At work today we had to walk all the way back out to the fields. When we got there, we were led to the cassava plants and shown how to uproot the cassava. It is a strong plant that I can barely pull out of the ground. Each stem pulls out about four or five big cassava roots. I am not strong at all and so I had to use my entire body strength. As I would pull, the pieces would tear and get stuck in the ground and all I had pulled out was the stem. The people who work with us, who can't speak any English, kept telling me to stop, and they'd move me out of the way. It was really hard work and kind of discouraging. But at the same time it was awesome to be a part of it. Actually working out in the fields with Africans, doing the labor that they do. They had awesome machetes that they used to hack at the grass and cut things down. It was really cool. And even the women were out there doing it. Women here are very strong. I've realized that this is a culture of strong women and hard work. I was dying after close to 10 minutes and covered in so much sweat. The women here are fine. I've walked that two mile walk with a woman who had her baby tied to her back and was also balancing a massive bowl on her head filled with cassava. Its incredible that they can do that. Its amazing that people work in the fields all day and get slightly tired but not insanely exhausted. Seeing them doing actual labor is incredible because that doesn’t happen as often in the U.S. and to see people taking food through the whole process, and personally being a part of the food production in a country is amazing.
Today we uprooted cassava and tomorrow we will mill it and turn it into gari by hand. At the end of the day we will eat fufu, one of the central dishes in Ghana, that is made out of gari. And I get to experience all of that from start to finish!
After uprooting cassava for hours, we put it in large bags and giant metal bowls and everyone put them on their heads to carry back to the houses. They gave me a medium sized bowl full of cassava and I had to carry it for 2 miles on my head. It was so cool to do, but also so heavy and painful. I am having a love hate relationship with a lot of things here. Its pretty great.
I sweated so much at work that even though I drank tons of water, I never needed to pee. I just sweated it all out. I also sweated off my sunscreen and got a sunburn on my face and neck, but the rest of me was covered in long sleeves and pants. They let me sit down for a while. Well, they actually made me. They probably think I am a stupid American who cant do anything. They kept laughing and saying things with the word “bruni” in their sentences, which means white person. Its kind of embarrassing because this is their life and I'm just coming along to observe and work a little like a spoiled white American. Its true. I'm so spoiled that I can just leave my life behind and travel all the way across the world to hang out with poor people for fun. This of course is not how I feel, but how I feel they may view me. I know we are helping, but I feel like we really aren't for some reason. The other volunteers are helping in their projects, but when you go to a farm and try to actually contribute and you haven't been doing this your whole life like they have, you end up just being along for the ride.
Later in the day, I went to the ProWorld house for Fante lessons. We learned days of the week and general words. It was interesting. We had dinner with all the ProWorld people at a beach resort restaurant named Oasis. It was good food that tasted real. I had a coke, just because things from back home are so few and far between. Surprisingly the people who have volunteered arent the types of people I had expected. Kate's friends are, but the people that came in July with me are different. A lot of them are girls that seem to be focused on making sure their hair is straightened and wearing make up and getting a chance to go out drinking. Its odd, to me. The rest of the people are awkward and don’t really want to talk. So I feel stuck in the middle. I want to talk to them, but I want to talk about life and the world and being in Africa and everything amazing!!!!
Kate is exactly like me. She wants to be a midwife, shes super interested in pregnancy and how incredible it is to be able to be a creator of life. And she loves all the same things I love. She loves wearing long skirts. And she loves reading. I don’t even know how to explain it. We just end up having everything in common. Its amazing.
I recently started to read the books that I got when I visited the Buddhist monastery at Jake's house. They're difficult to read because you have to really read it and reread it but they are so incredible and centering. Right now I am reading “The way to peace and happiness.”
Today at work I saw a little boy being beaten by his mom. She was hitting him with a stick all over, even on his face. It was really upsetting. I felt like crying.
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