Miriam won the science fair!
You know, I could have played the hermit yesterday but I didn't
and on my way to the shop for eggs, I ran into Miriam, she has been living with
a sister in town.
Miriam’s solar oven won the science fair! Out of all the twenty-eight districts in the
Northern region, Miriam won! And I
helped her/taught her how to do that solar oven. I could not believe it.
All is well here. I
ran into the woman whom I gave the demonstration plot to. The rice still is not transplanted. I could
not even care.
When I first came here, the farmers complained about being
called out of the fields all the time to come be at some meeting that did not
benefit them at all. They get called for
meetings all the time by this NGO or the other, either to give information or
to talk or to just be seen.
And if the farmers ever say anything about what a waste of
their time it is, the NGO comes back and says “How dare you. I am here to help you. And you cannot even give me a moment of your
time?”
And so it is with demonstration plots. Two sides.
The NGO would say: We
gave you all the inputs. We are working
and trying to help you. And you won’t
even get the rice in the field at the right time?
And the farmer’s aspect would be: Well the tiller wasn't ready for two weeks,
and then I fell sick, and then I had to go to market, and then I was called on
a church retreat. It’s not easy oh.
And the NGO sees these as excuses and the farmer sees it as
life.
And like I said before, maybe the rice will get planted and
maybe it will not. Either way, they will
make it. They will borrow money from a
family member, or just have a really really lean season; maybe school fees will
not be paid. But no one ever looks back
and says, I really should have done whatever I could to get the rice
planted. They say, Its not easy oh.
Most everything is attributed to God and whether he favors
you. God make you sick or not sick. It's nothing to do with sleeping under a
mosquito net because I never sleep under a mosquito net and I only sometimes get
malaria. So God decides when to give me
malaria and therefore, God decides if my rice gets planted. And if God did not want to rice planted,
there is a reason.
I have washed my hands of it.
I gave the information and the tools.
They can do what you want with it.
So there was a time when I was on the farmers side and I
thought yeah! Those NGOs are ridiculous
and they do not understand culture and they do not think of the farmer. And then I worked with the farmers and
realized, you guys are just helpless.
And I tried to be that in between, because I am in just the right
position to be that. I could be the one
in the field, culturally aware and understanding and still bringing helpful
knowledge and practice.
There is only one thing I can say about that.
It’s not easy oh.
