Permaculture training and trip to see the farm

For the past two months the ladies class has been having Permaculture instruction. I will post some pictures of a planning lesson we had here in my drive way and another lesson we had on how to design your gardens and plan your living spaces. Planning is something strange in and of it self. So it was fun to see the ladies talk through where to put things. Each item took a major discussion, but in the end they all got a general idea. Over the course of the past few weeks I have take small groups of women out to see the teachers farm. His name is Biswick, which is father told me is short for Busy Working. Biswick has given these ladies hour of instructions but they had yet to see the actual result of what happens if you do the work. Because maise is a major food here he flet it was important for me to bring the ladies out to his farm before all the maise had been picked and it was critical for him to bring it in soon. Therefore for rather than small groups of ladies we decided to bring them all out at one time. There were about 25 ladies who still hadn't seen the farm. We rented a two ton truck and piled all the ladies in it. Then drove slowly to the sight. The ladies sang the whole way and it was beautiful. Once we got there we devided the ladies into two groups and Biswick took them on the tour. His brother did the other tour as he is also studying permaculture. Biswick comes from a Godly home which as it turns out is an added plus. While the ladies had their tours I wondered around to see if there wasn't anything I had missed on previous visits and then sat down with his mother and sister and helped depod beans, maise and popcorn. It was a lot of fun and the ladies were thrilled by what they had seen. They came back excited about planting trees and starting their farms. My friend told me that for a Malawian to be excited about planting a fruit tree is a big thing and Biswick gave them each a tree to bring home so they were excited. After piling back into the truck they sang all the way home. What was even my encouraging is they also sang as they walk home. You could tell that they walked away with hope in their hearts dreaming of a new future where they would have food growing year round. Fresh fruits and Vegetables.