DCFRN Playlets

Script

A:

Nyamache: Good morning, Ondieki.

Ondieki: Morning to you, Nyamache.

Nyamache: You look so sad, Ondieki. What is wrong?

Ondieki: There is something very wrong, Nyamache. I think you can recall the rain of yesterday evening. With all that rain, the winds were very strong.

Nyamache: Oh yes. Those winds were very strong. Did they damage anything of yours?

Ondieki: They did. They took away the roof of my house.

Nyamache: Oh, I am sorry to hear that Ondieki. But I thought your compound was surrounded by trees.

Ondieki: It was until a few weeks ago. I cut down those trees for timber.

Nyamache: Oh my! That is serious. Trees act as windbreaks. You would not have lost your roof if those trees were still there.

Ondieki: I didn’t know that.

Nyamache: Please plant other trees without delay to replace those ones that you cut.

Ondieki: Thank you Nyamache. I will. Now that you have told me, I will first rebuild my roof, and then I will plant many trees to replace the ones I cut down.

B:

Simaro: This plot of mine is not yielding as much these days as it used to do. Not only that, even the rain seems to be coming less and less in our area.

Extension Officer (E.O.): If you look at your piece of land, there is one thing which is very easy to see. A lot of soil erosion has taken place here.

Simaro: There is nothing I can do about it. You see, this is sloping land, and every little rain that comes along carries away some soil. There is nothing I can do to stop water carrying soil down the slope.

E.O.: There is a lot you could do. Judging from the many tree stumps on your land, it appears that it was once covered by many trees. Your first mistake was cutting down all those trees. Now that they are gone, there are no leaves to break the fall of the big raindrops and allow the rain to fall more gently on the ground. And there are no leaves to form a mulch on the ground any more. The tree roots will soon rot away and there will be none left to help hold the soil in place on the hillside. Look there! Soil erosion has already begun. Again because all the farmers around here have cut most of the trees, we do not have quite as much rain here as we did before. Remember that there is always more rainfall in areas where there are many trees.

Simaro: So what can I do?

E.O.: There are two things which you must do urgently. One: Build terraces. Terraces help to prevent soil erosion. I am going to show you how to do it. Two: Plant many trees. I am going to call a meeting so that I can ask all the people of this area to plant a lot of trees. Trees are important. There is always more rain in areas where there are many trees.

Simaro: Will that make our land yield more?

E.O.: It will, definitely.

C:

Jabbo: What are you doing Mummy?

Garri: I am weeding my crop.

Jabbo: What have you planted?

Garri: I planted rice.

Jabbo: Why did you decide to plant it here by the roadside?

Garri: As you can see, this is a sloping area of land and when it rains, water from the road flows over it. Also, all the other land for farming is used by other farmers. That is why I decided to grow my own crop here by the roadside.

Jabbo: When did you start farming this land?

Garri: This is now my second year of growing crops here and I have harvested 80 kilograms (175 pounds) of rice.

Jabbo: What do you do with the rice?

Garri: I use it for food for my family, and I sell some.

Jabbo: What type of fertilizer do you use?

Garri: I apply nitrogen fertilizer and goat manure.

Jabbo: What do other women think about you doing this?

Garri: Many other women have started to do the same and use roadside land for growing food crops.

Jabbo: Do you have any other job as well as farming?

Garri: I nurse my children and take care of my family.

Jabbo: Thank you for the discussion.