September 6: Although unrecognizable to the untrained eye, what we have here in these photographs is a nascent small-scale drip irrigation system appraised at just under 30 US Dollars. As far as I can tell, it works properly, and now I have just to get past the ego-inflicted disappointment that it’s not cool enough and doesn’t have enough fancy knobs or switches. It’s true, this irrigation system isn’t connected to a global positioning system. It doesn’t have a sensitive feedback system to monitor the level in the tank. But come on now, you get what you pay for. So I will let you have a look at the final product, boda boda and whatever else I decide to hook up to it. Perhaps some turn signals or something. I just wanted to keep you updated.

With much help from you all - especially Marco (who I may have already pointed out is a genius) and our friends Kevin and Chung, I have also been able to put together a three part cirriculum that does a pretty good job of simply stating three basic farming practices that are cheap and sustainable. (It occurred to me that this irrigation system is going to be a big flop, so to speak, if it's not accompanied by a few ideas on how to use it and why it is a good idea.) Lesson 1 was on row planting and proper crop spacing. I mentioned earlier that row planting hasn't been fully adopted here. Which isn't really necessary, unless of course, you want to use a drip irrigation system. The one I've made, anyway. Yesterday's lesson 2 was about mulching. Tomorrow I'll do a lesson on proper watering techniques - both with and without the baby drip irritation system.

If facial expressions are any indication, the students seem pretty interested. And I have gotten a lot of great feedback from the students, as well as EAC staff and volunteers, and even a few of the people in the community who've heard about the irrigation system. I'm hoping to demonstrate the system either Thursday, or more likely Tuesday. As is my lifelong custom, I like to wait until the very last possible minute, or even a few minutes after the last possible minute, to finish projects. That way, I can get good and stressed out, and stay up really late the night before, and get that fun jittery feeling of utter exhaustion. Like my mom always says, I'll be late to my own funeral. Which is fine with me, because I'm not in any real hurry to die.


So I'll be heading home next week, and not a moment too soon, because obviously, I wouldn't be able to finish this thing if I left any earlier. I hope you are all well.