricultural Teacher) with the new tools, painted and numbered for easy identification.

The four water tanks are connected to the gutters and have started to collect rainwater! The contractor, John, is going to build some security fences around the three tanks at the school and the Agricultural Classes have dug the ditches for the pipes to connect the tanks to the Large Vegetable Garden.



We’re settling into a good programme of working with the children in the garden – each evening after school, for a few hours on Saturday morning, and for three sessions per week with the Agricultural Classes.

Carl doing the strenuous work of instruction as the Ag class prepares a ‘nursery’ bed for propagation.

Work has begun on the new Chicken House which will eventually be home for 60 layer hens, providing eggs for the children’s diet. Kim is looking forward to having some little animals to nurture but Clive has insisted that she stop short of naming each one. The “Chook House” will have two main rooms for the hens (with attached Straw Yards), a storage room, a Brooder area to raise young chicks and a Sick Bay to quickly isolate sick birds. Carl has volunteered to test out the accommodation before the poultry arrives by moving his bed into one of the rooms (he figures it will be quieter there than next to the boys dorm where he usually sleeps).




A few more photos ...
Is Nyero smiling or grimacing in pain after his thumb got in the way of a panga? (He’s wrapped it in banana leaf)

Charles cooling down with a passionfruit drink after a hot day in the garden

Three of our constant companions in the garden .. Anthony, Innocent and Rona

Report back: Uganda's First Permablitz!

Uganda Permablitz #1 was held on February 28th at the home of Mathias and Ted and their four children, in the village of Ssanje. Ssanje is less than one kilometre from Sabina School and Boarding Home, where Clive and Kim are spending a year on a permaculture project. The day was made possible initially by Luke, a local School Teacher who had attended Dick Copeman’s (Brisbane City Farm) workshop at Sabina in late 2008. Luke connected with Kim one day walking in the village, and the idea of a Permablitz to help maintain momentum after Dick’s departure was born. We hope to have another 5 or 6 during the course of the year.

Before the blitz, our host Mathias working through the plan for the day with Kim. Mathias is already a skilled gardener/farmer, with chickens, cows, goats, bananas, maize in place, but precious little in the way of vegetables. His interest and quick understanding were evident from the questions he asked and the close attention he paid to everything that was happening


One of Mathias’ children, on the Ugandan ‘one-size-fits-all’ bicycle that he is quite able to ride as shown here. A group of kids stayed with us for the whole day, fascinated by the muzungus (white people) and the work being done, and especially by the camera.

More people arrived, including our Sabina volunteer Carl, and some neighbours, including Mathias’ sister Josephine, a qualified lawyer, who lives next door. Some of the neighbours had limited English, so Luke acted as an interpreter whenever Kim spoke. We had the involvement of some current and past Sabina School students, who also assisted with communication.

Work started with some clearing of the site, and collecting of materials like that wheelbarrow full of cow dung that Mathias had been drying out over the last few weeks or so since we first planned this day.

And that banana tree had to go. The site chosen was a gently sloping part of the front garden, covered before we started with leaf litter and twigs and the odd banana leaf. We cleared it initially to get a better view of the dips and humps we were facing, and also to help us get rid of some major roots and other obstacles.

Beds and swale-paths starting to take shape, with the help of an A-frame, and all the volunteer labour and sharing of tools. The work was completed in about 3.5 hours.

Planting – carrots, eggplant, green pepper, silverbeet, beans, zucchini, tomato (and some comfrey around the corner near the chook shed)

Happy family at day’s end, with Luke our co-organiser on the right. As we mostly planted seeds direct, not much immediately to show for our work, but we shall take more pics in a few weeks, hopefully showing a productive vegetable garden.

PS. It rained during the night of the Permablitz (as we suspected it might) .. so we applied mulch material the next day.

Cheers,
Kim and Clive

Word from Kim and Clive

Well we’ve been at Sabina for just on 2 months now, and some of the key work is starting to take shape.

