Beginning again

Since my arrival late on Friday, I have contributed to food preparation for Antoine and Annunciate's family for the last two nights. Asked to make salads, I served lettuce dressed with oil, vinegar (I sometimes use lemon juice, which is cheaper and more easily available) and salt, and a different combination each night chosen from tomatoes, parsley, mint, fennel, onion, garlic, cabbage, cucumber, cauliflower, carrot, beetroot and ginger. I shopped in local markets, not the places in the centre of Kigali which provide for expatriot tastes. Everything was eaten up and apparently enjoyed. Emile, 17, particularly liked the lettuce and daringly added some black pepper, which I bought in a small supermarket but which is not much used here.

Today I learn that the bumper crop of lettuce grown in the new kitchen garden at Gahanga Church, supervised by Rachel and Gaudence who have worked frequently with me, went largely to waste because nobody wanted to eat it. More lessons in preparing and eating salad should be on my agenda, then. At lunch with Ruth and Krystan later, I mention the surplus. 'Whey didn't we know?' There must be a church member who understands marketing, mustn't there?

Work with women's groups starts next week. This morning's assignment was with those responsible for planting the church garden at Gasharu. We were supposed to begin planting in October, but when I heard goats were eating the saplings I said I wouldn't provide any more till there was a perimeter fence. It was completed by Christmas.

A year ago there was some rather desultory conversation about the edible garden concept. I have no training or experience in garden design. However, I bought a couple of books last month, read quickly and hoped for the best. This morning three of us met: David Bucura, the pastor; Ruth, his new parish administrator (and a woman, he pointed out gleefully!) and Agnes, who lives close to the church and cares about the garden. Apparently Agnes had said 'What we need is a design', so when we gathered and they said 'Let's walk round first' I was able to propose starting with some conceptual thinking.

What do you want the garden to be for?

What do you want it to say about the Friends Church?

Then we moved on to how far can it meet the needs of different groups – children, people who are busy and stressed, the less able, young adult Friends...

We ended with a list: a nice place for weddings so our young people don't get into debt hiring somewhere extravagant; an attractive 'public face' for Friends to show other users; a contribution to restoring the environment with trees and fresh air; enough space for children to play freely; handrails for the flights of steps up from the car park and into the church; places to sit and talk; a peaceful, healing atmosphere... The garden of a local restaurant, which inspired Bucura with the idea of a 'peace garden'

This example of showing a public face is from the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) building in Washington DC

Then we walked the site, agreed different zones, decided on some priorities – mend the path, start a compost heap, teach the children to care for the environment of the church and to respect the different areas of the garden, install the handrails, start talking with church members emphasising benefits rather than objections, make a ground plan. We shall meet again in 2 weeks and work on the plan. By then we can hope there will have been some rain. Then we can begin planting seeds for flowers and ornamental vegetables.A roadside bed of courgettes, wilting and dust-laden for want of rain

On a third day at the end of my stay it will be time to begin planting a hedge inside the new back wall to create a green vista, and they may be confident enough to put a few fruit trees in some less vulnerable areas. I have taken cuttings from two shrubs in Annunciate's garden and encouraged the others to do likewise.

I lent them the garden design books, showed some photos including those here, gave each a kiwi fruit (I brought two small vines from England) and suggested they start raising seedlings to plant out later.

I hope the foundations are well laid.



A couple of pics from earlier visits I offered to stimulate innovative thinking