A "school garden" Liberian-style

As part of a 4-day site visit to multiple project, one of our alternative basic education school sites invited us to tour a school garden prior to observing a lesson.  We jumped at the opportunity to tour a garden, relatively new aspect of an education project that taught students valuable life/agricultural skill in addition to the traditional reading and numeracy.

Now, when I think school garden, this is what I picture.  Apparently, this is what the average American may picture since this and many other pictures of cute kids alongside cute little plots popped up in my "school garden" Google search.  Clearly the Google search engine has never ventured into Nimba County, Liberia.

When we arrived at the school we descended the vehicle and introduced ourselves to the school, project and county education officials.  

When they instructed us to get back into the vehicle to go to the garden I should have suspected something was up.  

When we drove. . .and drove. . .and drove about 15 minutes away from the school I started to really get suspicious.  

When we pulled off at the side of the road and were directed to climb up a nondescript dirt incline on the side of the road I thought "This is NOT a 'typical' garden."

So we climbed, cut through brush, turned down a lightly tread overgrown path then down another.  I though about my heels and my skirt.  I scratched my leg on a wayward branch.  One of many.  Finally one of the officials suggested we stop soon and not go "too deep." I thought we were already pretty deep.

The "garden" was a cross between a forest and a farm!  Apparently that's how they roll with school gardens up in here:)  Behold, a school garden in Liberia:  

Official pulled out a plant

Cassava plant leave.

Roots of cassava plant: The cassava itself