Harvest Time

One of the main dietary staples in central Uganda is posho. It is made from ground maize (similar to cornmeal) and cooked in water to create a stiff mush. We frequently have it for lunch here at the Institute, always with a soup or sauce of some sort to put over it. In the past six weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to witness/help with the gathering of the maize.

Here at Kasana, the children who have been placed in New Hope’s care are part of family groups. A Ugandan father (and often mother) are in charge of each family group, which has between 15 and 20 children. These family groups provide a home for those who come in as orphans, emphasizing NHU’s focus on bringing the Fatherhood of God to the fatherless.

Each family group has land to grow maize and for a garden. The dry season is beginning to come to an end, so the past couple weeks have seen many maize fields harvested and re-plowed for the new crop that will be planted when the rains come. I pitched in on two maize harvesting days, one with Ebenezer family and one with Worcester (pronounced Wooster) family.

Everyone who is a staff member at NHU, and all the Institute students, are placed with one of the family group as “associates.” The family I teach for and I are both part of the Worcester family for while we are here. A couple weeks back, the kids and I went to join the family in harvesting their maize, which is all done by hand. I was proud of how hard the kids worked!

In the maize fields are lots of weeds with tagalong seeds, leaving scores of prickles in one’s clothes. Harvesters grab the ear of maize (which has been allowed dry on the stalk) and pick it off the stalk, either before or after shucking the husks. Then the ear is chucked to one of the growing piles of harvested maize. Sometimes termites have taken down a stalk and eaten out the cob of an ear – but if the maize is still good, it’s still good.

Both times, we started early in the morning. But it warms up quick here, and soon it is hot work. Most stalks only have one ear of maize, and sometimes that ear is tiny and underdeveloped. After retrieving the ear, the stalk is broken down to mark it as completed. The team of harvesters work their way from one end of the field to the other, with at least some degree of regularity. And when you finish, there’s thanks and celebration.

One evening last week, I went over to my family group because the father had told me they often garden at that time. Instead, the mother and the four girls in the family were shelling the corn. Two girls worked a hand-crank shelling machine, while the others shelled by hand. Already they had three big bags of maize kernels as well as a large, ever-growing pile on the floor. I helped shell some by hand, though the mother gave me the easier ears. And I got a big blister on my thumb, even with wearing work gloves!

Now there are four big bags of maize sitting in the family’s living room/dining room/circular “hut” with a thatched roof but open to the breeze. They are waiting to be taken and ground into meal which the family will eat as posho. I thoroughly enjoyed learning a bit about the harvesting and getting to help out with it :)