Day 85: Installation

After 2+ weeks here, today was the day we actually installed the drip system, the project which we had planned to do here. As beneficial a system as drip irrigation is, it’s surprisingly easy to set up. It’s quite simple, and involves connecting tubes, running the tubes out in crop lines, and poking some holes in tubes. Each of the 2 tanks has a principal line that is 20mm in diameter and runs perpendicular to the crop lines. Then, spaced at 80cm intervals, there are small diameter drip tubes connected to the principal line, running on top of the crop lines. All of the tubing needs to be staked in to the ground to prevent movement of the tubes. We worked from about 9:30 until 1. It has been extremely hot lately…brutal.

Lunch was really good today, a dish called “yassa”, and I ate way too much. However, I certainly didn’t regret it, as it’s a rarity that we receive anything other than Ceebu Jen.

After taking a long break after lunch, I decided that I wanted to go to the school for half an hour to watch the children perform what they have been preparing for the last couple weeks. My decision didn’t sit well with Ronald, who said that it was necessary to work, but I went to the school anyway. While I only stayed for 20 minutes, it was really nice to see the kids sing songs and perform skits. My sister Iserre was performing and I got to see her as well. I left to go to the community garden at about 5.

We installed as much of the small tubing as possible, but we came up a little short and realized that we didn’t have enough to cover the whole field. Luckily, a Full-Bright student working with Cresp will be coming to Nder tomorrow, and he will bring some more supplies.

After installing most of the tubing, we dug out trenches along the crop lines to prepare the field for planting. We even got some planting done before the sunset, and hitched a ride on a horse-drawn cart back to the village. Dinner was tremendous; chicken and pasta.