A fair degree of excitement was caused by the arrival of 4 x 25,000L water tanks kindly donated with money from the UK.

No, not a giant Dutch licorice … a 25,000L plastic water tank. Installation work to construct concrete/brick bases and install the gutters and downpipes is also underway. Here’s the team at work.

Even the Manager, John, ensured that he got into the shot.

To finish that work we need to secure the tanks with some fencing, dig two trenches and install pipes and taps etc to get the water from the tanks down to the Large Vegetable Garden (LVG).
Speaking of which, the LVG has started, a bit earlier than we originally planned. Our newest volunteer Carl has arrived and is focusing on the LVG at the moment. The preparation of the ground, to remove all the kikuyu and elephant grasses, is a monster task that we have hired a labourer to do – the fact that she is a 60-year old woman has not seemed to slow progress! As she gets an area cleared, we are moving in behind to have a second go at the Kikuyu and to establish the paths and beds ready for planting. We know what we will be planting, (cabbage, eggplant, silverbeet, beans, nakati, ddodo, carrots and a border all around of comfrey and pineapple(!) to try and form a barrier against weed/grass invasion) but we’re just not sure what will go in first as the wet season approaches, we need some advice from the locals.

Carl looking relaxed and undefeated by the Kikuyu grass roots.

Starting next week, the Agriculture classes (three of them) will be spending one lesson each week in the LVG with us, and so we have decided to invest in a swathe of new tools, so we can keep a class of 30+ occupied and productive while they are with us. We have sent out an appeal to our friends and colleagues for a few hundred dollars to help us pay for this unplanned spending.

The next big projects are the new Chicken System and the Volunteer Accommodation. The Chicken System has had a lot of discussion and the ideas are taking shape, it will have 90 chickens divided into several locks, separated into their own shed areas and straw yards planted up with medicinal herbs and chicken food. The straw yards will be adjacent to three fenced vegetable growing areas where the chickens can free-range between harvests. The purpose of the system is primarily to produce eggs for the children, with ‘extras’ being sold to cover costs or to hatch for replacement hens. Jude, the Agricultural Teacher, is keen for the children to learn about the care and maintenance of this type of system so we hope to find some really keen children who become pivotal to the ongoing success of this system.

The Volunteer Accommodation will be in ‘Ugandan style’, i.e. round ‘bandas’ with grass roofing. The probable configuration of the first stage will include one banda for a couple, one with two bunk beds (i.e. 4 people in peak times), and a smaller one that functions as a shared bathroom, with a shower and composting toilet. Just maybe, if funds permit, they will have solar lighting and piped water from a tank off the Dining Room roof.

With the Mandala Garden an educative process is ongoing to stop the dumping of rubbish and breakage of support structures.

That’s enough about the project. The Wet Season seems to have started, with luck all the tanks will be in place and catching the rain, and the Large Vegetable Garden will be planted out (at least in part) to take advantage of the rain. We continue to enjoy the community at Sabina although we still need convincing about twice-daily rations of posho and beans. This is a fascinating place and we are very glad for the adventure and the chance to get to know the kids, teachers, staff, volunteers from around the world and the village community.

Laundry washing Ugandan-style!

Best wishes to all
Clive and Kim.

Some recent photos

First, Clive on the woodpile with Rony. One of the objectives is to grow a woodlot which will enable the school to save a significant fuel cost - this woodpile is used to fuel fires in the kitchen every day



Next, a shot of the planning for Permablitz #1 in Uganda, that was referred to in the last blog. Kim is talking through a plan with Luke and Mathias at the home of Mathias and Teddy.

Next Kim saying farewell to Christopher Nyero (right) and Mugarara Charles after they spent the weekend at Sabina helping with the project. Christopher and Charles are ex-Sabina students and talented permaculture enthusiasts who have been invaluable whenever they spend time with us. Both now study at the nearby Mbuye Farm School

Permablitz hits Uganda!

