Rough Ways and Smooth Paths

I have remarked to some of you how ironic it is that I came to Africa to learn to live simply and yet, here I have more than I ever had in the US.

Here I have a whole house to myself with a walled garden. I never could have afforded this back home. Needless to say, I am delighted with my little kingdom and have set about making it home. Note the mess of Chichewa flashcards and text books!

Inside, I have added some paintings and shifted furniture. Nothing at all major. Outside on the other hand, . . . The walled garden was really a desicated patch of dirt when I moved down from the convent compound to my little house in September.

It was a blank slate other than a little peach tree and a bush thing. I began dreaming, but also trying to restore the soil. Most of my household waste is compostable (my garbage for a month fits into a coffee bag), so I dug little pits for in situ composting where I thought it most likely that I would want to plant. First planting project was sweet potatoes, which are easily started from tuber cuttings placed in water. A tomato left too long on the shelf also found its way into a pot and with some watering popped up dozens of little seedlings. When the rains started and the yard got muddy, I decided to repair the brick path to the laundry shed.

Over the decades, the path had sunk into the ground, so I took my khasu and dug up the sunken part, shifted dirt to make it even, and changed its path to skirt more widely around the bush.

Now the bush, I initially did not like. It was an odd shape and seemed without purpose. I am of the permaculture frame of mind that everything planted should have a purpose. Well, my attitude changed one morning as I groggily came out on the porch to enjoy the cool quiet morning. The useless bush was alive with a flock of various brightly colored birds: bright blues, reds, and yellows. The bush had little flower clusters (so small as not to be really visible or ornamental) all over it and the birds were happily eating them. Needless to say, I no longer think about asking if I can cut it down. With the bush now an established part of the yard, I got lemon grass starts from Marina and planted a row around the base. Lemon grass is a natural anti-malarial and good for all sorts of things. Of course, it's benefits will depend on my actually drinking lemon grass tea, and I am not an herbal tea fan.I have also planted little garlic cloves and chunks of ginger root for their tasty as well as homeopathic qualities. They also happen to be pricier items at the market.

My most exciting project has been sprouting mango and papaya trees.

I want my little garden to be a paradise, a little food forest. I plan to get some giant Malawians made cclay pots for the trees, so they don't damage the foundation, and to espalier two mangoes and put a papaya by the wash house I have watched countless YouTube permaculture videos of folks in Australia who grow virtually all their food on little city lots. While I know Malawi is not Australia, I am convinced that much of the hunger and dire poverty here is totally unnecessary and avoidable. In my pompous American way, I hope that my garden will help prove that. At least, the attempt will give me a better appreciation of what people here go through trying to survive as subsistence farmers.