Compound Clean Up

Visitor David H. with lush vegetation in background, late Sept.

By the end of the rainy season (October), our compound was quite overgrown with vegetation of all kinds. We liked this because it was so green and lush and gave us some privacy from our neighbours.








 

 However, during the following months, all this vegetation turned brown and dry, a real fire trap. The tall grass and undergrowth are an ideal hiding place for snakes, of which we've seen (and killed) several during the past months. And by our neighbours's standards our compound was looking really messy. Plus thieves have had an easy time prowling around at night without being seen.




So, we hired some women from our local church to come and uproot the grasses and undergrowth and put them into piles that we could burn.

The women appreciate the work not only for the money it provides but because they can take any grasses or sticks they would like. They use these for many things, particularly for making grass huts or thatching the roofs of mud huts.







During the past weeks we have spent quite a few enjoyable evenings burning the piles of grass, twigs, leaves, etc. It's been a fun team activity.

 

The change in our compound has been very dramatic. Completely new views have opened up.

Before: storage shack barely visible on middle right

After: clear view all around the shack

This is the "after" view of the second picture in this post. My teammates the Ward kids call this area "the forest" and enjoy playing under and around the trees. Before it was so overgrown they couldn't get near them. The building that's now visible just a little above the centre of the photo is our new guest house.

 This is a view from the centre of our compound looking towards the south west. Before, we couldn't see the huts that are now visible in the middle of the picture. Now, we can not only see better but hear better. I noticed last night how well I could hear this neighbour and some of her friends sitting outside talking and laughing.