Yes. Completely.
I have been competely amazed by how much more democratic the village is. Although their system seems autocratic with a chief, headmen, and sub-headmen, this system is far more democratic and fair from what I am used to.
All big decisions are taken at community meetings and from my personal experiences the Headman is more a facilitator than a CEO. He really echoes the needs of the collective and facilitates reaching fair conclusions.
I have never been more aware of how misrepresented this system of governance has been by colonials.
What I have seen is definitely not a case of dictatorships. Left alone, the system that I have observed is far more fair and just than anything I have been used to.
We can all learn a lot, and re-learn a lot as well for that matter.
All the best

Charles

So nice to hear from you and get all your best wishes.
Thanks so much to you for all your help getting us this far.
Our project farmers are up to 13 at the moment.

Some of these have been planted and others are in the process of being planted.

Each of these is a family or homestead plot.

The family still plants their corn as usual, but they also plant an essential oil plant, either on the same plot, or on another piece of land if they have it.

At the moment we are still only planting lemongrass, but in February hope to plant Rose Geranium.

Each participating family has also been given a selection of store bought vegetable seeds and half a dozen fruit trees.

Having access to seeds will be incredible, we will get every seed out into the community and monitor to ensure that they are planted correctly and help with training.

By the way, last week I planted our first small experimental plot of “Three Sisters”

I am hoping to get another three or four experimental plots planted before Christmas.

We have our nursery up and running and have had reasonable success with cuttings of Rose geranium, Rosemary, Origanum, Marjorum and Thyme.

We are also growing seeds of Roselle and Tea Tree.

We even have a small bed of bamboo which somebody asked us to see if we can propagate as they might have a commercial demand.

I am going to try and get my hands on half a dozen pelargonium zedoides over the next week to send up so that we can start cuttings and beds of these.

We will have our first harvest of Lemongrass in March and will let you know how the drying and processing of that goes.

On the seed front, over the next 12 months we want to get 20 project families established in another five additional villages.

As a way of moving forward we will distribute vegetable seeds and knowledge about planting to these additional 100 families.

I will also try and get fruit trees from the government to each family as well.

All the very best, and we will need to get some funding to get your expertise out here, especially on the Perargonium front.

Cheers

Charles

Where would you be shipping from, and what would you estimate the cost to be. Our org might be able to help…

Cheers,
Chris

Thanks much for the update on the lemongrass project. I was beginning to wonder. Would love to see those plots about April 1, and wish I could figure out how to get a few thousand starter plants to you. (I checked at the SA Embassy here and the South African ag authorities would definitely erect some obstacles.) And I am sooooo glad that you made basic nutrition an integral part of the plantings. Were any of the veggie seeds I left with you particularly well accepted? I can get an almost unlimited supply of those gratis every July/August, if you can get someone to pay the shipping.

It’s the beginning of winter here and my few thousand lemongrass plants are safely tucked into the greenhouse.

Best wishes to everyone I worked with. I think of you all and Nquelini Village in general often.

Wish I were there to see the project in person.

You can contact: larskonersmann@solarenergy.ch I would also be willing to help with sourcing local parts. We would need the valve from them – or at least the technical details.

Willem van Niekerk