permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

We finally talked with Kumbi and we discovered that he actually needs our help. At least he opened up, so we are teaming up with his mom to see if we can help him.

One of the pumpkins that I covered is growing successfully and it's exciting. I don't know though if I have to leave the pumpkin in the plastic until it matures. We have a lot of water we are trapping in the yard and eventually I think I have to start calculating how much water we are stopping from running off. It's been almost a day now without any rain and the shallow part of the water we are collecting gets to the ankle. This is water that could have been washed away. Now we are able to plant things and not water, because the area has its own water source for now. When I  went to the water harvesting pit, something black and relatively big swiftly moved on water towards some grass to hide, and I am so sure now that I love animals but I am definitely afraid of them. I am not proud of this but I need to be honest with myself. I would have loved to find out what it was but I chickened out, I stood quietly by the pit's side for a couple of minutes and my imagination started running wild, and it grew bigger than my curiosity, and I left.

I am now working on growing a hedge outside our yard which will help with privacy and also be a source of organic matter. The hedge grows so fast and wild, so all the trimmings will be going into our weed water. The organic matter we feed our beds with, dissappears as if no organic matter was ever put. We need to catch up with our soil's demands and it helps for us to have as much control as possible on most of the organic matter. During the dry season is when it is hardest to get organic matter. Mai Kumbi is now really invested in the field which means I need to be extremely organised in my planning. I gave Kumbi a break for him to clear his head and also so that he knows that working in the garden is not his only option. I went to him the first time when we started working together and he can easily think that the reason I helped him is because I cannot do without him, a position I do not want to be in. He will join me only if he wants to and he will be the one coming to me this time.

I've been following your recent developments and am glad to hear you're making some headway with Kumbi.
We right now are in the same weather situation-- lots of water, bordering on too much, the rain doesn't stop and we're getting a lot of soil washed away and diseases. Your raised beds are great!

I wonder if your garden visitor was a snake or a large lizard-- do I recall you had rats chewing on the pumpkins? Maybe this new "visiting employee" might be part of the solution. Warrants a little extra care dealing with areas where they might hide, but generally (as you saw) they are more eager to avoid you than to make trouble.

I am not sure about covering the pumpkins. I would think once it starts to dry out, condensation might get trapped inside the bag, and then attract insects/animals who might want water? I suppose you'll see as time goes on.

I hope things keep on going well!

Warrants a little extra care dealing with areas where they might hide, but generally (as you saw) they are more eager to avoid you than to make trouble.

This has been true here as well. We have several varieties of poisonous snake here, when I do see them they're slithering away as fast as they can. Basically, don't sneak up on your water pit and they'll hear you coming. Surprising wildlife can be unpleasantly exhilarating.

I was able to plant the hedge and once this grows, I can get suckers to finish off the whole front side. It's raining almost every hour, I was lucky I got to the plot and back without being rained on. The soil is so saturated with water I could see it as I was digging. That's a minus labor for watering the hedge.

What kind of plant for the hedge?

I don't know the name of this plant. It's a plant that I have grown up seeing in some of the oldest neighborhoods, and it's a succulent plant, well it looks like a succulent plant. I don't really know anything about the plant, except that I chose it because it seems to grow easily and it doesn't need watering at all once it develops roots.

If I may: have you thought of using the vegetation from the hedge to feed an animal, then using the manure for your field?

rabbits, giant cane rats, cuys (giant guinea pigs), sheep... would be adapted. That way you can produce food at the same time.

Or if you still have your muscovy ducks, they also would eat leaves for part of their diet

It will be a bonus if ducks can eat this plant and it's something I am willing to try out.

There is something I cannot get out of my mind from the day we hosted people. When the guys we hosted were leaving, they left a $5 note and I felt so offended because it seemed like we were being paid for our effort. One of the guys tried to explain that it's his way to show his appreciation and he learnt a habit of tipping and he wanted to show he was really happy through this method and he also felt he really didn't do much for him to be thanked in this manner. I might be over thinking things but at the back of my mind I cannot take away the possibility of him feeling pity for us, because of the phone I showed him. It was in a bad state of course but it was doing its job. Maybe I did not explain myself enough, that it would be better for me to be left behind materially, if it means crushing those around me or ignoring our impact on the environment. Eventually being able to buy a good phone, is something I thought would have proven that I am slowly catching up.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:It will be a bonus if ducks can eat this plant and it's something I am willing to try out.
...

