For weeks, I had been drying leaves from the neem tree in my yard. We were gearing up for a pilot program to educate our members in evangelism and health, and I was preparing to teach a number of classes on locally available natural remedies and other practical skills.
On the first day of our program, I did a two-hour presentation on how to make medicated oils and creams from the neem tree, how to use the moringa in food and how to grow it and sell its leaves for profit.
On day two, I taught bread-making. It was a very hot day—too hot for our projector—so I was able to show only a few pictures illustrating how to make outdoor clay ovens before the projector shut off.
While the bread was rising, we talked a bit about raising chickens and then moved into bio-intensive composting and planting. This agricultural society would greatly benefit from returning to the composting practices it used to have before the advent of commercial fertilizers. Their worn-out soil could be rejuvenated if they relearn the cultivation skills of their ancestors. Participants recalled old practices, like burying crop residues in pits to compost and be spread on fields the following year, or collecting dry cow dung for fertilizer. The people laughed as I showed them stuff I had collected from around the church—things that should not go in the compost pile, including an old shoe from one of our church kids.
We were just getting ready to go outside for a gardening demonstration when a big dust storm blew in, and we had to race to shut the doors and windows. When the storm had passed, we went out and dug a small example plot to demonstrate how deep to dig up the hard soil and how to mix in the compost so the soil stays soft.
We ended the session with some questions and answers, and then everyone got to see how much the bread had risen. That night, I made little rolls out of the dough for everyone to eat with their breakfast the next morning.
Last Sunday, some young people and I had fun building a demonstration clay oven at my house. First, we laid bricks and then filled between them with wet earth to raise the oven. Then we laid a base of flat stones on which we heaped damp sand as a mold for the oven’s interior. The kids dug up red clay dirt from my yard and mixed it with water, and I built up two layers of wet clay over the sand. The clay isn’t dry yet, but when it is, we will dig out the sand and fire it. Then we will hopefully have a working oven they can use to make bread to sell.
