Cultivating

We are in the midst of rainy season in Burkina which means cultivating time. From June or July when seeds are planted until harvest in October, everyone is very busy growing the food that their families will eat for the next year. I grew up in rural Wisconsin and feel I have spent quite a bit of time on a variety of farms. I will admit I’ve never done a lot of actual farming myself but I feel I have a sense of what the work involves in the United States. We always talk about how farmers work and I will agree that but it is nothing compared to farming in Burkina. There are no plows, tractors, or other machinery to help. Everything is done by hand except for the occasional cattle-led plow and carts pulled by donkeys to transport supplies. The planting and weeding are all done by hand with a daba by men and women that are bent at the waist making their way down the rows in their fields.

My family and most people in village and around Burkina are growing a variety of crops that make up the staples of their diet. This includes millet, sorghum, field corn, rice, peanuts, and black-eyed peas. There was a lot of worry in my area at the beginning of the rainy season in June and early July. If there isn’t enough rain, the crops will fail and there will be mass starvation throughout the next year. Also if people plant and there isn’t a rain within a day or two, they will have to replant the fields and this means the additional expense of more seed. Some parts of Burkina, especially north of Ouaga, continue to be concerned with low rain fall, but my village seems to be happy with the amount and regularity of the rains now. It rains several times a week now, sometimes for twenty minutes and other days for several hours at a time.

My family has several sets of fields. Some are right near the house while others are a long ways away. I have only been out in the bush to their fields once and it took 45 minutes to bike there on a day that the route was pretty good. Because it is so far, most of my family is sleeping in a small shack in the fields so that they don’t have to waste so much time going back and forth each day. Its definetly changed the dynamic in my compound with only the elderly and young kids hanging out. Not everyone in village sleeps in the fields since some people don’t have to go as far to get to their crops.

I am amazed at how my village has transformed from dry, dusty, and brown to lush, green, and muddy. Its gorgeous but it also is hell trying to get anywhere. Right after a rain I have to cross two “rivers” to get from my house to my health center. There also is thick mud to tramp through. And lots more bugs and bats now!

Because they are growing the next years’ crops, this means everyone is getting low on the stocks from last year and so malnutrition is becoming more severe. In my family, they are only eating breakfast and dinner even though they are working much harder than usual and several nights there wasn’t even dinner. Its been hard for me to hear that my kids that I spend most of my day with are hungry and so I have started sharing a lot more than usual. At the same time there is lots of talk about the new clothes and shoes everyone is getting at the end of Ramadan in mid-September. Its hard for me to understand priorities when I see children that need food. On that note, Ramadan started on Saturday so most people are fasting including pregnant and nursing women which concerns me but is the norm in my village. I have always been told that those in poor health and pregnant women should not fast but they laughed when I mentioned this. I too am trying to fast while in village though I refuse to give up water. They tell me this means I’m not fasting but I’m not willing to sacrifice my health to show solidarity with my family. Everyone is excited for the fete at the end of Ramadan though and I have promised my family that I will celebrate with them. This will be at the beginning of harvest so should be a nice time for a short break from the hard physical labor that is the daily routine now.