But these past couple weeks I have learned to appreciate this modern marvel. My first experience with rice came last Monday (well 2 Mondays ago). Nov 1st is a national holiday here, for All Saints Day. Since everyone (who actually has a job) had off work, the church held a work day to help the pastor thresh his freshly-harvested rice.
I'm pretty sure in the West we've forgotten what threshing is.. since the combine (hence the name) both harvests and threshes the grain in one fell swoop. Not so here. As you can see, a couple dozen people form a nice big circle and beat the snot out of the grain that is piled on the ground. Though its hard to tell at first, after doing it for a bit I learned there was a bit of method to their madness. They actually make a pretty sweet rhythm to avoid hitting each other, even as we rotated around and moved in and out to make sure we got all the grain. Anyhow, beating the straw and grain separates the rice from the stalks (straw). And if you didn't know - I didn't - pre-threshed rice looks a whole lot like wheat.
Here are some more pics - me going at it ^
The piles of rice before the threshing ^
Women carrying in the rice from the fields ^ That brings me to the other half of the long process of harvesting....
Tuesday Matt and I went out to Igbani (pretty positive thats spelled wrong), the 10 hectare (25 acre) farm owned by the Handicap Center. Just getting there was an adventure, it was 5-6 km away and the road/path was pretty bad. With Matt driving a 100cc moto and me on the back, it was a pretty crazy ride. Plus we got a little lost. I'm pretty sure the people here have white-man-dar or some sort of spy network where they radio in when a white person has been spotted. After we called, Timote found us SO fast even though we were nowhere near where we were supposed to be.
Anyhow, I got a lesson on harvesting the rice - I'll have to get the pictures from Matt. Using a little hand sickle, men cut the rice and lay it in bundles that the women then carry in to be threshed! Six to ten people are working all week this week to harvest the rice and we'll have another threshing party on Monday. All this work to harvest and thresh a field that would take 1 person a couple hours with a combine. Totally crazy.
But the even crazier part is that a combine wouldn't actually be useful here at all. Aside from all the cost, repair, maintenance and parts issues, labor is the one commodity that is not in short supply in Burkina. With 77% unemployment (country-wide that is; its almost definitely worse in the bush), all the high-capital, low-labor technology of the West is of no use here. New technology that uses the available labor while improving the quality of life and requires a small amount of capital is what is appropriate here. But it takes a huge change in world view to think this way, rather than Americana bigger is always better!
Anyhow, it looks like it will be a bumper harvest, even though the rice was planted a little late. In its first year of production, the 4 hectares planted will provide a bunch of rice for school lunches at the blind and deaf schools in the Handicap Center! Matt's hoping to up their production to 8 hectares next year.
Sorry I've been slow in updating my blog. Time has flown by, and before I know it I'll be home. Miss you all!
Peace
Jason
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