Fat Turtles are Gardening!

We are the Fat Turtles! We are a team of students working on a research topic for the Lumbisi Irrigation Project. We are interested in socio-economic power differential of the community, and how development projects affect and is affected by the differences in cultures and power dynamics.

The Randolph Street Community Garden (RSCG) is a community garden that allows the local community to grow their own fresh product, making fresh food easily accessible to the community who would otherwise need to travel very far for subsistence. Our plan is to visit the RSCG once a week to work and interact with the local gardeners, so that we can get a better understanding of how the garden works. Currently, working with the Randolph Street Community Garden is a good way to investigate the power relations inside the community garden, and the relation of the garden with the community. We can study the administration model that makes the garden such a success, the relationship in between gardeners and with the administrator. It will also be interesting to take note of the role that RSCG plays in the community, not just as a project to bring fresh product to the community, but also as a social and communication platform. We also believe that RSCG plays a big role in affecting the economy and the health of the community, and we are excited to find out more about that. The demographics and the culture of the community in which the garden is operating in is also very important to us, as it provides context for our study questions.

We are very excited to start working with the RSCG and bring new thoughts and observation to everyone. We hope that you will enjoy reading our blog, so stay posted for more!