What's my favourite TV programme?......

Yesterday was a HUGE day. First, we discovered (Thursday night) that there was to be a meeting at the school today for the teachers and parents about the fly problem, with Environmental Health officers there too. There is a considerable problem at the school - millions of flies everywhere! - and of course the school being slap bang next to a sewerage farm is probably not unconnected. So, mindful that things with the neighbours were hotting up, Nicky had everyone on board late Thursday night spraying what few flies we had at the farm (nowhere near as many as at the school and oddly enough, the flies on the farm were buzzing around the new sheets of plywood and the chopped down pawpaw tree and no where near the sewage truck!) so that we could go to the meeting this morning hand on heart and say that we'd done all we could to alleviate the fly issue next door. Whilst most parents have no idea what is next door, Kenrick (Chief Env. Health man) knows full well and he was presiding over the meeting at the school. The meeting went well - the school are obviously as worried about being shut down on health grounds as we are (although there is no evidence that we are causing the problem but we are aware that we are probably not helping much either!) and Kenrick noted that there is a considerable problem with illegal dumping in Kew Town (sofas, TVs, old cars and food garbage too). At 5 to 10 we had to make our excuses and leave for an interview with Immigration.

They took Nicky in first and interviewed him for about an hour: what was my favourite TV programme, which side of the bed do I sleep on, when did we meet, when did I meet his parents etc. They then grilled me for half an hour and I was under pressure to give the same answers Nicky had! We think, having analysed what we were asked and answered that we more or less gave the same answers. It was tough: it's not like Nicky or I have a 'favourite' food, we like a whole range of stuff so I had to hedge my bets and list a long list of foods in the hope that I matched some of what Nicky had said. Now we just have to wait for the board which meets sometime each month to decide if this is a genuine marriage or one for convenience! We both felt rather exhausted after all that, as you can imagine!

Although we profoundly disagree with the notion of dumping raw sewage in sink holes at the public dump, we've resorted to doing this: disgusting as it may be, it is legal whereas spreading the nutriant rich solution over the soil at the farm, though environmentally friendly is not legal and we can't risk getting caught right now. The dump was in the news the other day regarding the acrid clouds of smoke wafting all over the homes nearby. The smoke comes not only from the fires to burn the trash but also the fires started by the (illegal) rubbish pickers to keep the flies away. The receptionist at the doctors was bemoaning the fact that with no wind to disperse the smoke it is horrid at night: open the windows to cool down the house or keep them closed and keep the smoke out!

The long awaited container arrives on Sunday when we can unload the fibreglass materials to construct the missing tanks and get the whole sewerage system back on track. The cross beams on the big tank at the bottom of the hill (ie under the new house) are now poured and in about 2 weeks we'll have a huge enclosed tank at the bottom of the hill and four enclosed filtration chambers at the top of the hill. All this assuming that SPICE don't catch up with our illegal workers first.....SPICE (the immigration police) are out in force at the moment on road blocks and doing dawn raids in the bush and on construction sites picking up illegals - they are rounding up about 200 a week and if we lost Julio and Cholo right now we'd be stuffed (first because Nicky could face a $10,000 fine for each one and second because they are great masons!). So, Julio and Cholo (Colombians) and Nocius and Daris (Haitians) are instructed to walk into the bush if they see any government officers coming down the farm track!

On a happier note, my vegetable garden is making headway too. I've abandonded plans to have the veggie patch at home where there is no water easily to hand because there is space down at the farm which has a spectacular sprinkler system in place. Today we moved the seedlings out of the mist house (a 10 second burst of water every 10 minutes throughout day light hours) and onto tressle tables outside where they get more sun. Right now we have courgette, radish, hot peppers, aubergines, melons and tomatoes on the go. We can't get seed here,so I'm being frugal with the seeds we bought in Miami (all F1 hybrids so useless for using the seeds from this year's crop next year) - also to avoid having massive glut of fruit and veg! Potentially, I could grow all year round, so the seasons are not a problem. The courgettes (the biggest seedlings in the photos above) were planted on 15 May.......stuff grows very fast here if you water it well! I also harvested some Key Limes off the tree last week: very very juicy!