en brousse... part II

Working a plantation is no easy task - the women here work harder than most! We arrived at Anne's house on the road to Libreville at about 8:30 in the morning, then had a quick breakfast and changed into our "brousse" clothing. (the ladies put pants on under their skirts). We donned our paniers (baskets), grabbed machetes, and headed off down the path. It was a narrow path through the jungle that became more and more narrow as we hiked - Anne took the lead with her machete and whacked at the vines as she barrelled along. Every few minutes she would yell "fourmils pell-mell! (ants pell-mell)" and everyone would pick up their pant legs and RUN like mad through the patches of fire ants, hoping that they wouldn't grab ahold and start climbing up!!

After 45 minutes or so of hiking, whacking vines, running away from ants, and slipping down mud piles, Constance announced our arrival. I chuckled to myself, since "here" appeared not to be much different than the dense jungle we'd been hiking through for the past hour, but suddenly we emerged into a cleared area which constituted the ladies' "plantation." They showed me around their plots, pointing out tarot rouge, tarot blanc, bananiers, manioc, aubergines, nyams, and bois de feu. We spent several hours "en desherbant" - clearing the underbrush so that they could plant for the next season. I went on a mini-surveying adventure with Sophie and Anne for a bit, as they were hoping to extend the plantation this year and went to mark the new plot and collect some ground for a traditional ceremony to be held later.

All in all it was a fantastic morning - when we finally got ready to head back to Anne's house, the ladies loaded their paniers and off we went back onto the jungle trail. An hour later we arrived, filthy and sweaty, to eat a lunch of ailes de dindon (turkey wings) and bananes cooked over the fire by Anne's daughter. I was exhausted!!