Rufaro Makamure

It's been a while since I have posted anything. Well, the plan was to post when my little keyhole garden had a lot of plants, but I guess this will take a little while. Rats are back, and I am just going to get some help with these ones. There is a new problem that I had underestimated, slugs. They look tiny and slow, but when they eat emerging plants, they clean the space. I have had two attempts of planting seeds, one of which I had added eggshells around the garden because I had read that this helps, but I was wrong. Now, I am going to have seeds germinate in the house, and once they show life, I will transplant them. The slugs seem to attack plants more, just after shooting out of the ground.

The pump at the plot is not working, and I feared this. It's raining so it buys us time.  Mai Kumbi now skips going to her flowers job because of the increase in transport fares. She is really invested in the plot now. She wants to start on growing the onions. I am thankful that we can afford plants for some beds.

I am still working on growing the peanut butter business. The big challenge I am facing is that my customers seem not to have peanut butter as a monthly grocery item. There is not much response when I post it on social media, but when people bump into me with it, that's when they usually buy. So the flow of my income is not steady yet. I did make a proposal to someone who stays in diaspora who came back home to visit relatives. A lot of money comes from diaspora, and I hope to get customers from the diaspora who will buy peanut butter for their loved ones back home. I always assume that in first world countries, there is a culture of consistency, especially with grocery lists, so dealing with people who are exposed to such habits might mean consistent monthly orders. So I asked for some help, to get connections of people, with families within my area who can make orders directly to me. I am still waiting to see how this goes.

I had a meeting with Apo and I was honest to him about how the sales were not as we had expected. Sales on his side too were low, it's been raining continuously and since most people that he supplies are street vendors,  movement of things, business wise, has been slow. The peanut butter is selling, it's just that there is now need for growth. So many factors are against us which is not a surprise, what shocked us a lot is the increase in fuel prices which we had not seen coming,  though we understand why that is. It is highly likely going to affect us a lot.

Mai Kumbi brought our monthly revenue yesterday and it's not much. The beans she planted were cut by some caterpillar. She did plant on a different space and they have started sprouting. She is all in now, I didn't call her, for her to come with progress, or revenue. She now keeps the monthly date we agreed to meet and she could choose not to meet with me because she is not forced to. The thing is, for now I have run out of ideas. I know where we need to be, but I don't know yet how to get there. I am just glad that when so many things are creating monsters, we have started building a system that has increased trust and faithfulness.

The peanut butter sales are slower than I had anticipated. For now, I am just letting go, I will put effort in sales and I will open my mind up to any idea that will allow me to grow the plot project. As I do this I will work on the pit at our house for the dog waste. I am working on growing mint around the walls I built around the pit I am hoping this will lessen the stench.

I am grateful also for the fact that I feel beautiful even though I feel I see the world completely different  from so many around me, especially in things I look at as success. This influences where I put my energy. I was around so many ladies a week ago at a friend's bride price event, and where I used to be overly self conscious, I felt pretty just like everyone else around me. I got oversized heels that I could not change, and I rocked them, well only for the pictures. I think I am accepting the side of me that really wants to be pretty in a conventional way. I wonder if it's acceptable in permaculture or regeneration. I would verbalize that it's okay to want to be pretty but there is some guilt in me, or maybe there "was". It was so easy for me to wear some shoes that I had which fitted well, which were not the gold or nude color that had been requested for. I spent the day concentrating on whether the day was going well for my friend, rather than questioning myself whether I fitted in or not. She had a great time.

I now only have one pumpkin plant out of four, remaining. I am excited about a female flower that looks healthy. There are soo many pests. One morning I saw a slug on the female flower and from then on, I put mint leaves over the flower over night. I also saw a tent caterpillar eating the make flower and I physically removed it.

Last week's plan was to push the selling of peanut butter as much as we could. We had to stop, before even starting, because although Apo had managed to get peanuts, he didn't have enough bottles to package the peanut butter in, for us. The ones we want are the original $3 bottles which are a lot bigger than the ones that are being sold in the streets these days. Since Apo promised to keep the size of our bottles big, he is willing to go an extra mile for us and look for the size we want, even if it means an extra cost to him. He brought them and we received our peanut butter. We now get to see if we can grow our market.

I have included in the pictures, the different bottles that are used in the market. The one with the red cap is the small one which is in the market for $3, the one with the yellow cap is the big one and is the original $3 size.

I thought writing personal stories would show that little, seemingly irrelevant actions, are actually the things that shape us. I also thought it would help those that are making some decisions see how valuable their efforts are in the present time. I was wrong on this one. I still believe in this, but the effect of doing this is far from what I expected.

I seem to be hitting brick walls a lot these days.

I think, the time I spent with Apo digging deep into his past yesterday, especially how we talked in depth about one of his roughest times in his life actually had a negative effect on him. Before I could even share with him the nice responses today, he shut me out. He was polite enough to explain that last night he found it hard to go to sleep. He felt like the past was choking him and  as he looks in his life now, it seems like no matter how hard he works life does not give him a break.

I thought I sensed this, when I came up with the idea that telling his story would make him see how strong and consistent he is especially with his desire to grow his business and to care for his daughter. I also hoped he would see that it's going to be okay, it's just the times are really hard and he is not alone. I am backing away, and when he is ready I  will try to at least show him all your responses, I hope it will encourage him. He is okay though, he has just boxed and shelved his memories.

Anne, you can take a look at my other topic which I have been writing since 2017 I think. It's like a journal to me, I have gotten so much encouragement in some of my lowest moments from my thread and I still do. This is the reason why I felt it's would work for Apo too.

https://permies.com/t/1065/60834/permaculture-advocate-Zimbabwe-rain#3737405

It's just started raining and its so much wind and a lot of rain with hails stones. The switch from the high heat is insane.

John C Daley wrote:Rufaro, I saw your note about lots of rain a while ago and no water for the maize.
Can you capture any of that rainwater to use later?

We have 2 * 5000l tanks that capture rain from the roof, a pit for harvesting water and we designed the raised bed area to fetch as much runoff as is possible. I do admit rain water collection is something I need to learn more about as we progress, maybe by visiting different places with good systems and also doing a lot of searching on the internet to see how we can best take advantage of when there is rain.

Thanks, Nynke. The story is Apo's, I am just writing it down for him, and I will show him the replies, until he can write on his own. These responses are some of the reasons why I felt it's important to have him write his story. They can be encouraging or hopeful, especially when one is having a bad day and feels alone which is something that happens too often. Sometimes life can be too busy for us to check on each other, and story sharing is my way to either help anyone who stumbles across the story, or the author, as writing has a way of forcing one to self reflect. Also getting feedback from a different perspective usually helps when everything seems like it's crumbling. It's almost always, there is hope when one looks at his or her seemingly bad situation a little differently.