Harvesting in Burkina Faso

Friday, Aïsseta didn't come to the boutique in the morning because she was at the fields harvesting beans. She explained that a lot of them have dried up and so she needs to go to the field for a few days until they harvest all of them. I asked if I could come along and she was more than happy to take me.

Saturday morning at 6:45am, Sabane, her oldest son, arrived to accompany me to their house. When I arrived at their house, Aïsseta had already left with her younger sisters on the donkey cart. I played Nemata, Abadou and their kitten until their grandmother was ready to leave. I thought this would be the same field that's only 1-2km away. Nope, it ended up being 8km roundtrip! The fields aren't even in Boussé, they're in Goabga, the next village north. That grandma has stamina! Aïsseta and her sisters rolled up on the donkey cart after 10 minutes of my arrival. They immediately got to work!

The bean plants grow between the tall millet. The women placed the beans in woven baskets and then dumped the baskets into the cart.

My entire time in Burkina, I've been surprised by the multitude of cornfields. Well, I had one of those face palm moments when I found out that millet fields look exactly like corn fields. The only difference is what they produce. Corn is produced in husks along the stalk of the plant and millet is grown toward the top. When I called my friend to tell her my revelation, she had the same facepalm moment and immediately left her courtyard to see if she was indeed surrounded by corn fields as she'd thought. 

You can see the millet grains on the long rods that grow at the top of each stalk.

Aïsseta's family grows millet, beans and peanuts. The prepared the fields in June and once rainy season start mid-June to July, they planted everything. Harvest season is usually September/October. Aïsseta's family harvests for their family household. Only if they have excess will they sell their harvest in the market. Aïsseta has 4 kids of her own, plus her husband's other son, plus her two younger sisters that live with her and the grandmother. That's 9 mouths to feed all year long! They also have their family boutique for school and miscellaneous fees. However, an estimated 92% of Burkina Faso's population participates in subsistence agriculture to survive. They do not often have a family business as backup income. They rely solely on their harvest, which is very dependent on the soil and rain.

Once the beans are dried, they pull out the beans!

I'm the proud new owner of a hen!

I have been at site for over 4 weeks now! In the mornings I go to Souley's family's boutique. I sit and talk with Aïsseta and practice Mooré whenever people stop at the boutique to buy things. I then head home for lunch, which I either make myself or eat next door at my neighbor's house. Then, I head back to the boutique, read with Souley, chat with people nearby and then head home for the evening. 

Aïsseta talks with a man who stopped by to buy some handmade soap.

On market days, it gets pretty chaotic in front of the boutique: motos, bikes, sheep, wheel barrows, etc

One morning, Souley stopped by my courtyard with a hen in his hand. He held her by her feet so she was hanging upside down. Aïsseta sent her as a gift and I was a little overwhelmed because a chicken's are not inexpensive. Souley asked if I have something to prepare it with and I told him that I'd just prefer to not eat her and keep her for eggs. Was he expecting me to chop her head off? No thank you. 

So, he untied her feet and let her run around the courtyard while he made a cage for her. There are a bunch of random cement blocks and rocks around my courtyard. He stacked them against the wall to make the side walls of the cage. Then, he broke up some clay blocks in my courtyard, added water, and then used the wet clay as glue to hold the cement blocks together. Let me remind you that Souley is 11 years old. The children are so crafty here!

Souley stacks the bricks and a broken water carrier

Souley smashes the clay, adds water and makes clay glue!

Souley told me I needed to catch her so we could trap her in the house so she'd learn that's where she goes at night. I laughed at him and told him that I have never trapped a chicken before. Guess what? I trapped the chicken!! It's really not hard. She had run into my house and was watching Souley. I came from behind and grabbed her legs and the rest is history.I expected a mess of feathers in the process, but the minute I had her legs, she submitted. I can't believe I know how to catch a chicken. The random things I've learned here...

Penny ran into my house and of course found the kitchen! 

Well, if I embraced the true spirit of Burkina Faso, I wouldn't name my chicken because they don't name animals. Why would you name your food? Penny popped in my head, so now my chicken's name is Penny and she's a hot mess. She fully embraces the term "bird brain." At all of my neighbors' houses, when they make cluck noises and throw grains out for them to eat, the hens and roosters come running to eat. When Souley and I make cluck noises and throw food, she runs the opposite direction. Over the peanuts and through the corn, away from Kathleen she runs. Seriously, this hen is terrified of me. But, my neighbor said she's going to find a rooster for me and then the hen shouldn't be so confused all of the time being by herself.

My corn has grown so much since my arrival!

During lunch, I sit under the neem trees to avoid the heat and read a book. The short plants to the right are peanuts and the taller ones in the back are corn. The plants to the left are the dang weeds that just never stop growing!

One evening, I came back from the boutique and Penny wasn't in her house and we couldn't find her hiding in the weeds. Granted, my courtyard is huge and the weeds are high, so she has many hiding options. The next day, we never found her. I lost a chicken. Who even says that? You know you're in Africa when you walk around your neighborhood asking, "have you seen my chicken?" I mean, I expected one day I'd have to do that to find a cat or a dog. But, a chicken? Hilarious.

Well, that evening, Souley and I went to a neighbor I hadn't yet met. I asked if they'd seen my hen and they were like uh ya she's right there. Sure enough, she was running through their corn field with all of the other chickens. That was easy! He went into the house to grab some millet and threw the grains for them to come closer and then we could snatch her. Well, he threw the millet, the chickens came and Penny ran the opposite direction. Ha! Penny. You are such a crazy chicken!

So I proceeded to watch Souley and two grown men running through the cornfield, trying to trap her. It was going to happen, so I just came back later that evening after she'd gone in to the chicken coop with the others. She's still terrified of me. We're working on our relationship.

Penny says, "Haters gonna hate."