Cultivating

Monday morning, I joined Tikenawe in one of her fields and planted bean seeds. She started around 6AM and I at 7AM. The field is in the mountains a minute away from the homestead. Because of the rocky and inclined terrain, the fields here are terraced and contoured around the natural obstacles. Sometimes when working in the fields, workers get bitten by agtenna (these horrible pinching ants), scorpions, and snakes. When I was out there, there were agtenna but I only had to deal with the flying insects (eg flies and kapupudu). Its a good thing too since I was only wearing flip flops - though the other 3 women, whom Tikenawe has to pay, were barefoot.

So - how to plant beans
The fields, as said earlier, are terraced but within each terrace plane, there are mounds and ditches. Bending at the waist, you shove the knife with your right hand next to a mound at a 45 degree angle. Holding up the thin layer of soil with the knife, you put in 2 seends with your left hand, then pat the soil down. Additionally, there is a pattern for how to plant the seeds - in each ditch between 2 mounds, one side gets 1 set of seeds while the other side gets 2 sets (2-1-2).

After an hour, I realiwed the sun had really come out and I was startign to burn so I went in to grab some water, my cookie monster hat, sunscreen, and camera. I returned "au champ" for about an hour, then Tikenawe and I left around 930AM while the other women continued. Although this seemed like one of the less strenuous tasks, you are bent over for hours with the sun beating down, then there are the hazards of the field and nature. To top it off, the wet season is like winter here - 80 degrees F - and the women were wearing sweaters. I cannot imagine what the dry season is like...