Our Field Trip...Literally

Yesterday our friend's language helper, Om Bashir, asked us if we would bring some water out to her field in our truck.  So, today we had a field trip.  We brought William along because he never wants to be left behind.  Chaya, John Hardy, William and I went to the field and got to see how they harvested their millet.  Initially we were just taking water for her, as it would take quite some time to walk the 10 kilometers with 80+ liters of water (even with a donkey)!  But when we got there we decided to stay and see the whole process.  First, the millet is dried, then thrown in a big pile on a hard surface.

How do you get a hard surface in an open field?  Cut down the grass, smooth it, tromp it down, then smear a slimy mixture of cow manure and water mixed with okra leaves (This mixture first becomes very very slimy, but eventually hard).

The next step is to spread out the ears of grain.  Millet is very tiny, and has to be removed from the ear kind of like corn.  So they used rakes and spread it out over the ground they had just prepared.

Next, tea time.  Everyone plopped down for a freshly brewed cup of tea.  She made the best tea according to the kids, using the milk she had taken from her cow that morning.  After a bit of a rest under the nearest tree, it was back to work.  

The last step is the pounding out of the grain.  Chadians all used to do this the traditional way of taking a large branch from a tree, cutting and shaping it into a pounding stick.  They would work together for days at a time, pounding the millet off the ear.  Now that technology is improving and trees are less available, they now use a different method.  They higher a local driver to bring either a car, truck, or small 'moto-trailer' to drive over their grain to separate it from the ear.  This guy came for a pretty large sum of money, and drove in circles over the grain for about an hour.

 

Now that her grain is separated, her older children will sleep in the field until they have brought all of it home.  That's what I call cooking from scratch.