The seeds at our center in Adama, Ethiopia are blossoming – and for once we're not just talking about the students! Last week both our elementary and pre-kindergarden students met to discuss and decide on their next school-wide project. Continuing with the on-going efforts to beautify of our new center, the students decided to design decorate, and cultivate garden boxes that are now placed throughout the compound.

After the initial design, the students went as a group to a local carpenter to have the boxes made and to the market to buy their chosen seeds – for cabbages, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, garlic, and many varieties of herbs. After painting the boxes in bright blues and turquoise, they filled them with soil and planted and labeled their seeds.

In the coming months the class will be responsible for maintaining and cultivating the garden, and the older class will be journaling the seeds' development as part of an extended botany and science curriculum. The fruit of their labors will be used for snacks and meals at the center, and as the project is expanded, our hope is to be able to send produce home to the Seeds' families.