permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

We went to town to look for hatcheries to try out duck eggs with Mai Kumbi. When we met last week and talked about growing what we have into something productive to benefit both our families, she suggested trying out hatcheries for duck eggs because we have been trying everything without luck. I was skeptic about this idea and the reason was it seems unnatural and also the fact that we have to pay for something that could be done freely. I changed my mind and this was because I came to realise that I could be rigid and fail to see the stage that this project is on and block progress. I might not like artificially hatching eggs but I cannot expect anyone to put their effort in things that are not working. So as I try things out, I need to balance my dream and reality and accept that progress is gradual.

I am glad I made this choice because Mai Kumbi felt listened to. We have sold a total of 3 ducks (duck meat is not too common but is becoming trendy) and I was open about my worries with the costs if we decide to hatch eggs artificially. Mai Kumbi has done wonders in her personal life and for her family financially and she has a way of building her dreams with close to nothing financially. With this knowledge of how she sees beyond lack or insufficiency, I decided to have her buy what she would buy if the ducks were hers. She bought some feed but reserved some change which she is saving for hatching the eggs. I think we are going to be stuck in terms of feed and she says there is just as much of the future we should worry about, otherwise we are not going to grow. I am going with this, even if I have put some money aside secretly for saving us if things do not go according to plan. If the plan works and the duck project grows, we can slowly move away from some practices that are not favorable.

This strategy has gotten Mai Kumbi very excited about the potential the plot has, she is the one who found a place for hatching eggs, she left her current job (she is self employed), and dedicated some hours to go around looking for a hatchery. We failed to find one as most people who gave these services have stopped. I will go round again tomorrow and try again, the will power that Mai Kumbi and her family now has to see productivity at the plot is something I cannot get with money, and to keep the spirits this high, I need to actually make decisions that makes us productive in the shortest possible time.

I have been staying away from information on areas that are "current affairs", but that are outside my circle of influence because of how unstable things are, and I am still learning how to not imagine worst case scenarios with any information I receive. I was shocked today when I saw a lot of police in town, for a moment I had thought there was word that went round for people not to get into town today and I hadn't heard of it. Road blocks are not an unusual thing but today it was intense. Almost all public transport was dropping people a distance out of town because they wanted to dodge the police. And as the day went transport was limited and fares were raised for some trips, there was an operation that most passengers had not known about that resulted in most vehicles that transport people to park. Things are not predictable at all and I still think the news that I am going to take in, is minimal most things are surprises for everyone anyway and surprises in an unpleasant way.

I am finally harvesting a tomato from the tomato plants. The tomatoes are small than those usually sold and it takes so much time for them to grow to this size. I am happy regardless, at least I now know this space can be turned into a productive space, maybe starting seedlings for selling or something that doesn't demand too much water, since water is being rationed. I thought I could reduce water usage by putting plants in pots, but with tomatoes I think restricting them in pots has taken from them, a lot of factors that help the plants to grow.

Gigatonne project facilitators got in touch with me after a long time. We had an event as a gigatonne community and a team in South Africa was presenting their progress, it was an experience to watch their achievements and the number of people they are employing. It brought so much hope. With the gigatonne project, in future, I am going to be careful and assess personal capability as well as my team's, so that I do not take on something bigger than we can handle and I intend to be honest with our facilitators. It is good to have dreams of a different world, but I think I need to keep progress real so that I do not end up taking more than people can give.

As we get closer to the maize pla planting time, I am still experiencing how giving the universe is. Mai Kumbi offered to clear the shrubs in the field for free. She says in all her life, she has never spent as much time at her home as she did this year and she feels it's because of our arrangement. Helping clear the field is a gesture to show how appreciative she is.
Someone said to me, in life what's important is not what we get, but it is what we are becoming. I feel that the plot is us creating an environment that is demanding us to be more giving and empathetic and I am loving it. So just like I am doing with the peanut butter guy, I will start a scoring system with Mai Kumbi, which will hero a voluntary giving gesture, in a way that shows value economically. For now I am just noting this incident as I figure out what thing I can do for her  as a way to say thank you in a tangible manner that creates a positive economic impact. I will make sure to verbalize it, so that she is conscious that it's because she saw a need that she could serve and responded, out of her own good heart, without expecting anything in return. This is a strategy to help develop more this giving and helping spirit.

With the gift of time I got, I decided to meet with the pig business owner's wife. This is so that we develop a real relationship that goes beyond just doing business. I also think one other thing that made me want to meet with the wife is because of how highly I think of people's wives and mother's in general. I honestly think a wife has a higher chance of making or breaking a home or a man's business. And that being a good wife is not an easy task. I am glad I did, because I had such a good time with her and my friend who connected me with these guys. Our talk is promising to open other doors I would never have thought of.

