Started off the morning with a little gardening – we were transplanting onions today. All in all, I think we have transplanted about 3000 over the last week, which is a pretty impressive feat. And a good core workout too, when you are bent over double, feet spread about 1m apart, digging holes with a stick and shoving tiny onion plants inside.
After this, I washed, had breakfast and expressed my intent to build a solar dryer. Thinking it was a simple matter of cutting some branches, tying them together and covering it with plastic (you can even see the plans in my notebook), I was surprised when Morrison insisted that his younger (12 year old) son Talent would be helping me. So Talent and myself headed off into the bush, and with broken English, Tonga and sign languages we managed to find some suitable trees.
This solar dryer was not good for the environment. We chopped at least 6 sizable trees (~3 inch diameter) for the frame, and carried them back. Sorry, I should say Talent cut the trees, I watched, feeling a bit ashamed that a 12 year old boy knew way more about this stuff than I did. It became obvious that twine or string was not a local material, so we went back into the bush, cut a few more smaller trees, and got 'fibres' for tying these logs together.
To get fibres, you first cut down a tree (about 1” diameter). Then you trim off the branches, and find a place the tree forks. Here you stand on one of the forks, and pull the other, to split the tree in half. Then you pull off pieces of bark, getting thin strips. Then you peel the bark off, leaving just a thin fibre, that can be up to 2m long, if done properly. We got about 12 of these fibres, and took them back to the house, leaving them in a bucket of water to soak.
After constructing the frame, it became apparent that my design was terrible (thanks ENSC SFU for never teaching me any civil) but a couple cross-members seemed to help things. Everything was tied together with these fibres, and it seemed to be holding. Ugly, but it was a frame. At this point, most of the family was standing around watching Talent and myself building. I grabbed the clear and black plastic that I had bought in town, and we tied it on too, using these fibres. Clear plastic on top to let sun in, and black on the bottom to absorb the heat. Design complements of a sweet DAPP book my friend Deg bought at the Ag-show in Lusaka.
Biggest problem we saw, was at the present we had a tent with open ends. Ideally a metal screen of chicken wire would keep out birds and goats, but we had no such thing. Morrison came up with the idea of using old sacks, which still allowed plenty of airflow, but could keep out animals. An old fishing basket was laid on the black plastic to keep the food elevated, and the dryer was complete.
So does it work? Seems to be OK so far, but further testing is required of course...
After lunch, I went with Olice and Amulonga to prepare to make chibuntu. Chibuntu is Tonga “sweet beer”, which has 0% alcohol content. The first step is to head into the bush and find the mukoya root. Luckily Olice had seen some previously, so we just had to dig it up. This was accomplished using the massive shaka hoe, and was actually the first time I was allowed to use the tool. Next we went to these ladies' house to use their grinding mill. We ground a 5L bucket of maize, and it took about 20 minutes! Now I see why they use hammer mills, and don't try to do it by hand for mealie meal. Of course they also fed us, and all the necessary conversation that you have when you visit someone.
It was interesting though, because it was the first time I have gone visiting other farms with Olice (normally I go with Morrison) and I would say that there is much more pompousness when Zambian men visit each other than women. Zambian men must always show each other their gardens, and discuss how hard working they are, and ponder all the problems of this world. Not exactly sure what the women talk about (though I hear the word makua a lot, so I assume I'm a part of the discussion) but it seems to be a bit less arrogant.
Finally in the afternoon I went to Pemba Secondary for another computer class. I am quite impressed, school ended last week, and still students want to learn about computers, and C++, and the computers teacher is happy to come and open the door for me to use the lab. So far we have done lots of work with printf and are finally moving into variables and if statements. Looks like we have one more class on Wednesday so I may try to cover for loops. Biggest barrier is their lack of general computer knowledge and fear of breaking the machines. Half of them won't even try to compile unless I'm sitting with them at the computer. But hey, with time they are getting a lot better, I even have one or two start students, who actually seem to understand what is going on.
And now its time to start off a busy week. Monday some meetings, and hopefully a chance to go see Chikuni mission and their solar dryers and vegetable programs. Tuesday to Mbabala, which involves traversing one of the worst roads around. Though every time I say this, I have a sneaky suspicion that if I headed off 200km into the bush, the roads would be way, way worse. Wednesday some business with pumps. Thursday we are running a big workshop for record keeping, planning and marketing. And Friday is my last full day in Pemba town, so that one is set aside for knowledge transfer type stuff. Ahh busy days, but I like it that way.
Its called Lashing (ropework) :P
ReplyDeleteGo Scouts! :)