Jembe

...is not a drum. It is a digging tool. A Djembe is a drum in West Africa, but not in Kenya.
Today I bought a jembe (two actually) for preparing the garden at the school for planting. On the site of the future church/community center, in between all the concrete pillars, we are putting in twenty-one 9sqm raised beds for a variety of garden crops they will use to feed the kids instead of going out to buy from the market. The hope is that we will be able to not only feed the kids every day but also sell to the markets.
The garden will be based on crop rotation and organic principles. One is to separate beds of similar plants with beds of dissimilar ones to discourage the spread of insect pests. Another is planting specific flowers around each bed that dissuade pests that like that crop. These flowers do double duty: they work by themselves while they're in bloom, then afterward can be brewed into an natural spray for that crop.
The man who's teaching is called Taanuwi. We know him through our good friend Maina with LoveMercy and MajiTech, a local Christian well-drilling organization. He does not just talk about gardening though; he is passionate about it and gets excited to teach people. Those people are the school staff and some parents of students.
Since their children are getting education and two meals a day free of charge, we've begun asking parents to come help at the school when they can, which for many should be fairly often since they work sporadic jobs. Helping to create the garden that feeds their kids is a logical part of that, and the bonus is that Taanuwi is teaching new farming methods that are A) more productive than many traditional & unquestioned methods, and yet B) not harmful in the long term as are many of the recently introduced "modern" methods involving heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides. What could be better than to learn more productive farming that is easily scalable and involves no expensive chemicals, all from a man who loves what he does and loves to teach it to others!
And yet we are finding a low turnout already, only two weeks in. The first day there were thirteen total. Today two of us waited almost an hour before anyone else showed up, and no one brought tools (thus my purchases). In the end only one non-staff parent showed up, for a total of five people including Taanuwi. Slightly disappointing since we had twenty-one 1.5x6m beds to dig and break up...
So. How do you get people who are already getting something for free to come in and give a little of what they have the most of (time) back to help out their kids? Do returns really have to be that immediate to motivate?
'k God...grace, man. Grace.