The cobs I set aside to get grains that I will use as seed were attacked by weevils. I am testing whether they can still be used, so I placed them in a moist container to see if they can germinate, if they do, this will be my seed for this year. I will only buy some if the grains I have are not enough to cover the whole field. I am really crossing my fingers there is going to be some germination.

My sister showed me some article that's suggesting borders will be closed until there is a reelection. Both my sisters are trying to convince me these are just social media things and we should not take them seriously. I don't know how people joke with things like this, we are dependent on imports for most of the things that we use, having borders closed is not going to be good for us at all and it kind of nullifies all the work we are doing in our personal lives. Who jokes with matters this important.  Feeding people with such information crushes hope because who knows there might be some truth in this, as they say there is no smoke without fire. I sometimes feel bad for not understanding much of politics, but at times it seems politics whether joking or not might not be focusing on the major things. How are we not seeing major disasters caused by extreme weather for example and put resources towards reversing this in our small ways. We are busy causing each other panic or hurting each other one way or the other.

The main submersible pump, which is the heat of the source of water at the plot got burnt. It was news I did not want to hear at all because it means that there is no drinkable water and watering all the plants will almost be impossible from the well, which is the second source of water, essentially meaning the place won't be able to support people living there as well as the growing of plants.
The first thing I checked was the state of panic in Mai Kumbi and her family. They were surprisingly calm and they had so much faith that all they needed to do was to tell me. This is a scary responsibility considering how everything is just unpredictable these days, but that's exactly what I needed. For them to trust in the system we are creating even in the face of uncertainty. Kumbi was actually prepared to draw water from the well to water the garden voluntarily if the problem was going to take a while to fix.
Luckily we had an old functional pump and I only had to look for a resonable amount of money for labour and material needed for changing the pump. It was not hard to get an interest free loan from my sister which I will be able to payback in the coming week.

I know I see things very differently from everyone around me, actually my sister and aunt met and talked about me and how I am wasting my life. I cannot find the right words to describe the conviction that I have, that what we need is to build resilient systems and the only way is if we care for both the people and the earth.
Having this pump break is obviously not good news, but I will not lie, after hearing that people who care for me talked about me with concern, brought doubt. It's one thing to do something different from everyone else and make some sense and then it's another thing to be very different and not make sense to anyone at all.
Being able to quickly respond to the disaster and to be able to be financially responsible for this (returning loan within a space of a week) is what I needed to know that truly I could be building some resilience and that I am not just a crazy woman lost in her own world. Then seeing how unshaken the family at the plot was also speaks positively to me.

For now I am enjoying fruits from the tomato plants. They are smaller in size, but I am happy all the same. It's been 7 days at home without municipality water, so I have to be even more carefully with plants I decide to grow at home. It seems the water challenge keeps growing and I don't think it will be any easier in the future.

I made my first payment for the dried 'sadza' (maize meal), using the tomatoes from the pots plus shallots I got from the plot. I am paying in small portions with whatever product I will be having that they want in their kitchen, the tomatoes have a disease and I do not think I will get much from them. When I went to my friend's house to she showed me why she hasn't been bringing more dried 'sadza', birds discovered her drying spot and they are eating the sadza. I would wish to get the safza for my experiment, but I can't complain much about the birds as long as the sadza is not going to the dump.

We have started drying the kale leaves. Sales are very low these days and there are so many suckers so we are taking advantage of the heat to dry the leaves for selling later when most gardens no longer have.

Sales at the plot have been very low in the past month as well as this one, but Kumbi's spirit were not brought down. I then thought I could repay his mum's kindness through him. So I told his mother that a friend was amazed by her good heart and he has decided to also be good to her son by supporting his effort. This will also keep Kumbi motivated without raising his expectations that his income will come from somewhere other than what we produce. They were both very excited and I am seeing it in how my raised bed idea is being received.
I am revisiting my plan to do raised beds which I couldn't do last year. I had talked with Kumbi briefly last week to find out if this is something he would be interested to do as a way of boosting his income and he agreed to do it when the rains come. When I went through the design with him today, he was the most engaged than I have ever seen him. I even found that as he waited for this talk, he has already started collecting empty plastic bottles which we intend to put around the raised beds to keep the soil in place. This was such a pleasant surprise, I think he really is motivated.

My uncle sent images of his progress. His tomatoes are now ripe and he is starting with his sales. He will see what his average weekly revenue will be, then we can see what happens next. He is obviously a hard worker, all we need to do is find convenience for his family and as I understand him more I can find how to convince him to slowly turn his farming principles into permaculture ones. A cousin sent him a pump to help him, so he no longer borrows a pump which would cost him extra fuel which he would use as payment.

Some of the grains I soaked germinated but some didn't, I have selected a few of the grains without any holes whatsoever and they are few in comparison with the total saved grains. I will use store bought seeds, to add to this year's seed and I have noted how important it is to figure out preservation of maize after harvesting.

