"Sitan, we arrived to the field."

"Sitan, An sera forola." Yes indeed, Captain Obvious, I can see that we have arrived to the fields. The many rows of millet and sorghum kind of gave it away. The first time I came to these same fields was during planting, which coincided with shea collection. So while they ploughed the fields and planted I walked around in circles collecting shea fruit through out the day or searching the trees for ripe zaba fruit. Last year I went out with a group to cut sorghum, but they didn't have me do anything, but take pictures. This year I took a little initiative and went with my friend to her husband's field and worked. Word spread fast that the Toubab-muso (white woman) was cutting sorghum and so I got a lot of praise for my work and everyone was surprised at how fast I learned and my work pace. We took breaks for lunch and tea was brought to us as we went down the rows cutting away. They would lay the stalks to the ground and we would bend, cut, and hold bundles of sorghum in our left hand before one of the children came by to collect and place them in piles. Or we would walk through the rows cutting the sorghum from the top looking up to the sky considering many stalks were over 8 feet tall. So I either had a sore back/thighs or sore neck. The sorghum also makes you really itchy, there is some irritant on the plant that caused bumps to form on my arm like a small rash. Of course, the treatment for that is to just rub shea butter on your arms.
I plan to use shea butter for the rest of my life, I use it as a nightly moisturizer and its great to rub a little in and around your nose when you have a cold/stuffy nose.


I would prefer not to work with this huge baby on my back, but sometimes its the only way to continue working and get the baby to stop crying.




Zoumana a.k.a. Bubba he was smiling, but his mom told him to shut his mouth




He worked hard




Fatoumata and I