One of the most interesting trees here is the neem tree, whose name in Swahili translates to "forty" tree, because it is believed that parts of the tree can cure forty different diseases. The second half of the day we learned about integrated pest management, and you can create a tincture or solution from crushing the leaves in water that can be sprayed or applied on plants as a natural pesticide. It also prevents intestinal parasites in goats who eat the leaves, and I believe our instructor said that you can also dry and crush the seeds and feed them to chickens, for the same purpose. We also made different solutions from the giricidia tree leaves, onions, garlic, and vegetable-based soap, as well as learned about using wood ash as a means of controlling pests.
We walked to a pond that was originally built in the 1970s by foreigners who owned the sisal plantations nearby. Their main purpose for it was to grow fish, which must have at least partially succeeded, because there were some teenagers sitting on the bank across from us today, waiting to fish. The only water source to the reservoir is rainwater, and it has never gone dry, even in the dry season, so it must have been designed and sited well.
Then we walked to one of the nearby villages, where we mostly looked at methods of raising livestock in confined areas: dairy cattle and donkeys, goats housed "second story" to reduce disease and mite prevalence, and rabbit hutches. Chickens are everywhere, as usual, and ducks are around but less common.
Learning lessons under the hot sun.
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