Chiedza is a small girl of two with badly scarred hands. She came to Eden from social services. Her father abused her by burning her. She cries all of the time, which is an improvement from her previously hollow eyes.

I met Michael because he is helping us with compost-- he has been to many Farming God's Way trainings. He has a large head and large features to match. He wears a worn grey suitcoat, and a different pair of destroyed sandals every day. He knows a lot about farming, compost, and raising worms, but his eyes and mouth carry a smirk that are not trustworthy.

Watson is five years old, but the height of a two year old. Although his parents were also very small, we suspect that he is also HIV positive. Unlike all the kids runnning after me and chasing me for attention, he stayed on the periphery for two days before first calling my name. He likes to push the net swing to and fro for the other kids. I've heard he can dance better than anybody in the Village, but he hasn't danced for me yet.

Rudo got into trouble for not listening to her house mom, so she spent a week working with me in permaculture. From the moment she began work until she stopped, she was singing worship songs. Not quietly to herself, but as if she were singing a solo for God her Father. She has several siblings, but only ever gets to see her twin sister. Most of them she has never met, and doesn't know if they are alive or dead. She did not want pity, but continued singing-- without skipping a beat. She invited me to a teen girls' Bible study, and now I have gone twice. Those girls belt out praise-- the glory!

Alice works in the fields for Eden, and sometimes is assigned to work in permaculture. She cannot be much over twenty. She is thinner than most of the Shona women, and sometimes her clothes can't help but fall off of her revealing a nearly perfectly flat chest. I know that she has had children, and I wonder if she is able to give them milk. I did not realise the magnitude of the weariness and sadness she carries until the day she smiled at me. Unlike the other women that work in permaculture sometimes, she does not really speak to me-- in Shona or English. We've only exchanged two or three words, but we both respect the work we share. A smile from her is a bigger gift than all the attention from laborers that drift through...

I met Normetta because she followed me. She followed me on my run from the farm to the village and back, barefoot and wearing her marroon chiffon dress. I used the few Shona phrases I know to learn her name and her age, 13. Since then I have seen her in sewing class and a few times at the girls' Bible study. As a younger girl in both of these places, she never speaks a word. All the kids in the sewing classes are making bags for their first project, with their names sewed on the front pocket. This is how I learned her name is actually No Matter. I wish I could just hand over love and confidence to her like a gift-wrapped package. I wish it were that easy.

Wallace works in the Agape center as Judy's right hand man, helping distribute food to the different village houses (the Village refers to the orphanage). My first impression of Wallace was hearing his distinctly deep and rough voice literally screaming at four or five kids coming up from the lake. This is one part of Wallace. There are many other parts. He used to be crazy, and everyone wrote him off as the village idiot. He would run around in different outfits with capes and the like, sneaking up on people, crouching, pouncing and rolling in the grass. Sometime in his past he was presumed crazy, put on serious medication, and then actually became a bit loony. Eventually Judy pieced things together and slowly took him off his meds. Probably because he acted the village idiot for so long, he's still a bit strange, but he is definitely not psychotic. He does his job very well, he uses English vocab words that no one knows, and he pulls the most ridiculous pranks. He is very serious about his responsibilities to his job, his wife, and his children. Moreover, he has accepted foster children from Eden because there is no more room in the orphanage. Foster children are very taboo in Shona culture, so this is really a big deal. Perhaps he was already so outsted from the culture before, he doesn't fear this stigma anymore. He's been saving up money for ages to buy a bicycle, which he finally recieved a couple weeks ago. Now I see him around, riding his bike with his pants tucked into Christmas patterned socks, his backpack almost falling off, and a neon yellow helmet. I haven't seen anyone wear a helmet but him. :>)

There are many more children (and adults) that deserve note-- baby Tinashe, Nyasha, Pauline, Angela, Proud, Yolanda, Hamu, Brian, baby Chiedza, Rumbi, Petina, Ionus, Agnus, Anyway, Calvin, Patterson, Rigorai, Mercy, Ruth, Lucina, Chipo…

So the good news about permaculture….

