Karamba,

This is exactly why we need to do something to help our people. What was for
you, only a year's sojourn is in fact a permanent way of life for the
majority of our people. To this day! Individually, we all do our best by
supporting our families, but collectively, we haven't been able to pool our
resources to do s'thing to uplift our people. The sooner we do that, the
better off we'll all be.

Saul.


>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: A personal story
>Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 20:13:08 EST
>
>As my brothers before me, I found myself on the bus heading to Georgetown
>shortly after the A levels exams in 1988. My ultimate destination was
>Demfai
>15 miles north of G/town which is our second and principal home to fulfill
>what we in our family euphemistically call a one year 'posting.'  It was a
>mandatory full year stay to help in the farms and with the livestock as
>opposed to the intermittent help provided during holidays. While I am
>intimately familiar with backbreaking work that is subsistence farming, the
>specter  of having to do a full year of it proved daunting.No longer was I
>only an auxiliary farm hand . Both the scope and range of responsibilities
>widened to reflect the permanence of my presence. I rose early  in the
>morning to down a quick breakfast ,set the horses and what passed for
>equipment onto carts and trot to the farms. Depending on what the task of
>the
>day was , which ranged from planting , weeding to tending by hoe, it was
>always a greulling 7 hour interaction with a scorching sun. Hot, unpleasant
>and backbreaking. I particularly dreaded having to hoe corn or millet
>fields
>that have grown to a certain length because under the heat the leaves had
>razor sharp impact upon contact with the skin. I ususally returned home by
>about 2pm for lunch and a few hours rest before  heading back for the
>afternoon shift. Sometimes I alternated  between pulling an afternoon at
>the
>farms or helping out at the cow herd which generally meant making sure that
>the calves are rounded up shortly before their mothers come home and help
>with milking and other  chores. To a large extent it was less physically
>wrenching than the farms , but it too can be a handful if it falls on a day
>the herd is to be relocated  which in the rainy season has to be done quite
>often because after being in one place for a few weeks ,  the areas where
>the
>livestock lies becomes water logged making it uncomfortable and risky for
>the
>herd. Relocation is often a time consuming undertaking since you are
>literally evacuating dozens of cows not only to a new place , but each cow
>has to be taken to a carefully selected position within  the herd that is
>dictated by tradition, superstition and simple pragmatism. For example
>Alpha
>bulls are often pegged at the edge of the herd while older and weaker ones
>are put further into the inner part of the herd , the assumption being that
>they would be in a position to ward off potential predators. I particularly
>enjoyed the across- the-herd banter i would exchange with the herdsman
>about
>his day while we both squat milking . He would talk about how he  was
>progressing on his quest to learn how to play a flute that one of his
>colleagues  who was teaching him anytime they met at a central wateringhole
>somewhere north of the village. Our equivalent of a dinnertable chat .
>  At the end of a days work, there isn't much to do in Demfai particularly
>in
>the rainy season. Most people retire early because they are often
>exhausted.
>Since this was usually financially lean times, the ever present Attaya is
>reduced to an odd few homes in the village. On full moons , you can find an
>occasional amateur fiddle or halam player entertaining  at gatherings here
>and there. It is usually when courting bachelors who are looking for
>perspective spouses come into the village that a palpable since of party
>can
>be felt  because they come in groups with boomboxes  and a lot of Attaya
>that
>provides for central village entertainment atleast for the duration of
>their
>visit which could be upto four days. I must tell  you list members it was a
>very much appreciated break from the boredom that is life in a village
>after
>dark.
>Shortly before harvesting began, i was given a totally different
>assignment.
>Somehow dad has gotten himself an outboard engine and was planing to mount
>it
>on a Bara (a metal boat) we had in G/town. My task was to get it Bansang
>and
>begin transporting people and their goods once a week to Karantaba where
>they
>had a vibrant "lummo"(open air market). It turned out to be a brilliant
>idea
>because traders and customers had tremendous difficulty getting to
>Karantaba
>because the roads where impassable making the alternative we provided a
>reliable and faster route. I took ice, colanut and Sankung Silla product
>vendors to the Lummo where they peddled their wares in what is the ultimate
>freemarket enterprise bringing together very diverse buyers and sellers in
>a
>virtually unregulated market. The pace was brisk and the atmosphere
>freewheeling. From a galloping horse to a warm plate of Bennachin you could
>get it all for a price you could negotiate. I loved it.
>Shortly thereafter i was back on the bus having done my year  to look for
>job
>and begin to face the rigours of life as a somewhat independent adult. I,
>as
>any list member is shaped by what we know . We aprreciate the things that
>life has to offer and we are constantly grounded in the knowledge that we
>as
>a people have a begining , a middle and an end as we transistion through
>life. What must not do is to forget that we are our brothers keepers and to
>whom much is given , much is expected. No can can singularly try to
>endeavor
>to change the world, but we can as a society do all we can to make life
>easier for those who are toiling and scrimping to survive daily. Those of
>us
>who got out of the grinding effects of subsistence life  have a particular
>responsibility to persuade people that hardship need not be perpetual so
>that
>children of my friends in Demfai can go to school and be something other
>than
>farmers who can barely feed themselves despite backbreaking work.
>
>Karamba
>
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