Takataka

It’s a cool word in Swahili, but it means trash. I hear it a lot because I am helping Simon with a project that he had started prior to my arrival. We are currently building a fence out of trash around the little “shamba” or field that borders the center. The goal is to protect the produce that the center grows from the many passers-by who pick the almost ready produce a day or two before we are ready to pick them. So Simon decided to start building a fence out of plastic bottles filled with trash. Sounds simple enough, but trying to get 10, 11, & 12 year old children to fill a bottle with trash from around their school complexes isn’t the easiest thing in the world. But it is fun and once the kids buy into it, they enjoy themselves and start to loosen up around the two white dudes. Pictures of the gate, the only part that had been constructed prior to my arrival, can be found on the center’s website in the photo gallery.