A Skill Learned from an Older Person: Four Spoken Responses

The skill that comes to mind is vegetable gardening, which I learned from my grandmother at her home just outside Mutare. Her garden was never particularly large, but it supplied an impressive amount of food, so I became curious about how she managed it.

One August holiday, she gave me responsibility for a narrow bed of tomatoes and leafy vegetables. She first demonstrated how to loosen the soil and work in compost, and then showed me how far apart the seedlings needed to be. What I found most useful was her way of teaching me to observe rather than follow a fixed timetable. For instance, instead of watering automatically every evening, I learned to feel the soil and look at the leaves.

I still use that skill in Harare, although I only have containers and a small patch of ground. It saves some money, but its real value is that it has made me more patient and attentive. If a plant is struggling, I now look for the cause and adjust gradually. Oddly enough, that same habit has helped me in my work as well.