The Good Life

Nepear and I are just about to set off to pick up his wife, Melifa, and two small boys from their village, and bring them back to the house. When Nepear moved to Lilongwe to work for me, Melifa stayed behind in the village to prepare the family plot for the planting season, and once the work was complete she didn't have the money to pay for the bus fare to Lilongwe to join him. I know Nepear is very excited to see her and the kids, and to have them with him in Lilongwe.

While I'm at the village, I'm also picking up five chickens and a cockerel. The chicken pen is now finished and ready for habitation. I like to think of it as the Fort Knox of chicken pens.

Nepear modelling the impregnable chicken pen

Nepear demonstrating what a chicken might look like

The smallholding which I am rapidly creating is progressing well. We have planted red beans, white beans, carrots, cabbages, aubergines, onions, tomatoes, potatoes and lettuce. The beans and tomatoes are doing particularly well - Nepear proudly tells me the beans have achieved a 93% germination rate.

Real, live tomatoes

Beans

The garden is also full of mature fruit trees - two papaya trees; two mango trees; two mulberry trees; a pear tree; a lemon tree; and a wild loquat tree - all of which offer a number of home-brew possibilities... Yesterday I purchased three banana trees, a peach tree, and an orange trees, which will all be planted next week.

One of the papaya trees

On Wednesday I drove to an area near to some tobacco leaf processing plants to purchase some waste products which can be used as fertiliser. I bought four bags, but unfortunately didn't actually get given the bags, but rather just the contents, which were emptied into the back of the office car... In time, I hope to make the garden self-sufficient - I plan to grow millet and sorghum to feed the chickens and use the waste from the chickens to fertilise the vegetables.

Piliran helping to unload the tobacco fertiliser