Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Shamba Screening 101



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.