Growing!

Construction of the garden has begun!!! There are going to be a couple different elements to this ginormous garden. The front of the garden will be dedicated to keyhole gardens. This is a fairly new idea on how to construct and maintain a garden. The keyhole gardens are built up in the shape of a circle. It is 2 meters in diameter and has a compost hole in the middle; this is where the hole is made. All of the crops can be accessed within arms reach. These gardens are perfect for rural, dry areas because they can be made with everything you find and do not use extra water to maintain the crops. We began clearing the land with shovels and rakes but have since asked the mine that is close to us to borrow one of their machines. If we were to clear this all by hand it would take ages for it to be finished. The school budget has approved the money that is going to be used for the garden and I am working towards approval of my funds. I am super excited to begin this as it means that the nutritional needs are my students will soon be met!!! I will continue updates as they come :) Below are a few pictures from the first day of clearing and marking

The Keyhole gardens are represented by the circles in the picture above. The rest of the area will be used to plant crops that you can not grow in the keyhole gardens. 

 

Full

Full

I’m BACK! After a full month off for vacation it is back to the grind. “Short” recap of break. The first couple of days I was in Windhoek with the rest of the group for a few brief meetings to mark our almost halfway point. It was nice to see everyone and hear all the stories they have from the first couple of months. After our meetings everyone went their separate travel ways and break had begun. I, however, stayed in Windhoek and enjoyed American things with my friend Ben for 2 days waiting till my mom came home. We got seafood/sushi, went to the mall, went to the MOVIE THEATERS, and I cooked in a real kitchen :). It was glorious. Mom and Krista arrived in the afternoon and after a tearful reunion we were off on our adventure. Adventure is a loose term when it came to what we experienced. Skydiving, camel back riding, shopping, so many types of meat, bumpy roads, beautiful waterfalls, village life, animals galore, flat tires, scrapes, bumps and tons of memories pretty much sums it up. The time for them to leave was closing and the tears and thoughts of separation were beginning to set in but the adventure didn’t stop. I booked a flight 2 days before and went to South Africa to visit family for a few days and saw Mom and Krista one more time before they headed back to the states. My 5 days in SA were wonderful and such a blessing to be able to spend time with my family, on this side of the World. I returned to Namibia to spend a couple more days in Windhoek and then back up North; which was a totally different experience. BUT back to the real reason for this blog.

As the goodbyes came and my time to go back to my “life” the emotions began to stir and I had mixed feelings of how this term is going to go. I stepped back and thought long and hard about what all has to be done and how I am feeling about it and came to the conclusion that my life is filled with amazing things happening. 

I am full of thankfulness because I had time off to spend with loved ones and see new places. 

I am full of gratefulness that my mom took time to buy things to help me out with staying in the bush and making my flat a home. 

I am full of love for my learners who are so eager to help and learn this term already. 

I am full of excitement as we begin to clear the land for the garden that will be built. 

I am full of amazement at the graciousness of people who have donated money to buy mattresses. 

I am full of gratitude 

I am full of anticipation to experience a lot of new cultural things this term (funerals and weddings mostly)

The list could go on and on but I think it can be summed up in one “full” sentence:

I am full of blessings that God has given me this year! and I continue to be shown these blessings each day through the hard times and good times. 

As Laura Story put it:

“What if Your blessings come through raindrops? What if Your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near. What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?”