This is what it looked like behind our house at the beginning of January. As you can see, we planted maize (that's "corn" to us Americans-in case you didn't know), beans, pumpkins, and sunflowers. With the plentiful rains that we are having this time of year, these crops are growing fast. This is what it looked like by mid-February.
But this little garden is tiny compared to the half acre field that we have.
Here you can see most of the soy beans and groundnuts (peanuts) that we planted together. To the left, you can see the side of the section with maize and beans planted together. Ya'll know that I don't like to brag, but there is much more to it than you can see. I couldn't fit all of our crops into one pic, as there are a few ridges of sweet potatoes off to the right. We've already started harvesting some of the beans. We should start harvesting the groundnuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans next month, but the maize will have to wait until April. It was a lot of work to do all of this, although I had a lot of help from the boys that live with me (the one that isn't going to school right now did at least 50% of the work). However, it looks like all of our work will be worthwhile as we should have a good harvest. We will have more than the three of us can eat by ourselves so we will be giving lot's of gifts to our friends (the most common type of gift to receive in the village is fresh produce since that's all most people have to offer). I contemplated selling some of the perishable stuff, especially the sweet potatoes, which should fill an entire oxcart, but we'll be better off just trading/sharing it with everyone else. Plus, as a PCV, I not really allowed to sell stuff.
The took the new pic at the top of this web page from the top of a little mountain that is about 3km to the south of my house. Nowadays, in the second half of the rainy season, things are very green and beautiful. This little mountain provides a nice view of things, and I'm pretty sure that I can see all the way into Mozambique. The mountains in the backgroud are in Malawi, off to the southeast.
This is Crispin. Crispin is the son of the deputy headmaster (aka assistant principle) at my school. They live next door, and Crispin comes over to my house daily to discuss deep issues such as the meaning of life, strategies for development in Malawi, and the future of the United States as the global leader. His favorite question is "Ichi ndi chiyani?" ("What is this?"), and I respond for the fifth time, "Ndakuwuzani khale, icho ndi ndowa" ("I already told you, it's a bucket"). In this way he is no different than any other todler, asking lot's of questions. Last year he had a habit of throwing a big hissy fit in his house next door at around 8 when I would be trying to go to bed. Thankfully, he has mellowed out a bit this year, and he is turning into a fine young man (it must be the influence of the big white man next door).
That's all I got for today. A two week term break has just started, and tomorrow I'm headed up north to some seedy resthouse where a buddy of mine is having a birthday party-it should be interesting.
