SHILLONG: “A small patch” is not how one would describe the garden at Sacred Heart Convent and School in Mawlai but that is how Sister Superior Teresa Kamauan chooses to humbly refer to it.
The vegetable and fruit garden behind the school building is a delight in this distressing time. It is also the source of food for over 200 people in the convent most of whom, however, left before the lockdown started.
The nuns also feed the neighbours and those who are needy from their vegetable gardens.
“We have distributed the vegetables to many parts of Shillong”, they said.
Teresa said the garden has a wide variety of vegetables because “we plant whatever we get”. There are cabbages, broccolis, carrots, beans, spinach, lettuce, coriander, mint, tomatoes, maize, beet root, garlic, onion, Lakadong turmeric, passion fruit, kiwi, plums and peaches. There is also a range of herbs.
Teresa and Sr Lydia Pala, principal of Sacred Heart Girls’ Higher Secondary School, are among the workers who are helping with the gardening. “There used to be students who would help with gardening but now that most of them have left, we are all helping,” said Teresa.
Teresa and Pala said the sisters who are staying in the convent are helping in the gardening.
“We do all the chores. We eat whatever we plant, we usually do it in the morning and if it rains, we do all social work in the evening,” said Pala.
The sisters in the convent together with the gardener, Prominus Nongrum, dig and plant in the garden. “We get 10-20 kg of produce at one go and we share it with the neighbourhood,” said Teresa.
“We are enjoying in sharing the fruits of our labour,” added Teresa.
