The Garden Gate

Water Catchment Pit Finished!

After nearly six weeks of work, we finally finished the water catchment pit! I have loved and hated this project for many reasons. Obviously its been a lot of work and taken every Saturday for the past month. But, it's also been a wonderful time to learn more about my students. Who volunteers to give up their Saturday to come do hard physical labor? Orkeeswa students do! I am so proud of them.

This pit is designed to catch water flowing down the hill. We will use the water to irrigate the garden in the dry season. My hope is that something like this can be repeated out in the community.

The Garden Gate

The garden gate was being left open. This presented a problem as many donkeys, goats, dogs and various other animals were welcoming themselves inside. So, I made a closure. I hung a rope over a tree, attached one end to the gate and the other end to a small piece of wood. The weight of the wood acted as a counter weight and pulled the gate closed. At first I was going to use a big rock, but it slammed the gate shut too fast and I imagined young children losing an arm... so we opted for the much lighter piece of wood. It's been working great for about a week: gate closes, donkeys out, problem solved - or so it would seem.

On Saturday we were working on the water catchment pit. We needed some materials from inside the garden, so I sent in three students; two girls and one boy. I watched the two girls go over to the garden gate and use their combined efforts to open it. I thought they were just playing around, so I thought little more about it. After a few minutes the girls returned separately. Again, I watched them walk back through the gate. This time a boy was helping one of the girls open the gate. This time I payed attention! I realized that possibly the weight was too much (me make things too heavy, course or rough? NEVER!)

I asked the girl to come back and show me how she opened the gate. She looked at me like I was crazy, but went over to the gate. This particular girl weighs maybe 80 pounds. She has a wonderful sense of humor and is full of life. She braced herself, gripped the gate with both hands, and threw her whole force into the opening the gate... about six inches!

Perhaps I need to reduce the weight. Maybe I could use a pulley to make things open just a bit easier. But, I would not have changed that moment for anything.

Form 2 & 3 Tests

We're in the midst of Form 2 National Exams and Form 3 District Mock Exams. It's a little crazy! The students seem to be holding up well though. We had a yoga instructor come earlier this week. I think timing was perfect. Reduced stress. Released some endorphin. These tests are basically all consuming for many students so we try to help keep things in perspective.