Greening Babies

Our little boy is arriving end Jan 2012. I am wondering what to do about nappies and came across the following stats

6000: The number of diapers the average baby uses before potty training.

200 to 500: Years it takes petroleum-based disposable diapers to decompose.

49 million: The number of disposable diapers used per day in the United States; Australia uses 2.2 million, Japan uses 6.7 million, and the U.K. uses 9 million.

53 percent: A home-washed cloth diaper has only 53 percent of the ecological footprint of disposables, and a diaper laundry service has a mere 37 percent of that footprint.

$1.4 billion per year: The estimated amount of money Americans spend on complicated births due to smoking while pregnant.
(http://www.treehugger.com/htgg/how-to-go-green-babies.html)

Integrating the Abundance

The bottles were heated and plonked into water to crack off the bottle bottoms.

Tucker sticking down the aluminium print sheets as dividers to pour the spiral pattern.

Refreshment

I like the farmers hands and the hammock being used in the background.

Wwoof exchange: Edith and Jo.

Edith and Jo are keen gardeners. Together with Charley their efforts made for some significant transformation.  Here are some of the pictures they took during their stay.

 

Lucy (previous volunteer) and I named Dr Evil after the Zulu legend that God sent the chameleon to the people with the message of eternal life.  He walked so slowly and took so long that the lizard brought the message of death first.  Many Zulu people have the same fear of a chameleon as they have of a snake.

 

The pictures tell the story.

Jo teaches me to use a sythe. Simanga in the background found a squash while cutting the long grass.

Scythe \Scythe\ (s[imac]th), n. [OE. sithe, AS. s[=i][eth]e,

   sig[eth]e; akin to Icel. sig[eth]r a sickle, LG. segd, seged,
   seed, seid, OHG. segansa sickle, scythe, G. sense scythe, and
   to E. saw a cutting instrument. See Saw.] [Written also
   sithe and sythe.]
   1. An instrument for mowing grass, grain, or the like, by
      hand, composed of a long, curving blade, with a sharp
      edge, made fast to a long handle, called a snath, which is
      bent into a form convenient for use.

            The sharp-edged scythe shears up the spiring grass.
                                                  --Dryden.

            The scythe of Time mows down.         --Milton.

http://dictionary.die.net/sythe

In preparation for a kitchen garden, Edith and Jo did the follwowing layers. 1) thick layer of well decomposed manure 2) wet cardboard 3) grass and 4) decomposing pine bark.

Late afternon on Sodwana beach. The warmest ocean these two have ever swum in. The ocean is often upto 29 degrees Celsius in summer.

Violin Spider?

The images on the net are not very clear. Would you say this is a Violin spider?

 

Snake eats Snake

Grillerig!

Olive Grass Snake eats Red Lipped or  Herald snake.  Would I have released him closer to home if I knew that it was an olive grass snake and it eats “lizards, small mamals, frogs and snakes, including venemous species such as small black mamaba and puff adders.”? (Johan Marais)

 

 

Olive Grass snake with Herald snake in tummy.

 

 

 

Pumping water.

This hand pump is also a social gathering spot.

Pumping Water.

toys by kids

10/10 for these kids who make their own toys.

Can you make out what the wheels are made of?

If you are not careful it will make you fit!

cow on roof

Thanks Ty Ty for this pic!

Food Gardens, Food Gardens, Food Gardens, Food Gardens

As a homeopath/acupuncturist I feel I could not make a dent in the ‘dis-ease’ in the community.  I decided to close down my community clinic and link up with a Sekuyasa, a Home Based Care organization that operates in KwaMbila.   My intention was to become involved with food gardens for vulnerable households. Two weeks after  I expressed this intention,  the ZCSD offered me the opportunity to organize 300 people from the government’s Community Works Project to do work that would better the community.

The first thing to do when something involves the community is to meet with my Induna (the community leader that is the mediator between the community and the chief ) I  met with my Induna  straight away and he was very happy about the opportunity that has been offered to the people. The work opportunity involves 8 days work per month at R50 per day.He took me to meet Councilor Jerry Zikhali who has been involved in community work in this area. Councilor Zikhali was happy to hear about the way we intend to use these work opportunities and has helped me to arrange meetings with Indunas of the neigbouring areas that will be involved in the program. The respective Indunas have called tribal meetings under trees and in community halls and we have enrolled most of the people that we need.

On the 15^th of April 2010 the first group met to start making compost. I visited some homesteads  and was so excited that people were enthusiastically helping in their group member’s gardens.

The breakdown of the project:

1. Home Based Food Gardens  (220 people)

Food gardens  to be established at about 400 homesteads. Community members are divided into groups of 4. During the first month the group members take turns to have the other 3 group members help them get their food gardens going (composting, preparing beds and seedling making once seed arrives).  The second month the team members will select vulnerable households and start establishing food gardens for them.  The months will then alternate one month in the group member’s gardens, one month in the vulnerable household gardens. Some time (+- 1/6^th of the time) will also be spent cleaning up public spaces like schools or clinics.

2.     School Assistance and Community Cleanup:

Two teams i.e. 48 people have been allocated as school assistants.  I had a meeting with the principles of the schools where we are hoping to place the school assistants.  We explored the possibility of doing ‘how to make cuttings’ classes with the children with some of the branches that are going to be cut down at the cashew nut farm in the surrounding area.  Some of the principals seemed keen to do food gardens. I explained that I am over my quota for tool packs and seeds but if the principals could provide seed and tools we could work together towards establishing food gardens at the schools.  Assistants would also be required to do cleanups and tasks e.g. fire breaks round schools.

1. Home Based Care:

Two teams (48 people) have been placed under Sekuyaza – the local home based care project. This will incorporate the 21 Home Based Care (HBC)  workers that are currently working in their project.  The idea is to train the new  people to become  HBC workers. We are exploring training opportunities for them.   In the mean time the workers will help the trained home base care workers in general tasks like cooking and cleaning for people who cannot do it themselves and introduce food gardens where people are receiving food parcels. The food parcels include maize meal, sugar, salt, cooking oil, candles, soap and other basics. Vegetables would significantly improve the nutritional status of these people.

Tools and seed are to be provided by the ZCSD, but are not to be expected before mid June.  So far community members have organized their own tools and I think we are going to get quite a good starter batch of veggy and herb seeds posted in by my Facebook friends and Sodwana locals.  I am keenly awaiting 10 packets of unusual food seed from an organization called ECHO. http://www.echonet.org/content/whatWeDo

I hope that the gardens can be inspired by permaculture principles. It is my understanding that 24  people from the project will have the opportunity to do a permaculture design course through the Zululand Center for Sustainable Development.   I am interested to see how the people involved with the project interpret and incorporate these principles into their own style of self sufficiency.