The Regulars - Boys who hang out with me in the garden and for some of their help and patience, get rewarded with green balloons. I can never resist!
Here, there and everywhere! I've been up to so many different things with this final month of planning out where everything will go from here.
During the day, it's farming (and LOTS of it! The farm's expanded!) and finishing up our Project Rx - Mozambique growing guide. The garden is thriving very well. Now that we can anticipate and prevent certain pests and diseases from entering, and we have planned out the garden for this season by companion planting (plants that grow well with other plants and defend the threats of pests and diseases) and planning for each season, we are seeing where the garden could take us!
Little baby lost his shoes and has been collecting lots of dirt and grime since. Sometimes I play clinician and host some first aid for the kids when they come to me with things like cuts and many skin ailments.
The food that we are yielding goes directly to the villagers, first living on the property and then distributed to families that go without or have asked for additions to their eating. We are hoping to use the food to provide an income for several families, (including Papa SebastiĆ£o's), once more of the vegetables and fruits are ready to be harvested. It's so exciting to see what the earth is producing and what we can now recognize as success and failure.
...And it's not all just work! With the World Cup madness this month, I have been able to have incredibly satisfying leisure and sport. I never thought I could be a soccer fan, much less a soccer MANIAC!! I'm having a blast keeping up with games, (and even attending the few that are going on just across the border!) My first World Cup game was watching a not-so-devastating draw with Italy losing to the underdog, New Zealand. It was a blast cheering for the underdog with my Kiwi buddys!
Blowing my continent-wide popular tool: A VUVUZELA! (aka horn you can hear like bees on broadcast World Cup games!)
On the weekends, I'm taking the time to see must-see places before I leave and using evenings to spend with the friends, (now family), I've acquired in the past 8 months. It's so strange to think I will have to go. Everyone keeps asking when I'll be back... The truth is, I just don't know! :-/