The A Frame Chicken Tractor

I’m a 25 year old (that looks like she’s 16), unmarried, white American woman that is here to volunteer and live in Mashai for 2 years. I claim to have no money, seeds, food or candy to give but I’m here to teach children about Agriculture and HIV at the schools. I don’t speak Sesotho very well and I turn down "quality" marriage proposals from Basotho men. This is what the villagers of Mashai learned about me in my first few days at my new home.
I am the local celebrity and under constant observation by villagers and scrutinized for everything I do that’s not Basotho. People who come to visit immediately notice all the things I’m doing incorrectly like cooking papa, making my bed, washing my clothes, arranging my house and gardening. It was so frustrating for a while. My village mother was especially critical, which made things even more challenging because she’s the most respected woman in our village. I’m hardly an expert in gardening but I do know how to plant and care for vegetables and how to prevent soil erosion and conserve water.
When I started to plant and dig my plots this Spring (September) my Me’ would tell me I was doing everything wrong. My plots were not smooth enough, my seeds were not in a straight line, my mulch was sloppy and should be removed, and I shouldn’t plant more than one type of seed in each plot. I felt I was doing everything right but most of the Basotho women who came to visit felt the same as Me’. My issue was trying to find a compromise – I’m here to teach Permaculture and I didn’t feel like the gardening methods the Basotho do are environmentally sound or practical. There is so much soil erosion, a major drought, and not enough food. People here are not ready to change methods especially when the new ideas come from a "young girl" from America. I felt like there was no hope in teaching anything to the community women and my first growing season was very frustrating, but things changed after I built the A-Frame Chicken Tractor.
This Spring brought the birth of many farm animals around the village. My Me` had about 10 baby chicks running around the compound the first week of October. The bright yellow balls of fluff soon became victims of feral cats and quick falcons and after only a week she had half the chicks that were hatched. Many other villagers were also losing their baby chicks to the predators around the village. I remembered seeing a chicken house design for small chickens in a Permaculture book I was reading. One afternoon I collected many small sticks and constructed a small A framed chicken house. I didn’t have chicken wire so I used string, sticks and feed sacks. This chicken house is a small portable A framed house that protects chickens from predators and moves the chickens around to "fertilize" the soil, eat insects and dig up weeds in the garden.
I built the house while my Me’ was gone working in the fields and put the baby chickens in it. I had fun making it, it was like a big craft project and I knew if Me’ didn’t like it we could at least burn it to cook papa for dinner. That afternoon Me’ returned from the fields and saw the chicken house. She muttered some things in Sesotho and gave me a grin. She soon took charge of "positioning" the chicken house and would place it near road so people would yell over the fence and ask her about it. She bragged about her American daughter all week and soon villagers started coming to me with questions about agriculture. All because of some sticks, feed sacks and yarn. Within a couple of days several villagers came over to our compound, dragging sticks and holding wire to have me show them how to build the A-Frame chicken tractor. Me' started to listen to some of my suggestions on where to plant, what to plant etc. I've since introduced a few other permaculture methods to Mashai - and so far people really are really receptive. I too have learned a ton.
Now that my community knows me better I like to think they see me as a 25year old woman who has a lot of experience to share with people in the village. I know they treat me much different now. Also the eligible bachelors of Mashai now know that I'm definetly not here for marriage as I've spread the word I'll only marry a man that is willing to cook, clean and haul my buckets of water ;)