June 9

I transplanted some vetiva grass, which has a very complex and strong root system. You plant it in places to decrease erosion. So I began to work on that when Mispa came out and told me it was "Country Sunday" and that I "cannot work the soil". I had heard about "Country Sunday" before. It is a day once a month (which appears to have nothing to do with Sunday) where you cannot work the soil but have to do other work instead, government offices are cleaned apparently. But I thought she was joking so I smiled. With a serious look on her face she told me I had to stop and do something else. I told her I would need to transplant the one plant otherwise it would die out in the hot sun. It was taking me a while to uproot the tuft of grass and move it to another area. Pius came out and told me I would need to stop with the vetiva grass and seed plants instead because it was Country Sunday and Africans are "fearful of the unknown". Country Sunday seems to be a government created thing but it also seems like there is some aura around it that if you do work the land on that day that something bad will happen. I really liked the job of digging up the grass with this heavy digging stick. I haven't done much manual work and my body was feeling in need of some exercise so I told Pius i would come up and get the seeds. I finished planting the grass and came in about 20 min later. I should have stopped and respected their very unclear "holiday" of sorts but I wanted to continue and finish the job.

I planted some papaya seeds, which they call Popo. Then we fixed the propagator, which is like a small green house made out of wood and plastic. We added new plastic because it has been damaged from time and weather. Then I put 12cm of large flat rocks, then smaller rocks and then covered it all with a ton of sand and saturated it with water. Mirabelle came and the three of us collecting stems from certain species of trees and did cuttings and put them in the new propagator.