permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

We have had such an intense month for our Gigatonne challenge. We finished L2 and we managed to transport, weigh and compost 910.6kgs of waste in the last three days of the challenge.

One thing we are excited about is that the Gigatonne challenge has given birth to the start of our own community based organisation called Shuwonetwork. Which comes from Shona words meaning hope, wish and desire.

We are now going to be a part of a group and I am excited to see what changes it will bring for Ngoni and me at the plot.

We did not make it through to Level 3 of the Gigatonne challenge and we have to redo L1, to help us with team building.

This is also proving to be a little difficult because commitment levels are currently low as everyone is busy trying to earn a living, so I am  not sure how all this will end. What this experience though is giving me is the ability to work with a team which is an extremely foreign idea to me.

As for the plot we have been harvesting sweet potatoes for home consumption since May. So it has served both as breakfast and lunch in some days. It has made it easier to bring back the topic of intercropping. We are enjoying the benefits of diversifying and even though the bean plant and nyemba (cowpeas) did not do too well, I took the opportunity to sell this idea once more, imagining how things could have been if we had harvested cowpeas. I did not have to say too many words.

Earlier you posted about rodent problems. And 1 of the suggestions was a bucket roller trap. If a person was coming on to your property and stealing your food you'd try and stop them right? Rodents stealing from you should be stopped just as much, and since they are a vector for disease you have an added reason to deal with them. I don't know if ducks would eat the dead rodent but chickens certainly would giving back to your land that you're working so hard on.

The economic growth at the plot has been easier to write about, because the results are visible and tangible. In most cases there were steps we could follow technically.
It was clear that we needed to develop/ improve in various aspects in order for us to experience life fully in an enjoyable way. We focused on the area we were familiar with, economic development. Sustainability was also key, and this led us to finding regenerative ways of profitable farming. We knew we had to build the soil through use of zai pits, mulching and composting. We started collecting rain water, improving knowledge on crops we were growing and we stopped using commercial fertilizer.
We have seen the place generating income slowly and steadily. The system we have created is relying less and less on an individual or on money as the sole incentive. It’s been 2 months without me being involved in the daily activities at the plot and without leaving instructions on the running of the place and I found Ngoni
1. Has started working on zai pits in preparation for the growing season
2. Is still looking for mulch
3. He dug out a neighbours’ garbage pit and filled most beds with compost he found.
4. And all other things we have been establishing

We are now 2 guardians of this space and it’s exciting. Below are images he sent on plot progress

I mentioned in passing how we can use soil from the compost pit we dug during the Gigatonne challenge, to raise beds that are prone to being flooded and we divert water towards this composting pit. He has also started on this.

Our stagnation in growth made me look into other aspects in life and I am finding that we need to work more on social development like being in the present, improving self-concept, self-love, team work, communication,… etc., for us to reignite the economic growth. Most of this realization is coming through my participation in the gigatonne challenge, where I not only work with a team but I am a team leader. I remember it was difficult to write my role as a team leader when we were filling out forms and I had to be pushed. I have to face so many of my social insecurities, l am completely out my comfort zone.
I know Ngoni has had growth of his own, from thinking he is not worthy taking part in the challenge at all, to gaining some confidence and willingness to give it a shot. The willingness to improve our self-confidence is just one example of one of the things we are both improving on. A friend who advised me to look into self-love, recently connected me to someone who works with people to develop this and I am excited because opportunities seem to come at the most needed times.

I am at a point in my life where I think I have touched rock bottom. I am surprised though because of how I feel. There is the normal feeling of being low but at the same time I do not think I have ever fought for things as much as I am doing now and there is an unusual feeling of so much hope.

I have realized I am a complete misfit, I am not successful in any shape and form as is defined in today's vocabulary, but I am satisfied.

Things at the plot are at a stand still, the gigatonne challenge has had a surprising left turn and has seen my group splitting. It's as if nothing is working for me.

In all this I have been consistent with not compromising some things that I believe are fundamental unless I learn otherwise, and I find myself letting go of the future and it's uncertainties. If there is one thing I am learning it's how unpredictable the future is.

In one sense you may have touched rock bottom--in another sense, you have just started to climb. The future will come as it comes, and you will meet it head on.

I consider myself a writer, but right now I don't know how to explain what I'm feeling.

I spent ten years taking care of my parents, letting everything go for that. My career, my friends, my dancing, even my writing were sacrificed. At the end of that time I found myself facing absolute despair because of the actions of other people. I thought I had hit rock bottom. And maybe I did. But the fact is, I can't see that now. When I look back I see myself climbing. The base I was climbing from made little difference. It was a solid base to climb from, and that's what I needed.

