Day 8 The First Compost Pile in Londuimbali

It's an hour drive to Londuimbali from the CNFA office in Huambo. But it really is another world away.

While Huambo struggles to remain in the modern world, Londuimbali is in a realm all to itself. It's distance from modernity is much greater than just an hour.

The CNFA staff was very excited, this was the big day. We had requested that all the members of Coopativa Dolindo Rodrigues bring two 50 Kg fertilizer sacks full of the assigned material: green, brown or manure.

We were overwhelmed with the response and it, three hours later, resulted in the largest compost pile to which I have ever been a party. We had so much goat and cow manure that we had to back the CNFA Ford pickup back into the little village. Once there about five or six camponez came out of the little huts and loaded up the truck with several hundred pounds of goat and ox manure loaded in fertilizer bags just as they said that they would.

Returning to the Cooperative Extension Office we started loading the green and the brown matter into the truck. Most of the members showed up dressed in work clothes with machetes, shovels and hoes. We had tons literally of materials and so many people that we had to take relays of two pickups to the site, near a stream 3 kilometers away.

The Cooperativa members, upon a review, remembered everything and we started with the thickest stalks of the brown materials first, then a thin layer of manure and a little lime to raise the PH. The soil in the valley is very similar to the Foothills of Western North Carolina: red clay: and it is very acidic. Then we watered with a watering can and followed with as layer of green material.

Layer upon layer we built up and once they got the hang of it we finished with the best built, prettiest compost pile that I've ever seen. I have to admit that we were all very proud of it.

The composteiria is to be maintained. They know that, since it is layered correctly, in a week, if they cannot feel heat when they stick their hands in the pile, it can only be because it is too wet, too dry, or it doesn't have enough air. They know how remedy each eventuality: don't water if too wet; water it if its too dry; and turn it if its too compressed and needs air. We went over and over both the symptoms and the cures and I, as well as the CNFA Farmer to Farmer staff, firmly believe that these camponez of Londuimbali have been changed and will be no longer dependent upon chemicals.

If you see your Congressman tell him that these are the activities that will make us the example for the world. These are the skills that the people in underdeveloped countries need.

Now that they have mastered that skill, tomorrow, we will tackle raised beds and green manures.

Ate amanha, meus amigos.