Village Life - Episode #1


Heading home after a day in the groundnut field

I've been in village for 2.5 weeks and am settling into the groove. Our first three months in village are a time for integrating into our community rather than focusing on projects/work. Our success ultimately depends on our relationships in the community, so integration is job #1. 
It is also a time for figuring out our own rhythms for food, sleep, exercise and generally taking care of ourselves. I've been cooking my own breakfast over a single burner propane  stove (omelet with onion and shaved sweet potato) and taking lunch and dinner with my family. I've also started a 3x per week routine of doing an out-and-back bike ride along the one and only paved road for about 20-25 miles.
It is dark from about 7 PM to 7 AM and that doesn't change much with the seasons since we are close to the equator, so it works well with my preferred early to bed/early to rise schedule. And I've been spending a good bit of time nesting and working on home improvements - more on that in a later blog after some works-in-progress wrap up. 
My village is a farming village - coos during the rainy (summer) season, groundnuts in the fall, and cashews in the late winter/spring. Plus a few other things. The groundnut harvest is wrapping up right now. I've been out to the fields a few times to lend a hand. Pulling the plants with nuts attached to their roots from the ground and staking them in piles, winnowing the nuts from the chaff after a period of drying, and sifting through the dirt with our hands to collect the stray nuts left behind. It's a family affair for sure. All hands and all ages on deck, except for one or two people left behind to cook lunch. Some days lunch is brought to the fields, which are 1-2 kilometers from our compound, so the workers can put in a longer day. 

Elevation + wind + gravity = winnowing

At the end of a day of winnowing, everyone who helped gets 1-2 bowls of peanuts for themselves. We usually sit around in the afternoons shelling them back in the compound. (Ask me to demonstrate their efficient technique someday.) The shelled nuts can be sold to the local bitik (small village shop that sells all the key essentials). I sold mine one day and made about $1.25 USD! Although I gave the money to my host mom, I would have had enough to but a dozen eggs.
Most of the groundnuts are bagged in their shells and sold to a middleman. The dried plants are collected and used for livestock fodder. This is really important because there will be very little pasture grass until the rainy season begins in June or July. 
Be benoon yoon, jamma rek! [Until next time, Peace only!]


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