Water: sweet and salty

November 13

Mchicha

It only took a couple of days for our seeds to sprout . I planted some cowpeas earlier this week and now they are up and growing on the "fence". The Mchicha greens also show and now I'm watching for the Zucchini.
It's the presence of water that creates the magic of course. We use a lot of it at the Shamba:

• Everything that's planted needs to be watered daily. 
• The animals need drinking water
• The builders use it for making bricks and mortar.
• The kitchen needs water for cooking and washing.
• People need water for washing.
• We wash our clothes.
• And the neighbors come to get water from us.

shower platform in banana circle

Part of what we're trying to do is get more use out of the water by setting up greywater systems from every building so that used water from sinks and showers gets distributed for irrigation.
Our "Banana Shower"is the first step. We all enjoy the beautiful set up in the middle of the garden and the plants will love it too.

building the shower

The kitchen building will be sending its waste water to the garden as well. I am looking  for a simple solution for distribution of water without small parts (as we use in drip irrigation). Send me ideas! I look forward to having the books from Oasis Design to help us make decisions. Thank you Art!

Back in the garden: we are now preparing beds for more planting: layering seaweed and manure under mulch, and letting this sit for while before we plant.
Gabriel split a cluster of lemongrass and now we have several new starts which will provide us with lovely flavored tea. It's pretty exciting to be part of all this!

The design for the kitchen is finalized and we will break ground on Monday- first by digging up a banana cluster and transplanting it.
The building will have a core storage room, a dishwashing area, cooking area, watchman's station, shower, and upstairs a sleeping place for one of the staff. It will be located at the entrance to the "compound" with a fence connecting to it in the future.

the building site before starting

Making the trip to Bagamoyo town is not a big deal- the hardest part is making up my mind!
Today we all went in for a birthday pool party at the Millennium resort. A great excuse to lay on a lounge chair and read a book while the children were playing in the water with the current volunteers from Baobab. I slipped away for a dip in the ocean: it was warmer than the pool, salty and pretty choppy water. Yes its the Indian Ocean- you gotta love it.
Good timing for a day in town: this morning we found that we had no water at the site- and there's that topic again....