Project de jour ... and another day

Today's project (photo) is what hopefully will be a successful easy to water mini seed bed. With water being at least a quarter of a mile away for most people, I don't see very many home gardens. Also another possible factor is that the San were historically hunter gatherers for the most part. So this mini seed bed is the beginning of a water efficient demonstration home garden. This should be a challenge as the garden area looks like a nice beach, nothing but sand. I've always wanted to try and produce vegetables in what amounts to a desert environment. We've picked up some old plastic soda/water bottles and I cut out some rings that should keep the water concentrated directly at the root area. Also it delves into a little recycling/cleanup. A funny exchange happened today. There is a Catholic priest from Lesotho here at the church. He was driving by and stopped to say hi. We greeted and made a little small talk, then he drove away. About five minutes later I saw him out of the truck and walked over to shake his hand. That is the normal way of greeting here. As I approached him and put out my hand to shake his I said: "now I can greet more formal". He asked me to repeat what I had just said. So I did and had to several more times. He just couldn't understand the words 'more formal'. After he finally understood, he said that he thought I was speaking in an African language. I guess that has to be blamed on my thick Boston style accent. Eight years from that part of the country hasn't taken any edge off the old accent. The day finished well as we went to one of the very few places that has a TV and DVD player and watched music videos of the incredible Gospel singer from Botswana, Winnie Masaba. It was great till they shut the generator off at 9 sharp and plunged into total darkness. So we walked home and I've been writing this article on the cell phone ever since. But I think it's time to see if there is any BBC radio on the shortwave band. So goodnight from a village in northern Namibia.