The Planting has Begun!!!! April 5 - 7, 2010

Tuesday, April 6, 2010


Yesterday was really stressful for Alan, and probably he stressed several others out at the same time (Amin, Bracken and Nahom). Planting is not going the way we expected. We obviously are not using anything close to drills. The most modern way here is to use a broadcast spreader. The wheat seed, Di 'Ammonium Phosphate or DAP, and Urea all come in quintal sacks. A quintal is a measurement of 100 kilos. The seed, DAP and Urea are all transported by tractor and wagon out to the field.

A group of men open the sacks and mix them into the scoop of a loader, which then dumps the mixture into the broadcast spreader. The seed and fertilizer are mixed at a ratio of 1.5 quintal seed, 1.5 quintal urea, and 1 quintal DAP. The broadcast spreader is a large bin on wheels. For those of you who aren't farmers, it works like one of those handheld things you use to fertilize your lawn. As the tractor pulls the broadcast spreader down the field, seed, and fertilizer are spread across a swath of about 25 - 30 feet. At home, when you drill the seed into the soil, you can see exactly where you've been. Here, as the tractors move down the field, there are three men standing at each end, and in the middle with big flags to show them exactly where to head because the seeds are spread on top of the soil and they're hard to see from inside the tractors. Then tractors with disc harrows follow behind and disc the seed into the soil.

It's a pretty slow, ineffective way of planting, but its way better than the alternative, which is to hire a bunch of workers and have them sow it by hand and then cover the seed with using hoes. Crazy! So, even under these conditions they were able to plant about 200 acres yesterday. Alan wore himself ragged running back and forth between the seed stacks and the field planting. Remember, we have no vehicles here to drive back and forth from the seed stacks to the fields. You have to catch a ride on the tractor wagon or hoof it. If we can get the GPS working well, they will be able to work when it is dark and work longer hours. It hasn't rained for the past few days, and everyone is working fast to get as much planted as they can before the rainy season. So far we've been blessed. Today they started out in the field at 8:00 am and were going strong at noon. Alan and Bracken were both in a much better mood. They are having to come up with all kinds of solutions to the problems of not having the tractors and air drills here for this planting season. We've all had to take a step back in time and figure out how to do without our superduper American technology and equipment.
As I was out watching the planting begin a man came up who wanted to sell a chameleon. I didn't want to buy it but I did take some pictures. There have been several chameleons brought to the farm. So far they have all died when they get here.

Tonight a man brought a baby baboon to the farm to see if Wes would buy it. Wes likes to see the exotic animals up close and personal. The little baboon was tied into a basket and then the basket was in a sack that was all tied up. He was really scared when they got him out and became a little frantic at one point. The baboon was vetoed as a house pet for obvious reasons. He was as smelly as a pig pen and he was just a baby.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Today I stayed inside most of the day because I got a bad sunburn yesterday from walking out to the fields twice. Once to go see what was happening and the second time to bring my camera along to take pictures of all the exciting action. I burned my calves and arms badly - we're all of the opinion that the suns rays are much more intense and that we need to be more careful of our skin. Alan, Bracken, and Val are getting very dark, while some of us get red or stay white.te. Another reason I got sunburned was because I decided I had to tackle the laundry issues. Last week I found several of my socks ground into the dirt underneath the clothesline and one got even as far away as the restaurant. I almost couldn't recognize them as socks. Also I have underwear issues. I feel that I shall have to always wash Alan's and my socks and underwear myself instead of having the maids do it. So I stood out in the sun and handwashed our clothing until it was as clean as I could get it. The maids take offense when I do this. I think there could be two reasons for this. One: they think I don't trust them to get my clothes clean, or two: they feel their job is threatened because I don't need them to wash my clothes. Whatever, there are just some things in which I'd rather have control. I had a shower this morning using one of my trusty buckets and my pitcher. I dump water on my head, lather up, rinse, condition, rinse again and again, and then I'm done. It's really cold and so I take a big breath and go for it. I find halfway through that every muscle in my body is clenched and I have to remind myself to breathe. I don't take that many showers anymore. I've gone natural. This is the usual showering method over here. We sometimes get running water, but usually not.

