July 29

I'm discovering that, after a morning of online teaching and sitting in one place for a long time (a good teacher never sits during lessons, by the way!) I need some sort of relief and find this in gardening.  I really look forward to breaktime when I can wonder around with my cup of tea, picking off dead leaves and talking to my plants.

I keep meaning to get a proper compost heap going, but our lack of water does not help in this regard.  We do have a place where all the organic 'rubbish' is put but that it is about it.  There is no layering of soil and watering it once a week.  A couple of years ago, we did a walking tour of Makokoba, the oldest high density suburb in Bulawayo.  There was a lady there who was growing the most wonderful vegetables in old car tyres and she just piled all her peelings, banana skins and the like around each plant.  I am now doing the same.  Despite hearing my mother's voice telling me that orange and lemon peel should not be put in the compost unless it is cut up very small, I take a whole lot of old bits of fruit and vegetables and skins and dig them into a bed in which I am going to plant cherry tomatoes. 

Sian is much better today, although she still feels quite weak.  However, she is determined not to miss her horse riding lesson.  After the lesson, there is a very quick turn around as I am going to my meditation class and I also have to drop Sian and Ellie at a different stable where they work with the horses and donkeys.

The meditation is wonderful.  There is this beautiful vibration in the room and at one point I feel I am about to fall asleep, although I am very aware I am awake if that makes sense.  When I get back to the stables, I find that Sian and Ellie have taken some of the horses out for a walk on the golf course.  Time is getting on a bit and the curfew begins at six.  I probably don't need to take it very seriously as the police are not really concerned with this part of town.  Unfortunately in many ways, being in the more affluent part of Bulawayo does protect one from the atrocities carried out on a daily basis in Zimbabwe.