Odds and Ends

This is my kitchen counter. It was a big project and it isn't finished yet because I am having a hard time getting the boards, which are very nice local hardwoods. However, they are hand-sawed and very rough. I have to cut each piece and plane it by hand which takes a long time. What you see here took a full week of hard work - I bought the plywood.
There will be one more shelf on the top and 2 wide shelves under the counter top. I will also have two offset shelves off the left side with another endpiece to hold the blue water container you can see to the left of the counter which I use for washing dishes etc. and the stainless steel water filter for drinking water in the lower left corner. Under each will be a basin to catch the water.


This is Mr Petro Shawa who adopted me when I first arrived. I'm known locally as Jime Shawa. He is a wiry little guy in his forties and is a traditional village farmer. He is progressive though, and willing to try new ideas.


Here I am talking with McFarlen Nyirenda, my counterpart and best friend. We spend a lot of time together visiting farmers and projects, as well as supervising and starting new ones. We are in the irrigated wheat field at Chilakonda village which I wrote about in an earlier post.


This Saturday there were over 100 people planting onions for a farmer. They will get paid a couple of dollars each for the days work and it was used for the GVH celebration I described further down.

This is a brick nkhokwe or grain bin. Most are woven like a basket and built on a wood platform but this one is a special "food security" project. Every year around December people start running out of food until the new crop matures in January or February so each family will but a bag of corn in here and will not be allowed to use it until the "hunger season".

This is a Catholic Church I visited one Sunday.