The squash look fabulous, and in a couple months we should have a tremendous harvest. The tomatoes have all been mulched, and onions are almost ready to go in with them. Marigolds have been planted in with about 1/3-1/2 of the squash, and more are on the way for planting anywhere and everywhere. We had a fabulous germination of ALL the beans we planted. I squealed when I saw the beautiful little guys. Weeds have been somewhat controlled, guavas have been harvested, bananas are looking almost ready, pawpaws have been successfully transplanted, and we have four large compost cubes going (and working!). THis is all just spilling out of me in no particular order, so I know there are things I am missing. Oh, the rape (or rugare I still can't tell the difference) has also all been mulched-- hallelujah. We're waiting on more thatching grass to come from the chicken house roof repairs to do even more mulching. The peppers are under control. The maize for our three sisters project has been in the ground for maybe five days now.

Worrisome things: are cabbage look very sad and we don't really know what to do. At least until the compost gets done. The carrots Ghani planted ages ago had very poor germintation. The rainy season is very swiftly coming to a close. A lot of our melons died somewhere in the hubbub. There is something "stinging" our baby squash, which eventually causes them to rot from the inside out. This is not a new thing, but I really wish it wouldn't happen. We will lose so much food. I've read that marigolds are the "work horse of pest deterrents" so I'm planting them in the squash. We'll see? If anything they look kind of nice, and may also help the soil. If anybody has any suggestions for protecting butternuts from some unknown insect??? I'm also planning on planting some more onion/rosemary/mint by our poor cabbages. But I've just began reading about companion planting, so this is all just going out on a limb. But Ghani is very open to trying to new things and experimenting. He may be more excited than me. haha.

We JUST began a starter trial for raising worms... and I am worried as heck about them. I don't know if I'm feeding them exactly the right kind of thing, I don't know how to keep the ants under control, I'm afraid they will get too hot in the greenhouse, and I'm worried the moisture won't be right. Who ever thought worms could cause so much worry?? I've only talked with a few people about this whole worm thing, and am going off of word of mouth. I haven't been able to find any kind of written materials... so we'll see! I guess that's why it's a trial... but I still feel bad because Michael gave us the worms. I don't want them to needlessly die.

I don't have time to coherently write anything else, but I wanted to share a short passage that I read from a book called Imperfect People. Anywho, the passage is about the word "peace." I wouldn't say the excerpt is brilliant, but it does share some of what I mean when I sign letters or emails with "Peace" or even including the word "peace." So here it is:



Peace (Hebrew, shalom; Greekm eirene) is one of the great Bible words in both Testaments. Its overtones are always of total well-being and happiness, so that peace in English is hardly forceful enough to express it. It means, to start with, peace with God, sin forgiven, guilt gone, your person accepted. It also means peace with yourself. If God has forgiven you the grisly things you've done, then you'd better start forgiving yourself; you must learn to be at peace with yourself now that you're at peace with God. It means peace with your circumstances too. If God, the Lord of circumstances, is at peace with you, you can be sure that henceforth he orders and controls circumstances for your good, as Romans 8:28 explicitly declares he does. So even though things may feel rough, just because you know they're for your good, you can live at peace with them and at peace under them.

"Peace be with you," said Jesus. "Peace be with God, peace with yourself, peace with your circumstances. I bring you peace." And when he said this, we're told, he showed them his hands and his side. He didn't do that to identify himself, for they already knew who he was. He did it so that they would see the wounds and the nail prints in his hands and the spear wound in his side and be reminded of what he'd suffered on the cross in order to make for them the peace that he was now bringing to them.

The disciples, we're told, were overjoyed when they saw the Lord among them. But then Jesus repeated his greeting: "Peace be with you." The very fact that he repeated it shows that it was more than a mere greeting. Repetition in Scripture, as in daily life, is for emphasis and to enforce significant meaning. It was supremely important to Jesus that the disciples should understand all that he meant when he said to them, "Peace be with you."

Peace and love to you all,
Emily :>)