A Day at the Garden

On a Saturday morning, I found myself wondering what I was going to do for the rest of the day. It was 9:30 and I had already finished my Saturday washing and cleaning. Just then, my host brother came over to say that I should go to the garden with my host family. Perfect!  I love when plans are made for me here. And I had been wanting to go to the garden with them- people's gardens are essential to life here and everyone has one.

Their garden is a leisurely 40 minute uphill walk from the village. When we started walking, I was the only person wearing anything on my feet. I realized why after a few minutes when my flip flops kept getting stuck in the mud on the narrow, wet path and eventually joined them in their barefootness. The view and atmosphere from my host family's garden is incredible. When we first got there, we sat eating sugar cane my host papa had just cut, looking down at Maewo, the ocean, and the surrounding greenery. There are no villages around, and therefore the only noises we could hear were the birds, insects,  leaves, and each others chewing. 

Their garden grows taro, manioc, and yams. Compared to other people's gardens it is quite small, since my host mama is a nurse and doesn't rely on selling food at the market in town like many people. The only things we had brought with us were matches, fabric, and some big knives. The matches were used to start a fire to cook lunch, the fabric was used to carry yams down on the way back, and the knives were used for everything else. 

The goal of the day was to harvest some yams. To do that, we sat on the ground and dug with the knives and our hands. It seemed pretty inefficient, but we dug up quite a few yams. I was very surprised to see the yams that were dug up- there were a few different kinds, and none were the yam that I know from the US. Many were huge! Some were a foot long and a few inches wide, some reminded me of the shape of the state of Ohio, some looked like giant turnips. After we dug up a few, my host brother made a fire and put some yams directly in it to cook. He cut some bamboo, and then roasted some taro leaves in it. He broke a branch and whittled it into small utensils. I am also so impressed how ni-Vans always seem to make things out of what I think of as nothing! I tried to forget  the fact that the knive being used for our food was a knife that had just been digging up yams in the dirt a few minutes before.

I 'bamba-d' on the way back- carrying yams in fabric on my back. My host family thought it was hilarious to see a dudurani (white person) doing that, and laughed a good part of the walk down. All in all, a good and eye opening day at the garden!