Grow Food. Eat Food. The project that took a whole Peace Corps service to figure out and is still no

As many of my readers probably already know, I have spent my Peace Corps service in the village of Chipoka. It’s beautiful here, located directly on Lake Malawi, but this also comes with unbearable heat, and lots of mosquitoes. This little town, being established on the shores of the lake has a primary focus on fishing. Many people who live here year round sustain as fisherman, and many more come and temporarily stay during peak fishing season. Families often eat their nsima with small fish, where as in other places in Malawi this would be very expensive. However, because of this big fishing culture, families that subsistence farm more than just maize are few and in between. Vegetables that are sold in the market are often brought in from the neighboring districts of Dowa and Dedza, making elevated prices for these necessary items. This is why when I arrived here two years ago, and the first group I started working with (my SOLID group) told me they wanted to focus on projects that would help the huge issue of hunger, I thought small community and family owned permagardens would be the best approach. And when I say best approach, I think my mindset was that training people in permagardening would be an easy solution to feeding all those hungry bellies. How ignorant beginner Katlyn was…

And now, here I am at the end of my service, still working on a project that was started in October of 2015, trying to find a sustainable way forward before I end my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chipoka.

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Below, watch a video that was created, by MobEffect, a non-profit that helped in the funding of the brick wall around the permagarden at Chipoka Health Center. This video was filmed in November of 2015, and will give you an idea of how this project began.

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Now since that video was filmed, a lot has happened. But the video, it made you feel hopeful didn’t it? Inspired? Like this permagarden was going to “feed and nourish” a lot of people in need? Well let me tell you, that’s not how it has gone...so far. Over the last year few successes were made, and it seemed as though failure was the only consistent thing about this project.

In November 2015 (the beginning of a very dry rainy season) the permagarden was completed by my very dedicated and hard working SOLID group, a group that actually lives in a different village about 10 kilometers down the road. These individuals volunteered themselves to walk 10 kilometers more than 5 times over the course of a couple weeks to dig and construct this permagarden (these individuals are shown in the video above). And let me tell you, this is not easy digging. The soil is like cement and the heat of Malawi doesn’t make manual labor any easier. My SOLID members were trained before and during the construction of this permagarden, with a hands-on approach. Seeds were planted and the garden was handed over to the health center when they were finished as an example garden for the first year. Then my SOLID group went back to their village and created a garden for themselves. All that needed to happen next was rain. BUT, the rains never really came, and Malawi experienced one of the biggest droughts in years. I planted the garden 3 different times during the rainy season of 2015-2016, but with the combination of no rain and the big challenge of finding volunteers to water the garden with water from the borehole, the garden remained only dirt. As you can imagine, this was very frustrating.

After rainy season, if you could even call it that, my supervisor at the Health Center asked me what was happening with the garden. I explained to him the situation; no rain and no enthusiasm to water, and therefore why nothing was growing in the space he had provided me. He then told me that he works with an HIV support group that he thought would love to take responsibility over the garden, and start planting right away. This news was a blessing to my ears. Here I was frustrated and thinking I had failed this project completely, when really I just needed to find another dedicated group of people who wanted to grow their own food. And to think they wanted to plant right away, in the DRY season, was something I hadn’t ever imagined. So, for the next several months the HIV support group was educated about permagardening, given ownership of the garden through the Health Center, and even supplied with seeds to start planting right away.

However, several months passed and nothing happened. The group came and saw the garden and cleared the beds of weeds, but after that the space remained empty with nothing growing, or even planted. My supervisor and I spoke with the chairman of the group on multiple occasions and we were told, “we will come soon”, “we will come next week,” which later turned into “we are waiting for rainy season”, “we will plant when the rains come.” Yet, months passed and the first, and second, and third rains fell and still nothing. This was very disheartening, and felt like another big failure. It was now one year since the permagarden had been finished and still nothing was growing, and no one was benefiting.

As rainy season began, and the time to plant was here, my supervisor and I sat down and agreed that the HIV group was not dedicated to putting in the work of the garden and that we needed to go in another direction. We both knew that we needed to find a group quick or the garden would remain vacant for the second rainy season in a row.

That same day I was meeting with Chenjezi (a good friend and counterpart) about another project, and during our meeting the garden randomly came up. He could probably see the disappointment written on my face and therefore asked me what was wrong. We talked about the garden, what it was supposed to be, and what it had turned into. I could tell that he was pondering my words for the duration of our conversation, and when I was finished he asked me if his boys group could come to the garden on Saturday and start to plant. At first I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but then it occurred to me that this group would be a perfect fit. They are young, motivated, and want to make money for their youth group activities (which they could do if they grew and sold vegetables). And when Saturday came the boys showed up!

Above: Jack Paul was the first to arrive and started clearing the garden of weeds straight away.

Below: A couple hours later we were reshaping the beds and berms and getting ready to plant.

Above: The boys group planting their first seeds; green beans!

Below: The finished product of that Saturday morning. A fully cleared, planted, and watered permagarden.

When returning to the garden less than a week later we were happy to find both mustard greens and carrots beginning to germinate.

Below: Chenjezi, his boys group, and Katy happy to be finished planting, and proud with what they accomplished.

Since that Saturday the boys have continued to be motivated and have not given up on their permagarden. The rains came and vegetables continued to grow. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the youth group and Chipoka Health Center was created by Chenjezi and myself in order to ensure ownership of this garden to the boys under certain conditions. One being that the profits from the garden go back into the community or the youth group's activities (of many which are focused on promoting healthy lifestyles and behavior change in health related topics). The boys are also expected to check in with the health center once every three months to hold them accountable and update the In-Charge. A copy of the MOU was also given to the Traditional Authority of Chipoka, TA Ndindi, as a way to involve the community.

Above: A copy of the MOU for the permagarden

I wanted to share the lengthy story of this project because I think it puts some things into perspective. One thing being that it often takes many failures before one reaches success....and as many Peace Corps Volunteers know, we definitely fail more than we succeed. I started this project during my first few months in Chipoka with high hopes and inspiration, and it still isn't perfect. BUT, it is a lot closer now to being successful than it ever has been. Plus, nothing is ever perfect, right? :)

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