This week we had a visit from the Monument Trust, one of ASAP’s biggest funders at the moment. On Friday we made some disappointing visits. First, to a local school, where the deputy principal was drunk (at 10am!), the kids weren’t in classes and the principal told us he wants to put weedkiller on the permaculture garden.
School garden at work
We then trucked out on a dirt road for over an hour. We visited a village health worker’s (VHW’s) garden which was doing rather well – she has an amazing view over the flattest soccer pitch I’ve seen here onto rolling green mountains. My favourite sight was watching her pig wallow in the puddle beneath her water tank, but there were also plenty of vegetables and potatoes in the garden.
Our final stop for the day was even further away from town, at a drop-in centre and garden run by Princess. Unfortunately, just as we were leaving the dirt road and bouncing along a muddy track to her house, we received a call from the office in Mount Frere telling us that Princess was there, and had come to confirm the visit was happening the following day. It stemmed from a significant miscommunication, I presume, and everyone was gutted to hear it. We glanced around her garden but since there were no children being cooked for or other people to speak to, we rode back to town in disillusionment.
Deep permaculture ditches, or 'swales,' in Princess' garden.