Tonight I made sweet and sour goat. Anytime I say goat anymore, I crack myself up. It actually turned out pretty good and Clair and Alan really liked it. We are having to deal with goat meat over here, so you do what you can to make it different and tasty each time you serve it. We had some vinegar saved for the sour part, but this afternoon when I needed to get the vinegar, I found instead that the bottle had been emptied and used to store milk by one of the maids. She had bought the milk earlier and thought that the vinegar was not good so she tossed it. Darn it! They just don't get that you need vinegar to make good sweet and sour goat. She was going to turn that milk sour I'm sure and then drink the clabber with burburi Stirred into it I've actually seen this done. GROSS!

Tonight I found a little note that Birka had written in the back of my notebook. This is what it says:
My name is Birka Mamina. I came from Beltu town. But now I live in Westown. This house is Shelley house. It is very handsome house. I love this house and I love Shelley more than all. I like banana bread.

Another maid wrote: I like orange. My name is Misra Yequb.

I love my maids. I'm glad that they are here to keep my mind on all the funny, sweet, cute things they do everyday. They love me because I give them suckers and lotion for their hands and faces.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Started the day by going on a walk with Alyssa and Linda. There was a large cranelike bird in the field, so Alyssa got some pictures. I'm curious to see them up close. It looked about waist high. Came back by way of the restaurant and asked them if they had any eggs. They said maybe on Friday. I had the maids wash the remaining glazing putty off the outsides of my windows. I did all the insides of the windows and they did the outside. It was very hot and they needed suckers and water to continue. A man came along after lunch with a chicken and wanted me to buy it. I wasn't sure how much to pay for the chicken, so I asked Ashreka and she said maybe birr 30. So I said how about 20, and he said birr 25. Sold! For approximately $ 2.00. Good bartering on my part, I think. Ashreka wanted to butcher the chicken for dinner, so that's what happened. She got some guy to kill it and then she and Keay kind of skinned the bird and cut it up and washed it out really good. They did a good job and I got pictures.

Just as we were finishing with the chicken, a mother, a grandmother and two children showed up to see the doctor. One of the children was a little girl with a badly burned leg, and the other was a boy of about 10 who had swollen arms, legs, and a distended abdomen. It looked so painful and he was running a temperature of over 100. We couldn't do anything for the little boy, but made a call to Addis to report the symptoms. We cleaned, and bandaged the little girl's burns.

There are not enough doctors here in Ethiopia. We don't know of a doctor between here and Shashamene. That's not good. We're going through the first-aid kits like crazy, and they are supposed to be for the farm and those people who work here, but the need in the community is so desperate that we do our best and give them whatever we can. We finally got the little girl taken care of and gave her and her brother a sucker. Candy helps with the little ones, I think. I have to remember to bring lots of suckers over next time I come.

The farming is going well; we are continuing with the same method. The loading and transporting of the grain and fertilizer to the fields, then mixing, then dumping, then spreading, then disking. Alan is reporting to me every night, and he thinks it went OK yesterday, and I could tell at noon that everything was alright today also. I just asked Alan about how many hectares we have planted in three days and he said 400.  Pretty good considering what our methods are.  Everyone is working really hard.  We're living the dream, as Bracken says.

A serious thing to report; Sheik Alli, the head of security over the farm was seriously injured yesterday in a car accident. Apparently he, his driver, and a few others were headed to Ginir from Robe and they had some kind of accident which caused the land cruiser in which they were traveling to roll over about four times. Kind of a freak accident.e driver and Sheik Alli was transported to Addis Ababa and has a broken back. He is paralyzed from the waist down.  He is an important man in this region for he is a religious leader as well as some kind of policeman, I think. I'm not totally clear on that. He is supposed to be helping to keep the peace dwon here in this region. So we really feel bad about his accident, not only for him, but because the land cruiser was one of the vehicles we had been using on the farm. So, crazy, huh?

It's good to get your emails. Keep them coming, they cheer and help us through many tough days. Bye for now.