The sight of the 'man high' weeds to be cleared, nearly had everyone running off on the first day. It certainly produced demands for more money. Graham’s way of teaching is to work with a group of people on a plot teaching and chatting as they go. He pays a day’s wages to each one and their bonus is to learn the ‘secret’. On this plot he promised to double the wages if he dropped first – he being twice the age of most of them. Needless to say, no-one got double wages but Graham has no doubt taken twice as long as the others to recover!
Beginning of Day Two and it is finally cleared and ready for setting out. The first delivery of well rotted manure which was dug from a nearby boma is being unloaded. The maize either side of this plot has been planted the traditional way and will provide a good contrast, we hope, as this is the view from the main pathway into town.
Work is well under way with everyone doing their allocated job – either marking out and digging holes accurately or filling each hole with manure and seed bed fertiliser.
At last as night falls, all the holes have been planted and half have been covered with a blanket of the dead weeds. The weeds were a bonus after all as they provided an instant mulch. A crate of sodas was needed at this stage to encourage completion but in the end, everyone was very proud of their work and enthusiastic about the new method.
