It’s been a busy week at the farm, aka the Mkhombokati
garden. It took two tractors to till the
soil and many man-hours to clear the huge rocks, roots, and clumps of grass from
the soil. On Thursday morning our whole
team did a rock ‘search party’ and walked the field in a line clearing the big
chunks. We helped Lucky (aka Nhlanhla,
the garden guy) lay out all of the irrigation lines for the drip system on
Thursday afternoon, and by Friday we were ready to plant!
When we woke up on Friday, I walked outside and discovered that
it was a cloudy, cool day. My first
thought was that God provided the perfect day for us to plant (of course to the
Swazis it was a cold day and they weren’t so happy about it). By the time we got to the carepoint, Lucky
had all of the seedlings ready for us to plant – 2000 of them! A huge thanks to everyone on the team for
their hard work and willingness to jump in and help throughout the day– it was
truly a big team effort.
So on Friday we planted our farm. And in God’s perfect timing, on Friday night
it rained. We were worried that the
downpour would wash away the seedlings, but it turns out the rocky soil is good
for holding the plants and soil when it rains.
This garden has reminded me again and again that God is way ahead of us
in His perfect plans. Mkhombokati now
has cabbage, onion, lettuce, beets, and spinach in the ground – and it is all
being watered by water from our well!
Throughout the process many of the kids not only watched
with fascination but also got in on the action, which was probably my favorite
part of the whole garden project. Since
Jumbo first mentioned the garden at Mkhombokati months ago, I was very excited
at the potential for the garden to not only provide healthy food but also give
the kids an opportunity to learn how to garden themselves. Kids of all ages help clear rocks and grass
and many of them loved helping to plant the seedlings. Even one of the bomakes (women who cook for
the kids) got in on the action and worked with Tyler to plant seedlings for a while. Seeing the Swazis take ownership of the
garden was so encouraging – that is key to making the garden productive in so
many ways. Lucky and Mbuso will be
teaching the kids to help maintain the garden and we can’t wait to see updates
on the progress as everything grows!
-Karen Mohr