I have started to plant maize and my sister together with Mai Kumbi are helping. While we are busy with the field, Kumbi is working on the raised bed area and it looks good already. It feels like the place is attracting many hands to help develop it with minimum effort from me.  There is positive energy at the plot, even the ducks have  increased their laying rate.
I intend to grow a patch of trees in the field and when I look at the rate at which we are finishing tasks, this is one thing I might be able to do this year. There are a few trees that I was able to successfully grow between 2017 up to date, I will start growing trees again and see how many I will grow by 2026.

We saw some eggs on our way back home, maybe some bird is laying it's eggs. It was strange though because the eggs are right by the path's side and they are in the open.

We have made progress with making of the slightly raised beds and also, maize on half of the field has germinated and we have planted the other half. My sister requested for help with designing of beds at her place and also helping her on how to make a compost. This means a lot because my family is, in my eyes, my biggest critic because they know me and all my successes and failures with regards to this, having her want to adopt some of my ideas is a big win.

The level that my regeneration project has gotten to, is both a great achievement as well as a huge and urgent call for me to develop social skills. I am at a stage that requires partnerships with strategically selected people. Businesses were my first target, money flows through them and a profitable partnering means I gain access to resources better (I described this in detail in a past thread). Luck and grace brought this plan to life.

What's confusing me now is understanding different actions from my partners and what they are communicating. I have to push for some small businesses to return money as per agreed on time, yet I feel it should be in their best interest to create a good name for themselves without me following them up. Then non of my partners seem to have time to talk about the regenerative side of things, yet it is the basis with which all of this started.

An example is, we are supposed to change what money that goes through our hands demands for, from us or those within our influence. For instance with the peanut butter business, on top of the already called for trait of hard work and profitability (in the current system), we have the power to demand that the owner be responsible for his waste, and not to just dump it. Instead of dictating this, we create conditions that make him do this profitably. Either he sells the shells if there are customers or if I take them to the plot I give him an equivalent amount of produce that he is already using. Failure to take care of his waste means he cannot get financial aid from us. He still needs help because he is still growing so I know he will comply, since he cannot get aid anywhere else. If things go according to plan either he would have gotten used to trading shells for useful things rather than dumping them. Or some growers would have admired our work if we succeed at the plot and there will be more customers needing the shells.
My problem is that, even though the owner of the money is a strong advocate for regenerating Zimbabwe, I can't get through to him to talk beyond money. I am certain it's my poor communication skills and I have no clue as to how to solve this.

I had a chance to go through some garden ideas with my sister. She was interested in the concept of square foot gardening and mixing plants in one bed. I did throw in a rain garden idea, and it might still take some time to embrace these things, but we are now talking about them, and that's what matters. So we will see where this will take us. I will be able to buy manure for composting and as the garden starts looking nice it will even be a more tangible thing to sell my ideas. I might even be able to work on my rain garden area this year, if it comes out nice, I know my sister will want one for her space and who knows how many people she will influence.

The last half of the field I planted maize on,  had the worst germination rate in a way I could have never imagined. I soaked maize in water for over 5 days with the hope that it will lessen the days required for it to germinate soon after planting. But while the maize was soaked I could smell fermentation and I am suspecting this is where things began to go wrong. Also soon after planting it was extremely hot, so I no longer know whether the problem is with not enough watering or I messed up the soaking process.

I replanted but this time I used grains from maize we bought for the ducks. Still another gamble, I felt I had to, because it had just rained and I wanted to take advantage of the mositure in the ground. I got the closest grains  available, the other option was to wait for when I get my income to go and buy maize to plant, but it's not raining properly, it's been three days since I planted and the predicted rain still has not come, we cannot rely on watering because we now have power cuts from as early as 6 am to around 7 pm. I hope the grains germinate.

We are still waiting for it to rain. The weather forecast had predicted that it would start raining from yesterday. The droplets we got left the ground dry, I hope it's not going to be like the past days where we were getting clouds only on the days that rain would have been predicted.

I have spent a week being able to take in food but I cannot get waste out. I am going into the second week and I have tried everything to fix this from home, I have even prayed so that my body does all the normal processes. A hospital is not an option for me. I thought I had just imagined the worst about hospitals and fears were in my head, but the last time I went, some of the things I am most afraid of happened. I am afraid of needles and last time I got 6 in a space of three days. Then on the first day I went I don't know how many times they insert a needle in my arm when they were looking for a vein to take blood samples and they couldn't find one, So they kept on inserting the needle into my arm. I had to break and busk in the sun for sometime for them to succeed. After all this the hospital never gave me the blood test results and they just said all is well and they will look for my results to send me and they never did even when I followed up.

If there is anyone with a home remedy for such a situation please advise. I know 2 weeks of this is will be really bad and it's worrying, but I cannot go to a hospital.