A 69-year-old pensioner and retired building construction manager, Vho-Namadzavho Wilson Nembambula, has found a productive way of spending his pension days as a small, home-based farmer in Tshithuthuni village near Siloam.

Nembambula, who handed the reins of his building construction company to his sons four years ago, had turned his home yard into an orchard where he grows mealies, sugar cane, mangoes, sweet potatoes, avocados, tomatoes, bananas and spinach.

“I love this kind of activity because it enables me to see the wonders of creation when I witness seeds germinate and push up the soil to become these big plants and trees,” he said with a wide smile. “Believe me, there is a kind of spirituality or different atmosphere the moment you step into my orchard. I feel it all the time.”

He added that he also wanted to cut short the distance which the people in his village had to spend to go and get vegetables and fruits at the distant shops in Biaba and Thohoyandou. 

He is also into small-scale bee farming, and he shares sweet, rich honey with his neighbours.
“He invited me into his home and gave me some fresh honey last Friday,” said the celebrated gospel singer Sammy Mutibi, Nembambula’s neighbour. “It tasted sweet and delicious. I am proud of the hardworking Vho-Nembambula.”

Nembambula had no borehole in his yard and he couldn’t rely on communal water taps to sustain his plants. So, some three years ago, he bought water pipes and connected them to a river some 4km away from his home. “It was not an easy task, but I had to be strong enough and lay my pipeline along the mountain,” he stated. “Today I have enough water for household use and for keeping my trees and plants wet.”

When his fruits and vegetables are ripe, he sells them in the streets of Tshithuthuni and Siloam. 
He also plants seedlings, and once they have grown, sells the small trees which people can plant at their homes.

“Today I am confident to say God’s existence can be seen in the greenness and springing of plants,” he said. “I am continuing to find joy in my old age. A green life comes with old age.”