Word of caution: I was talking about hedge plants in general, as I do not know this species you are planting. Planting a multi-purpose species which you know can be fed to your livestock as a hedge was the idea.

Here is a list of tropical forage species, maybe you recognize something which might be suited for your place?
https://feedipedia.org/content/feeds?category=13591
under "other forage species" there are also other trees which might be suited.

Edit: you might find this selection tool to find the species best suited to your place helpful
https://tropicalforages.info/identify/key.html

Check keyhole irrigation for solution if there is topography

The results for my cousin, whom I was helping with her school work came out and she passed 2 subjects out of 5 and this time she is the  one who wants to rewrite, (she even wanted to see if she could work to pay for her schooling, which is noble and uncommon but a little difficult because jobs are just scarce). I don't think school is that beneficial anymore in my environment. The formal sector is shrinking so much, and most of the jobs are paying very little. But because school is a basic for all children here, I am encouraging my cousin to write, though my main reason is not for her to necessarily get a job, as such, but for her mind to be opened enough to allow her to use school to find alternative ways of earning a living if she does not get a job. Also, this is an opportunity to have her learn that winning is not the absence of a fail, but it's how persistent one is until they reach their goal even if it means redoing things multiple times.
We are still trying to see the possibility of home schooling her fully for both financial reasons and also because she learned very little in class because her teachers were barely attending class. I will also have my other niece join her during holidays. She is also writing her finals this year and she has her fees being paid for by a donor, we need to help her to write only once and pass so that we don't waste this opportunity.

Mai Kumbi's daughter is also writing her finals this year and my good side really wants to include her in my classes, but the other side feels like all my actions have led me into being the one responsible for a number of things in terms of sustenance for this family. I do not mind helping, but maybe I lost the line of helping or actually being the one responsible for this family. I intend to have a chat with mai Kumbi and make this clear (she left me to deal with the first quarter of her son's issue all by myself). It's difficult to separate things I think are right culturally and things that are logical. I actually think that for my cousin I should talk to the parents that even if they might not get money to send their daughter to school, they need to try and care for their child to the best of their abilities when she is with us. We will definitely survive with or without their help, but I feel like we need to keep each other accountable and responsible.

I failed to meet with mai Kumbi today. I was so angry with her, I could not contain it and nothing good ever comes out when people are angry, so I pushed our meeting to tomorrow. I was dissappointed because she has no time for me, yet yesterday we had agreed to meet and she had said she would be available but today it was a different story. I met with her briefly and my heart broke even worse when  learnt that the young boy, whom she had taken, rescuing him from the lifestyle he was living, ran away. I was a second too late, because our meeting had him as part of the agenda. He was being treated differently from the others and maybe one's biological child can never be like any other child but this child's treatment was becoming too different from the rest of the kids, in a negative way.

He is said to have been seen in the town streets and he has joined some street kids. I know this time saving this child is going to take so much and I might not have the capacity to take part in saving him. I feel so hurt we failed this child and I am a bit helpless for now. I don't think he is above 15 years. I know it's said it takes a clan to raise a child, we are the clan and we might have let the little one down. I think he deserves a second chance, but this kid is not with his mother I don't know what it will take to convince his aunt to stay with him if they find him. Also there are many things to consider, like how he might need to unlearn some things he is picking up to survive, he is almost reaching 7 days in the streets and these might seem little but a lot can happen to a vulnerable child in this short space.

Just yesterday I was boasting to myself that, I just might have created a job for myself that will actually change things and I was looking at the soil and the water resources. Most of all though I was looking at the possibility of protecting children that are within the system's area of influence. I was not ignoring this kid, but I felt everything needs to be handled with care and tact. If he is found, it will be a big ask from both my family and his aunt for him to be taken back in, because of the habits he is picking up to survive in the streets. His aunt was saying the moment she lays eyes on him she is sending him back to the rural home, a situation worse than he ran away from. Every single adult in his life including me have let him down  we have to fix things. How is the biggest question in my head. Where do we even begin. This world has to have room for everyone, we cannot create a monster.

We had our meeting today and we talked about how our relationship has to be a give and take. We also talked about Usher her nephew and how we let him down and if he is found, let it be him who chooses not to stay with his aunt, but if there is some room, we all need to prove to that child that he is not alone, we will watch out for him better this time. Sending him away is again shifting a problem to a place where it does not affect us. I pray to God for him to give all of us a second chance with the kid.