The generosity of the community

The community continues to be a great strength and blessing for us.  It has been a smooth transition from city living to rural farming thanks to the generosity of our neighbours and fellow community members.  They have shared their homes, their hard grown produce, their wisdom and their time with us, children and adults alike. 

We were recently offered organic manure from one of the very generous Mama’s in the community.  We have forged a symbiotic relationship with this particular Mama. She comes to our farm to retrieve grass for her cattle, and in exchange, has offered us organic manure as fertilizer for our crops. She has given us 40 bags of manure, worth 4000 shillings! After collecting some of the grass for her cattle, her generousity emerged once more. She observed how we dried our laundry, which is on the ground or on nearby bushes and trees, and she gave us a big aluminum wire as a clothes line.Not to mention a whole banana bunch!

When we went to retrieve the manure, we went to another Mama’s place to rent a hand cart. After fetching the manure, we returned the hand cart, and she also gave us one of her banana tree bunches. This is no small gift, as there are nearly 100 bananas to a bunch. We give thanks for this generous gift of nourishment.

The generousity does not stop there. Another farmer in the community brought us an abundance of cassava stems, which we are busy planting. A youth that we have come to interact with, brought us croton seedlings. Croton is a big indigenous tree that grows well in Maragua. It is good for bio-fuels and has many healing properties. Further, a farmer that we have come to know, who has an abundance of amaranda plants, has freely offered them to us. We are able to collect as much amaranda as we like, which we have done, and it is a delicious, nutritious leafy green vegetable.

Every Sunday we head down to the market to sell our art products. This gives us further opportunity to interact with the community members. During our market trips we have managed to share and receive conventional wisdom with the community farmers. In addition, we get to interact with some of the children of the community who show much interest in our activities and lifestyle. Some of these children who have seen us working on the farm have brought their parents to come and meet us on market day. Again, this gives us a great opportunity to further share information about agriculture and best practices. More sharing!