Here is a picture of the newest addition to our family, our shamba
screen. What is a shamba? You may be thinking, it is the Kikuyu word for
garden. We have been looking forward to growing our own produce. The growing
season here is year-round and you can start at any time. We have been advised
that to have a shamba, we would need protection from the baboons who would
gladly harvest our crops. So, after examining other shamba screens on campus,
we went ahead and had one built for our shamba. First step was to completely
rebuild the retaining wall that surrounded our little shamba. Since our dorm is
located at the top of the hill, the whole shamba is built on the side of the
hill. The retaining wall had crumbled after many years of service. We had the
wall removed and re-built to meet the standards of the head engineer (Janine).
Then the local outside workers got together and built the shamba screen. With
any luck, we should be able to enjoy the items that we grow.
Here is Janine with Paul, our outside worker evaluating and
discussing the progress of our shamba.