Farmers

You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Psalm 128:2

Monday we went to check out some of the farmers crops. A few had asked us to come but we surprised a couple. I think that just knowing we might show up helps to keep them working hard. We went to look at some of the bean growers, two maize, and two or three peanut farmers. Everything looks so good, we are so very thankful for the rains that have been steady and the prayers that have been sent up for the success of this project. I am thrilled at how happy the farmers were that we came to see and just proud of all the work most have put in. Taking care of even one acre by yourself takes a lot of time and work. We have a lot of women that are participating and the ones we visited had such clean and cared for land. There was one farmer that hadn’t spent enough time in his working, his beans looked good but there was a lot of weeds. There is our supervisors, then the farmers have elected their own supervisors along with a Chairman of the Beans, Rice…! They are big on ceremony and heiarchy! But, it is not in any of their favor that this one has gone unnoticed. They were all very quick at getting on to him and all pulling weeds and I would bet that he gets a lot more supervised. I do think that this opportunity means so much to the farmers that the majority are working hard at getting the best they can. Our supervisor (who is in most pictures – she never misses a photo opportunity!) kept saying “This is Mandate’s money out here”. At first I thought she was saying that all of it was the money we will get back, but I realized that she and others keep that in mind – that they were given this chance and need to make the most of it to show their gratefulness.

Raelee was done after the second farmer, I was done after the fifth! I think we visited eight or nine over the course of four and a half hours. Every farmer wanted us to walk around the entire acre or two acres and a few of them we had to walk a couple of acres before getting to theirs! We had no idea it would be that long and we didn’t take water with us. Big mistake! But Daddy carried her on his back, Jenifer carried her on her back and we made it through. Raelee and I raced each other to the water when we got home!

Hopefully we will go to see some of the rice crops in the next couple days. The harvest should be the middle of June/first of July, from what we saw the some of the peanuts are close to being ready. Peanuts are G-nuts, beans are beanies, corn is maize or duma when it is on the stalk then another name after it is picked and then it is ground to a flour which is called posho. Soon we will go back to see the beanies turned red, they say the fields will really be beautiful then. I am excited to see all that has been accomplished and look forward to harvest.

Speaking of harvest – right now the avocados are ripening, mangoes following right behind and it’s the best time if you ask me! I love the mangoes and have gotten pretty good at making quacamole so I am happy. We have our own trees but people keep bringing us avocados everyday. Why don’t they bring us mangoes everyday?!

Thank you for the prayers and don’t stop now, we’re not quite there yet!