Uganda Permablitz #1 will be in Ssanje at the home of Mathias and Teddy on February 28^th, to establish a vegetable growing area on their land that already boasts some bananas, coffee, chickens and cows. He is a subsistence farmer, with 4 kids, and the day will involve about 10 neighbours from the village, and hopefully a couple of teachers from Sabina. Kim will run some workshops, we'll be terracing a few beds and making path/swales for access and water catchment. To learn more about permablitz, which started in Melbourne, Australia, see permablitz.net

Latest from Kim and Clive

Aarh – a wonderful downpour of rain two days ago after several months of hot, dry conditions that have had an effect on the whole Rakai District. Christopher Nyero and Bukenya did a rain dance in celebration!

We (Clive and Kim) have now been in Uganda for three weeks and are gradually acclimatising ourselves to a total lifestyle change, with all its challenges and adventures. We have been warmly welcomed by wonderful people at Sabina School and the surrounding community and can’t wait for all the children to return after the school holidays.

Mike has been showing us around the permaculture project at the school and it’s exciting to see all the work that has been done so far. With the hot weather and no children around to do the watering, the garden has suffered. Several fruit trees haven’t made it and the Mandala Garden has experienced a lot of die-back and the organic material has composting down exposing the roots of many plants and toppling them over. The front entrance looks great although we’re waiting expectantly for the grass to grow to help keep the dust down.

We’re making compost again as we slowly sift through the muddle of organic material and plastics that has accumulated at the back of the Mandala Garden. And following the rains on Monday we sowed seed directly into the Mandala Garden, protected from the sun by banana leaves laid loosely on top (a bit of any experiment, so let’s hope it works). Nyero and Charles are constructing a shaded nursery area for propagation of seedlings to restock the Mandala Garden. After looking around at other nursery set-ups, we have commissioned Ben and Charles to make small clay pots at Kiwanga in which to grow seedlings (most seedlings here are grown in small plastic bags which results in further litter in the environment).

With Charles and Nyero getting some experience at building shade structures, we have also asked them to extend the existing shade frame in Freedom Park to provide more shade for the kids when they return.

Mike is busy tending to the 100+ fruit trees that have been planted – watering, mulching, clearing around then, replanting any that have been lost to the dry. He is involved in establishing the grey water system outside the boys dormitory which needs some remedial concrete work. His advice and local knowledge is invaluable to us as we find our feet.

In a week or so we hope to be able to place the order for about 100,000 litres of plastic water tanks, which will most likely sit at the main school building and also at the library, primarily to feed the proposed main vegetable garden.

Plenty on the go .. and lots to do in the future. But in case you’re getting the idea that we’re go, go, go, that’s really not the case. We’re keen to take our time – to observe the natural rhythms around us and to get to know the special people here who make up this community. Everyday we are touched by the generosity of people who are keen to pitch in when something needs to be done, and the laughter that’s never far away. A few nights ago we had a spontaneous Dance Party using Kim’s radio. It’s true, muzungus can’t dance (certainly not as well as Ugandans) but in a typically generous gesture Clive was declared the ‘winner’, despite Mike admitting that he had to turn away when Clive got going! Lots of laughs.

Kim and Clive Arrive

Hi, we've arrived in Uganda and are healthy and hot. We are checking out the site guided by Mike (see here with Kim and a few kids) and Bukenya and Dembe. The mandala garden is a bit dry, and a few fruit trees didn't survive a few weeks without care and attention. We'll update in more detail soon, now that the Internet connection has been resurrected, but in the meantime we can say that we are going hard to get large water tanks in place by March (wet season), to get some planting into the mandala garden (again to establish some growth before the big rains hit the garden), to reshape some diversion drains in the entrance driveway, to get an improved and extended nursery area in place, and to be ready with some activities when the kids return from the break in a few weeks