I am not successful, by the world's standards, and not only do I not care, but I don't want to be. People who are successful by that standard are not people I want to emulate.

You are someone I want to emulate. I wish I could meet you in person, but that's unlikely.

Keep climbing. You'll have the miracle you need. Not necessarily the miracle you want, but the one you need. The Father is good like that.

Yes I have started climbing, thank you Lauren. I have had a visit from people from my mum's church and the timing is so on point. I haven't been going to church in years and today is the day they came just when I needed some company, I am wowed by how the universe works.They are essentially neighbors I bump into everyday and they came to see me I was moved by their care and thought.

I am waiting to hear if we will make it through to level 2. This challenge is that opportunity that connects us to others outside the plot, it makes us create real wealth, it's an important chance to possibly make so many things change. We haven't heard from our coaches and it's making me so anxious. Even Ngoni at the plot is asking, we really need the gigatonne challenge to work.

I have received the response I have been eagerly waiting for, from the gigatonne facilitators and it is not what I had imagined. They doubt the abated carbon dioxide equivalent. I will tell a little history of my journey for this to make some sense.

It's been 8 months since I heard and started working on this challenge. It's a challenge that supports local teams to reduce carbon emissions, not as a volunteer, but as a career or with some income as a benefit. This is obviously the one thing that made it so attractive, this could be a way of earning an income to help at the plot and I could include Ngoni the one I am working with to further stabilise us. Secondly it's an opportunity to get a bigger group within my community to be involved in a climate change crisis activity, which will eventually help us actively participate in bigger local regenerative groups and develop a strong support system.

The first two levels test the teams I guess to see if we can walk the talk and it has not been an easy road for me. Our solution to reducing carbon emissions has been to redirect biodegradable waste from  dumps and properly compost this and hence reduce gases that could otherwise have been produced by improper decomposition. First just getting people to consider taking part was what I thought would be hardest, but I got some people and the first 'level 1'was fairly easy. We were collecting waste from dumps around our houses and there were relatives at home who helped us empty a compost pit for some of our collected waste and we made a compost pile with the other waste that didn't fit into the pit. Essentially it was a zero cost activity that only demanded time and effort.

Then level 2 came which required us to reduce 10 times more emissions than L1. I spent the time in between L1 and L2 trying to understand how to get support and we got to L2 before anything had materialised and internet connectivity (a requirement during sprints) was so difficult, in some cases we could not afford it and in most cases there was just bad service. But the more I understood the challenge the more invested I wanted to be because upto now I think this approach is one of the most authentic solutions to some of the things that are not working well  in making life easier ( in my context).

So I worked so hard to get more team members and resources that could allow us to reduce 10 tonnes of carbon emissions. All this took up the time to reach L2 target in time and we had to redo L1 because we collected a tenth of what we were supposed to collect. So we were going back to using our personal resources and now the source of waste required us to include transport money to get to site. Because if this challenge succeeds, it means we are converting waste, an abundant resource into an input to a project that could add to food production or gas for cooking..., we can potentially permanently transform things, there is no way I am letting this go.

I was willing to retry and my team members were willing too. The second time around L1 was harder not necessarily because of waste collection but mainly the team building side. We collected waste, and due to limited resources we could not dig a pit, but we used a part that is in a humongous pit to bury our waste. We did not dig a pit, but we used the compost pit concept of burying waste.  We heaped our waste on a 4*1 square meter area (which is part of the base of the huge pit we were in) and then covered this with soil, so it's a little heap of waste buried in soil and the height of this is what's being questioned. We sent in the weights we recorded and because abatement is of personal interest to me there is no way I would cheat on the waste we were composting. I really can't blame the lack of trust it's just a big blow in the gut on my side. It's been 8 months that I potentially wasted and if anything goes wrong this time I know for sure I do not have both a team and resources to attempt anything similar to this now and in the future. I am a bit blank for now on my way forward.

I am now questioning if burying the waste with soil not in a usual pit, but in a heap will still give the same anaerobic decomposition results. And if I was right to convince others to take part in this, their time, effort and money. ..  did I put too much faith in the gigatonne challenge? I badly need this to work there is too much at stake.

One of the things I am learning in the Serendipity program which I talked about earlier is that the quality of life is a choice one makes. I am choosing to not give up on the challenge but as I wait I will build on the plot the best way I can.

Last year I started on a project to intercrop beans at a large scale in the vegetable beds and this was not successful as I had hopped. This time instead of taking on a big area, I will try this on 1 bed. This way it will help us have more control on how to care for the intercropped bean plants. The bean seeds I saved in ash were attacked by pest, I chose a few good ones for planting and some have started to germinate. I will take them to the plot once they are ready for planting.

