Its Friday afternoon. The breeze is comfortable and caring and bringing a humble sense of freedom. The light is playing on the leaves and the rich soil prepared for planting. The small plastic hose is watering/ irrigating the ngai ngai we transplanted, Some are playing soccer in the front yard, others are doing their wash. And some are doing their knitting; Mama Odette just taught me how to crochet. The house is full, but everyone is spread out and peaceful.
I think for the first time in two weeks I am feeling calm. My back and shoulders are sore in ways they have never been before. Yesterday I was using a hoe a lot in the field, and pulling sun baked dirt can be intense.
Today was a good day. It was the last day of our first and very busy poverty alleviation week at the center. The students at the center are exhausted and have worked hard all week. Yesterday I could barely wake up I was so tired. I have been up at 5am everyday to be ready for transport and what we need at the office, but then I don’t start leading at the center until 8:30 or 9. It’s kind of like having two mornings, but only the energy for half of one. And then Vixa, Papa David, and I have been working with the students to plant and transplant and clean up the gardens and build beds in the field. Then I have been leading all the classes that go along with the practicals.
I don’t mind being on all the time, but I never had time to plan everything in advance. So preparing, leading, and physically working all week has drained a lot of energy. I think we all have learned a lot this week. For some of the students we have had a lot of comparison of who works more and complaining. Yesterday I broke everyone into teams and I think we are starting to understand how to work in a community better and why we work so hard. Today I also took time out to play a game as a group so people got to know each other better and had time to play. We all need time to play even during lessons.
And I finished my assessment for them at 7am at the office in time to print before coming here. I used photos from the week and had them describe what we were doing and why it was important. I am actually pretty proud of it, because with the differences in language skills I think it was a fairer test on actual knowledge. And we got through the other abbreviated lessons in the nick of time.
Unfortunately our time for class is not totally conducive to agriculture, so most evenings we have been here to do transplanting late in the day so we can water it without the harsh sun. Yesterday that meant working from 6am to 8 pm. But I actually enjoy working in the afternoons and seeing progress here. Its funny I am leading this group of people, when in most ways I grew up furthest from farming.
The other nice things about working along side people is getting to have informal conversations and getting to know people outside the classroom. As my mother always advised parallel play sometimes makes communicating much easier.
So we have learned a lot of lessons this week, and while not always totally prepared I think it was valuable and incredibly productive. And I think though at times people felt overworked, we also had fun. Now I am enjoying spending down time with the students and friends. I also look forward to not getting up at 5am tomorrow, after almost two weeks of it for various work related things.
also I ripped a huge whole in the back on my jeans- luckily I had a very long shirt...
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