Gardening in South Sudan: Week 1

The “nursery” is coming alive as some of the vegetables I planted in the deep red South Sudanese soil are sprouting.  Some seeds seem to be more receptive to the soil than others.  So far, as can be seen by the photo above, the lettuce is sprouting well.  There is hopeful notice of the cherry tomatoes starting to come up.

The routine involves watering morning and night, when the heat of the day isn’t so intense.  South Sudan is coming up to the hottest months (February and March) reaching up to 50 degrees Celsius which can be detrimental to the plants. These months are followed by a cooler rainy season which is when most farmers plant seeds.  This nursery is really an experiment to see which seeds will grow in this soil.  After this round, we’ll eliminate those plants that didn’t germinate properly and increase production of those that do by planting the seeds directly into the soil when the rainy season starts.

The garden is a-go, people.  Get out your shovels and prepare to swat the apple-sized locust because Oren is growing his veggies big!

Five Photo Friday: Wau Market

The Wau market is a giant expanse of retail goods from dried fish to wheelbarrows to orange drink. A maze of retails line the walls and floor of this marketplace.  Unrefrigerated butcheries, expensive grocery stores and small one-woman vendors with only one or two items make the Wau Market a beautiful but chaotic experience.

It was hard to take photos in this market.  People, rightfully, were suspicious of my photo taking and refused.  After a few refusals and to avoid any possible hostilities, I decided to stop taking photos there.  Here are a few of what I could take.

Pictured above: Beans for sale presented on canvas bags -  most likely imported as is most food.  Notice that the ground is sandy and unpaved – there is basically no asphalt in this city except for a few places. 

Pictured above: The wall to wall display of packaged food items at one of the more expensive grocery stores and one where you can actually walk into the shop.  Fuel prices dictate the cost of these import items which are getting more expensive daily.

Pictured above: A woman vendor next to her basket of items.  She was kind enough to let me photograph her.

Pictured above: These stones are some sort of desiccant though I couldn’t get the a real answer on their purpose.  Pictured as well are some green vegetable called “greens” and, in the far right corner, some sweet potato. 

Pictured above: A typical open air vendor shop.  Eggs are unrefrigerated, oil is sectioned into cola bottles, tomatoes are stacked into purchasable units and everything is reduced to a single serving portion.  There is no economy of scale here from what I can tell.

BONUS PICTURE – Pictured above:  Just a guy with his scales who was considerate enough to let me take his photograph.  I don’t know what he was selling that required  a scale.

Gardening in South Sudan

Vegetables are expensive in Wau as South Sudan has a very little agriculture and so I decided to start gardening in the backyard.

Only four percent of South Sudan is farmland. Some vegetables are imported and those that are local are still expensive due to the but the cost of fuel to bring them to the main cities.  In Wau, we get tomatoes, beans, onions, something generic called “greens” .  Currently for fruit, there are oranges with mangos and papaya coming in a few months.  None of these vegetables and fruit are of a decent quality but this is something all international NGO workers must deal with when living in a low resource country.

The first step is to acquire seeds that may or may not grow in hot African climates.  For some reason, I also brought some fertilizer with me.  The unlabeled bag on the left is filled with tomato seeds.

The garden space started off with burnt patches and a variety of broken CFL bulbs and plastic bottles scattered around.

After dissolving mud from my trip to Mapel, we planted seeds in egg cartons and left sprout.

We cleaned the area and turned the soil.  Even the security guard joined in on the fun.

This is the start of a real garden. I have never gardened in my life and especially not in Africa.  There are many questions:  Will the seeds grow in this soil? Will the bugs eat my plant to pieces?  Is it too dry for to grow these plants? 

Here is the final layout of the garden with the soil turned.  It will be a few weeks before we plant… 

What do you think?  Success or failure?  Can colder climate plants survive the harsh South Sudan environment?  Have you ever had a garden in Africa?  Write your thoughts and experiences in the comments.