Another thing I did is I changed the kitchen compost position and it's now where our banana plant is. I figured it's closer and also the composting process will be slowly adding nutrition to the bananas. We wouldn't havest much of the banana fruit, but we would get organic matter. Last year there was one bunch for the whole year, I want to see if there will be a change in how much fruit we will get now.

Some potato peels I threw on the initial composting spot sprout and I immediately changed where I compost and I have been caring for the potato plants since.

Ngoni, whose family has been at the plot, has found a new job so he will be leaving.

I really want to have a positive frequency, the how part, with things going on around me is what will be my eureka moment.

My family came today for the unveiling of mum's tombstone. I failed to keep my composure and just broke down and cried uncontrollably and said absolutely nothing. I see so many people around me but I just don't know how to reach out.

The chain of events has been overwhelming, I end up venting the pressure I go through where I should not.

In the past weeks, I had dreamt of myself getting a new pretty little dress and some nice heels with really nice hair for the unveiling. I am happy I was in this space.

I am excited to write this post. We have started putting compost in maize pits and it looks like we will meet our designed maize planting day, which is the 15th of October. So much has been happening this year, I barely had time to go to the plot, so being able to keep a developed routine going in this situation is a huge  achievement.  

We won't be planting all the maize in one go this time. Last time germination was not as good as we expected, and it was mainly because we were spreading the water resources thinly, in order to care for all the plants including the vegetables. October is the hottest month and water requirements are high, we plant our maize during this time, because it increases the probability of our maize getting enough water from the rain, when its water requirements are at the peak. December is the one month we have received rain without failure and planting now gets the tassling and silking stages of the maize to coincide with the time that has always rained even when things have changed so much. We will plant half the maize portion and water it until the maize germinates and then we will plant the other area 7 days later. Also we will first water the planting pit before we put the seeds, to make the soil moist so that when we put the seed and water, there will be significant moisture.  
Weeds have already grown where we prepared the pits, we will use these together with the other organic matter (from when we cleared the field during digging of pits) to mulch the germinated maize. This time all organic matter is from within the yard, another development which lessens the need to go looking for organic matter externally.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:This year, l intend to plant onions in all possible places all at once, and l knew that l would not be able to afford the seeds. I talked to one of my sisters and she has agreed to invest in this idea. Talking to my sisters especially about money was not easy but l am glad l swallowed my pride. I think l really need to prove to them that my project works and that there is a different way of living which can both sustain and satisfy one. Because of this it was difficult to ask for support because it was as if l failed.

I am reading Richest man in Babylon with them. For the sake of continuity with the projects at the plot, there is need to include everyone in the dream for an abundant plot. We all have little foundation on financial literacy and this book has worked in helping "us" (mother and myself), to begin our path in changing our financial understanding, which helped a lot with projects at the plot. Now it's almost like I am starting afresh with my sisters. We are relearning what money is together and how we can work with what we have to experience wealth.

It is a lot more challenging with my sisters because of their different life exposures. Though we understand life differently, we got to a conclusion that there is need for radical change for there to be some freedom financially. The challenges that were being brought about as reasons why it is almost impossible to become wealthy, ended up being the things we need to feed on to fuel our desire to want to find a solution to a stable life.

That is so powerful, what you wrote above. It made me tear up. Thank you for sharing. I also really enjoyed your story just previous to this one about your time with your sisters, and how letting go of your plan for it opened up new experiences.

Thank you so much for continuing this thread all this time, Rufaro.

We have put some maize grains on a quarter of the field today. We managed to water the holes yesterday before planting and again today after planting. We covered a few holes with dried up weeds to protect the top soil from direct sunlight.  We intend to finish the other quarter tomorrow, then wait for germination.

We are harvesting the onions we got, they are huge and a number of them have two heads in one. I took a pic with a standard tea cup and it looks so small.

We finished planting half of the field, and it is just on time. Tomorrow there is a Serendipity boot-camp that I really want to attend as a practical input to the need to realise self awareness and to live in the present.
I even had time to play with the kids, Ngoni's kids and wife are still around they will be leaving at the end of the month. We also saw a very beautiful praying mantis, its the first time ever that I have seen one like this one. We are used to plain green or brown ones.  

Wow! fantastic onions Rufaro! You should be proud of those. Are they from the little seedlings you put out earlier, are you hoping to grow some on for seed production? Mind you, it looks like an allium flower those beautiful praying mantis are on - good camouflage for them.