Sowing Corn
So this morning, I returned from my flash trip to Ouagadougou, and I did my house chores for the rest of the morning. At 3pm, I joined a group of students in the fields in order to sow corn. We had a whole hectare planted in corn, and we are hoping that it will rain again pretty soon, in order to facilitate germination.
Since there are about seventy people studying here, and a very limited number of tools for farming, most of us were just hanging about, picking up a thing or two occasionally. I was feeling pretty useless, and I was dealing with a few young ladies who would tease me about the clothes I wear to the field. After a while, I have started plowing certain areas by hand that were unreachable to the tractor either due to a tree, or a construction.
Taking some measurements with the rope. All work is done by hand, so it is labor intensive, and we had limited tools
I learned that the corn seeds have been soaked into some pesticides in order to kill worms that might munch on the seeds kernels. This clearly contradicts the ideals of Berry Farming. I tried to talk it out with the students doing the treatment, and all I got for an answer was that they were following orders. This was clearly not the time…
The roaring tractor. It will work all day plowing most of the experimental plots for the school
The evening was dedicated to a special family visit in Niangoloko. One of the pastors who take English lessons with me lost his grandmother, and he had to travel out of town for the whole week. As soon as he got back, we made this family visit to comfort them. We ended up having an English lesson after it, and as it was getting darker, and later, we ended the class in order to let me drive back on campus.
The return trip to campus was a superfast one. I did not know I was such a coward. Hunched on my motorbike, I was literally flying the road at 100 kilometers an hour (~65 mph). Since Niangoloko is a border town, the road is not safe after certain hours.
