Vingt Seis. It's like Christmas, Easter, and The Fourth of July all rolled up into one!

As we Americans celebrate that special day when we eat too much potato salad, have a few too many chardonnays, and set off a few next month's rent in Chinese fireworks; the Malagasy in my neck of the woods are still celebrating their independence which officially began on the 26th of June. I can't say that I saw much potato salad going around, but there were definitely some fireworks and I think their technicians may have over imbibed. Today, however a few local volunteers and myself are fashioning the best fourth yet most atypical that Madagascar can offer.

Ambalona's School Gardens

When the festivities come to a close I will return to Ambalona and break ground on some new beds for the school garden. I have outlined the gardening space and taken an inventory of the current vegetables being grown, and it's with this information that I am working together with the people of Ambalona and my counterpart in order to determine: the prime growing season for each vegetable, which vegetables should be grown in succession, and how we can manage their production with minimal inputs. I'm very fortunate that a majority of the infrastructure and interest is already present in my community thanks in part to Fidy, but there's plenty of tuning required and that's where I lend my green thumb. I've managed to fence out the curious chickens from my yard in which I have constructed to date three 2x8 raised beds out of bamboo. Everyday as people pass by they often stop and to see what I've actually got growing and we end up chatting about vegetables how it's actually possible to grow them with ease. It's in these beds that I'm doing some preliminary testing of bio-intensive technique that I hope to apply on larger scale within the community. The children are among the most interested, whether I'm transplanting seedlings or they're sneaking into my compost pile. One of my little buddies Eloi has really taken to it and we planted some zucchini in a garden he built, I'll update you in a month.

So this is my yard, I'm puting in the lawn next week

Apart from gardening I've had the opportunity to connect with some highly valuable resources in my region. Recently I tracked down a pepinaire (tree nursery) in Mananjary with whom I can see my village developing a strong customer relationship. Together with a CRS (Catholic Relief Services) lead reforestation effort, there's plenty work to be done and a surprisingly large amount of people that want to help do it.

Gaspar my Chef du Fokontany and I discuss how to make Parker House Rolls from rice 

On the home front I've managed to build myself a table which enables me to prepare, cook, and eat my food at an elevation 32" above the floor; the previous location of my stove. I still have plans for a second table, but I'm still living in high life from the first upgrade. I've installed bamboo gutters on the back of my house, which await the installation of a rain barrel that I have yet to procure. My gardens has become rather thirsty over the past month, and an alternative water source is definitely necessary to keep up. I'll keep you'll posted as the squash takes over my garden.

Salama

Nick