Udin had heard that he was helping the villages with other livelihood projects as well.

Page 9      The school bell sounded, calling the people to gather inside one of the rooms. The team told them how compost would enrich their poor soil and give them good harvests. Udin listened attentively.

Page 10    They heard that yellowish and reddish soil needed compost to counteract the acidity in it. The speaker asked the villagers whether their gardens were producing well. Many, including Udin, shook their heads.

Page 11 He asked them what they did when the soil in their gardens became poor. They said that they would open new land. He asked them to consider using compost to sustain their land.

Page12 They spent the rest of the day helping to gather the materials to make the compost and to choose the site of the compost heap. They chose a corner of the school garden which was level and dry.

Page 13 Two zinc sheets were donated by Niko. They laid them on the ground and cut pieces of bamboo and leaf stalks of the sago palm to put up an open shed for the compost heap.

Page 14 They made a roof from the sago leaves and it was such great fun working togther as a group that they did not notice the time passing. In no time the work was done. Then the team showed them how to make the compost.

Page 15 They put the rectangular box that they had made on the floor. It had no bottom and was 1.5 m long and 1 m wide. It was only 20 cm deep. This box was for holding the plant materials in as they built up the heap.

Page 16 For the first layer, they put in dried leaves and grass, dried corn stalks with the leaves. These were cut into small pieces to allow them to decompose faster. Sawdust was put in too. This was filled up to 5-10 cm deep and then water was sprinkled over it.