Wednesday, September 9, 2009

An Adventurous Day - Part 2



As we continued on our journey we could see the men working in the Yucca fields. Wow! What a sight, there were probably a dozen men with hoes working in the hot sun. The farming is done the old fashioned way, by hand! What I saw was an area of about 20 acres. Only by determination and perserverence could these men overcome this land and produce food for their families. I thought about the times I’ve heard people say things like, poor people are just lazy, poor people want a hand out or you make your own luck, or how about I had it rough, but I’ve succeeded they can too. All this heard from people born in the USA. I wondered, if I would be able to consistently work this land inch by inch, day by day in the hot sun. I wondered if I would be up to the challenge had I been born in generational poverty in a third world country. I really didn’t know the answers, I just took a moment to thank God for all the gifts I have received. I have a USA passport and that’s a BIG DEAL to me! Anyway, today they were making rows in the hard ground to help the water flow through the fields, that is why the water was on for us. It was Yucca planting time!

The children were still on their hunt for Mango and would not stop long enough for me to venture out and talk to the men. Little did I know I would later meet two of those men and they would help me on my hunt for water. But, that’s another blog. Unfortunately for the children when we did get to the Mango tree, there was only one Mango and one little boy had already ran ahead and snagged it. By the time we got there he was happily munching away on the fruit.. (you can see him eating the yellow fruit in the photo below in Part 1) Interestingly the children were not upset at him and no one yelled “that’s not fair” as I imagine might happen in myown household. The children just shrugged their shoulders and turned around to head home. There was no need to continue further this direction, the fruit was gone.

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