Machetes, Hoes, and Gardening Woes [Part 2]

Day 2.

My second gardening day was a Sunday.  I woke up around 6:30AM, but attempted to read in bed for a while until what seemed to be a reasonable hour for productivity.   At exactly 6:42AM, there was a knock on my door.

Pretend to be sleeping.

Another knock.

Pretend to be sleeping.

5 minutes later, another knock.

Patricia:  “What are you doing?” (In French, of course)

Me:  “Um…I’m, umm…sleeping?”

  

Apparently the rest of the family had left to go work in their garden (a real, successful, blossoming garden).  Patricia was bored and ready for me to get out of bed and do something interesting, and well, you guys all know how much I just looove mornings! (har har har)

I got up, made tea, and then we attempted to make omelets together (because apparently I eat eggs now, too).  We both failed at our omelet attempts and ended up making semi-scrambled eggs instead.

After we finished eating, we decided to wait five minutes before going out to work in my garden.  Then we decided to wait another five.  And another.

Eventually Patricia decided that we had procrastinated enough.

I went out and hoed away.  Six hours of hacking away at weeds and roots and accidentally cutting squirmy-wormies in half with my hoe and then shrieking and confusing the entire neighborhood.  I took a couple breaks in between to sit with Lianna as she washed her laundry and did other chores.

By the afternoon, I was plum tuckered out.  The weeds and roots just would not, could not disappear.  How am I supposed to make a raised bed for my nursery if I can’t even get rid of the stinkin’ mauvaises herbes?

I called Lianna and Clare over for advice, and that’s when the floodgates broke.   Yep, that’s the moment that I cried in front of about twenty little Cameroonian children.  It was just Lianna and Clare at first, but at the first hint of moisture in my eyes, children started flocking towards me.  Where did they all come from?!  How did they know?!

I wasn’t sad; I was tired, I was sore, and I was so darn happy to be expressing my thoughts and emotions to people en ANGLAIS.  The tears just started comin’ and I had no control over the matter.

The girls agreed that I should probably just call it a day and start again tomorrow. 

Day 3.

When I left for school on Monday, Mama was in my garden “just rearranging some things”.  (Sound familiar, real mom?)  I thanked her and said I’d return after school to finish the work. 

During school, I learned that I cannot be sent home during the next 27 months due to incompetence in the garden.  Good to know! 

I returned home, not at all excited to get back to work.  But voila!  My little plot of dirt had magically transformed itself into a beautifully raised bed, exactly the correct dimensions, with palm fronds on top for shade.  Mama had done my homework!  After an initial tinge of guilt, I was just so incredibly relieved.  Thank goodness for Mamas all over the world!

[Continue to Part 3… because yep, there will never be an end to my gardening woes.]