Food Gardens

I like gardening.
Do you know why I like gardening? Because you don't have to speak Zulu to water plants. Anyone can water the carrots or the beets-- they don't know the difference. They don't even care. I finally found something that I am good at.
I went with Thabani to Willowfontein to work on the garden at Silwanetshe Primary School. Thandanani goes to schools and households to develop and teach them how to maintain their very own food gardens. At first, we build then fence around the plot, plant the seeds, talk about watering the plants and how/when to harvest. Then we occasionally drop by to check on the maintenance and give more seeds. Then hopefully the community will be able to sustain the garden and profit from the vegetables by having something to feed their children at dinner. This is their food. It reminds me of a popular Chinese proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. This is such a great program for all parties involved.
Hopefully, next week we will meet with the children at this school and teach them how to harvest the vegetables and help them get all the vegetables out of the garden so they can take them home and give some of them to the school lunch program.[It may take a bit, though, because this area has lots of water troubles and it is hard to get enough water for the plants.]
At first I did not think much of the gardening aspect of the service I am doing, but now I love it. All I really did today was water the plants [as I froze in 12 degree C (54 degree F) misty rainfall], but I could see why this project was so important.