Living out in the bush can be hard with limited access to resources, but right now it’s beautiful and when we aren’t doing other things, we go out to the farms. I will go out to the bush with Sibou and our neighbor JahKaddy to pick some greens, they call kucha, and we’ll go pick ripe lemons, okra, and peppers out of the overgrown garden. I enjoy doing that but it was nothing compared to going out to the farms these past weeks after the rice and coos had finally seeded. Oh my friends, these farms are a beautiful sight to see and a wonderful place to work. The first time I went out to the farms after the crops had seeded, I took my camera once and everybody I saw was so happy to see me come out – it’s about a 40 minute walk from the village. They were so proud of their crops that will be ready to harvest within the month. Several people took me around their farms and asked me to take pictures of their crops, and I gladly obliged to document proof of their toil, skill, strength and pride of their work.
Currently, the main tasks are to sit in these locally made structures called ‘bantaba’s’ and scare away birds and monkeys. A lot of old women and children participate in this task of live scarecrows, which also makes going out to the farms fun. One old lady had a big old bowl she was drumming on when we came by. She was great, drumming and dancing around while yelling at birds.
Small boys taking their families lunch out to the farms
Nacas Colley in his Bantaba watching for monkeys
Rice fields
Host mom Isotou in our rice fields that we will be enjoying soon!
Small boy using sling shot to scare away birds
The entrance to our village
Mamou Badgie's coos fields
What a tall tall field!!! Look at you Kate, now imagine it was me!
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