A Day in the Village
Back in February, some friends and I spent a day with women in a local village. The ladies are part of a co-op and get together at someone’s home a couple of times a week to make jewelry and visit with one another.
The home where we spent the day.
We were dropped off at the end of a windy, dirt road that got thinner and thinner until it became more like a trail. Then we walked another 30 minutes through banana trees and crop fields to get to the home we were visiting. Eight women were waiting to show us what an average day looks like for someone in the village. And it was a full day!
Our host for the day, Mediatrice.
Preparing sweet potatoes for lunch.
• I hoed alongside the women and picked
soybeans, all while chickens were running loose under our feet.
• The cow needed food, so we cut grass with a small machete.
• I learned the secret of carrying things on your head….banana tree leaves rolled into a crown-type thing. It goes between your head and whatever you want to balance and carry up there.
• The group walked a good distance to collect water from a well tucked in the middle of sweet potato fields.
• Two elderly, barefooted women showed us how to dig up sweet potatoes with a combination of garden hoes and their toes.
• Lunch, which included all foods grown on the land right there, was beans, cassava, sweet potatoes (best I've EVER eaten), pineapple, and avocado.
Ending the day with dancin' and singin'.
• Spent the afternoon weaving jewelry made from sisal plants. They showed us how to open the giant sisal leaves and strip it down to the string that's in the center. Then it’s dyed and woven together.
• Rwandan-style dancing and singing ended the day.
All of the women were lovely and very excited to share their day-to-day experiences with us. They asked us about as many questions as we asked them!
I posted more pictures from the day over on Facebook. Check them out here.
Learning to weave jewelry...and laughing a good bit, too.